De Profundis

[Rhianna]

Blinking her blue eyes open, the first thing Rhianna registered was loud noise and red light flashing. Stunned, she tried to remember where she was. Wincing at a pain in her head, she brought her fingers to her cheek and found it bloodied. Her vision swam again as she sat up, trying to focus her thoughts. The last thing she remembered was boarding a derelict ship (https://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?56679-The-Wreck-of-the-Demeter) with Vaikhari and Karkoon, investigating the source of a distress signal. A sense of foreboding had grown inside her during their exploration, culminating with a section of the ship - the section she had been trapped in - breaking away from the rest of the ship. She remembered now, life support had been failing fast. She had climbed into an escape pod and jettisoned, figuring that her companions would simply pick her up when they returned to their own ship..

Pulling herself up slowly, the Jedi Knight crawled to a view port. What she was seeing was enough to remind her that her plan had not gone so well. She could see The Demeter still. It was small enough to look like a toy ship in the distance, and it was spinning. No...the pod she was in was spinning, from when it had been knocked out of trajectory by the wreckage. She'd hit her face, and been out cold for hours apparently. The spinning view of space made the Tincéir girl, who was not a fan of space travel on her best days, nauseated.

Trying not to panic, Rhianna tucked her legs beneath her, closing her eyes. Closing out the chaos of the view, she focused instead on the Force, making herself a beacon to be located in the darkness.

Someone will find me., she told herself.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

To some, unsavoury occupants of the Galaxy, the sound of a starship’s distress signal was a wonderful thing. A captain who found themselves stranded in the wrong quadrant of space would soon come to regret broadcasting their helplessness to anyone who might happen within communications range. As it was, the captain and their crew had long since perished, though their distress signal looped on and on...

Through the view port of her escape pod, Rhianna saw a light freighter appear where moments ago there had only been stars and debris. With each revolution of the her pod, turning end over end, the freighter was briefly hidden from view and then, when it appeared once more, it loomed larger and closer.

Abruptly, the dizzying rotation of the pod stopped as the freighter’s tractor beam surrounded it’s small hull and began to reel it in.

[Rhianna]

Closing her eyes to the sight of the familiar wreck spinning away did not alleviate the weightless sensation from the pit of Rhianna's stomach. Best efforts noted, she remained uncomfortable in space and it could just be that alone that made her so unsettled. Legs crossed, hands on her lap, and no stranger to meditation, she should have been at peace.. calmly waiting for her friends to find her. Yet, Rhianna felt no peace. She felt like she was slipping into a dark hole, and every rotation of the pod away from The Demeter increased the feeling.

When meditation and calm failed to steady her, Rhianna glance at the port again. At first she thought she was rescued, and for one brief second she allowed herself to believe it. She would be back on Ossus soon, and with a serious cautionary tale for the young padawans. But...that was not the right ship, Rhianna noted, head turning with the motion of the pod as she stared out at it, helpless. Someone else was out there. Ice water replaced the blood in her veins, cold and uncomfortable.

The sudden cessation of the spinning jarred the Jedi Knight from her pose of serenity, spilling her sideways as her escape pod was pulled toward the unknown ship. Instinct warred within the gypsy girl. If she allowed herself, she could reach them, Vaikhari and Karkoon. Tell them, try and hurry. They were two padawans though and she would be asking them to run into danger on her behalf. Rhianna would not do that.

And that was exactly what she felt now.. Danger. The crawling sensation that had been with her since boarding The Demeter. It had nothing to do with the derelict ship, or the accident that had torn the hull. The feeling was coming from the freighter that was pulling her closer, closer. In the red flashing light of the pod, Rhianna prepared herself.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

The escape craft drifted up into the belly of the freighter, it’s bay doors closing around the smaller craft and enveloping it like durasteel ribs. There was a shudder, as the tractor beam’s steady hold on the escape pod disengaged. Through the viewport of her escape pod, Rhianna could see a well-lit bay. Aside from some packing crates stacked haphazardly against the walls, the bay was empty. No crew busying themselves with preparing to greet their guest or working on maintenance of the freighter, no droids wheeling to and fro. Nothing.

Elsewhere in the ship, someone exhaled slowly, mechanically, as they rose out of the pilots chair.

[Rhianna]

Scrios.

That was the only word in Rhianna's native tongue that she could ascribe to what she was feeling. Ruin. All the things that she could ken before anyone else, her intuitions, others called them. They had been whispering to her about this for a while now, warning her to prepare herself. With the moment closing in upon her, just how ill-prepared she remained was evident to Rhianna. The Tincéir girl's favored weapon, her staff, was not with her. Nothing of hers was with her. A damaged environmental suit over her clothing, and a borrowed lightsaber, that was all she carried.

Scrios, agus fulaingt...

Resisting the urge to pace back and forth through the enclosed space, Rhianna instead waited. Breathing slowly in and out, focusing on the steady beat of her heart. She would meet whatever ruin and torment awaited her, with the bravery of a Jedi Knight. Feet planted, arms behind her back, Rhianna waited..

[Vega Van-Derveld]

For a long time, there was nothing but silence, and then -

With an almighty clang, something landed on the top of the escape pod.

Through the segment of hull above her, Rhianna heard a familiar snap-hiss. A heartbeat later, the ragged blade of a red lightsaber slammed down through the ceiling and began to tear a savage line through the roof.

[Rhianna]

Rhianna did take a circumspect step backward, the moment she heard the lightsaber. She had known whatever awaited her was not good, but she might have misjudged just how bad it was. If it was her time to die, she would be in good company with her family, but she was not going to stand around and wait to be killed.

The glow of the red blade was matched in the span of another heartbeat, joined by the illumination of her borrowed blue blade. Right hand wrapped around the hilt, she rammed it upwards to where she approximated her.. problem.. was standing.

"Ceann dorcha..", she yelled above her. "I will not make this easy for you."

The heel of her left hand shot upward, pushing hard at the unfamiliar presence with the Force.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Whatever was on the roof seemed to stumbled to the left as Rhianna’s lightsaber punched through the hull above her. The red blade sheared further through the roof and following behind it came a mechanical hand. An ear-splitting screech filled the bay as the hand pulled at the rend in the metal, peeling it back like ragged flesh. The red lightsaber snarled as it hacked through the misshapen hull, a huge, warped chunk falling into the escape pod. Through the hole it had left behind fell a thing in black armor, roughly human shaped but radiating hatred and pain. The Force exploded outward from the centre of it’s being, aiming to hurl Rhianna back against the ship’s walls.

[Rhianna]

Dying, Rhianna thought, seemed like a reprieve if it spared her from becoming...that. Just being trapped in the enclosed space with him felt like a torment all of it's own. In her life, she'd never encountered anything that felt so briste. Broken. He made her skin crawl.

There was no time to ponder the horror of him, only to react. Her free hand rose, palm outward in a gesture to stop the force trying to blast her backward. She resisted, pushing back, feeling revulsion at the way the Force moved over her in a cold, sick wave from him. Inside her boots, Rhianna's toes flexed finding no purchase on the floor of the pod as she was forced backward, inch by inch until her heels collided with the wall and there was nowhere left to retreat. Still, she felt compelled backward and struggled against it, but it was becoming harder to ignore the fact the she was losing.

He was stronger than her.

Inside her ribs, Rhianna's heartbeat sped up fearfully as she became unable to move.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

The thing stepped forward into the light spilling through the mangled roof. Veins bulged like worms beneath his pale skin. He stared at her with eyes a shade of blue so bright and cold they were almost white. When he spoke, his voice lacked the furious snarl she might have expected. Instead, his words were completely without emotion, his voice artificial, mechanical even.

“Don’t resist, Jedi.”

[Rhianna]

The heartbeat slamming away fearfully beneath her breast gave her away, as did the trickle of perspiration rolling down her cheek. Or was that still blood? Rhianna could not be sure right now.

She knew that she should have better control over her emotions. She had been trained, but training for a thing and being confronted with the terrifying reality of it were a touch different.

"If you ken what I am, you'll ken just as well why I must." Rhianna gritted out at him.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“The only thing you must do… is what I tell you to,” he said, advancing a step towards her. His lightsabers blade was angled up, across his body. With a quick flick of his wrist, the point could be at her throat, or even through it. As he neared her, the glow of the beam bathed her in blood-red light, fully illuminating her features for the first time. Vega paused. His head tilted to one side, eyes narrowing a fraction. There was no sound, but for the hum of their weapons and the laboured, mechanical cycle of his breathing.

“Red-haired witch (https://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?19715-Flow-My-Tears-the-Prophet-Said&p=312122&viewfull=1#post312122),” he said, at last, as old memories stirred in his mind, rising like forgotten, abandoned things from beneath dark water.

[Rhianna]

Her eyes searched the space for anything that she could use to get herself out of the hopeless situation, but there was nothing except the piece of the pod's hull that had fallen in. The chances that she could use it to do any good before that blade severed her neck were not great. Little by little, Rhianna was able to lift her feet enough to brace against the wall behind her. Perspective had become skewed to her, the way she was pressed against the wall making her feel as though she were lying flat, forced onto her back while this.. ceann dorcha, this dark one crept down the wall like a spider to her, a dangerous, lightsaber wielding spider. She must definitely not do whatever he said, no good would come of it.

She had to resist him, even if it got her killed.

The sight of her seemed to bother him. He thought her a witch? Maybe she was, in a way.. It depended on how you defied the profession, but Rhianna did not think he meant to call her a leighis, a healer, such as Master Laran was. The sight of him did not exactly leave her with a fuzzy feeling either. She'd had an increasing sense of dread for a long time, and she could feel that he was definitely the source of it.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Vega moved closer still, until there was little more than a foot between them. In that space, his lightsaber angled sharply up from where it was clenched at his waist, so that the point of it was almost under her chin.

He twisted his torso around the crackling blade, the leather of his armour creaking, and leaned his shoulder against hers. The edge of his ‘saber was near enough to practically graze her throat and perhaps even singe his armoured chest.

“I was… going to... eat you,” he said, in that hollow voice. He pressed his nose into her hair, just above her ear. “But, I think I might… keep you, for a while.”

[Rhianna]

If she breathed too deeply, the blade of his lightsaber would touch against her skin. That was how very close he was to her. Breathing shallow breaths through her nose, Rhianna was sure she had never looked Death this closely in the eyes before. Not even when she had been shot at close range in the chest. She did not feel the calm and acceptance that she had always expected. She was not resigned this fate. She wanted to fight, for as long as she was able.

In her trapped wrist, her fingers moved on the hilt of the lightsaber, even as he was talking about eating her..? Rhianna's blue eyes widened.

Some of her Clan had said such things to her, when she had been a young child with red curls, bouncing happily through the woods of her homeworld. You are so sweet, Rhianna. I could eat you up. And she would giggle, and run through the trees feeling adored. What he was suggesting was.. not that. It twisted the happy memory. Turning it into something profane.

If he was trying to scare her, it was working. The thought of being butchered, flesh eaten, made Rhianna shiver. The heat of the red blade threatening her skin, even closer, as she did, but better that blade than what he had in mind. She slammed her eyes shut, trying to turn her face away. "No..", she said. She would have shaken her head in denial, had she been able. So she said it again.. "No.."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

There was something intoxicating about fear. The feeling of it, the smell of it… it warmed Vega’s otherwise cold heart and flesh. He draw in a deep and ragged breath that made something inside of him click audibly, and savoured the taste of the Jedi’s terror.

When she turned from him, he jerked his head after her, near enough to bite off her ear.

“If you don’t stop that, I’ll use this…” he edged the point of the lightsaber higher. “I’ll burn your lips shut.”

[Rhianna]

Her lips pressed shut in a tight line, as if that would save them. She said nothing else, the threat of having her lips burned off was enough to silence Rhianna, after a last note of fright escaped her. A whimper of fear from deep in her throat, audible only through her shivered exhalation.

She forced herself to open her eyes and face him, waiting for him to just kill her. Unable to escape from the way his face was pushed up against hers, Rhianna kept her mouth wisely shut, but tried another way.

It was obvious that there was little left in him, a walking vortex of rage contained in a suit of flesh that seemed to be quite ill. She was the opposite in all of the ways that she could determine. Healthy, full of will to live, usually surrounded by people that would fight to save her. She refused to think of them now, not willing to risk their safety by giving knowledge of them over to this dark one, but they existed.

Her thoughts crept out cautiously, the first speckles of sunlight filtering through a canopy of darkness. Not abrasive in their intensity, but undeniably surrounded with the essence of who she was pushing through. A daughter of the forest and the elements. A protector, with the heart of a wild thing of nature.

You do not have to do this.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Reaching out to him was like slipping her fingers into frozen waters. If she was the vitality of spring and the warmth of the sun through the treetops on a summer's day, he was the slow rot of autumn and the creeping chill of winter. If she was at one with nature, he was at odds with it, his flesh almost entirely encased in or replaced by cybernetics.

There was almost nothing behind his eyes as he stared down at her.

“You’re right. I don’t have to… but I do want to.”

In between his words, the mechanical rasp of his breathing was loud in her ear.

“You’re coming with me, witch.”

[Rhianna]

Trying to brush her mind against his, even soft and hesitant like this, just made the bad feeling inside Rhianna worse. It had nothing to do with the perspective of a spinning escape pod, or with hitting her cheek during it's launch. It was just him. Her stomach churned like she hung over a huge drop, suspended over a fathomless black hole she could never hope to escape.

..and she was slipping..

Rhianna's chest trembled in terror. She had a choice. Resist him, say no again and sacrifice her face - or go with him.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Sensing the internal turmoil within the Jedi, Vega’s lips curved, revealing a hint of sharp teeth beneath.

“Hand over your weapon.”

[Rhianna]

She had to resist him. She had to. She had to.. Rhianna told herself this over and over again in her mind. It was fine. She would suffer horribly, but eventually she would die, and then she would know peace. She would have remained true, and brave, and she would be remembered that way by the people who knew her. All she had to do was tell him 'No.' one more time and it could begin.

Rhianna's grip on the lightsaber tightened, just once more. Maybe she would find the strength to do it. She would be run through as well, but maybe she could take him with her? Rid the galaxy of another dark one, make it safer with her own sacrifice. Inside her chest, her heartbeat was beating like a frightened animal. She knew what she had to do, but she was afraid to do it.

The blue beam of light disappeared, leaving Rhianna bathed in only the red glow of his weapon now. A single tear spilled out from the corner of her eye, the salty trail mingling with the blood on her cheek. A shudder, carrying another note of fear in her throat, escaped as she turned the weapon, and with it herself, over to him.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

There was no need to wrestle the weapon from the Jedi’s hand. She gave it over willingly.

“Look at how weak you are.”

With the Jedi’s weapon clenched in his fist, Vega felt no pride. It was hardly a trophy of battle, an offering to take back to -

No, he had no master now. Hate coiled inside of him, and contorted his expression into a sneer. He stuffed the lightsaber into a pocket in his armour, then grabbed Rhianna by the front of her suit and shoved her towards the opposite side of the shuttle.

“Get out.”

Not waiting for her to move, he vaulted up and out through the hole above them. The shuttle groaned as he landed on the outer hull, then the hangar bay floor rang with the sound of his feet hitting the deck.

[Rhianna]

Lingering by the wall, Rhianna had not the slightest idea how she was going to survive this. She watched him take the lightsaber from her, unfeeling to her misery. He could mock her as weak if it made him feel superior, it did not matter. She had been no stronger with the weapon. It had been useful on this mission as a tool, but the truth was that she hoped never to be required to use it, preferring her staff if a weapon was required.

Shoved toward the hatch, Rhianna tried not to stumble through the wreckage as she watched her tormentor disappear through the hole he'd torn. It gave her a moment alone, only one, in which she braced her hand on the wall. Squeezing her eyes shut, she stifled a sob of despair. The instinct to cry out through the Force for help was strong, so strong..

He would kill them.

Eat them..

Rhianna opened the hatch, waiting as it hissed open and went still before creeping out herself.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Vega was waiting, a few feet in front of the hatch. In the full light of the hangar bay, she could see him clearly for the first time. All pallid flesh and metal, wrapped in dark cloth and leather. Both lightsabers concealed, somewhere. In spite of standing in a wide, open space, he had the look of a caged animal. His shoulders were hunched. Small ticks of movement kept his body in constant motion. The fingers of his non-mechanical hand kept twitching reflexively, as if faintly scratching at the air.

“Come. We have work to do.”

[Rhianna]

Before stepping out into the hangar bay, Rhianna had done her best to compose herself. She had made her choice, and now she had to live with it for as long as she could. The knowledge that she would eventually be killed and eaten, one of many things weighing on her mind, as she took a better look at her captor. Having light on him made him no less disturbing. One booted foot after the other, Rhianna stepped into the bay.

Leaving the escape pod behind her, she followed, having already established what her choices were. Refuse, get tortured. Obey, probably still be tortured, but not right now. Maybe time would present her with more options, but right now there was simply nowhere to go. No escape from him.

We? The thought went through her mind before she could stop it.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

So confident in his hold over the Jedi, Vega didn’t look back as he lead the way further into the freighter. It wasn’t long before they passed a body slumped up against one of the bulkheads: a young woman in mechanics overalls, the chest of which had been seared and torn by lightsaber blade. Vega stepped around her as if it she were nothing at all.

“What powers do you you possess, witch?”

[Rhianna]

There was not an answer forthcoming to him. Rhianna had stopped in her tracks, on the opposite side of the body of the female mechanic. She had seen plenty of death. Death did not disturb her, it was only the natural conclusion of life, that all things should return to the Abhairt Saoil , the Life Giver, when their time was spent. This girl's time had not been spent. It had been taken. Her remains left behind, discarded like a piece of garbage in his way. Somewhere she had people, surely? Mother? Husband? Maybe children? - who would never know her fate.

Her stomach was sour when she looked up from the dead body toward his departing form..

"Abhairt Saoil recieve her spirit." Rhianna barely breathed, the words were so quiet. Reaching down, she closed the mechanic's eyes that had been staring ahead, fixed in horror.

Her attention was called away when he asked her a question from further away. Hesitant and horrified, Rhianna stepped carefully over the body, and tried to put her words into Basic, which was a challenge on her best days.

"My mother's mother's were all banfáiths." Frowning Rhianna searched for the translation.. "Seers.."

"I have that skill, but it is not very developed. I am stronger with.. elements."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

The mechanic was only the first body, of course. There had been a small crew aboard, just short of a dozen, and it appeared that most of them had been cut down just going about their business aboard the freighter. They had a look as if they had just… fallen asleep, and collapsed to the floor. Only the lightsaber scoring across the clothes and bodies revealed the truth of the situation.

In the freighters common room, Vega stopped and turned abruptly to face his captive. His pale eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean, elements?”

[Rhianna]

Rhianna was in her own private hell. Not that she believed in such a place really, but if there was one for her, it would have been like this. She had never liked space from her first voyage, preferring the ground, any ground, beneath her feet. Space was inhospitable, cold and terrifying. Just like him, she thought, stepping over another body, and another.. Repeating herself quietly 'Abhairt Saoil recieve their spirit.', closing the the eyes of each as she passed by. She was trapped in the belly of this ship, confined with death and rot, and darkness, and him..

Following into the common room because there was simply no other choice, Rhianna linked her fingers before her. She was considering how much, or how little, to tell him. What was the point? She had never had a talent for deceit, and maybe he did. A liar would know a lie when he heard it.

"The primal elements..", she elaborated, feeling like they were speaking two different languages, despite the fact that she knew she was using the right words. Those words did not seem to hold meaning for him. She did not know how else to explain herself, other than to show him. He did seem to..struggle. Maybe she could help?

"Water." She came further into the room, just a little closer.

"Fire." Rhianna watched him warily, as she neared showing no aggression. She had nothing in her hands, he had already taken the only physical weapon she'd had.

"Air.." For just a moment, Rhianna settled her fingertips on the front of him, part ghastly person, part cold machine. She drew in a breath, filling her own lungs with oxygen. Focusing her thoughts on the way the breath filled her, expanding her chest with the element, and her body with vitality. It would have been much easier on a windy world like Vortex. Summoning a response from generated air was difficult, but not impossible. Pure, clean air rushed where she directed it..into him.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Vega’s artificial hand, whirring cybernetics contained beneath a black leather glove, closed over the Jedi’s fingers.

“Perhaps you aren’t as weak as you seem.”

He glanced down, at the tips of her fingers beneath, held against his chest, then back up into her face.

“Where did you learn that?”

[Rhianna]

The impression that she had just reached out to touch something that just might bite her, was far more than just an impression. It was highly likely even. Rhianna could not take the same measures with him that she would have done encountering a dangerous beast in the wild. She had to adapt. For now she did not yank her hand back. She held very still, blue eyes wide.

Rhianna did not know what to say about her weakness. She was both as weak, and as strong as she seemed. She could only be who she was. Her strengths had always been different. Right now she was, as her Grandmother would have said; 'Out of her element.'.

"My Grandmother.. she is kin to the Eilimint. The elements. I lived with her...before." Before I left my home. Before I lost my family. Before I became a Jedi. The words were left to hang, unsaid.

"My master..", she continued, honestly. "..also helped me to understand the nature of my gift stems from the Force. She helped me learn."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“Before,” Vega repeated the word, studying the subtleties of the witch’s expression. There was something there beneath the surface of her, some… emotion that could almost taste, like a shark scenting blood. His free hand hovered just beside Rhianna’s temple, fingertips still twitching.

“Something drove you to the Jedi. What was it?”

[Rhianna]

Her eyes shifted, just for a moment to the fingers lingering near her temple.

Just because she no longer had a lightsaber held at her face, did not mean that she was safe now. The bodies scattered all over the ship told her that much. Rhianna still felt like she was desperately clinging to the edge of of deep hole, and her fingers were losing purchase. Everything she tried to cling to felt unstable. Only now, it also felt as though something was reaching up from beneath her. Something cold and dark, coiling about her legs determined to drag her down into darkness.

Rhianna's eyes were compelled back to his. "Coimhthíochs.", she answered, unable to say the word without the famous flame-haired temper of her matriarchal line showing up. She was not an angry person by nature, but she could not deny the unfinished business the term stirred up within her.

"Imperials..", she clarified, the word sounded no warmer from her in Basic.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

When he breathed in, Vega could feel the anger that smoldered deep down inside of the Jedi. Just a hint of it, like an ember in a fire that had been left unattended for too long, but it was there.

The grip of his mechanical hand tightened.

“You hate them too.”

He exhaled, a sigh of something like satisfaction, then his lips split into a horrid grin.

“Yes. I understand now… why the Force has given you to me.”

[Rhianna]

He still had her fingers, where she had left them agaist his chest and now they tightened a bit in response to her answer. She swallowed, denial on her lips. She did not hate anyone. Rhianna had suffered. Her people had suffered, because of the Empire. They had conscripted their nomadic clans, breaking the cycle of generations. Some had resisted, fought and died. Her brother, Rhiandar, had been one of them.

Maybe she did hate them, just a little.

Too? He hated them?

Rhianna was full of denials, but none of them were forthcoming. She did frown though, not liking the way his words sounded all too true. The Force had given her to him, whoever he was.. Sent her right out into space for him to catch like It had tossed her straight at him. Could it be so, that this was the will of the Abhairt Saoil ?

"Who..are you?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“I am.. someone who understands you, and your pain.”

At last, Vega released his grip on her fingers - only to take hold of her face with both hands. There was a fire behind his ice-blue eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“Someone who will help you, and teach you how to give the Empire what they deserve.”

[Rhianna]

She was not simplí. Rhianna had always known, the dorchadas, the Dark Side, would be full of tricks, deceptions. The trouble was that she could tell.. When he said that he understood her pain.. It was not a lie.

When he took her face, Rhianna flinched. No matter how understanding he might seem right now, she was still burdened with the prospect of being hacked apart and left slumped on the floor of the common room. One more dead body, slightly fresher. Definitely better meat. She swallowed uncomfortably, but stilled.. and listened.

Her friends were other Jedi Knight and Masters. Returning to Dhomanda A'lainn to liberate her people had never been a priority to anyone but her. In fact, she had been strongly encouraged to let it go, for the sake of her Jedi training.

But he was going to help her..?

"You want to help me?", she sounded skeptical.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Vega took a step backward, turning suddenly away. Restless energy bubbled beneath his skin as he looked between the corpses littered about the deck. With his hands no longer on the Jedi, they became fists as he imagined the throat of Miranda Tarkin being crushed beneath his fingers. He stood for a moment with his back to the Jedi, his heart pounding with anticipation.

“We want the same thing, you and I.”

He swallowed, trying to think of anything but Acera’s face - Loklorien’s face - sneering down at him in hateful disappointment. She had used him, pulled him away from his path, his calling.

He turned, slowly, until he was side on to Rhianna. He could see her at the edge of his vision, the red-haired witch he had been promised so long ago.

“The Jedi will never give you what you want. What you need. The freedom. The power… to burn the Empire to the ground... but I will.”

[Rhianna]

When she was released, and he turned away from her, Rhianna's face briefly revealed the emotion foremost on her mind, and it was not anger. It was fear. Sucking in a shuddering breath, she tried to understand how they could possibly want the same thing.

Burning the Empire to the ground did not seem to be a priority to the Jedi, anymore than rushing off to her homeworld to liberate the clans from the Empire's grip. It was just not their way. Their friends at the Alliance though, they might just someday. And if they did, Rhianna would not lament the loss. She would be happy about it even. Feel avenged. Like justice had been set right in the galaxy. That had always been true.

Nothing was ever really given. A return was always expected..

"And what do you want from me?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Vega stood there for a time, silent, only the mechanical hiss and pull of his breathing and the low hum of the ships idling engines. His lips moved, worked as if he were rolling something around in his mouth, tasting it, testing it. Then, nodding to himself, he met the witch’s gaze.

“Your farsight, perhaps. To find someone.”

[Rhianna]

Whoever he was looking for, it did not bode well for them. Rhianna did not require one of her intuitions to gather a social visit was not what he was after. If she helped him, whatever happened as a result was also on her conscience. If she even could.

"You're going to kill them?", she guessed, already feeling sick about something she had not even done. Not yet..

"And then what?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“Some of them, yes. The ones who deserve death.”

Vega chewed the inside of his lower lip, hard enough that he tasted the iron tang of blood. Miranda Tarkin, Gallus Tagge, Khendon Sevon. Though they were the first names to come to mind, they would not be the last. As he fantasised about watching blood bubble over their lips, Vega walked to the common rooms seating area and casually shoved aside a body to make space enough for himself.

“But not all of them. I have family, family I haven’t seen since before the war began.”

[Rhianna]

It was not very comforting. The prospect of him deciding who deserved death. Hadn't he just been about to kill and eat her? Had she deserved it?

Rhianna watched the body slump off the seat onto the floor where it stopped, unnaturally still and stiff. Staying pinned to the spot she presently occupied seemed fine.

"Did..he deserve it?", she asked, blue eyes locked on the dead ones staring back at her.

At the mention of family, Rhianna looked up. She'd give anything to be reunited with hers. That much at least she understood.

"I do not believe I have any kin left..", she admitted, feeling the pain and the loss those words stirred inside her.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

He looked down at the body, slumped between the booth and the floor, with as much emotion as if he were regarding a piece of furniture.

“All great causes require a few martyrs.”

His pale gaze lingered on the corpse for only a moment before lifting back to the witch, dispassionately.

“The destruction of the Empire won’t be bloodless.”

[Rhianna]

The destruction of the Empire..

Still frozen in place, Rhianna frowned. She did not appreciate having this Dark One speaking things that made sense. That was the path to ruin.

It was not a possibility that Rhianna had ever considered.. Destruction was not what she wanted. Just their removal from her world. Not even for herself. For her people, so that they could be free to return to their way of life, no longer bound in service to a foreign master that did not understand their ways. The clans could roam the land again, following the game and the seasons. They could once again know peace. How to make them leave though, had yet to occur to her.

If such a thing even succeeded, the Empire was chased from Dhomanda A'lainn and a glorious victory was achieved.. What then? Would they not just return? Stronger. More of them. Or would they settle on taking what they wanted from another world. Maybe somewhere like her home where the warriors fought honorably, with simple weapons. Would that not be their doing, having turned the Empire's eye to them next?

If a beast is killing livestock, injuring members of the clan, or killing them the answer was simple. Kill the beast. It is never bloodless, but it is necessary.

Her lips parted, but Rhianna said nothing. Was this truly what the Life Giver wanted from her?

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Even without the gift of the Force, it would have been plain to see the conflict pulling back and forth inside of Rhianna. To someone attuned to the shifting currents of the Dark Side, her inner turmoil was a palpable thing. Vega spent a silent moment savouring the feeling of it, his heart thumping faster in his chest.

“Sit.”

The opposite side of the booth was, mercifully for Rhianna, absent of any bodies.

“Your farsight. How does it work? Can you find anyone?”

[Rhianna]

It did not sound like a request.

Trying not to think about the dead man on the floor, Rhianna forced herself forward. There was no point in refusing to sit down with him. The truth was that even though she had stood straight, hands linked just before her, she did not feel quite as stable as she appeared. Also, she was certain that if she did refuse, he would just find a way to make her. Ultimately, either way she would sit, so she sat.

"I have never tried to find anyone before." She slid into the booth until she was exactly opposite him.

"When I've seen things, or felt things, it has not been because I have made any attempt to. I just.. get them. Intuitions."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Vega leant across the table towards her, his head low, shoulders hunched. A snarl twitched at his lips, though his voice remained the same, steady mechanical drone. He didn’t have time to wait for inspiration to strike his pet witch, not when there was so much to be done.

“And what triggered those flashes of intuition?”

[Rhianna]

Her stress-stiffened spine was already against the back of the booth. There was still no getting away from him. Rhianna had no choice but to sit there and face the situation, and him, directly. Her hands did skitter back fearfully from the table top into her lap, but that was the extent of her ability to retreat.

"People... that were close to me were in danger."

People that I loved. She refused to say it.

She was absolutely not going to think about them. Any of them. Pain twisted inside her chest. She would find no solace in the memories, and she would only send him right after them. She shoved such thoughts down so deep inside herself that even she would not be tempted to dig them up.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“Fear.”

Again, his lips peeled back into something that ought to have been an expression of happiness, a grin, but which looked almost gruesome on Vega’s sallow features.

“It was fear that made you powerful.”

He began to rise from the table.

“That’s something we can work with.”

[Rhianna]

He was a Ceann Dorcha, a Dark One, of course her terror would please him.

Rhianna said nothing, but she had believed it was her love that had made her strong when others needed her to be so. Not the fear that accompanied thoughts of her friends in danger. That she might have been wrong, did not sit well with her.

Neither did the way he moved, rising from the table. Sat as she was, Rhianna seemed to shrink into the booth, growing smaller. The very fear previously mentioned, rippling over her skin.

"I do not ken...?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“You will. Come with me, witch.”

Without waiting, he turned from the table, footsteps ringing against the metal decking as he lurched from the common room towards the ship's cockpit. There was no need to look back, to see if the Jedi was following. He knew she would come.

“Here, sit,” he said, fingers curling around the head of the co-pilot and navigators chair, the leather covering creaking under the pressure of his nails.

“Do you know how to use a navigational computer?” he asked, reaching around her to touch the controls of a terminal that brought to life a series of star-charts and a list of coordinates.

[Rhianna]

Wanting to do anything but follow him, Rhianna's fingers stayed curled tightly around the bench beneath her for a long moment. There was no clinging to safety there, not really even the illusion of it. The choice was to follow, or join the other bodies littering the halls.

Making herself move, she followed to the cockpit.

Rhianna sat, as instructed, blue eyes scanning over the console before her. His question instantly creased her brow, a pained expression that she quickly got under control. Another ship's cockpit, another man and another time that right now seemed so long ago...but yes. Someone had taught her, when they had both been padawans just figuring out how to live as Jedi in training. Once again, she forced the memories of anyone close to her from her thoughts. Too dangerous.

"I ken.. a little.", she admitted. "I've always had help."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“I’ll help you.”

Without warning, Vega's fingers were tangled with her hair.

“And you’ll help me.”

His nails dug against her scalp as, with his mechanical hand, he seized the witch's wrist and pushed her fingertips towards the navigational computer.

“Where can I find this woman?”

The Dark Side oozed over her skull and a face (https://theholo.net/forum/member.php?2982-Grace-Van-Derveld) lurched before Rhianna’s eyes. There was no finesse in the illusion. It was as if for an instant, the Jedi’s ocular nerves had been rewired. She no longer saw what was before her, instead presented with a dizzying series of images, like snatches of someone elses memory. It was over as quickly as it had begun, though the taste of iron lingered at the back of her mouth.

[Rhianna]

The pain of his nails raking across her scalp, tearing at her hair, was nothing as compared to what followed. The interior of Rhianna's skull suddenly felt as though freezing shards of ice had been plunged into the back of her head, erupting through her eye sockets. She almost screamed. She definitely sucked in a hiss of air. There was no escaping it, even as she tried to force her head back, he held her in his grip making her see whatever, whoever, he wanted her to see.

Flashes of someone forced their way into her mind, whether she wanted it or not. It was shoved to the forefront of her thoughts, before self preservation, or her own desires. All she could see was... her.

The pain he was causing her worked to sharpen the images, bringing them into crystal-cut clarity, and Rhianna realized.... she knew her. The woman she was seeing.

Grace Van-Derveld.

It had been years now, but Rhianna had met her before. In the first days after leaving her homeworld. When she had been traveling with her master, and another padwan. They had met with members of the Alliance, though at the time she had not understood what any of it meant, apart from that they knew of other Jedi.

"Grace.. Van-Derveld..?" Still unseeing, Rhianna swallowed, tasting blood.

She was unaware, but against the controls before her, Rhianna's fingers did move..

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“Yes.”

Breath tickled her neck, the sensation almost lost beneath the paralysing pulse of the Dark Side. Unseen, Vega licked his lips and watched with relish as the Jedi’s fingers twitched over the ship’s console.

“The coordinates. Where is she? Take me to her.”

[Rhianna]

The imagery of Grace was bleeding away. The view of the cockpit, and the navigational console before her were beginning to become her reality once more. She could see her own fingers, automatically twiching about like they knew just what to do. She stopped them, tightening her fingers into a fist.

"I cannot.", she whispered, struggling to reconcile her reservations with an answer that would not result in him burning her face off or eating her. His hand was still tangled in her hair.

"Please? I have never done this before." It was just as possible that her coordinates would find them inside a planets core, as in orbit, somewhere conveniently near Grace.

"I am not close to her, I only recognize her. I am not yet strong enough.."

Even to her they sounded like excuses, but it was also all true.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

With a snarl, Vega relented his hold on the Jedi’s head, shoving her forward before he turned and stalked the few feet to the rear of the cramped cockpit. Shoulders rising and falling with the hiss and whine of his respirator, the Lupine stood with his back to the witch in prolonged silence.

When the urge to do something reckless grew less overwhelming, he spoke.

“Where are the Jedi?”

[Rhianna]

When Rhianna was released, somewhat roughly shoved forward was more accurate, she covered her face with her hands for a moment. Pressing her fingertips hard into her brow, as if it might keep her skull from fracturing, which was how it felt. Tears born more from pain than sorrow spilled from the corners of her eyes, leaking between her stiff fingers. She wiped them away, smearing the evidence of them across her pale cheeks. The salt stinging at the wound there that she had forgotten about.

The reprieve was short.

Her spine, her entire self, stiffened at his question. For a long time she said nothing, listening to his mechanical breaths, certain they would be the last thing she heard in this life..

"I thought you wanted to destroy the Empire?", she managed.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“There is nothing that I want more.”

Vega’s chest rose and fell with each laboured breath. The mere thought of the Empire filled him with a hatred that was at once clarifying and overwhelming.

“If you are not strong enough to help me, then I will make you stronger.”

[Rhianna]

Rhianna's eyes closed for a moment in silent gratitude.

She had no intention of giving him anything at all regarding the Jedi. She truly believed that the Abhairt Saoil, the Life Giver or The Force, by any name it wanted her to travel with him for now. The ceann dorcha , the dark one wanted to destroy the Empire, and while it was not a priority of hers, she would rather focus on that outcome if it kept his focus off the Jedi.

So much hate rolled off him that where she still sat, eyes still closed, Rhianna winced at the feel of it. How could she possibly travel with him, with such negativity lashing out from him all of the time?

She could, because she had no other choice.

"..then I will make you stronger.”, he was saying.

Her eyes opened, looking to the side, but not quite brave enough to turn her head around just yet. Hands in her lap, Rhianna plucked at her damaged environmental suit. She wanted to ask how he was going to make her stronger, but she knew she was not going to like the answer. Choosing to not form the words would not save her.

She gave in to the need to ask. "How...?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“The same way that I have grown stronger: through suffering.”

Vega looked beyond the witch now, through the cockpit viewport to the distant stars, scattered across the blackness like broken glass. He liked his dry lips, trying to focus. Feeling for the inexorable pull of the Force, a constant ache, always urging him onward.

Grace and the Jedi would have to wait. They were a means to an end, but they were not the end. The Empire. That was all that mattered.

“In the ships astronavigation computer... find the nearest Imperial colony. Take us there.”

[Rhianna]

As she had anticipated, his answer was not inspiring.

Rhianna hesitated only momentarily before scooting forward in her seat once more, gazing down at the navicomputer. Wherever he went, no good would come of it. Today she could not stop him. Right now, the only circumstance that she could control was just given to her, by him.. Find an Imperial colony.

Feeling like the hand of Death, Rhianna started slowly trying to remember how to search for what he was looking for. A feat made more difficult by her already tense mind. A few choice words in her own tongue were muttered under her breath when she made incorrect keystrokes which were rewarded with a red flash of error, and an accompanying incorrect sounding tone. Finally, she managed to compile a short list of potential destinations, keeping them to herself while she tried to make a wise choice about where they went. Out of the list, one planet in particular made her frown. It sounded...horrible.

"I don't ken if it's exactly what you're looking for..", she said quietly, having made peace with her decision.

"..but there are some sort of fungus mines on Taris (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Taris) which is reasonably close. It looks like they are run by the Empire now."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

There was a creak of leather against leather as Vega slid into the co-pilot’s chair, a matter of feet from Rhianna. His pale eyes remained fixed on the stars, an intense focus to his expression.

“Yes… the mines. Take us to them.”

[Rhianna]

Me?

Rhianna wanted to protest. To at least offer up another caution, that she had only ever done such things under the watchful eyes of people who would not let her falter, not stuck with someone who would as soon stab and consume her. She was not qualified for this, but she felt sure the protest would not be well recieved. She would have to make do.

Feeling sick to her core, Rhianna checked, rechecked and triple checked herself and the computer's calculations, before closing her eyes, praying to the Life Giver and jumping the ship into hypserspace.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

In the not too distant past, Vega had visited (https://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?56591-Panic-on-Pallaxides) another Imperial world: Pallaxides. A playground for those who were rich in wealth but morally bankrupt, the governor and security forces of Pallaxides had arrogantly thought that the world’s importance made it secure. There had been no vast fleet casting a shadow over the planet’s atmosphere, nor any orbital defense platform to turn away attackers. Likewise, scans indicated Taris had a minimal defenses at best. If arrogance had left Pallaxides unprotected, it was indifference that had abandoned Taris to the same fate.

The stolen freighter cut through the sickly yellow smog in the atmosphere, following in the wake left behind by another vessel as it angled towards the planet’s surface. No one had hailed them for any form of identification, nor given any direction as to where the ship might land. That was left to the pilot to decide, with Vega leaning over Rhianna’s shoulder and pointing a pale finger towards the horizon, where the silhouettes of wrecked starfighters stood side by side with crumbling buildings.

“There… that’s where we’ll begin.”

[Rhianna]

Taris, it seemed, was another world with such advantages that the entirety of the planet was one great sprawl of city. Apart from the spongy collection of yellow coating everything in sight, Rhianna was sure there was no other viable flora. Their so called civilization had buried the land long ago. Only the fungus remained, sturdy enough to live of death and refuse which Taris seemed to have plenty of. Her first impression of the world she had chosen matched the feelings inspired as she had read about the place - gross.

Ignoring the urge to flinch away from him, Rhianna did her best to land the freighter where he had indicated. She managed not to collide with the other downed vessels, but that was the best that could be said about it. She was no pilot. Her spine was going to ache tomorrow from the not-so-gentle impact..

Rhianna made no move to get out of the pilot's seat. She was aware this setting had been chosen by her, and in no hurry to see what the decision was going to cost.

"Begin what?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

If he noticed the less-than-smooth landing, the Sith made no mention of it. His focus lingered on the horizon, eyes narrowing as he studied the shape of the destruction. Somewhere there, beyond the snarl of metal and fungi, there was a living piece of the Empire, burrowed away. Festering.

“Making your stronger.”

Vega’s footsteps rung against the deck plating as he stalked out of the cockpit.

“Come,” he said, his voice ringing out as loud and startling as a gunshot in the quiet confines of the ship.

[Rhianna]

His departing form gave Rhianna another precious moment alone. Time to think. Time to plan..

Resisting the need to flinch at the sound of his voice, Rhianna rose, almost eagerly now. She had no real desire to join him, but getting off of this ship strewn with dead bodies was a priority. If she could get out, she could escape. So she followed. Even the fungus covered planet was preferable to being trapped in here.. with him.

The feeling of dread increased. Each step felt like a warning that remaining here with the dead would be better than what was ahead..

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Vega took his first steps onto Taris’s surface, the ground soft under foot, and the dank smell of decay filled his nostrils. As far as the eye could see, overgrown swampland fought to assert its dominance over the wreckage of starships and abandoned buildings. Perhaps there had been a town here once, or a factory. Some hub of industry that had been all but lost to the wilderness. Grasping vines coiled around warped metal, the natural and the unnatural bound together in a barbed knot.

“Can you feel them?” he said, turning to look at the witch as she descended the ship’s landing ramp.

“The Empire... grubbing about beneath the surface.”