Residuum

[Darth Anxia]

The 360-degree views from the Express-class ambassadorial shuttle were utterly wasted on one of the occupants.

Violet eyes moved occasionally, darting from one side to the other, in time with something going on in her head. It had been some time since leaving Rattatak behind, yet the only speaking that she had done had been one word answers. Even those had taken great effort. She had not removed a single piece of her armor, which was still covered in sand and dust from her test. Not even the mask covering her face had been removed, which typically should have been the first thing to go. Her gloved hands still gripped her sword, fingers tapping against the pommel in a twitchy, uncontrolled manner.

The external evidence was nothing compared to what was actually going on inside her head.

Something had happened to her in that fighting pit. For the first time in her life, someone other than Salem had gotten inside her head. It had not been something she had wanted. She had fought as hard against it as she was able, until eventually..

She had lost.

Her eyes widened, swinging to the right in paranoia, fingers gripping her sword.

Her throat felt as dry and parched as the grounds of the Cauldron. She could smell, and taste blood inside her mask, and still she did not move. Though she did shake her head, a silent denial of whatever was on her mind..

[Darth Callidus]

With a burst of light, the Express-class shuttle jumped to hyperspace and at the touch of a button from the pilot, the panoramic viewport began to darken, obscuring the hypnotic vortex of light that stretched infinitely around the ship. A quick series of commands set the vessel into autopilot and the pilot rose from his chair, emerging from the small cockpit into the passengers lounge with a dark cloak still draped around his shoulders. Unlike his apprentice, Darth Callidus wore no mask. His white eyes narrowed, dark brows knitting in faint confusion or concern, as he watched his student flinching at thin air.

“Anxia… where are you?"

[Darth Anxia]

It was not like her to question the nature of her life. Once, long ago, there had been a choice to be made and she had made it without hesitation. From that day until this, she had never really questioned anything. To be sure, she'd been very vocal about her displeasure about being left behind in the Fountain Palace when she wanted to be out taking a more active part in the shaping of her own life. It was the one thing she had always rebelled against and... he had done that to her, and she had gone along with it. Why? Because someday this, someday that.

What use was a sword left to rust? In her hands, her own weapon also seethed, denied it's bloody prize because of it's owners complete incompetence.

Anxia twitched, and heard her name. Dragging her eyes up from the floor, she met her master's white ones.. and instantly recoiled. Sword still in hand, she scrambled to her feet and backed up slowly, feeling attacked from within by whatever the other Sith had done to her, a suspicion in her eyes that had not been there before.

[Darth Callidus]

Callidus took a step forward, and his apprentice shrank further away from him.

“Give me your sword, Anxia,” he said, holding out one hand.

[Darth Anxia]

Her right hand rotated, gripping tighter, her eyes glancing down to the blade he wanted. Why did he want it?

Swinging back up, her eyes were narrowed now in defiance of the request. Why would he want her disarmed? What was he up to?

Yes, Anxia be a good girl and do as you're told, you might get a pat on the head.

Not only did she take another step backward, the point of the sword was beginning to to rise up in warning.

[Darth Callidus]

The rising point of the sword made Callidus more aware of the relatively confined space within the passengers cabin. A few steps forward and Anxia would be within swinging distance of a cutting blow.

“Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on.”

[Darth Anxia]

What was going on was that something of Baska had burrowed deep into her mind. A residual shard, festering in there like a splinter. Even as he was speaking to her, it was Baska she heard. As though the woman were right there with them. Right behind her even, one arm around her neck, the blonde vixen whispered all kinds of suggestions that she had never considered, but probably should have.

Her head tipped slightly toward her master, a frown etching a crease into her brow while she struggled to work through the damage. All of this only worked because she believed in him, but what happened if she stopped? There was only room for two choices, either her faith in him was and always had been well placed, or...she was one of the galaxy's largest fools.

Shaking her head again, Anxia winced in painful denial. Her free hand instinctively went to her temple, as though she could rub the intrusion out and fix everything. "She...", Anxia started distractedly to attempt to explain..

[Darth Callidus]

It was the first time Callidus had ever seen Anxia looked so disorientated, and yet he could not help but feel an unsettling sense of deja vu. Another of his apprentices had been gripped by fear of something that Callidus could not see; the delusions of her fractured had driven her to betray him.

“There is no one here but the two of us. You are... safe.”

[Darth Anxia]

Behind her mask, her eyes scowled at him. "No!!" She shook her head, sending off another wave of pain shooting through her skull.

Anxia was aware that Baska was not truly here, it did not stop the woman's influence of the Dark side from slithering through her mind. The result was that it was him she did not trust, so how was she safe?! The oppressiveness of the outside influence was not abating because they had left Rattatak, and Baska, behind. It was not going away, it was getting worse. If she had spoken up about it to begin with, she might have been able to articulate the problem better, but presently she felt as though she were drowning in a sea of malice. And the pressure was building..

"You.." Anxia staggered forward, sword still in hand.

[Darth Callidus]

Still stood on the same spot with his hand outstretched, Callidus hissed through his clenched teeth. As he exhaled, his skeletal mask, an illusion, spread out over his features like frost over water. The pure-white of his Arkanian his eyes vanished beneath black, pitiless hollows.

“On your knees,” he said, his words humming with the terrible, compelling power of the Dark Side.

[Darth Anxia]

Abruptly, Anxia stopped directly in her tracks. Not because she had been ordered to do so. She was not in a place where she felt like taking any orders just then. It was not even what he had said that had stopped her. It was how he had said it. The Dark Side, as she knew it best, was suddenly there with her. She had found the perfect lifeline in the storm.

Callidus.

If that was what it took so be it. Better the devil she knew..

"I don't...think so."

[Darth Callidus]

His claws snatched at empty air and the Force constricted around Anxia in invisible tendrils. He could not risk her moving any further forward, not when the shuttle compartment was so small. The space between them bristled with the potential for violence.

“Control yourself, Anxia, or you force me to control you.”

[Darth Anxia]

The Sith glanced downward at herself when she was unable to move. Visible or invisible, it made no difference. She could feel the tendrils binding her in place. The incessant scratching in the back of her mind demanded she should fight this, break free, and that might have been a logical reaction for anyone else. Not so much for Anxia. She could move just enough for her free fingers to curl up into a fist, and she pulled back upon those same tendrils connecting her to her master forcefully..

"Yes! Yes, do.. that.."

In the moment, it made perfect sense to Anxia that even if Callidus immolated her on the spot, at least it would burn away the other Sith's influence. She would take her chances.

[Darth Callidus]

With the physical threat contained, Callidus moved quickly to gain mastery over Anxia’s mind. He pushed his senses outwards, feeling the ebb and flow of the Force and using it to look with piercing, even painful clarity into Anxia’s thoughts. Her will strained against his. Where normally there was submission, now there was a push of resistance, a reflexive response from whatever Baska's psychic assaut had rattled loose inside Anxia's head. The Dark Side would probe through her conscious and subconscious alike, stripping away the confusion and fear to reveal the cause of her paranoia.

"Tell me what you feel."

[Darth Anxia]

Her brains felt like they were about to be boiled inside her head from the pressure. The coppery scent of her own blood saturating the inside of her mask was making her sick. Yet for all her misery, the intensity of her eyes simmered down from a full blown panic to something like relief. The Dark Side, directed by her master, washed over Anxia in an inky wave.

What did she feel? She felt the devastation of a thousand different ways she could lose everything. Each one cycling through her mind, displaying how easy it would be. Each worse than the one before, but there was a common theme.

"You... will betray me." She hated the sound of the hurt in her own voice, at the thought of being replaced as his apprentice. Or worse. Her entire being trembled in denial of such an outcome, she would absolutely not live in a world gone that wrong.

[Darth Callidus]

Anxia’s fears, as strong as they were, washed over Callidus as if they were his own. For an unsteady moment, the melding of their minds became an undertow, pulling eagerly at the psyche of both Sith. I will be replaced. I am not strong enough. I can never do enough. I will be revealed. I will be forgotten. With a growl, Callidus forced clarity into his thoughts, the Dark Side searing through and burning away the fog of confusion.

He strode forward a step and his mask rippled as if he were stepping through it. The skeletal face became translucent, Salem’s sharp features visible beneath the mask yet distorted by it.

“Why would I betray you?”

[Darth Anxia]

"Why?" Anxia echoed. Not really answering so much as trying to understand it herself.

When the man beneath the mask was revealed once more, she tried again to move and found it pointless. Straining against the hold on her, Anxia attempted again to reach him. The fingers of her free left hand tightening, pulling as she could with the last of her will. If she couldn't get to him, she would drag him to her.

"I.. failed." Her voice reflected her ragged misery about that fact, broken a bit like she was presently. She'd failed him.

[Darth Callidus]

When she pulled, this time Callidus moved. Towards her, towards the sword still clenched in her fist, close enough to strike.

“You have done everything I have asked of you.”

[Darth Anxia]

She had, with minimal fuss.

Anxia had never questioned it because she had always taken it on faith that they were in this together. Until today, when someone had made her question everything. All of it. She couldn't work this way. It was not how the essence of her soul was wired.

"And.. I always will." The Sith sword dropped from her hand, clanging noisily to the shuttle floor.

[Darth Callidus]

Just as the sword slipped from her fingertips, the invisible hold of the Force on Anxia’s body slipped away.

“You didn’t defeat Baska, but now you know how her power can eclipse your own and overwhelm you. She is a tool with which to sharpen you, as Creas and Malleus were before. In time, we will redress the imbalance between you.”

Callidus closed the last of the distance between them, stepping over the discarded blade, and reached out to draw aside the mask that skilled covered part of his apprentice's face.