100% Pain

[Miss Blonde]

Miss Blonde was a busy bee, she had multiple projects going on and she was generally up to her eyes in technology and force trinkets to help enhance the killing capabilities of those she cared about and maybe just maybe help a friend out who needed it. This case was a bit of both, her close friend [member="James Justice"] had been struggling for what seemed like years now after everything he had gone through.

While Blonde wasn't necessarily horribly close to James she still cared about the man, and he was still her friend. But being the business woman and inventor that she was, it meant she could kill two birds with one stone. She had been wanting to craft a few blades with a bit of a wicked touch and in order to do that, she needed pain, lots and lots of pain. So who better to call than James?

At her little private workshop Miss Blonde pushed a case of standard force imbued swords over into a circle. They had all the average properties that one might have. An ability to block lightsabers, reflect blaster bolts, that sort of stuff. She had spent the better half of a few days imbuing Durasteel to craft the wicked looking black blades.

Now with the call to [member="James Justice"] being made all the short little blonde woman needed to do was lure the man in under the pretenses that they would have a drink and talk business since the Silvers took Kessel removing the crown jewel of the drug trade.

 

[James Justice]

The man's body hung from the hook, his blood dripping down in pretty little pools on the durasteel flooring. James sat back on his red leather lounge seat watching as two of his thugs battered the man. He swirled the glass in his hand with a bored yawn. One of the great things about being the absolute crime lord and ruler of Soceras was that he chose if the punishment fit the crime. Someone murdered a citizen under his care? He decided how brutally they died. Someone committed grand fraud? He picked how badly they suffered. Enslave his people? He picked how short your life was, and how long your death was. And people wondered why his people felt so secure and crime was so low in such a criminal planet.....

"Break his ribs," James ordered, "All of them."

"Please, please, mercy," the man begged.

James smirked, "Did ye show ye wife mercy? Oh, that's right, ye killed her," James shook his head, "Oh, and ain't that why ye are here? Oh yeah, right."

"Sir, we have landed," one of the officers on the Angel's Glory reported.

James worked the kink out of his neck, "Store 'im. I decide when he dies."

"Yes, sir, of course."

The spacer made his way down the loading ramp onto landing pad's duracrete flooring. He offered blonde a wide, winsome smile, "Ey, long time no see, eh? How ye doin' Blonde? How's business?"

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="James Justice"]

Blonde was on a bit of a field trip today, where she would normally do the work on her little island workshop, she decided that meeting James in a place where he was most comfortable would be a lot more prudent to the situation. After all he was a spacer, and if a spacer wasn't in space he was hanging out in the darker parts of cities drinking and gambling the night away. Just made sense this way.

"Business goes. It's a lot better now that I've been able to recoup our losses from the Silvers. Bloody Jedi taking Kessel really put a dent in the earnings report. But our other legitimate businesses have been able to recover any sectors in the red." Blonde then turned around and escorted James into the small warehouse area.

Once inside she unhooked a few tabs from her gas mask and with a hiss of smoke and release of tension the sealed mask came off and her long blonde hair came flowing down her back as she took it off. James had seen her face before and of course knew her by her real identity [member="Patricia Susan Zexxel"] the former proprietor of Spaarti Creations and creator of the Clone Army of the now fallen Republic.

"Go on find a seat, James. We need to talk about something, and I think we can both help each other out." she then smiled at the man and pointed over to a small area in the center of the warehouse where a table and two chairs were set up.

 

[James Justice]

"Huh, tell me about it," the spacer grunted following her to the warehouse.

He leaned against a crate and propped his feet up, drawing a cigarette from his pocket and lighting up, offering one to Blonde, "I come to almost hate 'em. Damn fools came and started getting involved in my business when they dun't need to. Thank God Soceras is far enough out of their space they ain't usually comin' round unless invited but," he shook is head, letting out a billow of smoke, "I ain't exactly invitin' em over for dinner neither."

He made his way over to the seating area. He didn't blame Blonde for her paranoia. She had been shafted too many times now, given the short end of the stick a lot. Political bullcrap, businesses mongering, and a mass of needless war had been frankly sh!t. He felt for her, he really did.

"I dun't suppose I can complain," he said with a wave, "One of me daughters is looking to carry the family business forward. She thinks she found love," he chuckled, shaking his head, "Teenagers. But she makes me proud, more every day. I think she's too much like me. Another drunk Justice. Force help the galaxy, eh?"

He sat down with a wince. He could feel scar tissue in his hip protest. It was a surgery he had been putting off--he made a note to really get it done when he got back home.

"What can I do for ye, Patrica?"

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Patricia sadly passed on the cigarette, but she would gladly still take a drink. While in her younger days her liver was the hardest working liver in the Galaxy, but now of days being more tame and professional had taught her business before pleasure. But she would then join James in the small talk that was catching up.

"Oh believe me I know how that goes, my son Kincaid wants to grow up to be like me and that's honestly frightening. My eldest Erika is headed off to college soon and everything is just a wash of emotions." Patricia chuckled then sat down with James.

"Well lucky for me I'm practically immortal so I don't need my kids taking over. Anyways if I were in your shoes I'd urge my kids to find their own way in life, the family business is good and all but I'd rather my kids be happy living their own lives then emulate and live in this violent world." and that was really all Patricia had to say to the man.

But as for where he could help her, that's where everything got a little less comfortable. She coughed a bit and loosed the tie and collar of her shirt. How would one word this? "Hey I need your metaphysical pain so do me a solid and fork it over?" That really wasn't how you opened up a conversation.

"Well James. I wanted to give you an opportunity to release some of that pain you've been feeling. I'm not going to hide under false pretenses and as your friend I'm going to be honest. I want to help you and myself, I need your pain." Blonde tried to say as tactfully and bluntly as possible.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

"I want me kids to anything but what I do," James said before taking a gulp from the bottle, "I sent 'em all off to boarding schools to get the proper learnin' they should have to get anywhere in this galaxy but," he sighed waving his hand, "I cain't seem to do anything bout changin' Jess's mind."

The spacer took a few puffs from his cigarette. Patricia had always done good by James. She had offered him work that helped feed his people, she had always been fair in business, struck good bargains, and together they had become flagrantly wealthy beyond most's wildest dreams. She and he had fought through some tight spots, he considered her almost family.

"I dunno if that can be done," he said honestly with a shrug. "ya know ye keep fightin' and fightin' and fightin' and life keeps pushin' ye down. People break ye heart so many times, ye just can't keep standin' anymore. The pain just doesn't stop," his eyes grew downcast, "I used to know where the good in me began and the pain started, but it never ends anymore. Its all pain but, we can try."

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="James Justice"]

"That's even better then, for me at least. At the very least you'll get blow off a little steam." Patricia smiled a bit and gave a quick nod of her head.

"In a moment I'm going to remove us from this plane of existence and you'll see something strange. You'll see everything as they truly are, it might be a little overwhelming at first, but you'll get used to it." Blonde would then stand up and reach over to a crate near the desk and empty its contents on the desk.

Swords. A pile of them to be exact, all of them on the desk stacked in a neat formation. The blackened blades looked vicious and angry to match the twisted horror they would rot upon their foes. Now as for what Patricia would do, while mildly unexpected she rolled her force signature down until it disappeared then with the force focused in and unleashed a wave of sight and energy that made James and her see differently.

What was once a warehouse was now a void of darkness where all that remained were vague silhouettes of what once was. The curvature of a desk, the angle of a wall, just small pieces of what was. As for the swords they remained perfectly crystal clear and intact, and Blonde looked more or less the same just shrouded with wispy white energy flowing around her form.

"Let it out James. I need you to let your pain out and face it."

 

[James Justice]

When he was a child, James had believed in nothing of the tricks and Force. It was all a bunch of psycho mumbo jumbo. Even now, as a user of the Force who had drained the life out of many a fool and shot Force Lightening from his hands, James still held a bit of a skeptical view on that sort of thing.

That was what made things that much more surprising when things changed. He jolted in shock, gripping his chair and looking around in a wild expression of disbelief. Then he shrugged, "Well, who gives a %$#@? Reality is overrated anyway."

James looked the opposite of his persona. He was battered, pain-filled, sacred, and battle torn. His skin looked like a patchwork of rotting flesh held together by scars and open wounds. He heard Blonde's order and his bruised head nodded. He closed his eyes and thought of Anara first. His pain throbbed in a palpitate show of power. She had left him, he had loved her and she abandoned him. They had shared something special, he had given her his heart and she tore it a part. A sense of anger mingled through with the pain.

"How could I have been so stupid?" James growled at himself. He gave himself to a sith, she lied to him, she hurt him and opened fresh wounds that had lay dormant before. He clenched his fists and resisted the urge to shed a tear as a few of his wounds resolved into dark, putrid energy between them.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="James Justice"]

Patricia gave a devilish little grin as the darkness and pain flowed from out of James' body. Normally she'd feel very sympathetic especially to someone like James who she was quite close to but just the raw dark energy swirling around them felt wonderful. The lust for power, the thirst of raw emotion and want, it was almost intoxicating to the point of stopping the imbuing process and jumping atop James to rip his clothes off and sate the hunger. But she was a professional dammit and that part of her willed her discipline to shake those thoughts aside.

Taking all that ugly though, all that pain from James she began to swirl the raw damaged energy into a more orb shaped mess and start funneling it down into the swords letting it's red and ragged energy slowly start to seep into the blades. And while emotional pain was great and would certainly add to the imbuing process she needed raw physical pain, and luckily James was a man who had been physically tortured in his life. So as much as she didn't like dragging it up, the woman had to and it had to be real. So she'd regret this next part a bit later.

A sliver of force energy escaped her lips and would slither its way towards James' ear where he'd be able to feel it's call radiating through him to remember, remember all that physical pain that he has suffered.

"Remember the pain, James. Remember how it felt, the torture, the anguish, the aches and pains of all of it. Remember every last excruciating detail." the darkened voice sent a cold feeling into James' skin and she hoped she wasn't pushing him too far.

 

[James Justice]

"Its time to pay for your sins, Justice."

“No,” James growled angrily. He could feel a combination of pain and fear grip his stomach. His muscles clenched as a coat of sweat beaded his skin. “No!”

He could feel the spasming pain of the Prosecutor torturing him, sending volts of electricity through his body, blinding the spacer and sending him into a world of hell. He could feel the toxins running through is blood. He could hear the Prosecutor’s taunting, the metallic, emotionless voice telling him that he was doomed along with his family. James could feel the horror and helplessness race through him, it was paralyzing, it was agonizing as much as the pain itself. He felt the fibers of his body screaming out, tendrils of black energy swirled from James’ wounds of rotting flesh. His body visibly shook as he remembered the agony under the hands of his nemesis.

His vision filled with a familiar form—the face of the Zeltron before him was undeniable and unforgettable. “Thraxis—you son of a queen.”

His arm lit up with firey pain as he felt the psychopath’s sander tear into his skin once more. The spacer had been sent to capture him, but in turn, he had been captured and tortured mercilessly. Part of it was to reveal who had sent him—the other part was for Thraxis’ twisted enjoyment.

Then—the vison changed again. He could see the faces of the Imahalyhan guards beating him again, pounding him, raining down blows without mercy. He felt his bones break under the assault, his teeth knocked loose with the endless barrage. More swirls of the putrid pain emanated off him. He felt the chains again, holding him alright as they battered his body, the batons cracking down on him, reducing James to a bloody pulp. And the endless questions. Endless questions. It had lasted weeks before the rescue came at last. But he had held out, he hadn’t broken, he stood strong against it all. The wisps of undiluted, raw pain swirled around him in a hazy fog. Cackles of dark energy resonated within it, attesting to the raw strength of being tortured three times without mercy.

James gripped the table, propping himself up with what little strength remained in him. Drops of sweat dripped from him with every gasp for breath.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

There we go, that was the rich pain that Patricia was looking for. It was pure physical pain that she needed needed to have him continue manifesting into energy. From there she'd reach up towards it through the void and begin to shape it. Dark side energy forming and swirling as she began to twist James' pain into a working of the force. To turn it into inflict pain and make his agony and torture into someone else's bane.

"Yessss that's it James, let it all out. You've been hiding it for so so long. I want more James, I need more of it. More of you..." the dark voice crawled into James' ear once more urging him to continue his journey of self affliction.

As for Patricia she felt the pain as well creaking into her muscles and body, she felt blades gently dance across her skin and pressure applied to her throat and chest. It hurt, but she needed to keep going, not just for the sake of the swords but for James as well. She couldn't just stop after everything he was giving her, she had to give her everything.

"Keep going James! Let it all out! It's baggage you don't need anymore!" Patricia yelled out through the void to connect with her friend.

But that's when things got a little weird. Patricia found herself losing small moments in time, as if blacking out for a few seconds. She figured that it was more than likely just the pain in her body and shrugged it off.

"DO NOT LISTEN TO HER JAMES!! Your pain! It's yours! It makes you strong! It makes you who you really are!!" the voice screamed at James and it was Patricia's Avarice manifested thrift the force.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

"I am strength," James roared, the agony on him exploding to unparalleled proportions before.

He leaped to his feet, a wave of energy tore from him that would have shattered the crates in the warehouse had they still been on the material plane. His eyes burned with a purple fire of darkness, no longer hazel but a fiery purple. Arcs of the dark energy shot from his body, finding grounding all around him, searching for a release as it mounted.

"I be the power that stood in darkness, I be the one who fought when everyone else gave up. I stood against the Prosecutor time and time again against all odds, against the beatings. I stood and watched as me wife's body was put in the ground. Me wife and my unborn son," the words burned inside but he let that wound free, igniting the world around him into a hell of pain itself that fed off his own flesh. "They were taken from me and I stood without a tear. I fought on--stabbed, burned, shot, beaten, broken bones, barely able to breath, hardly able to move it made no difference to me! I descend into the hells every day I breath just to provide for me family, for the people who look up to me. I never complained, I never quit, and I ain't never stopped. The pain ne'er made me stronger--I am strength."

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

"Yessss." Avarice curled itself around James as he let loose his blast of pure and raw pain filled energy before retreating backwards.

That was going to do it. That would be more than enough energy for Patricia to gather and form. So with James' massive wave of energy the woman gave her all to form a wall to catch all of it into her field of range. While some of the raw energy spilled over the wall and knocked various boxes and shelves around the woman barely held on to the power James was unleashing upon the warehouse.

Crates began to crumple, shelves dent inwards and break, and other various items of expense were crushing under the sheer weight. So taking her hands the woman grit her teeth and shoved every bit of that power up into the air to make it swirl around them like a hurricane with the swords in its eye.

"YOU'RE STRONGER THAN THE PAIN, JAMES!! JUST LET IT GO!!" Patricia shouted out to James hoping he'd simply release the pain plaguing his body.

But she still needed to finish the ritual. Giving it all she had the woman took the eye of swirling red and black energy and slammed it down turning the cloud into a vortex that funneled directly into the blades on the table filling that energy into the inflict pain working.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

James roared, bringing his fists down on the table in a heavy slam. Firey waves of energy spasmed off him. A tear rolled down his eye as he saw in his mind, clear as yesterday the faces of the Imahalayan guards beating him, almost to death. He could feel their blows, their kicks, the battering rods on his back. He roared again, slamming the table a second time. Another wave of energy blasted off him. He could see the twisted smile of Thraxis as he brought the grinder down on James' body and flecks of flesh were sent in the air, mixed with blood. A third wave tore from James as he saw the glowing eyes of the Prosecutor. Its hollow, mechanical voice filled his ears, speaking scorn and making pain flow through him.

James could see Leighlah's body being carried away. She had been zipped up tight in a body bag, what had remained of her had been too badly burned to be recognizable as even human. He saw the funeral once more. Standing there alone as the droids lowered her body into the ground. Alone. Again. No one to care for her, no one else knew her or cared about them. It hurt, all of it, so much it felt like James was being ripped apart. He was tired of hurting.

James stood to his full height, face twisted in agony. He opened his hands, every muscle in his body relaxed as he released it. Whips of the shadow energy mixed with purple for corruption and red for pain flowed out of his body. The catharsis was intense. James felt physically weaker as his legs buckled. James fought for consciousness as he collapsed back into the chair behind him.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

One last massive burst of energy left James' body and it buckled hard against Blonde's walls causing her to be physically pushed back by the ethereal. While she too was on the verge of blacking out she couldn't allow it, they had come too far now and the only way was forward from here. So with her teeth gritted the woman let out a fierce cry as she slammed the remaining excess energy up towards the spiraling vortex of death and anger.

Once it was all up there she once more took that energy and slammed it into the swords bellow feeding and distributing those working of pain and anger. But it wasn't a steady stream of energy that fed, no this was a pure storm of pain that whipped across the astral realm of existence and Patricia did her best to contain it.

But slowly and steadily the storm began to die down as she lowered the energy into the swords bit by bit until it was a steady stream that eventually wrapped itself up. The job wasn't done yet and there was still work to be done.

Sitting down in one of the chairs the woman coughed and took a deep breath before reaching into her desk and rooting around for something. After a moment or so she grabbed two rings and gave one to James. They were obsidian order rings that they had looted from Roon, the woman had them and now she was giving one to James.

While they wouldn't open anymore doors to secret techno Union facilities, they still held a reservoir of force energy that the user could tap into in order to recover, and that's what Patricia did. She tapped into the energy and let it flow into her making some of the pain go away and allow her to recover.

"Keep it." she said with a cough.

"How you feeling?"

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

James could feel his breath ragged and drawn through his lungs as he breathed laboriously. He managed to grab the ring from her with trembling fingers and press it on one of his hands. He drew off the ring as much as he could, revitalizing himself. His body felt light and it took him a while to reach some sort of equilibrium. He had never unleashed like that before, he had never unleashed at all. James had no real idea about the power he contained within the Force or within himself.

With all his will in him, James forced himself to sit upright. He blinked and reached into his pocket, pulling a cigarette from his pocket. The box had been battered when he came in, but now as he slapped it on the table, it fell apart at the seems.

"Thanks," James murmured nursing his cig to a warm glow.

He tried to figure out how he felt, but right now--the only real word for it was disoriented. He wasn't even sure which way was up anymore. The world was swimming around him. His eyes looked hallow, distant, with the thousand yard stare. To say that catharsis was traumatic was an understatement.

"Ne'er knew I could do that," he said softly, "Ne'er knew that were possible." he searched for the answer to that question, how did he feel? "I--I dun't--I dun't know how I feel. Ye alright? Did I hurt ye?"

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Patricia looked over to James and saw the blank stare on his face, and it hit her how she had used this man's pain for her own personal gains. That cut her deep and it was something that she just couldn't stand to really walk away from hoping he'd recover. So she looked over to the swords, willed the last bit of energy she had, and then cast it over the swords to seal the power within. The woman then flopped up on the desk and her head slammed against it hard.

Taking a few deep breaths she exhaled hard then lifted up her thumb to show she was ok. But now that the swords were complete she had other business to attend to, and it was James. Honestly the man was one of her best friends and trusted associates. So she had to do something about him and the pain he felt. So standing up the woman slipped off her black suit jacket, removed her tie, and unbuttoned her dress shirt until her chest was a bit more exposed.

"Better." Patricia said as she limped her way over to James.

The tiny four foot eleven woman would then sit in James' lap and pluck the cigarette from his hand. Taking a long and relaxing drag she exhaled afterwards then laid her head in the crook of his neck. Patricia then took her hands and pulled James' head towards her out of his thousand yard stare so he could see her angelic blue eyes.

"I saw what you are going through, and I promise you I'll make it better." and then she kissed him.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

James hadn't felt such relief and such pain at the same time in as long as he could remember. A small bit of him felt such guilt for not hurting anymore and another part felt--he didn't know. All he wanted was to feel normal. To not feel such strange conflict inside. It was almost like puberty all over again.

He gave Patricia a concerned look as she hit her head. He would have moved to help her if he hadn't felt so worn. It was like his bones felt old, thousands of years old. He moved to try and rise, but she gave him the thumbs up and he relaxed again. His eyes followed her confused as she stripped away her jacket, tie, and limped closer. She was one of the few business associates he hadn't slept with, and one of the longest he had known. Patricia had been there when Anara left, when Nyx disappeared, when he came back form his self exile on Soceras as he tried to pull himself together. They had been through a lot together. He had never told her, he wasn't the type to ask others to take care of him, but she had given him a chance to get his mind off things.

As she sat in his lap, he absent mindedly let his hand run through her hair. It felt soft, good. That was nice. It felt good to feel something soft again. She pulled his attention to her eyes and he could feel a comfort he hadn't felt in a while. He wouldn't call it love, he couldn't even bring himself to call it affection. But what he had right now felt good. And the kiss felt amazing. The spacer relinquished into it, letting that good feeling wash over him even more.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Patricia held it for a moment before breaking it then sealing James' lips with smaller more affectionate kisses like stamps on an envelope. Truth be told she missed Jarven more than anything, and it wasn't the first time she had lost a husband to violence, so at this point she just wanted to be around someone help heal both her pain and his. Hell, she couldn't call it love either, maybe the slightest bit of affection but she echoed the same that it felt good. So with one last peck on the lips she let go and smiled at the man.

"You know I've always wondered what that was like." she said with a goofy smile afterwards.

"You want to get a hotel room and sleep for a good day or two?" she asked the man as she laid her head back down in his neck.

And she did mean sleep. Because with the way both of them felt there was no way James or her could find the energy for acts like that. Maybe in the morning if the smuggler played his cards right, but for now she'd extend the friendly invitation to just have that warmth near you when you slept. To reach over and not feel a cold empty space where someone used to be. Or even worse, to reach over and feel a stranger, someone who didn't even remember your name. This was just more intimate and something they both needed right now.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

James eased his hand around the small of her back, gently cradling Patricia as she gave him a second kiss. If someone had walked in at the moment they probably would have only guessed they were normal people sharing a moment after a hard day's work rather than two of the galaxy's most dangerous criminals.

"Ye dun't smile enough," he said, caressing his hand along her cheek. "Its--beautiful."

For once in his life, James genuinely could think of something he wanted more than copulation. He was worn, and frankly tired of sleeping alone. He had begun to wonder lately if people were going to bed with him out of fear of saying no or something possibly more sinister--the desire to twist his arm for power. He couldn't remember the last time he woke up to someone he knew beside him.

"I'd like to sleep for a month of Sundays," he said with a chuckle, "But I dun't know if I can get up." He jerked his thumb at his ship, "The Cora has a ten thousand credit custom bed. Pretty much like a flyin' luxury hotel. Ye call, its open for ye."

The ship had literally been made for a king before James stole it. Now it was the greatest ship in the Angel fleet and had a pilot truly able to take it through its paces.

[member="Miss Blonde"]