Private A Breath of Solace

[Darth Strosius]

Darth Strosius felt like chit.

A condition that He wasn't at all alone in of course as many of the other passengers aboard the Tyranny could attest.

Unlike the rest of the wounded being treated however, He wasn't reliant on the medics and bacta nor even confined to the ship's medical wing at all. In the waning hours before He'd made His way off of Abregado-Rae He had been fed by one of the prime annoyances in His life. Darth Strosius hated it. He hadn't even gotten the chance to tear Quinn's throat out, too busy healing His injured form and restoring His lost arm. The newly regrown limb was wrapped up and covered as best as He could manage with bandages and spare bits of what had once been His sleeve, thankfully out of view of the rest of the ship's occupants in spite of the total loss of His gauntlet on that arm.

The metal left behind was barely worth salvaging, merely some scraps tucked into a pouch in His robes that He intended to simply melt down later to serve as material for a replacement. Abregado-Rae had been an experience and one that He didn't intend to repeat any time soon. The pale tendrils trailing from His back were still flowing at their full extent, much to his frustration and embarrassment. Undoubtedly a side effect of His...potent meal from earlier. He pushed the thought aside before it ruminated in His mind and spoiled His mood any further, keeping His strides long and consistent as He moved.

More importantly than His own survival and recovery, both Lina and A'Mia were aboard the vessel as well and they were the only reasons He was still onboard at all. A'Mia had been in quite the state when He'd last seen her, before he... Darth Strosius stopped and found his wrapped fingers digging into the new palm that they were attached to, hard enough to draw trickles of maroon blood that stained the bandages. The wounds were gone in but a moment of course but the stains remained. In more than one sense. As for Lina He wasn't sure what state she might be in but she had evidently exhausted herself as well from what He could tell.

Regardless He wanted to ensure that the both of them were recovering well, not that He didn't necessarily trust the medical staff aboard the Tyranny to provide adequate treatment but rather purely in order to soothe His own guilty conscience. He hadn't been there when they'd both needed Him but now He was going to make as best amends as He could. Darth Strosius steadied His nerves before He took the final steps that carried Him to one door in particular where He sensed the pair within. His still gauntleted and uninjured hand pressed the console beside the door to open it, although there was a moment of hesitation before He actually crossed the threshold and entered into the room.

"Forgive me for the delay, this ship is massive you know."

Lina Ovmar / Madrona A’Mia​

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Darth Strosius Madrona A’Mia

The ache in her body and soul was nothing in comparison to that which gripped her heart. She so hated seeing A’Mia like this, small and dishevelled in a way that made her seem so much less than the grand and beautiful being that she was. Had she not come, had she not heard her scream across the Void, Lina wondered what state she might have been in then.

She cradled the Neti’s head in her lap, humming a soft tune as she gently braided the vines that mimicked hair, faltering occasionally when her two halves shifted out of sync, strands slipping through shadowed fingers before corporeal ones caught it again. Blood still stained her lips, so focused on A’Mia that she had forgotten about herself, about the pain she had taken from Cruelty so that he may complete his task.

Her fingers paused in their work, looking up from where they had settled on the large sofa as she felt him coming, relief washing over her.

“Alisteri…” she said softly as he hesitated in the doorway before stepping through, the door hissing closed behind him. Her gaze moved over him, noting the extension of the golden tendrils that he so often fought to keep hidden. The pull of the nether would have been enough to prevent him hiding them entirely but this? This was something else.

Her head tilted, noting the shattered gauntlet and hastily wrapped hand, taking note of healed wounds and tears in his robes.

“Where have you been?” she said softly, though there was an edge to the question. An accusation that hung unspoken.

Where did you go? Why did you leave her?

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

​

Darth Strosius & Lina Ovmar​

In and out of lucidity for the past handful of hours, A'Mia responded better to Lina's ministrations than any others who had tried after the battered Sith sorceress stumbled upon an extraction point. She kept merging and disentangling with the horde-mind up until she was well away from the surface of Abregado-rae, at which time she'd gone somewhat catatonic in Lina's arms.

Her natural healing was much slowed, plus the neti's coloration still held tinges of blood red mycelium and little patches of black frostbite. It was apparent that the cold didn't much agree with A'Mia. Having managed a few sparse broken sentences that didn't make all that much sense, neti had remained curled in Lina's care mostly unmoving save for the odd slow blink or murmur of appreciation.

That was, until Alisteri entered the room.

Blue-green eyes wavered, then locked in to focus on him, carved brows coming together in concern, confusion, then… consternation.

All at once she was up, on her feet, quivering with renewed energy but nowhere near as strong in her bearing as normal. In truth, she was shaking like a leaf.

"What has happened to you? You are changed."

The words were half seeking, half accusatory and it seemed she might pounce upon him, though with diminished effectiveness than was normal for her.

 

[Darth Strosius]

There was a mixture of emotions swirling through His mind as His masked gaze landed on His two beloveds. Relief at first just to see the both of them there, worn and weathered in more ways than one just as He was but alive and at least in Lina's case without an evident grievous injury. A'Mia was the worst off between the three of them yet given her propensity for molding her physical form all that Darth Strosius could rely on to diagnose her condition in any meaningful sense was the overall withered appearance and demeanor that she sported.

A sight that made His heart ache almost as much as it was soothed by seeing them together. Lina questioned Him first as He began a slow stride across the room, the edge in her voice not at all going unnoticed as His armored and wrapped hands both came up to relieve Him of His mask. Aside from a few dents, scrapes, and a crack in one corner of the visor, it was otherwise unmarred unlike the rest of His attire and armor. The pale face beneath it seemed rather more lively than usual, laden with guilt and an exhaustion that was visible in His golden gaze but even still He was unusually physically vibrant. Even His gaze seemed brighter than it should have been.

Alisteri opened his mouth to answer the question however the sudden rising of the Neti halted him in his tracks and smothered whatever words he was about to say with a surprised noise. Almost akin to a whimper, though it was covered by a cough. Her question made his whole form twitch, even in his armored and robed attire he at once seemed rather small underneath their gaze. He let out the breath that he had been holding and slid down to his knees before both of his beloveds, resting the helmet off to one side before looking back at them.

His mouth opened again but no words came for a long moment as his lips contorted along with the rest of his pale features into a grimace. His gaze snapped back to the floor, darting around before he closed his eyes and loosed another sigh. "On the contrary malul. I think that the issues is, as ever, that I haven't changed at all." He folded His hands together, wrapped fingers lacing between armored digits as He opened His eyes and looked back up at them.

"I do not deserve it, but please allow me to beg for your forgiveness ki akisi."

The choir trailing his words began to fall silent throughout the plea, and their echo would be totally absent as he continued. His voice was as pure as the shame etched across his visage. "I stood against a Mandalorian and I thought-no I knew that I could best him. And I tried. I...I sort of did. He didn't reach you, A'Mia, he never even got a step past me, but he wasn't the problem. You were-" His breath caught, his eyes dimming briefly as he shook. "You were in pain. There-the whole fething sky was torn open and-and there was a blizzard and the Netherworld was just-I just-" His breathing came in ragged gasps for a moment. "You were suffering and I didn't know what to do! There was nothing that I could do!"

His arms clutched around himself, holding himself tight enough to bruise as he sucked in a breath that he shouldn't have needed. "I couldn't even kill that one damn Mandalorian without trading an arm in the process! And you were there wielding an entire planet's worth of plague and nature against all of them! And I just-I couldn't do anything. I couldn't-I couldn't help you! I..." Something wet rolled down his cheek, dropping to the floor as he choked back a sob. "And I ran. I ran like a coward! I couldn't do anything so I panicked and did the worst thing I could do-and I'm sorry!"

Lina Ovmar / Madrona A’Mia​

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Darth Strosius Madrona A’Mia

A'Mia surged upwards, the sudden rapid movement drawing a sharp gasp from Lina as the unfinished braid was torn from her fingers, the Neti’s graceful form trembled as she advance in the predatory way she often did. Lina herself was slower to rise, reaching for Wraithspire for support as she did.

Her gaze settled back on Alisteri as her hand gently entwined with A'Mia's, her thumb tracing idle circles across barklike skin. Soothing as much as she could.

“Rashirtsanadni, ki manatsa.” she said softly, her eyes not leaving Alisteri, her head tilting as he removed his mask revealing a face that held more life than normal, eyes glittered with renewed vigor. Her lips parted, searching for the reason as he sank to his knees.

She watched him struggle battling with something twisted beneath that she couldn’t see, and then the choir that sang every time he spoke, the one that made her very soul vibrate became muted and she felt her chest ache, shaking her head as the words spilled from him as he confessed his cowardice.

Lina released A'Mia's hand, swallowing the lump in her throat as she stepped towards him.

“Alisteri…”

She had no words of comfort, she could not tell him that he had not been a coward, because in leaving A'Mia that was exactly what he had been. Tears born from anger that he would do such a thing and sorrow that he was in so much turmoil, spilled over her own cheeks as she set wraithspire aside.

Her hand reached beneath his chin, lifting his face up, to see her, to see A’Mia. Of all the things she had known him to be, a coward was never one of them, he had faced worse adversaries with endless stubbornness. So why now? Why did he falter here when A’Mia had needed him?

Emerald eyes searched his face and ink swirled at their edges, the only other sign of her anger with him.

“You left her.” she hissed. “I was right there, Alisteri, whatever you needed I would have given you. Whatever you needed to stay with her.”

Then her gaze dropped to the arms wrapped around his middle, the cloth wraps in place of where a gauntlet should be. She released his chin reaching to pull the hand towards her, her movement too sharp, fingers passing through it momentarily before they snagged, her grip tighter than usual as she ripped the wrappings free.

It was completely regrown. Something that should have taken longer.

Her voice took on an unnatural growl, low and guttural.

“Where. Have. You. Been?”

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

​

His arms clutched around himself, holding himself tight enough to bruise as he sucked in a breath that he shouldn't have needed. "I couldn't even kill that one damn Mandalorian without trading an arm in the process! And you were there wielding an entire planet's worth of plague and nature against all of them! And I just-I couldn't do anything. I couldn't-I couldn't help you! I..." Something wet rolled down his cheek, dropping to the floor as he choked back a sob. "And I ran. I ran like a coward! I couldn't do anything so I panicked and did the worst thing I could do-and I'm sorry!"

“You left her.” she hissed. “I was right there, Alisteri, whatever you needed I would have given you. Whatever you needed to stay with her.”

A'Mia's hand was limp and cool in Lina's reassuring grasp. Belatedly, the arboreal woman curled her fingers enough to acknowledge Lina's steadying words and presence. Though her initial response had been sudden and intense, the woman paused to listen. She swayed slightly as Lina interrogated Alisteri further.

As one paramour finished her questioning of the other, A'Mia flowed to a kneeling position beside Alisteri. She was so small, dainty in comparison to her normally sturdy self, and looked up into his face questioningly.

"There's no shame in protecting that which is so dear to me…" she murmured in a voice thoughtful and serene.

Long, thin fingers came up to gently push back a lock of dark hair, A'Mia's large eyes still searching his features as if there was something not quite right with what she saw.

"I did make him swear to stay safe, Lina…"

The gentle, thoughtful caress of his face turned almost cruel with no notice, A'Mia's expression remained serene as she gripped his jaw to turn his head slowly this way and that. Though much diminished, the neti was still unnervingly strong. Her eyes narrowed as finally she had a sense for what it was she saw in his energies.

"You reek of another Sith — I see it on you… Explain," she demanded in almost a whisper.

Alisteri and Lina knew it was A'Mia's supernatural vision which granted her such keen insights, so the description had nothing to do with the man's actual scent. Though she was pressed close enough to him so as to make it uncomfortable, particularly with the intensity of her bearing.

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri let out a shuddering breath as Lina's hand slid to his chin and lifted it, biting his lip to stop another sob from spilling loose even as it wracked his body with a shiver and his dimmed eyes began to well up at the sight of her stare. Her gaze sought meaning that he didn't know, answers that he couldn't provide, blame that he was more than owed. "I know. I know, but I couldn't take any more. I-I was at my limit. I could feel my soul clawing at my body to be let loose, to soar off into the Netherworld where it belongs and there wasn't anything-"

He recoiled slightly in surprise as Lina snatched his wrapped hand up, a choked gasp leaving him as she tore the coverings off to reveal the healed limb. It was still the same as it was meant to be of course, the umbral skin and pointed fingers just as pristine as ever. Though a keener gaze might have noticed that the gradient where pale flesh became darkened had shifted upwards more towards his elbow ever so slightly. Not that Alisteri was in any state of mind to note such a thing of course.

He was too busy shrinking beneath the questions that were all but pierced through him, then wincing as A'Mia's comforting touch suddenly turned harsh and clinical. "I-I don't know what you mean, I haven't been around any Sith!" The answer was frantic, but honest. Heartfelt and certain. Yet of course there was more to be said in spite of that honesty. "After I ran for...awhile, I stumbled into..." Sorrow and shame gave way to a guilty rage for a moment. "That blueblooded brat. Quinn Varanin."

The name was snarled like a curse, his fangs bared as he grimaced. "Of all the places she just had to be there. Adding insult to injury! I needed blood and she was right there, I-I was going to just cut her down and feed but then she..." Anger simmered and waned, giving way to a perplexed expression and tone. "She just-just bared her throat to me. She let me drink from her." His brows furrowed as though the recollection didn't sound quite right in spite of it being accurate.

"A-And her blood, her anima, something was different about it. I've never known anyone to have such potency and when I tasted it I just-I-I couldn't stop drinking it." Horror spread across his pale features. "I-I couldn't stop...I'm not-that's not what I-" He shook and choked. "I don't lose myself like that anymore! I'm better than that! I-I thought I was better than that! But-but Raaf's little puppet, there's something different about her blood! I-I don't get it. I don't know why I couldn't stop drinking."

Lina Ovmar / Madrona A’Mia​