Private &nbsp; A Dark Reflection

Looking down at the shopping list she made, Valery sighed heavily — she really had to work on her handwriting sometime. Luckily she remembered a few of the things she needed to get, and most shops on the rebuilt capital were close enough to each other. She mostly needed groceries and other things for the baby, which she had left in the care of a trusted friend so she could get everything she needed. But she planned to get something special for dinner since Kahlil had gone out on another journey to reconnect with the Force. It would be nice to surprise him with something after what was probably a tiring trip.

With that in mind, Valery maneuvred through the crowds of people wandering the streets of Knossa, and began making her way to the local store. It was nice to see how many had come to resettle the planet, but with construction still going on, it did make for a rather crowded city right now. As much as she'd have loved to take the baby along for her walk, it was difficult to get a stroller into the busy shops, and people were bumping into her constantly.

Not an ideal place for a child, and it was rather hot around this time of year too.

But as the brunette crossed the street towards the grocery store, she felt something rather strange in the Force. It drew her eyes up just in time to see a ship coming down towards the surface. Due to the ongoing rebuilding efforts, ships were coming in and out constantly, but something told her this ship was more important than others.

"Hm..." she muttered as she remained still in the middle of the street.

Is he home early?

Can't be, right? She would have felt him through their bond.

Kaahlil · Dec 29, 2021

He clenched his teeth.

The whirring clicking and clacking of the spherical medical droid filled his ears. Three delicate multiceps were busy at work sealing the shallow gash in his side with mechnosutures, closing the wound incrementally while the Dark Mirror remained still but wracked with terrible pain. This was the way of the Sith, encouraged by his Dark Father. When he or any one of his siblings suffered an injury, they were patched up without the use of an anesthetic during the procedure. Bacta was only applied after their wounds had been sutured shut, allowing for the formation of scar tissue as a permanent reminder of their failure.

The Dark Mirror's body was riddled with scars. This new reminder of his own weakness would not be lonely. When the droid had finished its work and began applying the bacta treatment, the Dark Mirror allowed his jaw to relax as he grew accustomed to the dull ache in his side. It would eventually fade, as all his pain did, only to be inevitably replaced by some new agony. If he failed in this task he now set himself on, his Father would ensure that his punishment would be severe.

His dark craft glided gracefully through Ossus' atmosphere as it jumped out of hyperspace, sensor-scrambling plating and other advanced systems masking his descent towards Knossa City. Only the eyes of the flight crew in the control tower could see the ship where their various instruments could not. A quick message beam of the requisite landing codes assuaged their anxieties, but only slightly.

He hauled himself to his feet, every step sending a stab of pain through his midsection. He fed off his pain, just as his Father had taught him, and pressed on down the boarding ramp and into the bustling metropolis. He had traded his dark robe for a muted brown and green cloak, his hood pulled up over his head to partially conceal his features. Few gave him pause as he limped through the streets, a sharp glare sent even the most insistent of good samaritans on their way.

The Dark Mirror looked up as he neared a trade market, his eyes widening as he spotted his quarry.

She was looking right at him.

Sweat beaded along his forehead and rolled down his cheeks, but he persevered and began to approach her. He exaggerated his limp, giving off the appearance that he was more injured than he truly was. He called out to her as they neared.

"Val!" His voice was strained, weak, wounded.

When she came within arm's reach, her worry for her lover eclipsing that nagging sense of danger in the back of her brain, he struck. He reached out with his right hand, almost as if to grasp her own. Then his lightsaber slid up through his cloak sleeve and settled into his palm. A bright red blade, shiny as blood, ignited and ripped straight through Valery Noble's stomach.

Valery Noble

Valery Noble · Dec 30, 2021

Location: Ossus | Knossa City

Valery: Appearance

Tag:

Even through the dense crowd of people, Valery had no trouble seeing the man she loved approach, towering above the others around her. But something was off about the way he walked — he seemed to be injured. Was that why he was already back from his trip? Fear kicked in hard, clouding her better judgment to realize that she couldn't feel him, and it forced her to move faster.

Valery began to practically sprint through the crowd, forcing some people aside rather roughly while she squeezed between others, all just to reach him as quickly as possible. Nothing else mattered right now.

"Val!"

She could hear him over the loud streets of Knossa. It really was him, but his voice sounded weak; he was hurt. Valery frowned and finally popped out of the crowd at great speed, her arms widened to wrap around his neck in a tight embrace. She wanted to hold him close for longer but he likely needed help, so she lowered herself and looked him over.

"Kahlil, what happened?" she asked, her tone incredibly worried. "You're hurt and I can't feel you. Are you wearing your amulet?" Confusion now struck the woman as she looked up and into the eyes that stared at her from underneath his hood. His right hand then moved forward, almost as if he was about to take her hand to comfort her the way he had so many times before.

But her fear and desire to help him still cast a shadow over the danger she suddenly felt.

Snap-hiss

Valery's entire body froze as the crimson plasma violently exploded through her stomach, and out her lower back. Her orange eyes widened and for a moment, her fingers gripped into his shirt as if she was trying to hold onto him, even after what he had just done to her.

Why

After a few seconds, a strained, shaky breath escaped her lips, and the strength she held in her fingers finally faded, sending her down in an uncontrolled fall to the ground. She landed on her back, her head snapping against the pavement, and looked up at the face of the man she loved so much. But it was just that, his face — only now she realized that this man was not Kahlil.

"He stabbed her!!" As the light from Valery's eyes slowly began to fade, people all around the two began to notice what had happened. A woman nearby had screamed at the top of her lungs, while another couple shielded their kids from seeing the horrific scene. But among those who watched were law enforcers as well.

With blaster pistols drawn, they began to approach the attacker.

"Stop right there and drop your weapon!"

Kaahlil · Dec 30, 2021

"I said drop your weapon!"

The Dark Mirror hardly heard the man, his blood thundered in his ears as he stared down at Valery Noble. She writhed in agony from the wound inflicted upon her by his own hand, his lightsaber still sputtering angrily in his outstretched hand. His vision blurred, doubled, and he nearly collapsed to his knees. Though he had desired to kill Valery, something deep within him violently recoiled at the heinous act, something on the verge of sending the Dark Mirror in a fit of nausea and panic.

Danger sliced through nausea, the Dark Mirror swinging his lightsaber to the side to ricochet the oncoming blaster bolt back towards the peace officer that had fired it. The bolt struck the man square in the head, his upper body wrenched backward as he crumpled to the ground. Another officer opened fire only to be struck not once but thrice by his own blaster bolts, his body careening into a nearby market stall with a terrible clatter and clang. The third began to run, squawking into his communicator for reinforcements. His words died on his lips as an invisible hand clenched around his throat and squeezed, crushing his windpipe and severing the vertebrae.

A new cry rang out as the innocent people caught up in the attack began to scatter in every direction.

"Sith!"

"Sith on Ossus!"

"Sith in Knossa City!"

The cries spiraled into panic and the flight from the evident Sith was frenzied, though some brave souls stayed behind and chucked random objects at the Sith. They offered no danger to the Dark Mirror, who either tossed them aside or sliced them as they flew through the air. Those who committed such offenses found themselves similarly waylaid as the peace officers, pulled from their covers and ruthlessly struck down by the Sith's blood-red blade.

Only then did he turn back towards Valery, his eyes now blazing with the Dark Side. With a single hand, he pulled back his hood to reveal near-identical features as her beloved, Kahlil.

"Did he not tell you this would happen, Valery?"

Valery Noble

Briana Sal-Soren · Dec 30, 2021

Ocean blue eyes flashed open, pulled from her meditative state, feeling a harsh tremor through the Force. It was one that surrounded her own Master - Valery Noble. Briana had felt this once before on a much larger scale, when her home world was devastated. It could only mean one thing… death.

Reaching for her com, she opened a direct channel to Iris while gathering up her saber in preparation to head out.

“Iris, this is Briana, something’s going down with Val. I’m going out to find her. If you want to come along then meet me in the hangar. I’ll be there in ten.”

Fear constricted around her heart, and even though she was running, it didn’t feel fast enough. What if her worst fears and feelings were true? What if she lost yet another person? The sleeve of her robes was moved up to her cheeks, wiping to remove the unbidden tears that had begun to flow as she made it to the outskirts of the hangar bay and down to where she kept their spruced up hopper, her baby.

Claxons started going off, a frenzy of warnings that a Sith intruder was planetside. Briana could feel her world starting to collapse, frantically jumping into the pilot's seat and firing up the ignition, hitting full throttle on the accelerator.

She’d just have to pick up Iris along the way.

Don’t you dare die on me, Valery Noble!

Valery Noble | Iris Arani | Kahlil Noble | Kaahlil

Valery Noble · Dec 30, 2021

Location: Ossus | Knossa City

Valery: Appearance

Tag:

Death.

It was all around her as this Dark reflection of her partner began killing those nearby, but with death slowly creeping up on Valery as well, there was nothing she could do about it. One by one, she felt them fall around her, either killed by his crimson blade or his aggressive and hate-fueled use of the Force. It was a sickening feeling and only added more to the intense pain he had caused her.

"Stop..." she muttered weakly, her eyes tearing up as her hand came to rest over the gaping wound in her stomach. Realization of her situation really began to hit her hard. If she died here, there would be no walk down the aisle, no coming home together and she'd never get to see her daughter grow up. The family she cared so much about would be broken.

She couldn't die here, but she was powerless, and it was that feeling of losing those she loved that sent a kind of fear through her body she had never felt before. Never had she been afraid of death or pain, but loss overshadowed anything. This fear combined with the incredible pain she felt flowed through the Force, and particularly strongly through the bond she shared with

Kahlil Noble .

Her imminent death was an echo to him that could not fade.

Then the man responsible finally turned around and lowered his hood, revealing the features of her fiancé but with a darkness behind his gaze that sent a shiver down her spine.

"Did he not tell you this would happen, Valery?"

"You're not him," she said with a pained voice. "You never were, never will be."

"He'd... never.... hurt... me."

Kahlil Noble · Dec 30, 2021

Darkness was all that surrounded him. The cold sands of Korriban had nearly consumed him. Kahlil had been unable to keep the ceiling from collapsing, but he was able to stop it from crushing him through some well placed debris. He sat, cross legged and deep in meditation. Oxygen wasn't unlimited, so he needed to stay calm. Wait until R6 could dig him out. Not that he'd gotten in contact with his droid friend since he was buried in the first place.

Time meant little with him being trapped. At the back of his mind, there was a constant nagging feeling. Something was wrong.

Kaahlil had escaped, but what the copy said before had put Kahlil on edge. Not to the point of panic, but certainly worry.

Valery Noble could protect herself, but this was.. Something different. Then the echo called.

Valery Noble said:
"You're not him," she said with a pained voice. "You never were, never will be. He'd... never.... hurt... me."

All at once the darkness was lifted. He was in a city. People were screaming? The Dyad. Realization hit as he turned his gaze just in time to see his Dark Mirror. And Valery, laid out on the ground. He could feel her slipping away. Dying. The vision on Mortis had showed him this. The dark image was his clone, then? There was no time to think or hesitate. He lifted his hand. It wasn't an echo that he pulled upon, not this time.

The Light, pure as can be, left his palm. A shining beacon to protect Valery from this darkness. He stood between his fallen Fiance and the threat, a calm expression on his face.

"He was wrong."

Kaahlil · Jan 1, 2022

He rose a hand to shield his gaze, his brow knitting in confusion and disbelief. Had he not left his other buried beneath the icy dunes of Korriban? Had he not watched the laboratory be consumed by darkness? Then how could it be that he was here, standing in front of the Dark Mirror as though he materialized out of thin air?

It didn't make any sense.

But all of that confusion faded, melted away like snow in the spring. His body went rigid, still as a statue, as if all of the muscles in his body seized up simultaneously. The voice of his Father danced through his mind, a discomforting pressure building behind the Dark Mirror's eyes.

"There it is," the voice sounded like it was drawing sharp breath through its teeth, "Their life-bond, made manifest."

The Dark Mirror's breathing had only increased, sweat pouring down across his olive skin in profuse quantities. His eyes were wide, staring out at an indirect point in space as his motor faculties were overridden by a dark and terrible presence. Unbidden, his left hand shot up to the hem of his tunic and roughly pulled. Fabric split and couplings snapped off, the front of the Dark Mirror's tunic parting like a curtain to reveal his chest. Only instead of toned muscles, the center of the Dark Mirror's chest was a dark splotch mass of unknown black organic matter. It writhed when exposed to sunlight, pulsating like a tumorous growth.

Then it opened, a massive yellow eye peering out from behind scaly lids to stare at both the manifested Kahlil and the wounded Valery Noble.

"Children."

The mere power of the Dark Lord's voice was enough to cause any nearby glass to crack as if struck, inflicting an even worse sensation upon those within earshot. The Dark Mirror's eyes had glazed over by this point, locked away behind a curtain of agony.

"Must you continue to deny me so? You know that this charade must end."

Iris Arani · Jan 1, 2022

Something was wrong. The colors were off.

Iris sat before her canvas, scanning through the art with a curious stare. Why was her painting so off? Who was she painting? At first she was planning to just draw

Arlo Renard , but something changed half way through. Was it- Her brush clattered to the ground as a sudden dark ripped through the colors around her. She didn't need to look at her holopad to know

Briana Sal-Soren was on her way. She just ran. Ran for the roof of the apartment. Ran to get onto the ship.

Valery Noble 's pained face had become the subject of her painting. A warning she received too late.

Valery Noble · Jan 1, 2022

Location: Ossus | Knossa City

Valery: Appearance

Tag:

When her words for the Dark Mirror left her lips, Valery had believed them to be her final few. Those around her trying to protect her were lying dead on the street and there was no sign of any Jedi able to respond quickly. Her hand shifted over her wound, her eyes looked up at the sky and the fear of leaving behind her loved ones began to grow rapidly. This was it.

Or so she thought.

A familiar feeling suddenly struck her through the Force and as her eyes turned back to look in the direction of

Kaahlil , she saw a tall figure standing between her and the Dark Reflection. Her eyes widened as she realized who it was, and she immediately began to tear up as she felt him through their bond. But there was something different about the way he protected her too — something she hadn't quite sensed since before his fall.

His strength in the Force was his own again, and he used it as a shield to protect her once again. He was calm and collected, like a true Jedi. And she finally felt safe again.

"Kahlil..." she muttered weakly but all of her fear was gone, replaced by a newfound determination. She had to hold on for him and get through this.

"Children."

"Must you continue to deny me so? You know that this charade must end."

Looking just past her fiancé, she felt the presence of the man she had met once before. His eye stared at them and his voice echoed pain through her already weakened senses, causing her face to twist as she tried to resist.

"You're never getting between us again." She said with the last bit of strength she could muster against it.

Valery then laid back and fully put her trust in Kahlil to fight off this threat and save her. With sharp breaths, she focused on fighting through the overwhelming, crippling pain, trying whatever she could to not fade away forever.

Kahlil Noble · Jan 1, 2022

Inwardly, he grimaced.

Kahlil was here, yet he wasn't. There was a limit to how far he could move. Both from

Valery Noble , and within the confines of where he was buried on Korriban. Existing in two places at the same time.

No, thinking about it made it make little sense.

"Father."

It was a nightmare made real. Kahlil's fear, born from the same mark that had once been on his own flesh, manifesting on the Dark Mirror.

Kaahlil was fighting, but the dark he'd dove into. The hatred and anger. It made sense now, why Carnifex had pushed so hard for Kahlil to fall. A mind warped by rage was a mind easily taken control of. There was sorrow in his gaze for the clone made solely to replace Kahlil's fate.

But Valery was still hurt. And there was no time to think about anything else.

"Sorry, guess I never left the rebellious phase." He wasn't grinning, despite the quip. If anything, it was to distract him from the dread of the reality before him. "Whatever you're after here, you're not going to get. Retreat, or loose another vessel." Somewhat of a bluff. Kahlil needed the twisted version of himself to flee, if only so he could stabilize Valery before it was too late. She was struggling, fighting to stay alive.

It pained him to be unable to help. But if he moved, surely his father would take advantage of it. But, through Valery, he could sense the other two.

Briana Sal-Soren and

Iris Arani . They would be able to help, if they could make it in time.

Kaahlil · Jan 1, 2022

The Dark Mirror spread their arms wide, rising several feet off the ground as the Eye stared down at Kahlil and Valery. A whirlwind began to take shape around them, tossing aside anything not sufficiently weighed down or bolted to the ground. None of them were affected by the turbulent gale as they existed within the eye of the growing storm, while everything outside of their slim margin of safety was shredded to pieces by razor-sharp winds.

"You've given me more than you could know." For a long time, the Dark Lord had possessed knowledge of the burgeoning bond between Kahlil and Valery Noble but had not yet witnessed it in action until today. He had observed its existence during the brief moments when Kahlil had attempted to undermine His power through his ill-fated fall to the Dark Side and He had expanded His knowledge during His even briefer meeting with Valery herself.

But today was different.

Through the actions of His chosen vessel, the Dark Lord had coaxed their bond out into the open. Such knowledge would serve Him well as He continued His studies and experiments into the phenomenon, but none could comprehend that the Dark Lord held intimate knowledge of a powerful Force bond that no one else had even come to realize. One between the Dark Lord Himself and another.

"I played upon Valery's devotion to you because I knew that you were not wise enough to resist the bait." The Dark Mirror descended back down to the ground, the maelstrom still raging around them, and re-activated his lightsaber. "And now, you will bear witness to your own failure." His arm was raised, electricity snaking out from his fingertips towards the apparition of Kahlil, but more importantly towards Valery noble right behind him.

Briana Sal-Soren |

Iris Arani

Kahlil Noble · Jan 1, 2022

A flash of purple. Kahlil stood resolute between Valery and his father, his gaze narrowed on the dark eye in his copy's chest. Panic in the streets had people evacuating. Local law enforcement were already on their way, but they weren't prepared to deal with a Sith Lord this far into the Alliance territory. Other Jedi would have to come to help. But as the crimson energy of his father's lightning shot forward, he brought up a saber.

On Korriban, the borrowed blade had been lost in the crumbling of the lab. But here, he pulled

Valery Noble 's blade into his hand. Both hands gripped the familiar weapon as he acted the shield, forcibly trying to redirect the red bolts back towards

Kaahlil . Then he felt it. Two others arriving. Without looking back he spoke, his attention ever on the echo of his father.

"Take Valery and go!"

Briana Sal-Soren · Jan 3, 2022

Briana felt the nudge, that sense of familiarity and comfort she'd come to recognize as Iris. Since Coruscant, their coordination and ability to work together as a team had grown exponentially, giving her confidence and reassurance to face the danger that may lay ahead. Hitting the throttle and jerking it slightly to the left, she angled it just so and let the Force guide her actions to time the moment, catching her partner as she jumped from the rooftop. Faith and hope swelled within her chest, keeping one hand on the yolk as the other offered to pull her up off the ground. "Get buckled and hold on," it was the only warning she'd be giving, a sudden increase of inertia forcing the Padawans firmly back into their seats with Briana plunging them ahead.

The feeling as they edged in closer to Valery's location shifted fast, a deepening darkness that spread. She'd never felt anything quite like it before, not even in the presence of the Sithspawn. It overcame Briana like a tidal surge of dark energies attempting to drown her merely for existing.

Through the viewport just ahead, they came into view of the situation. Citizens were scattering from the scene of two men, each with lightsabers, and a non-moving Valery laying still on the floor. Briana squinted, her attention fully on Valery, her presence so faint it was barely there.

"Iris, you're going to take control of the hopper and swing a wide turn while I gather up Valery," she instructed, reaching to unclip the chrome hilt at her belt before jumping. Pumped up on adrenaline, the young Sal-Soren found her feet and rushed to check on her Master, the dire straits of her condition becoming quickly apparent. Swallowing her own fear for her Masters life, her hands gently moved underneath the woman to lift her up. "It's going to be alright, Iris and I are going to take care of you."

Kahlil Zambrano said:
"Take Valery and go!"

As much as she wanted to stay and make sure Valery's paramour remained safe, Briana knew her hand was forced because of Valery's injury and nodded briefly in acknowledgment. Valery's safety was more important.

Waiting for Iris, her oceanic blue eyes narrowed on the one whose darkness crushed around them, the one who shared a frighteningly similar visage to Kahlil. "The Jedi of this world are presently amassing to rally here, and you will know soon enough the grave mistake you've made in coming to this place." With Iris looping around, Briana gave a final nod to Kahlil and pressed the Force into her feet, taking off at an inhumanely fast speed and leaping into the moving hopper.

Iris Arani |

Kaahlil

Valery Noble · Jan 3, 2022

Location: Ossus | Knossa City

Valery: Appearance

Tag:

"Take Valery and go!"

As Valery's eyes looked up at the sky, she heard these words and felt what they meant through the Force. Despite being severely weakened and fading, she could feel her Padawans approaching rapidly, both concerned but fear was not controlling them. They were here to help regardless of the risks.

Only moments later, she faintly heard Briana getting close, her arms slipping underneath Valery's body to take hold of her and lift her off the ground. Without the strength to use her arms, they fell beside her body, revealing the gruesome injury in the process.

Briana Sal-Soren said:
"It's going to be alright, Iris and I are going to take care of you."

Valery wanted to say something so badly — to tell her how proud she was of them, and how much she cared about her two Padawans. But without the energy and strength to do so, all she could muster for the young woman was a smile. One that carried a lot of weight behind it.

Iris then looped around fast and with a great leap, Briana brought her on-board the hopper. Hopefully, the two Padawans would be able to keep her stable but it was likely going to take great effort to heal her fully.

Kaahlil · Jan 4, 2022

Arcs of scarlet lightning bounced around the square, vitrifying the stone into a molten glass along the path the electricity took. Flammable materials such as cloth and wood immediately burst into flames on contact, several fires popping to life all at once. None of the bolts touched the Dark Mirror, the presence of the Father maintaining absolute control over the power He channeled through His chosen vessel. However, the intensity of the bolts rapidly began to die down several seconds after they had been unleashed.

The Vessel couldn't maintain that power for long, and it was already beginning to take its toll. The ends of the Dark Mirror's extremities were beginning to black, shriveling up as though desiccated and becoming covered with scabs and cancerous growths. It was clear that the Dark Mirror would not survive long at this rate, and so the power that rushed through him unabated gradually withdraw back into the Eye.

"Ah, such power. Not all are capable of wielding it. He will require more training." The Eye again fixated on the apparition of Kahlil, seeming to almost wiggle and writhe in amusement. "Perhaps next time he will be more than a match for the both of you, my child. We've only just begun to explore his hatred." The air around the Dark Mirror seemed to splinter and crack, like a rock being smashed into a sheet of glass before a bright sheen enveloped the Dark Mirror and he completely disappeared.

A few seconds later, a device within the Dark Mirror's ship parked in the Knossa City starport activated. Blinding light rippled out from the ship and enveloped the starport and a good portion of the surrounding city. What remained was a towering plume of smoke rising several kilometers into the air, the shockwave of the explosion rippling out in all directions as buildings and people alike were instantly consumed by a fireball of plasma. The square where the Dark Mirror had confronted Valery Noble was several miles away from the spaceport, safe from the immediate detonation but still within the vicinity of the explosive shockwave of air that tore across Knossa City like a hurricane.

The nuclear fallout quickly followed.