Private A Ghost from the Past

[Alicia Drey]

A Ghost from the Past

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Rule of Two
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Location: Lianna, Lianna City
Tags: MPMSonOfMan

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The masses continued their march across the walkways, and vehicles flew by on the horizon. Scrawling holographic texts and images of products flashed across a the black ink canvas of Lianna's night life. Lianna City was an ecumenopolis to behold, and at the centre of it was Santhe-Sienar; the jewel in the preverbal crown. This place had seen the rise and fall of many Empires. From the rise of the Sith Empire in the 830s to the stewardship of the Silver Jedi and Tion Hegemony through to the come and fall of Darth Carnifex's Sith Empire. Now, in the present day (at the turn of a new century) Lianna's ties to Imperialism were continued through a coalition of Imperial Remnants that had survived and banded together to form the Empire of the Lost.

Alicia Drey had traversed the Galaxy and into the heart of Imperial space to meet with Santhe-Sienar some days ago. There was opportunity here. A place to begin again. Wealth, power, and influence was all there to be had. Besides, she was Chandrilan and shared the same fascination with technology as her homeland. There was a certain urban aesthetic in cities such as this that held a certain affection to her that had survived the transformative process of becoming Sith. Standing on a ledge overlooking the sprawling city, walkways and structures Darth Ayra stood in meditation. The Force swirled around her and she fed off the energy of the city while enjoying it's nightlife.

The Dark side is strong here. As a speeder bike flew by and disappeared around the corner of the balcony that she was standing on, Ayra's firm gaze continued to watch the denizens below go about their business. A dark tunic hung from her slender frame as blonde strands that hung from her scalp continued to rise and fall in the currents that were circulating around her from the passing engines of vehicles flying back, and the vents which hung from the toppling structures that dotted the city landscape. The noise was incredible, as too were the neon lights advertising products, all of which contributed to a dystopian aesthetic which spoke to Ayra's soul.

Having arrived in the city some days ago via public transport she had foreseen difficulty in smuggling a Lightsaber or other weapons through customs so she had elected not to bring any. There were ways to smuggle such things, of course. But she did not see any posable danger to herself. Sure, the GA could be looking for her, following the attack on Coruscant by the NSO which had resulted in her being freed after twenty, long years serving a life sentence in stasis. If they found her then Ayra had the most potent weapon in the entire Galaxy at her fingertips.

There is no weapon more powerful than the Force.

The balcony that Ayra was standing on and overlooking the city below was adjoined to a residential area that she had recently taken to renting. It was up in the air what would happen with Santhe-Sienar, and she had anticipated it would take sometime for her to conclude her business in Lianna, so Ayra had taken to renting a small suite on the buildings top floor until it was all done. It was evening time in a city that never slept, and she shared that in common with those were still awake at this hour. Although it had been some weeks since her escape from the maximum security ward there were still lingering physical and mental scars that were likely to never heal. Whereas for a normal Human this would be rehabilitating Ayra found strength in the suffering she had endured in the time which followed her release from prison.

Hate is a powerful emotion that can get the strong through anything, and she had been initiated to it for most of her life.

 

[MPMSonOfMan]

Alicia Drey


I give you my word​

Alicia sensed something, as if it brushed along her back, like something moving quickly behind her. But there was nothing there. A few moments later, she began to feel something, she smelled blood. "Alicia..." A voice spoke out to her, but not like any normal voice. It felt as though it came from the Force, and not to her ears. She felt the voice. It was familiar to her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on whose voice it was. The voice called to her, it influenced where she would walk. It was as if someone heard a voice and wished to follow it, but Alicia felt it more than she heard it. Whether she would follow the lead was up to her.

Always and Forever​

The voice was weak, it was pained. It sounded as if was out of breath, a begging manner. Alicia had a flashback to being bitten, yet if she reached up to feel the bite, it would not exist. "I failed you..." The voice seemed to have a connection to her that she could not comprehend. A voice that was a generation old, of not more, in her mind. It had been so long, she could not pin point where the voice came from, or who it came from. It was surely as if the voice was dead, speaking to her from beyond the grave. If she walked through her suite, following where the voice would lead her, she would eventually find spots of blood. But the blood was old, as if it had been there for a time. Or... it was old, stale... dead blood.

It was our chance, to take back everything that was ever taken from us​

"It was our hope" The voice suddenly became gravely, as if it grinded against metal or wood. It sounded almost hostile, but Alicia could feel the anguish, the desperation. Whoever they were speaking to Alicia, she knew they wouldn't be speaking from the grave. The presence was here, they were in pain. They were not beyond saving. She would be sure of that. Although... a second thought occurred to her. Perhaps it was not someone dead, but dying. This person, perhaps close to her, was trying to reach her... maybe trying to warn her of a threat coming for her?

I let her in.... I don't let people in...​

The presence felt closer than it had before, it felt stronger than it had before. "The best thing I could do for you, was disappear..." The hostility in the voice slipped away, back to the sadness it had created from the first time she heard it. But at the tail end, the voice gradually sounded less like it was something she felt, and more like something she heard. If she had been following the feeling, she would now be upon the very thing that reached out to her. Turning a corner to the bedroom, slumped over in the bedside chair, was Jeron Verity. He was bloody, his uniform tore up and ripped open. He had been in a fight. But worse... he was covered in blood... she could tell, it was his blood. Yet that wasn't even the most jarring of the sight. Part of his body seemed lacking in color, as if almost decaying. In the flash of a moment, his eyes became red and he bared his fangs, but they quickly escaped. He stared up at her, and with a strained breath, he whispered to her, "I'm sorry, Alicia..." After what felt like a hundred years, the memory of Jeron hit her in an instant, and she remembered him.

It's been a glorious ride...​

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: MPMSonOfMan

Exhaling into the cold night Ayra watched as translucent purple begun to rise and disperse into the air. She allowed the cigarette in her lips to dangle between her teeth as she watched the smoke eventually disappear before another swirl of it escaped her nose after another tug on it. It had been a long time since Pandeima had left her life at the hands of the serrated blade Ayra had used to extinguish her life but if there was one thing her late predecessor had been right about it was the art of indulgence. There was a time to be disciplined and serious, but this was not one of them.

At least, it should not have been.

I gave you my word.

Alicia...

BiRD. Her old office on Chandrila. The crest of her old company hung on the walls in the backdrop of a conversation turned violent.

Her mouth slumped as a voice entered her mind. The cigarette that had been trapped between her front teeth fell over the balcony railing and into traffic. Instinctively her hand reached for a weapon only to recall that she had not brought any with her to Lianna. In spite of the freezing night Ayra felt hot as she turned around and looked at the dark, foreboding door that led back into her apartment. The Force told her that someone was in there when they hadn't been before.

Always and forever.

I failed you.

Sanguine overwhelmed her sense of taste and smell. Pain shot through her from an old injury that wasn't there. A scar left behind by a monster from a seminal life that she had left behind. A bite that he did not want to take, yet he could not help himself.

Lifting her hand to tug her tunic back around her neck, Darth Ayra turned away from the balcony railing and made her way back into the apartment. A hand reached out to find the lights but as she went to turn them on her mind begun to race.

It was our chance to take back everything that was ever taken from us.

I let her in. I don't let people in.

LOOM. A small corporation that dealt in construction projects. The familiarity of an old plot that had gone awry. A planet spun in the distance behind that of a viewscreen. Lorrd. Designs to build an underground facility to research and develop a clone arm for G.O.M.M.

But it had all collapsed when...

"Jeron?" Alicia asked into the dark room. Electing not to turn the lights on her hand fell from the switch and to her side as she approached the man slumped in the corner of her room. In the darkness she could not see the congealed pools of blood that had begun to clot the carpet beneath her boots, yet she could smell it in the air, and somehow taste it with her tongue. Her gaze lowered to the body in front of her and only when a neon light flashed through the window from an advertisement that hung from one of the skyscrapers did she recognise the Vampire that she had met so long ago.

Averting her gaze from Jeron Ayra turned to look around the room to see if anyone else was inside. Her Force Senses became heightened and attuned to any nearby threats.

 

[MPMSonOfMan]

Alicia Drey


"We're..." he gasped for air to prettu much only utilize to speak, "...alone." He was not scared or out of breath from any challenger, it seemed he was desperate and begging due to his limited time. "There is no pursuer... it was my brother. I," he coughed, clearing his throat, showing he was clearly weak, "I killed him..." He finished with a heavy heart. His right arm laid limp on his torso, as his left arm - seemingly mangled and broken, hung over the edge of the chair, "he had taken me out of surprise, all those.... years ago. When I had awoken, I tried to reason with him. I hadn't seen him in so long..." He was trailing off, not in any preparation for a long winded story, no... his eyes slowly darted across the room, becoming delirious as those do who are suffering from a lack of blood. "I was ready, to be done, Alicia... I was ready... to be with my family," his eyes flashed red and his fangs showed themselves once more, "yet then he TRICKED me," his anger left him once more as he coughed up blood, heaving as he jerked forward for every cough.

"I thought you were dead," he stared up at the ceiling, "I forgot that I could find you that way, I hope you can forgive me for all those years ago..."

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: MPMSonOfMan

Ayra watched on, perplexed by the situation, as Jeron ranted around what had happened to him. Does he honestly think I care? As the question came to mind, even before Jeron had finished his apology, Ayra's gaze lifted and turned to the entrance to her apartment. Her mind raced. Was it possible that Santhe-Sienar were watching her? Had she come to the attention of the Empire after her meeting with Vyillia? What would happen if someone came across this scene?

"Here, let me help you." Ayra stepped forward and point a finger on Jeron's face. "If you try to do anything to me I will kill you." She stared at him for a long time so that the threat would ring true for Jeron before latching his arm around her neck and heaving off the chair to her bed. Gingerly Ayra lowered him onto the mattress and stood back to admire her work. "Don't shout again. Stay here. I will be back."

 

[MPMSonOfMan]

Alicia Drey

Jeron was to weak, he didn't bother attacking her or harming her. The only thing he could do, he resisted doing. Alicia didn't realize this, yet Jeron had physically killed his entire family in his past, and now he had willingly and intentionally killed his own brother. His useless reason for being here was to ask for forgiveness, while his useful reason for being here was just to give his secrets to her. So he didn't fight against her when she laid him in her bed, though as fruitless as that may be, still he was concerned for her, rather than himself. He would inevitably stain her bed with his blood.

He sighed when she put him down, and didn't say anything. He understood she was in hiding, which would be a problem for her, if she understood he could find her with her force energy. He stayed silent and didn't move, waiting for her to return. But before she even touched him, he would grab her wrist with his only working hand, to make her pause, "I didn't realize... you were hiding," he coughed, blood dripping from his mouth, "but the injuries I have can not be healed by modern medicine." He whispered, although perhaps not to keep quiet, but because the strength of his voice was giving out. "Allow me to give you my secrets, before I pass. A final act to attempt to alleviate my betrayal of abandoning you," he released her wrist, which wasn't a very strong grasp to begin with. He reached into his pocket to pull out his datapad, struggling to hand it to her, "if you are hiding, then you truly can not let me live, especially in this state. Because I have bitten you and tasted your force spirit, I can sense you, find you, and tell who you are apart from others. You definitely seem younger, than I remember... In this state, I could be captured, if I didn't rot to death in the first place."

He slumped back onto the bed whether she took the datapad or not. He squinted his eyes, closing them, then opening them wide, "my brother and I were prepared to leave this realm, or so I thought. So we used the Heartwood Stake to take us both. That stake is meant to kill our kind so we can not heal ourselves as we normally would, Alicia...," His breathing became near-still, as Alicia had spent much of the time he had left to gather supplies that wouldn't do much for a decaying, rotting body, "I stopped its completion, only when I realized he lied, protecting himself from the stake. There's a lot to unpack there, but you don't..." He began seizing up every so often, like he wasn't able to move, "you don't need that useless information. I know you, Alicia. Only... what matters. Only what... you care about." He looked into her eyes as he reached under himself, pulling out a broken, ornate stake make of Heartwood. and revealing it to her. But handing it to her was not an option for his low strength.

"You shouldn't try to save me, I'm only a weakness for you. I only came here to benefit you with my death, I have nothing more to fight for, my dear Alicia. This is the end of Always and Forever." His heart was not still because he was dying, it was because he had no heart to feel.

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: MPMSonOfMan

As Ayra turned to go to the bathroom she felt her wrist being snatched by Jeron. Stopped in her tracks she turned to look back down at the Vampire and peered into those sad, longing eyes of his. Taking back her hand she paused to listen to what he had to say, and as he spoke she found herself sitting at the ledge of the bed, watching him as he gasped his final words to her. There was some truth in what he was saying. Jeron had abandoned her at the cusp of a plan within a multitude of other plans which contributed to the Grand Scheme that she was plotting against her enemies. His disappearance had cost her time, and money.

Worse still it had inadvertently triggered a butterfly effect in which a series of events transpired after his disappearance that led to the infection she had been inflicted with on Dxun. Almost a decade of exile, following by more in a prison ward under the watchful stewardship of the Galactic Alliance had brought about almost thirty years of loss. If Ayra were objective, perhaps even logical in her thoughts, then she would have concluded that Jeron wasn't responsible for all of that, and yet objectivity, and logic were not thinks that came to her naturally. It had required many years of training, subterfuge, espionage, planning to adopt such principles in her public life as a business entrepreneur, and there were times when such rationality was useful to the cause.

But as Darth Ayra listened to Jeron speak about the pact he had made his brother, the discovery of his betrayal, and the subsequent murder that had taken place, coupled with her own recent misery at the hands of the Jedi, Ayra found herself cold and indifferent to the mans suffering. As he reached out to give her the Heartwood Stake Ayra took the weapon into both of her hands, and laid it on her lap in quiet contemplation of what he was saying to her.

Cruel thoughts came to mind as she looked down at Jeron. Her gaze was unflinching, calculated, cunning and cold. When she spoke her voice was barely above a whisper: "What will happen to you if you were left like this?" Ayra gestured to the injuries that Jeron had sustained on his body.

 

[MPMSonOfMan]

Alicia Drey


Jeron shuddered a moment, feeling uneasy as a shiver attempted to run up his spine, but seemed to have road bumps along the way where there was no feeling, "I..." he gasped, "there will be a great pain, beyond what I feel now, a worthy punishment as I... slowly decay. The colorless flesh on my face will reach my brain, and I- I will cease, as a corpse would, but it could be hours... or minutes. I don't know how much the stake took from me before I stopped it. If you stake me, nothing would remain." Alicia knew whether or not Jeron had power, he was an asset. His species, and the subsequent alterations his family had underwent, made him a powerful weapon. However, Alicia knew he would never allow himself to be controlled like the Sith woman had done in the past. Though.... that was something curious for Alicia to think about. If Jeron knew Alicia by her force spirit, surely he would know of its taint by the Sith. And yet, wouldn't he have known of it when they met? There is no way for Jeron to know she was an outright Sith, but the anger, the sickness, it was like a new chemical to a body of water. Jeron felt something similar to the Sith woman from before, yet he did not hate Alicia for her path.

As for Jeron being an asset or a weapon, what drove him before to keep living and keep fighting, was gone. Half of it betraying him. If Alicia wanted to keep him alive, or even try to use him, he would need a new purpose. Or else saving him might not benefit her in the long run. This Jeron knew, Alicia would not find benefit in saving him, which is why he came to her. At least his end would aid her in her future, whether in small or large ways.

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: MPMSonOfMan

Darth Ayra weighed up her options. There would be something satisfying in watching this man die slowly. In her studies of the dark side, and as one of it's devout followers, Ayra had come to the realisation that there were benefits to cruelty, and other sadist beliefs. There was no outright benefit to watching Jeron slowly pass on. Someone could have heard him shouting from before and alerted the authority, or someone else could have seen him entering the complex injured, either from one of the other residents that lived in the building, or a passer by from the streets below. She didn't know how he had got into her apartment, and there was a reasonable assumption that he had taken precautions not to be seen, but Ayra knew better than to leave things to chance.

Yet, there was something in her that would rejoice at his slow and uncomfortable death. If there was no benefit materialistically to Jeron passing on Ayra could not help but feel the beast within her that was the Dark side of the Force who had raised it's snout at the prospect of the kill. Psychopathy, sadism, conceit- they were fine lines to walk when following the convoluted path of the dark side. As she watched Jeron for those few, short seconds between his admissions and what she was going to do Ayra turned to look away to stare at the ceiling as she mulled it over.

He knows who I am. This puts the Work in jeopardy. Those who followed this same path worked in secrecy. They were completely clandestine. I have already felt the cost of betrayal from those I had trusted.

On Sojourn the Echani Sun Guards she had gathered to serve her as their God had turned against her. No doubt the disease that had reduced her to almost nothing had changed their mind. They had stolen all the manuscripts, holocrons, and other paraphernalia that she had spent most of her adult life gathering in secret. Darth Ayra had yet to confirm that they were responsible for the Galactic Alliance finding her in exile and bringing her into Coruscant to serve a life sentence in cryo stasis as punishment for her participation in the One Sith Purge. But someone had to have tipped them off to her whereabouts that had led to her incarceration.

Was it Jeron?

"The bite that happened on Chandrila. So, it was you who led the Jedi to me?" Ayra asked coldly as she looked back down at the man.

 

[MPMSonOfMan]

Alicia Drey


Jeron's eyes fluttered as he was in and out of consciousness, but he fought against it. Did she think I betrayed her? No! "W-what?" He gasped, regaining strength and pushing himself to sit up and look at her, "I would never betray you, Alicia! That... that bite...!" He lost his strength, falling back onto the bed, "I was injured, you allowed me to use your life force to heal." His eye sight became blurry, shaking his head in anguish, the idea that he would die with Alicia thinking he actually intentionally sold her out pained him, "I am neither a friend to Jedi nor the Sith. My brother daggered me with a special blade. The last time you saw me, he came to paralyze me. Revealing my true name was too big a risk for my brother, he didn't want him or I to be discovered. I had been forced into stasis, watching the years go-" he lurched suddenly, a great pain in his chest erupting, "by before my eyes! I was filled with rage that I could not keep my promise to you!" He panted heavily, out of breath, but even that soon stopped as his body wouldn't allow him to breathe effectively.

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tag: MPMSonOfMan

Jeron's pleas faded into the background. They may have been static for all they mattered to her. No, in that dark room on Lianna, Darth Ayra found her mind's eye retracing her seminal life on Chandrila, all those years ago, when this Vampire had first entered her life. He had been the head of a small military force with aims to bring peace, and justice to the Galaxy at a time where war was rife, and prevalent. She had seen use in such a thing. If their leader could have been subjugated to her will- through force, or manipulation- then having a small fleet at her back would prove useful as she continued the formation of the Grand Scheme.

As Ayra sat there, remembering things that she had forgotten long ago, she recalled that she had intentionally allowed him to bite her. It had been a foolish decision in retrospect, and while it was easy to chastise herself with hindsight, Ayra could not ignore her present circumstance and how, inadvertently, that decision to save Jeron's life back then had continued to their present circumstances where he was dying slowly on her bed, bringing potential jeopardy with him at every moment he was spending here.

What are the benefits of saving him again?

Jeron had been a great talker, with charisma and style. He had an ideology that had seen him gather a small fleet under his control, with military capabilities which dwarfed that of any criminal. Then he had money, and vision. Their shared project on Lorrd had been intriguing, and the benefits- if it came to fruition- had been obvious. Not only would a small clone army been at the command of Jeron but Ayra would have had the cloning technology for herself. There was vision to replicate that same technology elsewhere, or use it for her own means once Jeron had what he wanted.

But then he had disappeared, and all of that went with him. It had cost her a lot of money. Darth Ayra did not care about her wealth. Credits were only useful as far as it was to contribute to the Grand Scheme. Whether that took the form of acquiring paraphernalia through trade or the bartering of information of a wide array of services, products or intelligence was multi-layered and complicated. Yet Ayra could not ignore the fact that she had taken a hit on her assets in spite of the fact that, ultimately, she did not care for money itself. She cared more about what credits could bring and not in the accumulation of wealth itself. Therefore, in some twisted way, Jeron had effectively damaged the Grand Scheme itself.

Ayra thought about why he disappeared and realised that Jeron had chosen his brother over her. If she were rationale then she would see that as obvious. Alicia Drey and Jeron Verity had known each other at one point in their life. But Ayra did not recall her relationship with him beyond being that as a mutual associate who thought that she was a businesswoman. It was then an epiphany struck her. When he had bit her Jeron ceased to see Alicia and saw into the real identity of Darth Ayra.

"I do not believe you," Ayra replied coldly. Her gaze averted from the ceiling and back to gaze into Jeron's eyes. They were cold and furious. "When you bit me you discovered who I am. When that happened you disappeared. Left me behind to join your brother, and now that he has betrayed you- now that he is dead- you have come back grovelling to me. Perhaps I remind you of that woman you told me about all those years ago? Do you want me to be her?"

Ayra pointed a finger at where Jeron's heart should be. "So that you have something to live for?"

 

[MPMSonOfMan]

Alicia Drey

At first, Jeron was out of strength to truly care about Alicia's response. It wounded him emotionally that she didn't believe him, but to him it was obvious he could not sway her. It's why he came here to die. He did know her.

However, when Alicia invoked Her. When Alicia dared to think Jeron wanted Alicia to be Her. His eyes turned the reddish black, as his teeth showed his fangs. Yet he did not hiss, he did not bark, and he did not bite. He slowly turned his head to Alicia, beginning to pant, as if his body was preparing him to fight.

"I knew of your Darkness when I bit you, and if you dare think I want to once more be a weapon with the memories of killing my own flesh and blood, then I do not care what you believe." His anger slowly left him, but it did not dissipate quickly. His rage consumed him, and gave him strength, yet it only gave him a few more minutes of coherent thought before draining his willpower, "I fell in love with you, you idiot. You were my new hope, when I was lost. I had my purpose, but I did not have my willpower. Your darkness, your ulterior motives, you were worth letting you achieve your dreams, so long as I didn't witness it. Because I have been there, I have vied for the same goals, the same thrills. I need not be a hypocrite, I only wished to see you eventually take the same path as I. But now, you benefit from my death, and I know you are too far gone."

Jeron closed his eyes, and his fangs eventually receded, "You were my new hope, for a new Family, of power, of loyalty. But you are without hope, and now I am without strength. Go now, Greed, consume Alicia, show her who truly holds the power, and end me."

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tag: MPMSonOfMan

Darth Ayra stared at Jeron for a long time. She hadn't expected anything that he had to say to her in these dying moments to affect her, and yet she was emotionally affected by what he had just said. It revealed a weakness that she had thought long gone. Somewhere, in the recesses of her mind, Ayra was still defined by the tragedy that had taken her out of adolescence and into the path of the dark side. Her mind cast back to those formative days when she was still Alicia Drey. She could still recall what it was like to be sat at the back of the car. Ayra could hear the tearful call for her parents, her brother, and sister. She hadn't panicked. No, when they did not answer back, and on the realisation that they were gone, there were no shriek of anguish. Silence took her and it hadn't been until Circe Savan entered her life that she found her voice again.

In the void that had taken place instead of her soul Ayra had filled it with all the conceit, psychopathy and cunning that goes hand-in-hand with someone who begins to follow the path of the dark side. Under Pandeima she had shed away her former identity in favour of a new one and became Ayra. The name Alicia Drey became nothing more than an alias to be used in a public life that would come into service of her Master, and following her death, the Grand Scheme Ayra had been plotting before her exile and subsequent incarceration on Coruscant.

There was a desire there to be loved. To feel the affection, and warmth of another. To be understood, and supported- not as a Sith- but as a Human being. As these feelings came to the fore of her mind, as Jeron spoke out against her accusations, Ayra felt disgusted in herself and what she was feeling. Alicia died in that car with her family. But Ayra had emerged from the wreckage. In Her she found the pursuit of passion, strength, and power. Throughout her teenage years into her entire adulthood- right up to this point- Darth Ayra had eradiated all those seminal ties that were associated to her Humanity as she chased perfection in both herself and that of the Grand Scheme.

Her life was the Work and the reiteration of the Grand Scheme to destroy the Sith and reconstitute it into two. Was Jeron a worthy Apprentice? She recalled her apprenticeship under Pandeima and how the woman's inhibitions had got in the way of their work together. Infatuated with her own Apprentice, Pandeima had bastardized the Rule of Two into something abhorrent and impure. Upon her death Ayra had constituted a true beginning of a new lineage of Sith Lords that would follow the teachings of Darth Bane and bring destruction to the mortal enemies of the Sith.

In Jeron she found no such worthiness. He had abandoned her all those years ago, and the fool had the guile to confess it to her face. He had left Ayra for a brother who had tried to kill him! Better yet this love stricken fool had once served another Sith, only to betray them too by abandoning his duty, and renouncing the ways of the dark side. But above it all, ignoring all the other circumstances and excuses she would have to kill this man- including the bite that had revealed her true identity to him- Darth Ayra could not ignore the weak emotions he had just inspired in her.

Ayra wasn't going to ignore the fact that she had feelings for him too. Whereas before, in those seminal days of apprenticeship under Pandeima, Ayra could have rationalized it in a way to bend the truth and manipulate even herself into believing Jeron was useful- not because he actually was- but to merely keep him because of the way she felt was absurd to her.

He has to go . . .

A tear ran down Ayra's cheek and she could taste it's salt on her lips.

Her voice trembled as she revealed: "I am far too gone, Jeron. My wish is for you to pass on and leave me again."

The stake he had given to her raised itself in the air, and all thoughts about consequences left Darth Ayra as she went in for the kill.

 

[MPMSonOfMan]

Alicia Drey

"Greed shows..." he whispered, "to be your true master. Just as I was, so shall you be; another pawn to the sith." His whisper was no mere whisper, it was pained, "one day, you'll remember my love, and I pray you'll seek redemption, before your life is snuffed. I love you, Alicia Drey." He fell silent, the gray flesh now covering his face, his mouth parting open as the nerves to hold it closed fell limp.

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: MPMSonOfMan

When one walks the often convoluted path of the dark side, once often filtered along the lines of psychopathy. Murder was often the cruellest, yet most common realisation of a psychopath. They relished in it. Immersed themselves in the kill, and it was more satisfying to them when it was personal. When Ayra let go of the stake and left it where she had struck Jeron she felt the familiar sensation of guilt creep up on her only to find that it was washed away from the sense that she had once again submitted herself to the ways of the dark side, and therefore anointed her once again as one of it's chosen.

Through victory my chains are broken.

Ayra did not know how long she sat there after Jeron died but when she came too she realised that her face was wet. Rising up to her feet she turned to enter her bathroom and found that her entire face were stained in tears. Her eyes were bloodshot and red from the guilt and remorse she had felt for the death of Jeron at her hands. Yet, as she stared back at herself in the mirror, Ayra no longer felt such emotions. The dark side had burned it all away leaving in it's place a being that held no such sympathy for her work.

Taking the time to wash her face and cleanse away the make-up that had stained around her eyes and cheeks, Ayra took a towel from a nearby stand and dried herself before turning back into the room. Her thoughts turned away from what she had done to cover up her tracks. If the NSBI, Santhe-Sienar or the Empire of the Lost itself discovered what had happened then it would put the Work into jeopardy. Changing clothes Ayra concealed the bloodstained garments with the body before rolling up Jeron's corpse in the seats of her bed.

Next Ayra took the time to search the body to take any personal affects on Jeron's person. He had once been a wealthy man, with considerable assets at his disposal. Now that he had died to her hand Ayra felt that what was his was now hers to take and do with what she pleased. Inside Jeron's clothes she found a datapad, keys to a vehicle and a communicator. Deactivating the comm Ayra put the items down onto the bed side table, and turned to get rid of the corpse.

Stretching a hand out to the body Ayra used her powers to levitate it off the mattress and out towards the balcony. Standing at the railing- with Jeron floating beside her- Ayra averted her gaze from it to the passing traffic. Her eyes found a garbage truck gliding by some several stories beneath her. With only a few seconds to act Darth Ayra seized her abilities in the Force to perceive the momentum of the truck; it's distance from where she was standing; and how she would propel Jeron's body over the balcony towards it's open compartment where the cities garbage was being transported.

Throwing her arm forwards Ayra watched as Jeron's corpse flew between the open traffic and across the walkways of Lianna City before disappearing into the garbage truck with a thud so loud it even echoed up to where the Sith was standing, and it had been a considerable distance from Ayra had been to the truck itself. Quickly retreating into the apartment and out of sight Ayra turned into the kitchen to remove a knife from the nearby stand. Returning back to the bed she proceeded to use the knife to cut and tear the blood stain out of the mattress which was then throw into a bag.

After a shower and change of clothes Ayra took the time to clean the apartment. She took the time to wipe down anywhere that she had seen Jeron touch. When it was done Ayra locked the apartment behind her and proceeded to leave the complex with her own personal belongings and the affects she had taken away from Jeron. Her next destination was a spaceport so that she could leave Lianna.