Private A guest in a most Unholy Place

[The Deluge]

Wearing: Mother's Flesh (Brain Demon Catsuit)

Armed With: Parental Rights (Red Saberstaff)


Objective: Tell Percival The truth/Comfort Percival

By the standards of The Deluge, deal maker of the Cult, this had been a religiously significant day, full of wonder and miracle. By the standards of the sane it was quietly turning a desert world into a hell-scape.

She had participated in the ritual most enthusiastically (She had done up most of the ritual runes herself AND prepared sandwiches for everyone after. Don't ask what the meat is. Strelok sure isn't eating any of it.)

She had been so worried about her dear Percival. So worried for him since his Mother's glorious resurrection, enabled by him, like he had helped enable the Dark Miracle at Tython in the form of TENTACLES. By the standards of a Cultist, he was fairly gangster.

She had also been harboring a secret. One giving to her by Darth Phyre, before she had been slain by Percival in a massive moment of leveling up.

She had looked at its contents and instantly feared for Percival's sanity should he see it. But what would happen if she didn't show him? Would he grow farther apart from the House, more depressed, more withdrawn? The Deluge knew him better than his own Mother did, in a way. His antics on the Yacht had been an attempt to die.

What would showing him this do.

The Witches in her, and that core of her that was Rebecca took his hand on instinct. Her lover was so confused and uncertain. In the midst of her chanting, she broke from her spiritual reverie and knelt with him.

It is time, The Dark Side whispered. He must know.

I don't want to tell him! WE don't want to tell him! she silently protested.

HE. MUST. KNOW.

The Deluge sighed, casually stroked Percival's face, her mask of calm slipping a moment to reveal inner turmoil.

"Percival..." she said quietly, even as the Parliament commanded one of the witches to chip off a large, more than generous enough chunk for Lady Venge to use for making her mask, and possibly a few other things.

"I have something for you..." she said softly in a whisper. "I was ordered to give it to you eventually...by...by Phyre...and I hesitated...I delayed. Because I genuinely fear what will happen to you emotionally. I have been so worried for you. But I can delay it no longer, my love. I tried. I really did, to keep it hidden. Please understand that. But only because I love you. I fear the results. What it will do to you. But the Dark Side has commanded it, and I must obey. I...I'm sorry..." she trailed.

"In my quarters in this temple...you will find a Holodisc. For Your Eyes Only--"

(ONLY FOR YOUUUUUUUUU. YOU-SEE-WHAT-NO-ONE-ELSE-CAN-SEE, AND-NOW-I'M-BREAKIN'-FREE, -FOR-YOUR-EYES-ONLYYYYYYYYY---)

"--from her. It is the last Will and Testament of Darth Phyre..." she said.

"Prepare yourself. And again, I apologize. I was under orders. The password to opening it is Rebecca."

In the Meanwhile, the Parliament had provided an open air skiff for her and Lady Venge to survey the results of what they had done. Already the plant life was mutating, becoming more aggressive. Lakes boiled in the negative emotions in the air. The clouds darkened, and it was only getting more negative. Tea was served.

"Why look, we've corrupted the local kyber deposit, how joyous!" The Parliament exclaimed, pointing to a mountainside that had red kybers growing from it, now in pain.

"You know...we could port this process to other worlds. Create an entire line of them suffused with the Dark Side, cause fear and distress to radiate entire parsecs of space..." The Parliament said to Lady Venge. "That sounds like a worthy venture to glorify the Darkness...what do you think?"

Percival Io

 

[Lady Venge]

Venge took the shard of corrupted crystal reverently from the witch. Listening closely, she swore that she could hear the screams of tortured souls coming from the depths of the crystal. It would be perfect for the construction of the mask her vision showed to her.

"You know...we could port this process to other worlds. Create an entire line of them suffused with the Dark Side, cause fear and distress to radiate entire parsecs of space..." The Parliament said to Lady Venge. "That sounds like a worthy venture to glorify the Darkness...what do you think?"

"Reshape entire parsecs of space in our image," Venge pondered. "Yes. A worthy venture indeed."


Percival Io
The Deluge

 

[Percival Io]

The Deluge stopped chanting as she turned to face him. Her hand rose to caress his cheek, and in her eyes he saw Rebecca. Percival leaned into her touch, pressing his lips to her palm almost reverently.

“Be my druidess,” he whispered the lyrics to an old song as the witches hammered out a rhythm against the resonant crystal. “Be my everything…”

Before he could pull her closer, she spoke. “Rebecca…” he echoed. Under different circumstances, he might’ve asked her to join him in her private quarters, but clearly this was something he had to do alone. Planting a kiss against her forehead, he rose and departed from the crystal chamber.

The Deluge’s quarters were familiar to him by now. He used to feel a kind of shame in visiting her here in the heart of the Cult’s Temple. But he would’ve felt more guilty if he hadn’t come, knowing that Rebecca was still within her. She would need him in this place more than anywhere else, and he would be there for her, keeping her spirit strong even where the oppression of the Dark Side was at its zenith.

The holodisk was easy to find. He hesitated before scanning its contents, closing his eyes and finally taking the plunge.

(Reposted from a PM sent by The Amalgam )

So, managed to give me the old one-two, eh?

That's okay! No hard feelings! It feels… proper… proper that the grandson did what the grandfather could not. Did what his own Mother couldn't.

Allow me to level with you. You're going to read something from me I've never said to anyone else. Not even Laertia:

I apologize. For Rebecca. I really did do everything I could to try and convince the Brain Demon not to convert her. When I carried out the process personally, I made sure not to touch her love for you or Thel. I kept her memories of you both as intact as I could.

This is not me asking for a prize for basic decency. We both know I will never get that. Decency means a very different thing to Cultists as you can guess.

But I do apologize. For real. Honest.

You've never met the real Amalgam. I absorbed her years ago. It's just that I enjoyed being her because of how happy your Mother secretly was to be around her, how much she truly, deeply, loved Amy, that the role took on a life of its own and I was almost lost to it. I fought my way back to the surface, but it wasn't easy. Shreds of her melded with me in spite of my experience and discipline, because I wanted your Mother to be happy. Sometimes I find myself thinking like her. Shapeshifting into her without realizing. Whatever "Amy" had in regards towards you came from me.

With that in mind, I have this Will of mine.

To Percival Io, I Darth Phyre, Matriarch and Founder of The Cult of The Brain Demon, do leave all my worldly assets to you. This includes the following…

She listed off starships, combat units, droids, and weapons. Percival didn’t care for most of it, skimming to the end.

But I know, deep down, none of the above could truly interest you.

So I will offer one more thing. I made a most terrible bargain for knowledge with the Brain Demon.

I know how to free Rebecca.

There is an Hourglass, created by one of The Cult's most dangerous Adversaries. It converted the original me into his simpering slave. I do not know where the device is, but he does. He is Zabka Bis'clavret, The Man in White. That is the one device capable of truly severing The Deluge's ties to the Unholy Spirit. It did with the original me, after all. But one warning: You might not get Rebecca back exactly the way she was before, but she would certainly no longer be under the Cult's thrall. Whatever happens afterward is your problem, not mine.

Now, if you've read this far, and didn't just chuck this electronic recording in the trash when you saw my name, thinking this was an attempt to troll you (I swear to you, it's not), you must be probably asking. "Why is Darth Phyre being so nice?"

Tell me, Percival. Think real hard. Harder than you ever have.

Do you remember when you were first initialized? Or where? Have you ever thought about it?

Well...lemme put it this way... there's a reason why your Mother refused to kill or truly Exile me...

(Camera Feed plays suddenly of a lab aboard The Leviathan of Sev Tok)

(Camera settles on Darth Phyre, clad in her Mage Epidermis. She is by a computer, with cables hooked to the brain of a blank Chaplain without any features, partly covered by a tarp)

(Darth Xiphos walks into the Lab in her spiky black biker leathers. She is not surprised to see Phyre. Merely curious)

Phyre: Hi, Honey.

Xiphos (Steps forward cautiously.): What's going on here, Sy--I mean, Am--wait...chit...Phyre?"

Phyre (Chuckles softly): That's okay. I get a little confused by it all sometimes too.

Xiphos: What is going on here? What are you doing with one of the blanks?

Phyre: (Waves Data-Tape around)

Phyre: Y'know, I been thinking...ever since you activated the very first of the Chaplains, Alessandra, about how you could thank me properly for helping you find Khemost. Thank you for letting me watch her birth, by the way.

Xiphos: Get to the point, Phyre.

Phyre: Your programming skill really is truly sophisticated. I actually had a little trouble understanding the coding. But I figured it out. Eventually. I've written a personality that I want to upload into this blank Nuetralizer of yours.

Xiphos: (Remains silent, doesn't get angry)

Xiphos:...do you understand what you are asking me to do? (Asks in very soft voice)

Phyre: I'm asking you to give me a son. Two or three, possibly, if the cards play right.

Xiphos: (Is silent)

Phyre: Well?

Xiphos: May I see the coding you wrote?

(Phyre wordlessly invites Xiphos over to the Terminal, uploads the tape into the file reader of the computer)

Xiphos: (squints at code readout, raises eyebrow)

Xiphos: You are and remain a class in your own. Radical deviations in Personality each time there is a divergence from the original, even a copy of the original? A nest of potential minds, like yourself.

Phyre: So is that a yes?

Xiphos: (Looks up at Phyre)

Xiphos: Why do you want this?

Phyre: We ARE Married. By Cultist Law. Besides...this Motherhood thing you have going on fascinates me.

Phyre: (Brushes Xiphos's chin with her fingers)

Phyre: I want to experience what my wife does. Is that so wrong? Plus, I want my own Starlin Rand. A Starlin who will be superior to my chitty Light Self's Starlin.

Xiphos: Making him look like Starlin is a deal breaker.

Phyre: Pouts

Xiphos: I have other conditions.

Phyre: Shoot.

Xiphos: No unsupervised visits. All memories of time spent with you are to be partitioned off from the rest of his databanks. When he is with you, you may impart on him as you desire. Cultivate the other template personalities you've hidden in his coding. But those memories get partitioned off when the visits end. I will have his ego. You will have his ID.

Phyre: Deal.

Xiphos: Good (Pulls Phyre close and kisses her passionately)

Phyre: (Returns kiss just as passionately)

Xiphos: What shall we name him?

Phyre: Percival. It starts with a "P", like my own name. That will be our little in-joke between us...

Xiphos (Pulls Away)

Xiphos: How about a magic trick?

Phyre: (Raises eyebrow)

Phyre: Sure.

(Xiphos pulls out two white pellets and throws them on the floor. A large white cloud fills the room but dissipates in 14 seconds.)

(When the smoke clears, an astonished Darth Phyre finds herself clad in a white nurse themed lingerie outfit while Xiphos remains dressed as is.)

Phyre: How the feth did you do that?

Xiphos (In faux injured voice) Oh nurse, I think I have a headache...

Phyre (Smiles, gets into character)

Phyre: How unfortunate. I have just the prescription...

(Phyre walks over, smirking. Camera lingers on their fingers both pushing the upload button at the same time for the blank Nuetralizer before feed cuts, The Leviathan's A.I. apparently requesting "BRAIN BLEACH" over and over in text format over the static of the video feed.)

(Image cuts to that of Darth Phyre, staring pointedly at the camera)

Phyre: Goodbye, for what it's worth, Percival. I love you.

(Electronic Record Ends)

…

Percival’s eyes shot open. He stared at nothing, his gaze unseeing as he hunted the data for discrepancies. He scanned the recording, looking for signs of skillful edits or other tampering, trying to find some proof that what he had seen was not real. That it was all a lie, yet another fabrication from the Mother of Lies, Darth Phyre.

Why had she done it? Why did she want him, a son who despised her and had taken her life? It didn’t make sense to him. But then Phyre was mad. Her actions didn’t have to make sense.

“Mother…” he whispered in the silence. Holding his head in his hands, he began to cry like a child, left alone with no one to comfort him.

The Deluge Lady Venge Alessandra Io​