Skirmish A Monument to All Your Achievements | THR vs TSC | Jakku Enclave

[Zaiya Ceti]

Naniti Sophelia Ardemark Mercy Corazona von Ascania Lysander von Ascania

The vines recoiled with crackling hisses, curling back from the lightning in frightened spirals. Zaiya gave the little vines an empathetic expression as the Togruta slashed at them, before her attention returned to Naniti.

The violet woman was powerful enough to call lightning. And the emotions that swirled around her were so very, very saturated with her conviction.

"I don't help people to convince them of anything," the Lovalla empathically said, the brush of a gust of wind sending sand and grit everywhere and her multicolored hair dancing about her shoulders. "Not to become Jedi nor even to believe what I believe."

Zaiya wasn't one to try to convert anyone. She wasn't raised in the temple. But lived her life outside as a student, as a normal person who had no idea what the Force was or about the Dark Side or the Light.

All she knew then is that she had been so lonely and had simply wanted to belong.

"I just like being helpful." She tilted her head, a bronze and blue ripple of bioluminescence scattering over her rosy golden skin like starlight. "I don't think that's very different from standing on your own."

Her hand moved to try to send another piece of rubble away.

"And... I never said people are inherently good." Her opalblue eyes met Naniti's across the scant distance between them. "I said people still choose to help. They choose to protect. They choose to do what they believe is right." that was the point of this all. "Every day, they choose."

"A choice to choose life." the colors dancing over her skin shimmered softly beneath the drifting dust. "A choice to breathe life instead of death."

Then, with a sheepish little smile that somehow survived the chaos around them, she added,"I simply think the galaxy could use a few more of those choices."

It was then that the sudden flutter of emotions went shooting through the empath, Zaiya's head swiveling towards the direction of Sophelia Ardemark . Towards the boy turned into a young man. To the struggle the empath felt between him, but the soft ember of light within gave hope. In the distance, the Lovalla saw Sophelia fall, and in that instant, Zaiya knew what to do. Her bracelets chimed softly as the Force gathered around her, lifting fractured slabs of stone debris to move them as a slight hovering barrier that gently spun around her.

"Just how I'll make a choice now." With that, the Lovalla sent Naniti a brief smile, then a dip of her head. "The life of another."

With that, the Lovalla shot away from Naniti, sending a surge of the Force to try and tangle the young togruta to incapacitate it as the Lovalla moved to try and reach Sophelia to help.

 

[Silara IX]

Location: Jakku Enclave East, Valley of the Eremite - Jakku
Thread Objective: Take Their Things
Mission Objective:

• Enter the archive in Jakku Enclave East.
• Capture a holocron.

Tag: Novac Lyrikal

The serpentine Jedi slithered forward while the assassin droid rushed Silara from her right side, their coordinated assault triggering her danger sense with a sudden, icy spike of alarm. Her pupils dilated, the world sharpening to crystalline clarity around her. Reflexively, the strand-cast launched herself in an explosive preternatural ascent, her form arcing through the air before landing with balletic precision atop the nearby shelf, six meters above the archive floor. The assassin droid’s blade lanced through air that she had occupied only a split-second prior, while the Jedi’s yellow-hued sliced just beneath the soles of her feet.

Now elevated above her two opponents, Silara tapped deep into the Dark Side, her gaze taking on an icy, predatory aspect as the Force bent to her will. The air shimmered slightly as waves of heat distortion extended from both of her hands, directed towards her two opponents below.

For the Jedi, she offered him pain. Applying her affinity for Hassat-Durr and the art of electromagnetic suffusion, Silara unleashed an invisible wave of extremely high frequency electromagnetic pulses tuned to heat his nociceptors to pain thresholds. Should they connect, the radiation might trigger the anatomical equivalent of his tactile heat receptors without causing any physical burns.

In that, her aim was to make the Jedi feel as if hundreds of white-hot needles were stabbing at his skin at once!

Simultaneously, her other hand unleashed a high-frequency alternating electromagnetic field, tuned to induce eddy currents in the assassin droid’s conductive components. Should the field connect, the currents would likely resistively heat the droid's chassis to a thousand degrees centigrade within seconds, while insulating materials melted in a cascade of dielectric breakdown caused by high-frequency heating. From there, the assassin droid risked suffering a catastrophic power core overload as electromagnetic waves sought to cook its frame from the inside out!

All the while, the seoularian crystal lattice integrated into Silara’s bodysuit synced with her brainwaves as she partitioned her focus between her two opponents. With her mental workload so that the two distinct applications of the same Force power did not interfere with her focus, the strand-cast narrowed her gaze, a bead of sweat tracing the curve of her temple as she pushed her skills to their limits in an effort to end the fight before it might truly begin!

Spoiler: Loadout

• Ghost Silk
  
  • Gauntlets
    
    • FAE/M-02 Energized Forearm Vibroblade Mk. II - R
  • Miscellaneous Equipment
    
    • FAE/U-01 "Serenity" Anti-Signal Field System
• Blood Ring
• FAE/MDE-01-S1 Semiautonomous Seeker Thermal Explosive (4)
• Siqsa-S1 Semiautonomous Seeker Obscuration Canister (2)
• Supernal Infusion
• Spirit Anchor Talisman
• Nullification Resin

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Meliant​

Tons of collapsing masonry thundered down, obliterating the floor where they had stood seconds before. Stumbling backward into the doorway, Lorn threw himself off his feet as a massive slab crashed down, missing him by inches and throwing up a wall of choking dust. Stone shards bit into his cheeks and shoulders, but he scrambled on hands and knees through the blinding grey mist, dragging his heavy limbs out of the crumbling vault into the main corridor.

Behind him, buried beneath the mountain of rubble, that hideous hyena laugh still echoed through the gloom. It cut through the roar of falling stone, carrying the terrible weight of the Sith's parting promise. Every Jedi killed in the future would be on Lorn's hands.

"Damn you," Lorn spat, leaning heavily against the corridor wall as he forced his aching lungs to draw air.

Weariness settled deep into his bones, far heavier than the physical strain of the battle. Monsters like this ran rampant across the galaxy, twisted beings who slaughtered without second thought and viewed genocide as a game. Fighting them felt like trying to hold back the ocean with a cracked shield. How many more enclaves would burn, how many more comrades would be dismembered, before this endless cycle finally devoured everything left in the galaxy?

Pushing off the wall, Lorn gripped his lightsaber tight and turned down the dark hallway. There was no time to grieve or despair. The safeguard protocol was still ticking...

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Jakku - Jakku Enclave

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace raised an eyebrow at her first question, but before he could answer, Arris began struggling back to her feet. Instinctively, he stepped forward to help, only to feel the intent ripple through the Force before she'd even moved to reject him. She didn't want his hand, so he stopped where he was.

Instead, he listened. There were parts of what she said he understood all too well. He knew what it felt like to keep moving when every instinct begged you to stop. But other parts...

His head tilted slightly. "Learning to let go and why to live. That what you're doing? Or have you already done it?" His voice remained calm, eyes staying on hers.

The sudden roar of artillery stole his attention. Every cannon along the siege line erupted in unison, sending another devastating barrage toward the Enclave. Ace turned instinctively, his senses stretching through the Force. He felt Lorn. Others too. Still alive. He'd done his part.

His gaze returned to Arris, allowing her to finish.

"And there's no decisive victory against the Jedi either." He shrugged faintly. "You fight them with everything you've got. Use every dirty trick, every advantage you can think of. You put them down and they still keep finding a way to come back. So what does that really tell you?"

None of what she'd said shook him. He understood the history. The pattern. It only reinforced what he'd already come to believe. At this point, he didn't care who won or who lost. He just wanted everyone else to stop suffering for it.

"You're wrong about one thing though." He gestured idly with his free hand. "Standing your ground isn't a copout. Spent a lot of my life watching people roll over and accept the way things are. Doesn't matter how miserable they are. They're either too scared to change it... or they just stop caring. It's not permission to lose." His grip settled a little more comfortably around the hilt at his side. "It's the ultimate expression of freedom."

Then another presence brushed against his senses. Two. His attention shifted immediately, turning toward the ridge as the familiar signatures emerged from the battlefield. Lily Rhodes and Vess Sadragen . Lily felt... different. Stronger than the girl he'd known on Coruscant. Different even from Humbarine.

Then he saw the anger burning beneath her eyes. His gaze flicked briefly to Arris' wound before returning to Lily, the pieces falling into place almost immediately.

"So..." He looked back toward Arris, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "This is them, huh?"

His eyes met Lily's as he slowly raised one hand, palm open.

"You can relax, Lily. I didn't do this. We've just been talking... but you should probably help her."

Ace glanced once more toward the Enclave before looking back at Arris.

"I guess we're done here then." A faint sigh escaped him. "You should probably get out of here too. Hole in your gut and leaking coolant can't be good for you."

He took a step backward and turned toward the slope, beginning the climb out of the dune. After only a couple of paces, he stopped, without looking back, he spoke one last time.

"Think about what we talked about... yeah?"

Arris Windrun ​

 

[Vess Sadragen]

The world folded around her once again. The sensation hit just as it always did: her stomach lurched violently as solid ground returned beneath her feet, the horizon threatening to roll beneath her before she forced herself to breathe through it. She swallowed hard, blinking away the lingering dizziness as the roar of artillery crashed back into her ears. Then she saw Arris. The hole through her abdomen. Coolant staining the sand. And the Jedi standing over her. Recognition came a heartbeat later. Humbarine. She knew the face, if little else.

Her hand was already moving. With a sharp snap-hiss, a violet blade sprang to life, held low across her body as she instinctively placed herself between the stranger and Arris. She didn't advance. She didn't need to. Her hazel eyes never left him as he spoke, searching his posture more than his words. The lightsaber at his side remained there. He took a step back. Then another. Only once he turned to leave did Vess allow the tension to ease from her shoulders. The violet blade disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

She crossed the remaining distance in a few quick strides before stopping beside Arris. "...You're leaking." The observation came quietly as her eyes moved over the torn plating, following the path of the coolant as it seeped steadily into the sand. Her fingertips hovered over the damaged chassis without touching it, tracing the extent of the damage before she finally looked up to meet Arris's eyes. A faint smile touched the corner of her mouth. "I can probably fix you." The confidence in the words was so matter-of-fact that they almost sounded like a diagnosis. She tilted her head ever so slightly. "...Assuming you don't try to break my arm if I do."

​

TAG: Arris Windrun Lily Rhodes Acier Moonbound

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber | Wyrmfang​

The force of the winds violently pushed Varin back, yet his stance held as the force rushed through his body. His eyes tracking her every movements, the acrobatics, the precision and the confidence within her. Then the whisper came. A small smirk cracked Varin’s lips as she drew closer.

Good.

The cortosis blade arched towards the lightshield as Varin brought it up to block, only to feint at the last second and side step, his Black Blade then flowed into position with a fluidity of experience. The hooked blade gripping onto the cortosis blade, attempting to yank it off line, a movement to force her closer.

His head still rang with tinnitus from the prior shot of the sonic cannon.

The helm’s mouth piece quickly opened as a roar ripped from his throat, like a violent bursting lightning strike, a massive red bolt of dark lightning rocketed towards her.

Varin had fought many duelists who were faster than him, there was always a tactic that he would use. He would force them to move, to work harder to wound him. He would wear them out and force openings. Some lasted longer than others. But in the end, everyone had a tank of energy that would eventually run out.

Jonyna Si​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound | Lily Rhodes | Vess Sadragen
Down & Out
​

Per usual, Acier saw past the point that Arris was making, and instead saw a sharper image of it. She didn't say it - but she felt it more strongly than ever: this war would take everything from him.

He departed, and Arris was left with Lily and Vess by her side. She looked at one, then the other, and sighed. Though she stood, she was too weak to walk.

She smiled slightly at Vess. "Yeah... I'm not in great shape."

The Enclave continued to crumble under artillery fire. She didn't know how long it would take for the damn thing to fall, but looking up as more ships evacuated, she suspected the battle was over... And that everything left was cleanup.

"Let's get out of here."

 

[Naniti]

It was difficult to see behind the mask covering her face, but Naniti sneered at the colorful woman. She was still talking. Lysander and her spoke plenty off the battlefield, but on it? This was where people fought to survive to see the next dawn. Where they lay gasping for every breath and spat in the face of death. And what did the Jedi do in these moments? Talk. They talked. They debated. They justified, prattled, and proselytized. Worse, they claimed it was anything but the most obvious thing in the world.

Choose to breathe life. Absurd. Outrageous. Offensive. What did a Jedi know cloistered behind their walls, tucked away in their enclaves, clutching their books about the struggle between life and death?

Zaiya Ceti shimmered colorfully, while the Togruta's stare darkened.

Currents of wind begun to strengthen with every second by leaps and bounds. The clouds darkened, churned, and begun to spin in a single counter-clockwise motion. Soon the air began to scour the land and lift particulate into the invisible sea that surrounded them all. It took spun. It pricked the skin and the eyes and the lungs.

He is not yours, Naniti's voice could be heard no matter how far the Zaiya ran. No matter who she chose to help, and held dear.

A funnel began to stretch down from the heavens and lightning tore open the skies. The Jedi wanted to leave? Let them leave. Straight into the mouth of all the hells. Let the world they loved tear them apart as they sought to set themselves free of its surface. Naniti would sacrifice a planet for one man. What would a Jedi do?

Lysander von Ascania | Sophelia Ardemark | Mercy

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Arris Windrun Acier Moonbound Vess Sadragen​

Acier met her gaze, palm rising as if it might abate some of the anger Lily had for him. It did help that this hadn’t been his handiwork, but truth be told it was easier to be angry at him than accept the hurt that still lingered beneath it. She didn’t answer him, she just watched him retreat disappearing over the dune. Only when he was gone did she turn her attention back to Arris as Vess assessed the damage.

“Pretty sure I asked you to stay in one piece.” she teased with a small smile. She could ask about Ace later, about the sadness that sat heavily on the cyborg when they weren’t at the edge of a battlefield, when the roar of artillery fire wasn’t quite so deafening.

Arris wasn’t walking anywhere anytime soon. She looked at Vess with an apologetic smile. “I promise it’s the last time today.” she assured her as she took her hand, her other still holding Arris' arm. She looked up, finding a ship that belonged to them still looming over the desert world. Too far for a simple teleport, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t reach it.

She closed her eyes reaching for the wellspring of anger within her, the force didn’t fold, it tore violently. Ochre desert fell away as darkness screamed around them before giving way to cold durasteel floors and the hum of ship engines.

Lily let them go staggering to rest against the corridor wall as pain split her skull, settling deep in her bones as blood trickled from her nose. She wiped it on her sleeve, breathing through it, before pushing off the wall with a groan and moving to support Arris.

“Let’s get you fixed up.”

 

[Kaelyr]

Tags: Kadeon Virell

⚙​

I could almost admire the aggression of the Jedi, if I didn't find his presence repulsive. That and I was still on a time crunch. It was only a matter of time before the bombardment that was designed to decimate this archive and everything within it. It was also a bit amusing to see that this jedi thought he was controlling the fight. No, there was no control here, only stalling, which was intentional on my part. The build-up of heat within such a tight corridor was working in my favor, and the fact he neglected this would be a mistake he would soon regret. I met his assault with measured and precise counters, feeding into his aggression with my own.

His words during his assault of blows caused me to smirk, as he still hadn't realized my ploy. But now he would. As the heat from my flames made the stone and metal of the corridor malleable, as his twin lightsaber came around to strike at my torso, I sprung my trap. In a swift motion, I caught his weapon with the Force, holding it in place as I used my lightsaber hand to pull at the molten materials of the corridor to pool around the man's feet. It would be quick, as melted stone and steel wrapped around the Jedi to hold him in place up to his waist.

Taking a step back, I smiled and held my lightsaber a few inches away from his neck. "I do not need control, only patience, and to distract you long enough to allow you to walk into my trap." I spoke as another wall of melted corridor separated him from me. I would build two more, each one thicker than the rest, before rushing to the vault. I knew that the Jedi wouldn't be held for long, and that I had to move fast. Bursting through the threshold of the vault, I honed in on the source of Yggdrakses' power.

It was in a case, one large enough to hold a lightsaber. A defender tried to ambush me from above, but I sensed his malice before he struck, and I caught him by the neck with the Force. A sickening snap echoed as their body hit the floor, my attention focused on the box before me. Opening it, my assumptions were correct, as it was a lightsaber radiating with the same power as the shards of Yggdrakses. The moment my hands touched the orb, I was drawn into that same world as before. There I saw a new figure, unlike the one that I had met on Chaandar when I recovered the second shard of his power.

They were young, younger than me, and held a rather jovial expression on their face. "Well, well, you must be the latest Chosen of Yggdrakses? I am Sato Ven, the third chosen. I have waited so long for a new one to come." he spoke, circling my a shark, taking me in. "I was under the impression that his power was sealed into shards, orbs of power? I wasnt expecting to meet a former chosen trapped within a lightsaber." I noted. Sato smiled, coming to rest a hand on my shoulder. "As a Chosen, Yggdrakses bestowed exceptional skill and power in the ways of the lightsaber upon me, and upon my death that power and my consciousness were absorbed into my lightsaber. Now that it is in the hands of another chosen, I will be able to teach you the lightsaber style of the Vehement Sun."

He paused for a moment, then began to walk away from me, his form beginning to become translucent as he spoke. "Survive your current situation, and you will be deemed worthy to learn from me." he said with a slyness to his voice. In the same instant, I was back in the archive. By this point I had clipped the lightsaber to my waist and prepared for the arrival of the Jedi. I would also greet him with fire, as I set the walls and other flammable materials around ablaze.

Now, in a much more open field, there would be no holding back. I could go all out against him and not be restricted.

⚙​

---

"Kaelyr Speech"

 

[Zaiya Ceti]

Zaiya's attention honed in on the unconscious blonde even as sand tore at her face and lightning split the heavens as the Force seemed to scream at the turbulent use of that intangible energy.

Yet through it all, the Lovalla Knight was a bright flash of kaleidoscopic light like a firefly in flight.

The Lovalla dropped beside the unconscious Padawan, immediately placing herself between Soph and the nightmare gathering overhead. There was no hesitation as Zaiya threw both hands outward in a jingle of bracelets and cuffs, and summoned the Force. A shimmering rainbow iridescent barrier erupted around them even as the first impact struck like thunder.

The Force of it made Zaiya cry out, her boots digging into the earth as the protective bubble shuddered beneath the violence of Naniti's storm. The bracelets at her forearms and wrists rattled wildly, a rush of bioluminescent colors blazing across the edges of her mottled spots, carving over the designs as she poured everything she could into keeping that shield intact.

And even though the space between her and Naniti had widened, there was no denying the way the girl's voice seemed to use the furnance of her emotions to fuel the rumbling slam of words that resonated around the empath.

He is not yours.

For one heartbeat, Zaiya's expression tightened, her lips drawing thin as the weight of emotions pressed against her own mental shields, slightly dimming the vibrancy of her hues. The direction of that declaration had been directed towards the area where she had felt Lysander von Ascania .

The question was what would come next?

But then the Empath dropped her attention down at Sophelia Ardemark . Bright amber and cobalt blue painted over her face and down her shoulders in determination, and the Lovalla Jedi Knight bent down to start to gather the unconscious teenager in her arms.

"CORA!" Zaiya shouted out to Corazona von Ascania , her voice tearing through the storm as the increasing gusts of wind crashed against the barrier, forcing her down to one knee.

"We have to leave! Now!"

She curled herself protectively over Soph as the shield blazed brighter. The Enclave could be rebuilt. Tomes could be rewritten. Walls could rise again.

But lives?

Those, Zaiya would choose every time.

 

[Kadeon Virell]

Objective: Protect the Archives
Location: Jedi Enclave, Jakku
Outfit: Combat Ready
Equipment: Double-bladed lightsaber - Twin Verdict
Tag: Kaelyr

The molten stone surged around Kadeon's legs before he could fully pull Twin Verdict free. "Kriff!" He wrenched against the Force holding his weapon, but the hesitation was all Kaelyr needed. White-hot stone climbed to his waist before cooling just enough to become a prison.

The Sith's blade hovered inches from his throat. Kade met the crimson gaze without flinching. "So..." he muttered through gritted teeth. "Guess you did have a plan." The walls of molten stone rose one after another, sealing Kaelyr from view.

Silence followed. Not peace. The Force told him exactly where the Sith had gone. Straight to the archive. "No..." His heart sank.

The prison around his legs groaned as powerful muscles strained against it. The Force flowed through him, not as an explosion of rage but as steady, disciplined strength. Cracks spiderwebbed through the cooling stone before the entire shell burst apart beneath the combined effort of the Force and raw physical power. Stone fragments crashed across the corridor. Twin Verdict snapped back into his waiting hand. He sprinted.

The newly formed barriers slowed him only briefly. The first yielded beneath a Force-enhanced shoulder charge, the second split beneath twin emerald blades, the third required both, showering molten debris across the corridor as Kade burst through into the archive. Too late. The sensation hit him immediately. Whatever Kaelyr had come for...He had it.

Kade's jaw tightened, frustration flashing across his face for only an instant before training asserted itself. The mission hadn't changed. Protect lives. Protect what remained. The archive had become an inferno. Flames crawled up shelving units and danced across ancient tables. Smoke billowed toward the vaulted ceiling as Jedi hurried desperately between collapsing rows of relics. "This way! Move!"

"We can still save—"

"No!" Kade's voice cut cleanly through the chaos. Every head turned. "Leave it!"

Several archivists hesitated. "But the holocrons—"

"They're gone!" There was no anger in his voice. Only certainty. "We don't lose people trying to save things." For a heartbeat no one moved. Then they saw the determination in the young Knight's eyes. "Evacuate!" Kade barked again, pointing toward the exit. "Now! I'll cover you!"

The surviving Jedi finally obeyed, abandoning shelves they had devoted years—sometimes decades—to preserving. Kade understood exactly what he was asking of them. Knowledge could be recovered. Lives could not.

He backed toward the retreating group, Twin Verdict spinning into broad defensive circles that carved apart falling beams and burning debris threatening the evacuation route. Whenever flames surged too close, he reached through the Force, shoving curtains of fire aside just long enough for another pair of Jedi to sprint past.

One archivist stumbled. Kade caught her with the Force before she hit the ground, guiding her back toward the others without ever taking his eyes off the vault's interior. Only after the final Jedi crossed into the corridor did he stop retreating. He stood alone. Between Kaelyr...

...and everyone else. The archive behind him burned with a roar loud enough to drown out distant explosions elsewhere in the enclave. Twin Verdict settled into a measured guard, emerald light reflecting across smoke and ash. His breathing slowed. The frustration of failing to stop the Sith from claiming his prize still lingered, but dwelling on it would save no one. One objective remained. Keep the monster here.

Kade rolled his shoulders, the corners of his mouth curling into the faintest, stubborn smile despite the heat pressing in from every direction. "So," he called through the burning archive, green blades humming steadily in his hands. "You got what you came for." His stance lowered, athletic and balanced. "But you're still going to have to get past me to leave."



​

 

[Mercy]

MERCY

EMPRESS | WARLORD | STAR-ARM

Location: Jakku | Objective: Walk it off | Direct Tags: Arris Windrun Lily Rhodes Vess Sadragen
Other Tags: Lysander von Ascania Sophelia Ardemark Zaiya Ceti Naniti | Corazona von Ascania​

.

She was about to deflect Cora's hand when her reflexes took over.

The dare ended as quickly as it began. Every protective nerve he owned hummed to life along the spine. Whatever found his sister, the sensation arrived first, image catching up a half step behind; by then, the sword was already leaving the ground. He didn't care. His lead foot drove into the sand and the body committed, blade tracing upward, the whole of everything narrowing down to the gap between them.

Pure instinct caused her to turn away.

What could have cleaved either her or Cora's head off clean instead passed Mercy by a mere inch. It saved her life, but that allowed Cora to get in close.

When what was up came down, she thrust the supercharged spear into Mercy's gut.

The personalization of the Lightside met the sheer corrupt wrongness of the Darkside. Everything went pure white as positive met negative, annihilating everything in its wake in an explosion that send Mercy to one side and Cora presumably to the other. By the time the dust had settled, the Jedi were gone and Mercy had managed to claw her way back to her feet.

She could see the dark clouds, but piercing through them to see the shuttle that had kidnapped her apprentice was impossible. Naniti was raging in the sky as well.

Mercy left her to it.

Sometimes one must rage... and sometimes... one must sit with what had transpired. Let it turn around in your head. Instead Mercy began to walk into a different direction. The Enclave was burning, it would be ruins sooner rather than latter, she didn't particularly care. Her skin hardened, then hardened again, before she punched a hole in the wall.

Then stepped on through.

She wondered if there was anything left here to find, not yet destroyed by either side.

Only one way to find out.

.

ERASE THE PAST

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAGS: Varin Mortifer​

Jonyna had fought a lot of sith in the last 900 years. Inquistor Pretenders, Sith Knights, even Dark Lords that she had to throw everything at.

Very few got the jump on her.

Very few tried to brute force her.

As her cortosis blade locked with his, and his sith lightning hit her dead on, a curious thing happened. Anyone else, would've been fried by the onslaught of lightning. Anyone else.

But Jonyna had learned the hard way. Fighting Darth Malum of House Marr , Darth Carnifex , Darth Prazutis .

Lightning didn't scare her anymore.

It went in one way, and shifted towards her other arm. The arm holding Liz. And into the Black Blade it went, channeling into it's kyber crystal. Red lightning turned golden, and like a feedback loop, it went right back through her body, and right into the White Blade that was locked up with his.

Supercharging the Imbument of the Blade, as it suddenly shined white hot, as Jonyna rocketed forward into her swing, before following up with a second swing from Liz.

Black and White. Light and Dark.

Jonyna would hit her opponent with both.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber | Wyrmfang​

Both Varin’s saber and Black Blade came up to block the attack at the last moment. The view of golden lightning had intrigued him, but he noticed how the White Blade started to bite into his Black Blade. Varin quickly shifted the attack off center as the blade scraped across his armor, gouging through the plate and leaving a heat trail followed by steam.

The opening in the armor allowed a rush of cooler air, then finally a small trickle of blood dripped to the ground, hissing as it made impact. It stung. More so than usual.

But he did not stop.

The Black Blade answered back with a swift slash, then a stab from the saber towards her midsection. As his attack came in a primal roar left his throat. A powerful shockwave emanating power from his body. Like a cannon firing away artillery but held like an unending weight.

The roar rattled the very foundation beneath the both of them. Soldiers from both sides seemingly losing balance from the tremors.

The force scream that was empowered into a roar from the very being that resided within him.

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAGS: Varin Mortifer​

Jonyna did what she always did in situations like this. Retreat, regroup, then retaliate.

The black blade missed her by millimeters. Her legs erupting half a second before Varin could get a clean blow on her, and the stab was met with a sudden shift in stance, her coat catching the saber stab just in time.

And yet, the scream was what got her. Only a glimpse of it, as suddenly the air rushed out between them, creating a vacuum that silenced the scream.

Still, it was enough to stun her, if only for a moment. Still, she flew backwards, her pyrokinesis thrusting her away from her opponent, as her tail whipped out and drew a new blaster. A foursome of stun bolts fired, trying to make distance between them.

She needed that moment.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

To: Zaiya Ceti Naniti Lysander von Ascania
CC: Mercy Sophelia Ardemark

Time stretched over a fraction of a second, and Cora saw Lysander in motion. Blade drawn, blonde locks snarled in desert grit. She felt the moment his feet touched the sand, and then everything caught up with interest.

The spear connected. It hit something foul, so the Light and Dark did what they always did; rejected the other while trying to consume it at the same time. All of that pressure had nowhere else to go, but out.

Cora didn't hear the explosion, but she felt herself moving through the air. The spear fell from her grasp, useless - or perhaps it was embedded into Mercy's abdomen. That didn't change where she next put her energy, deeper into the earth and beneath the agitated sands.

Vines surged from the granular terrain, sturdy and abrupt. They wove into a thick nest, steadying Lysander's body from the onslaught. Whether he was conscious or not, dead or alive, the gesture came from instinct rather than duty.

Cora hit the ground hard, but the ground was forgiving. She clambered up, limbs aching as Zaiya called for her.

He is not yours,

A storm screamed over Jakku. The sentiment hadn't been meant for her, but Cora latched onto it all the same. Her eyes fell on the Lovalla protecting a fallen padawan, standing against the tempest. Then, to the summoner.

Naniti's form stood in stark contrast to the funnel churning behind her, backlit by violent scores of lightning.

Cora lifted a hand towards the Togruta. For a moment, it looked to be a hand extended in offering. Then, green sparks crawled over her fingers. Bright arcs of emerald electricity surged from her fingertips, devastating and potent. They sought Naniti like a magnet sought polarity.

The Sith thought Lysander belonged to them, and perhaps they were correct. But he'd belonged to her first - it was not the Dark that peered down at him in his cradle on his first day of life. It wasn't the mighty Sith Empire who sat with him on the nursery floor, balancing an old dusty book of fairytales between them. No Darth had ever rocked him to sleep, sat with him as he'd sounded out his letters, or tended to his scraped knees when he'd fallen off his horse.

None of these Empresses and Lords, Acolytes and Triumvirs had loved Lysander in the way that she did. It was impossible. Not because she thought them heartless monsters, but because none of them had witnessed the child who'd grown into the boy who'd grown into the man.

"Get her to the ship!" Cora snarked over the winds and lightning. "Him, too!"

Her's was the sort of love that refused to let go, even now.

[Exit]

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber | Wyrmfang​

The roar though dampened was still enough to stun her for a split moment. Varin used that time to capitalize and regain his footing. The stun bolts then flew towards him, Varin saw them as the forced surged through his body, enhancing his reflexes and strength further. The moved slowly through the air and his hand came up. As if plucked from the air and held their by an unseen force the stun bolts were held aloft, then Varin’s hand jerked to the side changing their trajectory to the ground.

The saber disengaged in his one hand, holstering it to his belt, his hand then reached back drawing the cursed Sith mace. A heavy instrument blessed by Sith sorcery to further enhance its destructive capabilities.

The mace flew downwards in an arc slamming into the duracrete at his feet, shattering the stone on contact. Both hands slowly raised forcing the chunks of stone to rise, then with the Force, he hurled them towards her as she moved. A cloud of stone shrapnel rocketing towards her in a near continuous stream.

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAGS: Varin Mortifer​

It was only a moment. Him switching weapons, dealing with her stun bolts.

It was long enough.

Just before the stone came at her, she sheathed her blades, and drew a new weapon. In that moment, she felt her mother again. Her hand exploded with flame around it, as she slipped her other hand into her coat. A surprise for later.

Then her saber ignited. And she exploded forward, the wind whipping up a vortex around her, blowing away the rock and debris.

"Fight me like a dragon, coward!"

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber | Wyrmfang​

The debris exploded away from her within the whirling vortex. She could tell he was not giving it his all. She wanted to fight Him. Varin’s stance straightened at her demand, a twitch in his hand, not from nervousness or fear, but from a surge of excitement. She wanted to fight the real Him. He threw down the mace at his feet, the black blade within his other hand rested within his grasp and his now free hand drew his saber once again. The blade roaring back to life.

“...Very well…”

A pained breath escaped him as a burning sensation, white hot and as quick as lightning ran up each side of his spine. A crack and a pop echoed from his body as his back seemed to twitch, the smoking cloak sputtered and spat out licks of flame.

Another yell of pain as the flesh of his back started to crack open. Wings slowly sprouting from the wounds as blood spewed onto the ground hot like magma. Stone seemed to melt from its heat. Claws jetted out of the tips of his fingers and through his armored gloves before they wrenched up to his helm his head recoiling back as a wave of pain worked up his forehead.

Soldiers from both sides began to just watch as Varin’s body seemed to pry itself apart and replace parts with another creatures. His claws dug into the metal of his helm before they ripped off the armor. His eyes no longer coals but nearly blackened as horns dug their way out of his forehead and curled back along his skull.

The helm hit the ground with a heavy thud. Finally, his flesh slowly began to burn off as the runes flared, cracking and hardening his flesh, his voice slowly distorted as the wings of flame flexed behind him in near convulsions.

The process was painful. A byproduct of the sadistic ritual that bestowed this gift to him.

Without warning his gaze locked onto hers. Faster than he was before, he leapt towards her. Piercing through the whipping vortex. Smoking tendrils latched on to his weapons as they too began to wield them. Both the black blade and the saber acting as an active defense as he drew closer within the near blink of an eye.

Jonyna Si​