Private Aftermath

[Marek Silvanus]

TAG: Danika Leventis

How long had it been; Two, maybe three weeks? Ever since Marek’s eyes had been opened by Danika that fateful day years ago, much had happened in his development. Rather than the recluse content in exploring ancient Jedi archaeological sites to come to a greater understanding of the ancient Jedi, under Danicka’s tutelage, Marek had come to see the force as a wider spectrum. Rather than burrowing within obscure ruins of the Jedi, Marek had ventured upon worlds previously considered forbidden through his tutelage under his previous master.

Korriban lay inaccessible to him due to the efforts of the ultra-zealous Ashlan Crusade, as well as Dromund Kaas. But Exegol - the temple there, with its labyrinthine catacombs and tombs of bygone practitioners of the dark side; it had served as a sort of awakening for the young man. Meanwhile, Danika had done much to expand his connection through the force, aiding him to open his mind to the chaotic energies of the Netherworld. His natural curiosity and affinity for the unknowable and unknown had taken over - as his connection to the Netherworld grew stronger, and he eventually cultivated the ability to enter the netherworld under Danika’s guidance; he found himself getting lost within it in mind, body, and soul.

His dalliances within the Netherworld likely served as a source of annoyance to his newfound mistress, so much so that a few weeks prior, she had hardly informed him that she would be accompanying the forces of the Maw to the Siege of Tython. In truth, he probably should have accompanied her given his newfound status as her pupil. But he found himself inescapably drawn to the energies of the nether, to the detriment of his responsibilities as her apprentice.

Except for when he received an urgent, and very explicit message from Samron. Marek did not have much of a relationship with Danika’s Faleen companion, and they said little to each other on any regular basis. To receive a message from him was rare indeed. The contents were rather spartan and direct - demanding that he come to Tython. To use his exact words, it was a ‘matter of life and death’. Both the rarity of the message from its sender, and the abrupt ’beep’ of its very arrival had pulled Marek into a state of consciousness from his mental delving into the netherworld. As he rose to his feet and read the message, a slight touch of confusion flashed across his mind. Even still, he found himself striding with purpose over to the cockpit to make way to the coordinates sent to him. He couldn’t quite put his finger as to why he felt such urgency save for one detail - the coordinates pinpointed a location on the surface of Tython itself.

Something didn’t feel right, but he would find out why.

 

[Danika Leventis]

TAG: Marek Silvanus

SPARKLE OUT OF BLACK HOLE​

It's time to get up, Danigirl...

Her soft voice, not often heard. That voice reserved for the most private of moments - the moments of peace before mobilising the next onslaught.
Why? It's so quiet here.
No, darling. It's not yet time for you to rest.
The Lady of Night looked haunted as she spoke the words to her once-apprentice.
What's wrong?
Time to go!

"Danika?!"

Samron's loud, worried voice was jarring, yanking her back from the peace of the grove in the Nether.

Pain hit her consciousness like a sledgehammer in such a way that a cry could not be suppressed.
"Easy easy!" Samron ordered from above to someone else. It was then that Danika realised she was being carried while something whipped up dust all around.
"S-Samron?" Confusion and pain was more than evident in her voice, soft though it was.
"Silvanus has arrived, Mistress. We'll be heading up to the Fortuna soon." he reassured, his own worry evident.
"T-the Knight?"
"I don't know. We got you out while his men was still on the way. He was barely alive himself."

Engines of a ship could be heard.
"Silvanus! Get her to the medical bay and pain relief stat! We'll follow with the dropship." Samron barked forward.
Without ceremony she was loaded into a ship and then the chaos of the planet got shut out and was just her and her apprentice as the ship took off.
"Wh-what are you d-doing here?" she groaned, but the disgust in her voice was evident nonetheless.

He had abandoned her in a crucial moment, after all.

 

[Marek Silvanus]

TAG: Danika Leventis

Without even the slightest hesitation, Marek accepted the load of Danika’s limp form from Samron, quickly striding from the boarding ramp to the med bay. As he did so, he barked orders of his own to a small astromech droid in the cockpit. ”R8, get us out of here. Now!”

He settled Danika onto an observation table so that he could examine her wounds when she looked him in the eyes and spoke.

"Wh-what are you d-doing here?"

Danika’s question hung thick in the air. Despite the state she was in, the disgust in her voice was palpable, as if she meant to spit the very words from her mouth. To be fair... he couldn’t blame her either. He had lost himself in the currents of the Netherworld, and in absorbing the irresistible allure of its arcane energies. It was as if he fell deeper into another form of consciousness each time he delved within it, to the detriment of all else around him in the normal universe.

It wasn’t hard to do. Despite Danika being the catalyst for his extrasensory awakening, as well as her guiding hand in helping him to take his first steps in a larger realm of existence; a part of him still...

Despised her.

While he wouldn’t trade what he was experiencing for anything in the galaxy, he couldn’t deny the radical changes in his life that had occurred. His life-long aspiration to reunite with his sister had been categorically and decisively dashed with her untimely death, and at the hands of his former master no less.

Speaking of which, there was also the fact his former master had slain his sister, and had pushed Marek quite literally over the edge in both grief and anger. Had it not been for Danika’s surprising restraint, Marek would have likely killed his life-long mentor, which in and of itself caused immeasurable feelings of guilt within him after the fact.

He was disgraced and lost. Everything he had ever known and had ever hoped for had been turned upside down. In truth, Danika was... all he really had in the galaxy, and it had taken a while to come to terms with that. Her teachings had done much to distract him from confronting it all, but once he took to her lessons as totally as he had, the weight of everything just mentioned had come crashing down upon him all at once.

It wasn’t right, and it wasn’t fair; to either of them.

That fact couldn’t have been stressed any further than with the physical distress Danika was currently in. Marek looked her in the eyes with a sense of renewed purpose and responsibility as he replied: ”I’m saving your life.”

He rummaged into a series of cabinets by the examination table, producing a small syringe and vial of adrenaline. He stabbed the needle of the syringe into the medical seal on the vial and pulled back the plunger, forcing its contents into the reservoir. He then stuck the needle into her side and pushed in the plunger, placing his free hand on her hand in a... rare moment of consolation and tenderness.

The adrenaline would stabilize her nervous system if only temporarily, which would afford him the opportunity to examine her wounds. To say they were severe would have been a major understatement. Lacerations, burns, blunt force trauma, a dislocated shoulder - you name it, she had some measure of it. The extent of her injuries were far beyond his rudimentary medical expertise, but thankfully, the ship they were aboard possessed a bacta tank. Before doing so, he had to set her shoulder. He placed a small 'bite down' up to her mouth, and said warmly: "This... might hurt." He would wait for her to accept the 'bite down' or reject it before he gingerly placed his hand on her shoulder, and began to count: "One..."

Before the word 'two' was spoken when one might expect it, his hands shifted abruptly - setting the shoulder back into Danika's socket. He would wait for Danika to undoubtedly get the piss and vinegar out of her mouth befor ehe set about securing an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose; taking great care to be gentle in consideration of her wounds while doing so. Then, he set about picking her up and carrying her over to the bacta tank. He placed her carefully within it, laying her on her back and double checking the seals over her oxygen mask.

The bubble sealed over her, and Marek placed a hand over the glass as the healing gel filled the chamber. His hand would remain there until the healing properties of the bacta, along with the sedatives mixed in, caused Danika to fall into a deep sleep.

[/color]

 

[Danika Leventis]

TAG: Marek Silvanus

SPARKLE OUT OF BLACK HOLE​

"I'm saving your life."

Teal eyes narrowed at him.
"You're a bit late for that. Samron beat you to...ugh....beat you to it." she gritted and groaned. Yet, his soft touch caught her by surprise as adrenaline was injected into her side.

After this, several things happened almost at once.

"This... might hurt."

Her shoulder getting reset ripped a cry of pain from her. The throbbing dulled everything else out, including the pain of her shattered knee while she didn't even notice as she was carried to a bacta tank.

She still had a slight limp as her knee was still on the mend. Extensive repairs had to be done and the road to recovery was longer than other injuries.
Samron walked around on Vestar with the look of war on his angular face and his demeanour toward Marek wasn't exactly stellar either.

In the courtyard hidden under the rainforest canopy behind the senatorial mansion that Danika had claimed as her residence when she had conquered the planet, she turned to face her apprentice, casting the cane to one side.
"Do you wish to properly learn what it means to be a master, Marek? If you wish to learn the secrets of the Nether and harness its true power, you must first learn to stay alive longer than two seconds against an adversary in the physical realm." she said. If he had faced the Imperial Knight that she had faced on Tython, he wouldn't have survived.

And she needed a strong right hand if she were to face that Knight again.

​

 

[Marek Silvanus]

TAG: Danika Leventis

The trip to Vestar passed painstakingly slowly. While Danika rested in full submersion within the bacta tank in a semi-state of consciousness, Marek observed her vital signs during the majority of the journey. Upon arrival, Samron was quick to board his ship and extricate their mistress without skipping a beat; and this time, with a full medical team at his disposal. It did not surprise Marek that the Falleen regarded him with a frosty demeanor.

Danika had almost died, and it wasn’t hard to put the pieces together that in the eyes of both Danika and Samron, Marek had a level of culpability in that near-miss. Although Danika’s vital signs steadily strengthened during the trip to Vestar, the former Jedi Knight couldn’t help but ponder over the implications of if she had, in fact, died. Deep feelings of loss and regret filled him as he did so. During her slumber within the tank, it was as if... as if Marek had finally seen her for the first time.

When faced with the prospect of losing his only real companion, it was sobering to confront the emotions that lay underneath. He wasn’t sure exactly what he felt, but he knew one thing.

He wouldn’t let her face a threat like that alone. Not again.

As he stood before her within the courtyard, beams of sunlight broke through the dense canopy. The light danced around them both in a tranquil scene - a vista he would likely have found compelling had he still practiced the ways of the Jedi. Of course, he still meditated - but he found his meditations increasingly dominated by, as previously mentioned, his newfound journeys into the Netherworld.

Rather than feelings of peace, he felt... feelings of hunger. A need to delve ever deeper into the unknown. Perhaps that feeling alone should have been enough for him to keep in mind how important it was to dedicate time to learning from his new master. He was like a youth who had just learned how to drive a speeder, and who refused to master the practice before speeding headlong into the air. It was a wonder he had not crashed in so doing, or worse.

As he lost himself in thought once again, Danika spoke.

"Do you wish to properly learn what it means to be a master, Marek? If you wish to learn the secrets of the Nether and harness its true power, you must first learn to stay alive longer than two seconds against an adversary in the physical realm."

Her cane had been cast aside, with a neutral expression on her face. Normally, Marek did well to read his new master’s thoughts (although in fairness, she usually did not hide her feelings very often). Yet this time, he was uncertain what to expect. His former training kicked in as his senses reached out, and as his reflexes primed themselves. He stood at the ready, but otherwise made no other motion as he nodded and replied:

”I am ready... Master.” His expression was equally neutral as he steeled himself, despite being unsure what to expect. He was no neophyte, so her words were at first a bit troubling to him. He was a Jedi Knight on the verge of ascending to the rank of Master, so he was not without power of his own.

But he could not deny the fact that Danika held power of another realm than what he was accustomed to. If a Jedi could nearly kill her of all people, then perhaps he was not as capable as he thought.