Asha Seren's Last Mission: Thedus Lorr

[Jericho]

A breeze from the jungle, the smell of hot rain brushing on the earth. The sounds of crying calls of animals and the moving leaves filled the air around him. It was early morning and it was time for him to get up, preparing for yet another journey. He looked at the stone ground for a moment before darkness took over by the cover of his hands with a light rub of his face and a deep, heavy, breath. The feet touched the ground from which he hovered over in his meditation making no noise despite the heavy robes and armor that he wore. He stood tall and walked to see over the hill in which he stayed to see the vast jungle that was the planet of Teth. The warrior was given a mission in which he was more than obliaged to take given that it was from his former master. One last deed he would do for the woman who cared for him where no one else gave him the time of day, he was the least he could do. The woman gave him a name that he was not familiar with but it had its significance.

"Seek out the Slaver known as Arthos, but don't be fooled by his profession; the man is a Sith, and dangerous at that. He holds captive my daughter. Do not view this as a selfish act on my part, she can help you. It is her destiny." The voice of her master echoed through his mind.

A name was given.

[member="Arthos Vynea"]

When his name was released from her lips, his fate had already been sealed. The warrior was a skilled tracker and hunter from his days when he worked as a sentinel and hunted sith as well as dirt rotten person as a game. It did not take him long to find his way all the way to the outer rim and the planet of Teth. He cracked his neck as he as closed in on the slaver and the felt the presence of of Asha's daughter, in pain and distraught. He unleashed a flurry of sensation that was his own presence. A mixture of the rage of darkness and serenity of light, he cared little at this point, the warrior did something he rarely did, rushed in.

He was at peace in this flurried mess of mind filled with all and yet at balanced. He thought of his lovers and his family, he thought of all the wars and death that lead him here and what he was going to do next. The future remained unclear but his purpose for being here stand true. The warrior jumped on the edge and force crushed the door into a ball and tossed to the side as if a sheet of paper and walked in. His double bladed saber in hand and its orange light ignited ready for any one who would come against him and his mission.

[member="Thédus Lorr"]

 

[Arthos Vynea]

He felt the presence just before it announced itself by crushing the front gate, an act that annoyed him more then the presence itself. He smiled to himself as he looked over towards her awaiting another lesson, perhaps unwanted but received all the same. The light it seemed had arrived for her. He should have been surprised, but he wasn't, there was simply something about her that had interested him since the first moments. Was it really any surprise she'd left imprints before on others? Releasing his robe he let it fall aside leaving it in her room as he motioned for her to join him. His fingers touched the dark stained wood rails as he traveled down the stairs, he felt rather like he was in a dream. An inescapable fate was approaching him, and of that he had no doubt. The presence outside had all the strength of a master, and Arthos had no doubt the knowledge of one as well.

Opening the door he exited first feeling the girl's presence close behind him, her savoir had come. Taking a step out onto the large ornate porch of his island home the Sith smile only grew as he gazed upon her rescuer. "You should have sent word ahead, I'd have had some refreshments ready." To both sides of him a few dozen pairs of feet were heard as his men moved to flank both sides of the intruder. Looking over her shook his head at their commander, and shooed them away with his fingers. Fate wasn't stopped by a few pitiful blasters, and nor should it be. She would have her way either way.

Turning to his 'apprentice' he gestured to a chair on the porch near him. "It seems you've run out of time. It's too bad, I had such hopes for you. Perhaps another will teach you to act, and stop being a prisoner of your own doing." Turning back towards the Jedi he nodded and knelt closing his eyes as he meditated before it all began, and perhaps ended. There was no reason to believe the Jedi wouldn't cut him down while he prepared, but that hardly seemed to matter to the Sith Knight who was to face a master of the Force. Breathing in and out slowly he could feel it all around him again, the durasteel digging into his knees as he waited for her. As she taught he brought the Force around him under his control, a raging tornado of emotions, and the thrill of the fight. Grasping it in full he tightened his mind's defenses, and once more swept his mind outward like a great gust of wind in his mind. She hadn't come, and he knew she never would again.

Standing he took three steps off the porch and lit up his yellow tonfas' as his smile faded behind focus. Rage at the very galaxy boiled within him now, a consuming rage that was still beyond him to completely control. The field was uneven, but he wouldn't flee it. There was no reason to flee any longer. Well with a single thought for the past he couldn't help but chuckle almost bursting his control for a moment. At least there would be no rocket powered bantha this time. His first movement wasn't a physical attack, he already knew he was beaten there with his opponents telekinesis. Instead he attacked his mind, his connection to the Force pressing his own rage at his opponent, probing for a hole to plunge his hate into.

[member="Jericho"] @Thédus Lorr

 

[Jericho]

The warrior had held a lot of memories from his great many adventures and exploration of sith ruins. In terms of the sith ruins, none of the memories were any type of good. The very thought of the smell of rotting bodies permeating the air entered his nose as he walked down the halls of enslavement camp. Well, at least it covers the smell of poorly taken cared of slaved that remained there. Jericho cursed no one and remained calm as he could as he sliced through the locks for every slave he walked by. The poor souls had endured enough from what it seemed like, the warrior would not allow them to endure more than they had to. As he closed into the corridor of which Asha Seren's daughter was held he could feel the movement through the air followed. He could feel the burst of energy come towards him expected a force push or some other type of physical attack he prepped himself for a hand to hand battle.

Instead he felt the rage from his incoming foe that sparked a luminescent yet at the same time blurred, shortened memory.

Midnight found Jericho crouched in the shadows. He was covered with sweat and exhausted, but he smiled. Jericho and his new formed group showed up at the exact time as another sith group, the aim was for an ambush. "Today we have your heads! Charge!" His men rushed into the fray. Blood sprayed across the ground. Jericho cautiously put a hand on his chain scythe, a weapon he had to keep the sith from thinking it was a jedi attack, and got ready to pull. It was strung from between two scaffolds and when pressure was applied would cut the supports dropping both of them to ground cutting off retreat for both groups. In a moment the bodies had piled high enough for the sith who began to shout for retreat. Jericho yanked his weapon hard, the scaffolds crashing down in a roar that crushed the lucky ones and trapped the rest. "What was that? What's going on?" Panic was everywhere. Even the weakened force of the sith were bewildered.

Jericho scrambled to the top of a pile of rubble and started to swing his chain vertically. When all eyes were on him he began to speak. "I am The ghost.... The sith hunter.....Those of you here now have forgotten the most important thing in survival. Intelligence. With only a few words I alone have brought down the two most powerful siths in this area. Perhaps in your next life you shall be reincarnated as something with a brain." And then he hurled his scythe up wards toward the sky, cutting some rope and triggering the second trap. Lumber began to fall from the sky with deadly and inescapable force. An overturned brazier poured fire onto the wooden tomb. Jericho watched the fire burn, making sure everyone was dead before tossing the piece of cloth that had summoned him here into the fire. "That's the end of it. Everyone you loved, everyone you hated, and everyone who betrayed you is now dead. I hope this brings you some measure of peace down....." He grunted. "Well, at least now you have some company."

The rage. The hate. The satisfaction.

As calm as the warrior seemed his core was a flurry of emotion, the attack made on his mind made its point. Jericho took in a deep breathe as he continued to walk until his foe came into view. "I felt your rage...." The warrior whispered quietly to his foe. "Now feel the power...." Jericho took in yet another deep breathe before releasing a powerful force bellow that shook the very place they were in.

[member="Arthos Vynea"]

 

[Lief]

She had forced herself to quench the flames.

Only by toeing a very thin line had she managed it, and it had proven the only way of receiving such respite. The light yielded immeasurable pain, the dark worse. And Arthos tormented her with his repeated attempts at wooing her to the darkness; he would not relent, not even after all he had done, not even after all he had seen the Darkside do to the child. He had witnessed first hand the fire which engulfed the underneath of her skin, he had heard the foul whispers of the Force as it had condoned her to such a fate.

And yet he pressed further still.

He was a monster, as was the Force. Light, Dark, it mattered not to her, the Force was nothing to the girl who had tried for her entire life to reject it. And now she had real cause to.

Forced to play along with his farce. Forced to keep her emotions to an all time minimum. Jyn was stoic. She was bent to Arthos' will, because any deviation in this stoicism would render her ablaze. She could not be happy, she could not be sad, nor angry, or humiliated. There was nothing for her. It wasn't even Balance. It was nothingness. And it was almost impossible to uphold.

So many times had the flames caught her since that first, horrific experience. So many times had her mind strayed only to feel the heated embrace of her lava-filled veins.

She followed after Arthos without a word. She could not worry after her own fate. She could not relish in the thought of this pitiful existence coming to an end. Perhaps she would finally die. Perhaps she would be forced onto yet another path not of her own choosing.

Her gaze set down to her feet. She did not wish to look upon whoever had come for her. What if it was Tirdarius? What would he think of her now?

As they stepped out into the exterior atrium, the porch, Arthos halted. Jyn followed suit, like a dog to heel. And when he gestured for her to sit she did just that. Defiance made him angry. And his anger reflected upon her. The bond he had unknowingly forced between them when he tore her mind made that so. A bond broken only through death. But the question was, would it be his or hers?

[member="Arthos Vynea"] [member="Jericho"]

 

[Arthos Vynea]

The bellow shook him to his core as he fell to one knee, his hand shooting down to catch him as he felt his insides clutch in pain. His left ear which had been facing the man bleed as his eardrum burst leaving him deaf on that side. Forcing himself to stand he looked at his opponent and simply laughed, perhaps the girl wouldn't free him after all, perhaps he'd found the one here in front of him. The hate inside of him battled to be free, to rage upon the battlefield, but he didn't obey the new voice in his head, he knew it would soon end anyway.

He walked forward toward his opponent blades ignited outward as he gripped the Force tightly yet again, the anger was not gone yet, the rage and hate still burned strong in him, but he'd burn it out here, he knew how to now. He channeled it all then into himself as he took his first swing, the left blade swinging back under his arm he moved it towards the staff itself attempting to simply force it from the equation by engaging it. The right he swung low towards the man's leg, both blows lacked finesse, he was no master of combat, raw ability which he'd never honed.

[member="Thédus Lorr"]
[member="Jericho"]

 

[Jericho]

Jericho deactivated his sabers and crack his neck as the man began to laugh, the warrior needn't his weapon the force bellow was a powerful technique but one of his weaker skills to test out his foes and it seemed the Zabrak was not an adversary to use his blades on rather the warrior clipped his sabers and thought of a martial art he would use. Where the Zabrak saw this may be life or death, Jericho saw this as a training regiment. With a breath went into a Stava stance, he reveal that he was a southpaw and had a different range of motion compared to most other warriors. With his eyes he could read into the man's motions and movements with hyper-kinetic speed. This little game was over before it had even started. The other came at him with a rage that burned lightly than that of many sith, Jericho would feel something and quiet ring of light, it made the warrior slightly curious. It reminded him of another sith that gave himself to protect another, now would, the sith do something similar? Jericho took a deep breath and merely took a step foreword and punched the man's shoulder digging deep into a pressure point. Following the attack revealed his strength and put man into a guillotine choke and forced him onto his knee. Holding the man down an easing out his oxygen, Jericho made sure only to sap the others strength and not his consciousness. "Where is @Thédus Lorr?" The warrior stated calmly.

[member="Arthos Vynea"]

 

[Arthos Vynea]

He felt his airway closing at it all moved to fast for his experience, he couldn't keep up to the hardened veteran's abilities. His question though puzzled him, he didn't know the girl he was looking for was right there on the porch? Had he just been sent after a name? Then again he supposed she'd been damaged enough that perhaps he just couldn't recognize her any longer, she wasn't the girl he knew. Arthos wasn't ready to give in either way, he knew how this fight was supposed to end, and it wasn't surrender. His tonfas still lit he swung the right one around into his opponent's arm to get out of his grasp.

With a burst he put some distance between his overly skilled opponent, and went back to his first attempt at defeating the man. Focusing back on him mentally the Zabrak let go of his anger, and let the rage fade inside of him. Instead he reached to his sorrow, his loss, the wound in his heart he could find no solace from. He pushed that on the warrior stabbing into his mind and with any luck letting it fester there. Tears wet his eyes for a brief moment as he surrendered to it pulling it out of himself and facing it full on. It was a deep throb that stole the light from the world and left him empty, but perhaps that would be enough to distract his opponent, even if just for the moment.

[member="Jericho"]
[member="Thédus Lorr"]

 

[Lief]

Four words.

Just four words were all it took for Jyn to rise from the seat she had been instructed to sit at. Her eyes bore holes into the back of Arthos' skull, and she felt the telltale prickle which arose before her skin usually erupted. But she did not care. Let the fire fuel her, let the pain take over.

She was done with simply sitting by and letting her life get screwed with.

It was time to take control.

Arthos had never tried to keep her from possessing weapons, in fact he had always left them in plain sight believing she'd never have the gall to use them. That was his first mistake. She could feel him retreat into his mind as he tried to use mentalism to battle his opponent, being the Empath that she was it wasn't difficult to tell what he was doing.

That was his second mistake.

Fingers fell upon the vibroknives she had been carrying upon her belt, used during the training sessions he insisted she attend. There was no hesitation on her part as she stepped toward where he was stood and directed both of the blades into his back. She had studied him for a long time, she had done her research; she knew that a simple stab would not kill his kind.

Twin hearts... Ironic, really, given that Arthos seemed to possess none.

She did not care if it was a cowards thing to do, to stab someone in the back. She was done caring about everybody else in that moment.

Yet there was a bond between them. Any damage he felt, she would feel too.

Already her skin burned fiercely, veins flowing with what looked to be lava. "Here" she said, in response to Jericho's question, her voice cracking slightly as her flesh began to burn up. A shrill scream of pain broke from her lips, she could never quite adjust to the feeling of the Darkside's curse.

She did not know if her knives had met their mark. Jyn fell to her knees in agony all the same.

[member="Arthos Vynea"] [member="Jericho"]