Authoritarian Education

[Darth Abyss]

Nar Shaddaa, Underground Bunker

The bunker deep below the city above the smuggler moon that served as Abyss main base of operation since the fall of Malachor was abandoned besides two figures. No member of the Inner Eye remained, and on most other worlds the streets would already be empty at this time of night. But this was Nar Shaddaa where the night never ended, neither for the clubs nor for the lowlifes that tried to celebrate their sorrows away. And like them, like the moon, Abyss never slept, at least not if there was still work to be done.

The man in the command room was similar to the sith lord in height, but that was where the similarities started and ended. Short blonde hair, beard, blue eyes and a perfectly healthy looking skin color, a strong contrast to the dark tones that Abyss body had, as well as to his grey, corrupted skin. The man looked fairly average, besides the six red glowing metal thorns pierced in his back and the large, deep cut reaching over his whole chest. Right besides the man stood the motionless metal husk that normally was Abyss, lacking the mask which rested on a table in front of the two figures.

Then the bunker door suddenly slit open, leading in another figure. A young Shaliz'Na woman, barely older than eighteen, with angelic wings that had seen far better days and blue hair that looked wasted and broken from being dyed once to often, smoke dancing into the air from a cigarette in her mouth. The woman sneaked inside, her steps barley audible. Then there was a stumble and the loud noise of a drunk falling to the ground. Only a heartbeat later the man had risen, walking to the entrance of the underground structure

"Really Glory? Again? When I agreed to this body I had something else in mind."

The woman on the ground rolled around, clumsily using her arms and wings to get into a sitting position, so she could look at the sith lord inside another body with a mix of anger, sadness and frustration. The tone of her voice shared just enough with that of Abyss A.I. to allow the conclusion that it was actually her inside the angel girl.

"I'm just having fun. You should try it some time."

There was a slight sigh from Abyss, as he extended his hand to help his surrogate daughter inside of the body of some dead junkie up again. Yet she simply ignored the hand, struggling to stand up on her own, her controlled body surrendering to the pull of the alcohol in her bloodstream. When she first picked a human body alongside with his own experiments to partially return to human form they shared a few weeks of father-daughter time, including watching movies, cooking and a few other things he barley understood. But for a few weeks now situations like this had become a constant and slowly he was getting both annoyed and worried.

"Fun? Drinking all day, getting high, making out with strangers and dressing like a hooker is fun to you? I never thought you could disappoint me like this."

Suddenly the woman stood, anger carved into her face, wings reaching from on side of the corridor to another. She stumbled forward, and just for a moment it looked like she was about to hit the man in front of her.

"You got people spying on me again? I can't even."

There was a angry grunt emerging from Glory before she turned her back to her almost father, her wings now completely shielding her from the eyes of Abyss as a few tears began to run down her face. There was a slight sob, the she spoke again.

"Call your girlfriend, I'm sure she isn't looking forward on you spying on your child in future. Maybe she has the right words for what a karking bastard you are."

Abyss knew that it was just an insult, but she was somewhat right. He lacked certain competencies when it came to things outside of war and sith stuff, and Patricia on the other hand was pretty well versed on such things. Maybe she had an idea what he should do with Glory. While the angelic figure made her way into another room, Abyss wrote a message on his com and transmitted it to [member="Miss Blonde"].

"Please come by. Need help with something. -A"

 

[Miss Blonde]

One would be surprised just how much paperwork there was to running a lucrative criminal empire. Most people assumed deals were made in shady back alleys under the light of the full moon, and that might of been true for the small fries trying to play gangster. But for the real operations, the ones that moved everything from stolen items to guns, things were a little different. Well a lot different. There were loading forms, travel permits, fees, taxes, laundering money, running legitimate businesses and the nightmare of forms that had come with them. Blonde was of course in charge of all of it, signing her soul away one signature at a time.

So needless to say any moment she got the chance to bail from that she took. In fact her departure was so quick that by the time she had half way finished the message her chair was swiveling in the breeze of her exit and she had put her coat on while her body was out the door. She moved pretty fast for a pregnant woman.

On my way. she texted Abyss back and by that time she had entered one of her less luxurious speeders as to not draw attention to herself.

"@&#%ing drive." She said with a hint of desperation to escape the mundanity of paperwork.

The speeder then entered the eternal night air of Nar Shaddaa and made its way to Abyss' underground bunker. It had only taken a few minutes but Blonde had arrived soon enough and pulled up to the hidden location. After instructing her driver to head back home, the crime lord approached the secured door and entered the code to gain entry. When the thick blast door opened to her she stepped inside and took a flight of stairs down until she reached a lobby area. She figured Abyss would come find her at this point or one of his cronies could escort her to where he was.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

The body that Abyss currently inhabited made his way to the door, once his com notified him that someone had entered the structure. Wearing only a pair of black pants it was quite easy to see the scar that had made a man into a corpse which had then been revived by sith alchemy and now served as experiment for Abyss. If that wasn't weird enough, the back of the body had six large thorns pierced into his back, each of them showing a slight red glow. With his hands up in the air the man walked into the lobby, speaking as soon as his eyes found [member="Miss Blonde"]. The voice was clearly not that of Abyss, but he made sure to mix in just enough of the echo it had when he spoke in his metal body.

"It is me. Or at least a part of me."

The spell used for all this was quite complex, as instead of risking his life by transferring his essence directly into the body, he used the metal thorns as amplifiers and conduits, allowing his spirit to stay bound to his mask while at the same time inhabiting a body made out of flesh. It wasn't nearly flawless yet, and he still had to work out a few details, but one day or another he would be able to return to the living for Patricia and their child, at least temporarily.

"But I did not asked you to come here so I could show you this body. Glory is giving me a headache again, and honestly I thought someone who is a real parent could probably help. Wait, I will just show you."

For a moment there had been a slight grin on his borrowed face, oddly reminiscent of the one that once belonged to him when first seeing her again, but it had returned to a stoic mask worry and helplessness. He lead her through the bunker, towards the room Glory had left into. On sofa inside the body of the sleeping angel girl rested, tugged in under her own wings, the odour of cigarettes and booze hanging in the air. For a moment he said nothing, thinking that the problem pretty much explained itself. Then he remembered that Patricia had probably absolutely no clue what was happening.

"Short version: Glory asked if she could have a real body as well, I said okay and now all she does is getting drunk or high and spending the night force knows where."

Without opening her eyes the girl on the sofa followed up on Abyss explanation, a slight yetr obvious anger in her voice. Glory was an A.I. and so while her body slept she returned into digital form, watching everything from Patricia's arrival to now silently, waiting for the perfect moment to respond.

"You forgot the part where you had people spying on me. Hi."

The almost motionless body lazily lifted a hand as a greeting aimed at Blonde. She guessed that having her here could probably play out in her favour for once, at least if she didn't tried to alter her personality matrix this time.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Although she felt marginally bad about it, Blonde didn't run forward to embrace Abyss. In fact she kept a slight distance. This was certainly an... adjustment. But she had enough of his DNA laying around in cold storage to clone a new body for him should he want it, just don't ask how she got it. It all just felt foreign to her, she had fallen in love with Abyss and his unique face and looks. To kiss a new one or to be held by hands that were not truly his, it just didn't feel right. Not to mention the whole creepy Lovecraftian Re-Animator gig he had going on was more than a little unsettling.

"Yeah just give me a second." Blonde said as she went through the process of removing her gas mask.

With a few snaps and hisses of lost pressure, the infamous gas mask slipped off her face and she set it on a nearby counter. Her face was as calm and gentle as always and although there was a slight look of discomfort on it, her smile shined through it. She was just happy that she could be with him and that this whole ordeal was just a bumpy patch in their relationship rather than the end of days. Because she was not going through that again, not now and not ever. So with that uncomfortable smile she followed Abyss into the room where Glory was being kept.

She then watched carefully and observed the AI turned organic and the display between the two. It honestly reminded Patricia of her father and family. For as inexperienced as Abyss might of been when it came to love and lust, Patricia was quite the opposite. So when their little show had wrapped up, she simply laughed. Her uncomfortable smile turned to actual laughter and soon it died down as she wiped away a slight tear in her eye.

"Honestly, she's just like me when I was young. I can't tell you how often I pissed my dad off with my drinking, partying, and extreme amounts of gratuitous sexual intercourse. I had actually lost count I think." Blonde chuckled again and stepped forward.

"Then again you're a lightweight compared to me. When I was that young I ran Zeltros' party scene and I even beat out the native species. But let me give you some advice." Blonde approached the AI until she was only a few feet away.

"One day you're gonna wake up in a pool of your own vomit next to some guy you don't even know, and you're going to cry. You're going to have a hole inside you and you're going to realize that all this, the parties, the drugs, the people you thought were your friends. You are nothing to them. So you're gonna try to fill that hole with fake relationships, your job, more drugs, but the hole doesn't get filled. And then you're take a look around and realize that everybody likes you and thinks you're the best. But nobody really loves you." Blonde then paused for a moment.

"And that... that is the loneliest feeling you will ever know." the emotional deadness of a war veteran with PTSD, Blonde spoke to the AI before turning to Abyss and smiling.

"And maybe you'll get lucky and you'll have someone who truly loves and is the best fiancé in the world. Or at the very least you tolerate his bull$&#% because he makes you feel less broken." And it was those words she slowly reached over and held Abyss' hand interlocking her fingers with this corpse.

She definitely wasn't having sex with it though, that was a hard limit.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Feeling her touch was a quite strange sensation. While he had worked on this body for weeks now it felt as foreign to him than on the first day, it was like a fog that clouded his senses, leaving him only with diminished impressions of everything. The hand of the corpse was to cold for that of a living human, but far to warm for someone actually dead, the damaged heart only slowly pumping by the power of twisted magic and alchemy. Yet he was happy to at least feel something again, instead of the all devouring emptiness that came from his body of dead steel. This was just a single step on a longer path, like his way to transcendence his way back to humanity would be more than just a few weeks.

"I'm nothing like you. Or at least you have no idea how it is to have Darth Antisocial here for a father."

Glory slightly pushed her body in a more upright position, trying her best to make the statement sound convincing. Obviously it wasn't true, besides them being unlike each other in regards to their nature, [member="Miss Blonde"]'s retelling of her past seemed to be rather fitting to her current situation. The only thing that she really questioned was if Patricia's father was anything like Abyss. Not that the sith lord had turned out to be the worst parent in galactic history, but his parenting methods where more than a little questionable.

"You know how many times I caught his people spying on me this week? Three times. The worst thing is that he isn't even sorry, always pretending that nothing happened."

The angelic girl allowed her body to fall back onto the couch, she had said enough already. She was well aware that another child was on the way for Abyss, and that Blonde would probably have the last word when it came to his style of education. Abyss turned over his now fiance, keeping his borrowed head low to not look her into her eyes. Sure spying on people wasn't "right" but he did it for pretty much all of the handful of people he cared about. It was just his way, keeping an eye out to keep to close to him out of trouble.

"Nar Shaddaa is a dangerous place for a girl like you Glory. Without them watching you who knows what could happen. You could get mugged, killed ... or worse. I just want you to be safe."

The worry in the face of the reanimated corpse was real, and surpsingly similar to the equivalent expression of his old face. Was he a little paranoid? Yes, but he had seen enough of the galaxy to have all reason to do so.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Looking down, Blonde cycled through a few emotions. She paused for a few moments before letting out a humor filled chuckle before looking back up at the young lady, and when she did her eyes and face read with the intent of a mother who was holding back a literal wave of destruction. And that wave was masked behind a smile that had nothing but good intentions on it, what could she say to the kid? She wasn't her mom, and as much as she wanted to play house she knew that Abyss had to rear his own kids and gain experience in doing so before their own child came.

"Listen. You can change the subject matter all you want. Was Abyss wrong in stalking you? Maybe a little, but it comes from a place of love and you need to understand that. He only wants to see you safe and happy. Now I told you what's going to happen to you if you keep going down this path, I'm well aware you heard it loud and clear by the way you are deflecting the subject that is looking into your own personal problems." Blonde rather than wax poetic and use euphemisms, she laid what she could out for the girl.

She then turned to Abyss and looked up at him. She was tired and her ankles were swelling, she wanted to sit down and try not to be weirded out by him holding her with what was basically a dead guy's corpse. This was just their relationship until they could grow a clone for temporary storage for more adult activities and she'd accept it for what it was.

"I don't blame you, Unity. I really don't. But only you can decide to help yourself, Atton and I can't do it for you." Blonde then sighed and decided that it was about time to sit down and have a private chat with her fiancé.

"Sweetheart we need to talk. Could you please take me to the bedroom? My feet are sore and I need to sit down. The little bastard has been pressing against my bladder all damn day and I need to take a load off." Placing her arms over her pregnant stomach she would then turn her back on the struggling AI and hoped that her words would leave an effect.

Abyss had reminded her of her own father. Over protective, not understanding, and Blonde got the girl. Truly she did, but having once been in her shoes she knew that there was no happy ending to the life she wanted to live. An excess life of hedonism and debauchery only got you so far before you crashed and burned into self destructing tendencies. Some of which still haunted Blonde to this day.

"Is there any deviled eggs here? I've been craving those smothered in mega death sauce." Blonde said as she began to make her exit.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

The A.I. remained silent, clearly lost in thought about the words spoken by [member="Miss Blonde"]. But she and Abyss knew that they ringed true to some degree, and while she was still not happy about the lack of parenting skill exhibited by her weird surrogate sith zombie father she at least accepted that he wasn't like this with ill intend. It would take some time until she would get adjusted to the idea that Abyss took his role as her father a little bit more serious than she had expected, exactly like he still needed time to figure out how to be a parent. The resurrected dead body looked at the other resurrected dead body a last time, Abyss giving her the warmest look he was capable of. Which was probably a lot creepier than the walking dead body.

"Follow me."

The sith lord lead Patricia through the guts of his dim light bunker, towards his private quarters. The room was even more chaotic then the last time they had been there, as he had left behind the need to sleep completely since then. With every step he needed to watch out to not step on anything, artifacts, notes and books littered absolute everywhere, rings and amulets worth a small fortune careless thrown to the ground to make place for his current projects. On the small table besides the bed six metal thorns alike those in the back of the body could be seen, around them roughly a hundred drawings and notes that recorded his work done to this point.

With a move of his left his bed was cleared from the junk that had gathered on it. The moment the force was summoned by the corpse there was a short burst of yellow in his eyes, then the body dropped to his knees. That was the main problem he was still trying to work around, making sure that his body wouldn't break under the weight of his power. Standing up again he motioned her to sit down on the bed, taking place on the only free chair in the room himself.

"Sorry, but no one in this household actually eats. I can call one of my man to get you whatever you need?"

From another pile of junk he reached for a datapad, making clear that despite the utter chaos he still knew exactly what and where everything in this room was. He handed it over to her, so she could make her order in case she wanted to. The corpse moved around the chair a bit uneasily, trying to balance out the metal pierced into his back.

"So what do you want to talk about?"