Beauty Can Burn Away

[Aela Talith]

Nemene followed Jenna eventually, hiding the blade in the hemlines of her dress at the small of her back. There it would remain hidden until she needed it. A slight frown settled on her face, but she shook her head and stepped up beside the younger woman as she saw the city.

It was beautiful.

There was no denying that. The Echani it seemed had a way with architecture, a way of making things look pretty at the very least. For a brief moment Nemene pursed her lips, scar tissue prickling slightly as she simply looked at the city ahead of them. Finally she decided to shake her head. It was no good standing around here watching, there was much to do.

She began to walk, Jenna following along quietly.

“We are here to find me a new body.” Nemene said as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

This was another test of course, another probe into the girls mind to see how she would react.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Oh.

They were going body snatching.

Jenna's eyebrows found themselves raised quizzically. This really was a whole new world. Finding a new body, a host sounded like something out of a horror film but in the realm of Sith Lords it was something to be dropped into conversation as casually as you liked.

“A new bo...”

She let her sentence trailed off, actually trying to think rather than just repeat that last thing that [member="Nemene"] had said.

Jenna supposed that it made a certain amount of sense. The current body that she now inhibited wasn't actually hers, there could have been no real attachment to it. It was also scarred and marred to high hell, as they walked through the streets they couldn't help but gather strange looks. Two woman dressed like shabby queens, one as if she had fought naked with a barbed wire fence, the other looking like she let moths eat her dress.

“I understand,” she finally replied hesitantly, “….I think.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

Nemene ignored Jenna for a while. Her eyes simply gazed at the different Echani. They were all rather pretty in a way. Stark white hair, pale eyes, bright skin. All of them seemed impossibly toned and trained, their muscles twitching.

Jenna and Nemene were the outliers here, they were the strangers, the minority.

Briefly she wondered why and how things would develop, where they would go from here. IF she snatched a new body, found someone that she liked, then what would she do? Go to Zygerria? Get power once more? Why?

So she could satisfy herself.

That was always the answer. Nemene demanded satisfaction. She demanded to be pleased, to have her way. She knew that was the answer, she knew in the back of her mind that it would always be the answer for why she did anything. So she could be satisfied. Suddenly, as if a wall hit her she stopped.

“Her.” Nemene said pointing to a young lady buying fruit.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Well they were certainly a distinct people.

It was a culture shock. On Coruscant you were used to blending in, you were a part of unfathomable population, nobody gave Jenna a second glance back home, but here, here they were foreign, standing out like two sore thumbs, casualties of the thumb wars.

They looked like tattered princesses.

[member="Nemene"] admittedly got more glances, given that her flesh was a veritable battlefield of scars but even Jenna was attracting strange glances. She blamed the dress, it was out of place. Out of place on this planet and out of place on her body. It definitely didn't suit who she was, however the torn prison jumpsuit wouldn't exactly work out either.

Not to mention the fact that she would be exposed.

After a while the Sith Lord finally picked her unfortunate target, and this made Jenna frown. They were out in the public, they looked strange, how were they going to pull this off?

“How?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

Nemene smiled.

“She's going to encounter a lost little sheep.” She looked back at Jenna, her eyes shifting slightly, gaze becoming sinister.

The woman that Nemene had chosen looked to be in her late twenties. She was fully grown and certainly fit, she had dull gray eyes and bright silvery hair. Besides that she looked like an ordinary Echani, though she was strikingly beautiful. Nemene knew that most Echani had a rigid code of honor, one that included helping those who could not help themselves.

Part of her education as a child had been on cultures, the Echani had been an important one.

Moridin had always like warrior cultures. Mandalorians, Iridionians, and yes the Echani, had all been primary lessons. Nemene smiled, then walked over to Jenna. She whispered in the womans ear, a plot to lure the target into a nearby alleyway, a simple thing really. Jenna would ask for help for her friend, Nemene would be that friend.

When the Echani came close, she would strike.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Lost little ship and Nemene in the same sentence seemed odd, and definitely out of place. Jenna of course having had enough experience with this woman to know that if that were true then she herself was a Gamorrean.

That could fly.

When her Master had slipped off into the alleyway Jenna had a brief moment to herself to contemplate. Was it racist or xenophobic to think that all Echani looked the same? No. They really did look very similar. Truth be told Jenna didn't really care what they thought, or what they thought of her thoughts for that matter.

There was a chance the plan could fall apart. That the Echani woman would see straight through her lies, if her interrogation upon her past had been any indicator, Jenna was not a good liar or perhaps she was, and was simply awful at concealing her fear.

That's it. Fire. She thought about fire, pictured it in her mind. She could feel the phantom burns upon her legs, the real brand upon her thigh. Made her heart race, breath quicken. Wasn't a pleasant thing to do but it was preferable to what [member="Nemene"] would do to her if this was not done.

She came in for the approach, wearing the best distressed face that she could muster.

“...please...help...” she barely managed to spit out as her hand pointed back towards the aforementioned alleyway, “my friend….she….she's collapsed….I don't know...I don't...”

Then she ran back, heading towards where Nemene would be waiting, hopefully the Echani would follow.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

The Echani did indeed follow.

They were a honorable people, and most of the time they would help those in need. This woman in particular was confused, and indeed she wondered why Jenna had not gone to a security officer or someone else, but after a single shake of the head she followed.

Her footsteps were light, her gait was long, and she moved like a trained warrior. The Echani dashed after Jenna, following her into the alleyway where Nemene would be laying slumped on the ground. Her body shook, and a pool of crimson would slowly spread out from where her abdomen was. Jenna rushed forward towards Nemene, the Echani stopping slightly, then letting out a soft gasp as she saw the blood.

The white haired woman ran forward.

“Hold Still!”

She yelled to Nemene as she tried to get up. The Echani rushed passed Jenna who simply stood in place. The Echani woman gently nudged Nemene onto her back.

It was at that very moment that Nemene lashed out. Her hands moved like vipers, gasping around the Echanis throat. The instant her grip started the force lashed out, the Echani didn't even have time to scream as her mouth opened and seconds later she slumped.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Thankfully she had followed her to the scene of the trouble without much complaint, meaning that Jenna had largely done everything that she was asked to do.

Even she was surprised by the blood.

What had [member="Nemene"] done?!

The moment that the Sith's hand struck out Jenna knew that the Echani's fate was sealed, and she turned herself sideways just to check that no other soul dare ventured down the alleyway. Of course, she didn't fully commit to the role of look out, holding a morbid curiosity of how exactly this process would work.

She wanted to watch.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

The Echani went down without struggle.

Of course the woman likely wanted to resist, was likely kicking herself for not doing so, but she didn't really have a choice in the matter. Nemene utilized lightning to sever the woman's nerves from one another, stopping her brain from taking any action at all. She smiled slightly as the Echani collapsed in upon herself.

She fell to the ground with a hard thud, Nemene letting go of her throat as the woman lost consciousness. She tried to say something, but her voice was completely lost. Nemene smirked, then slowly stood from the ground.

In her abdomen was a piece of durasteel, lodged in place and slowly spitting blood.

Nemene grasped it, then pulled it free from her marred and broken flesh. The wound poured blood, spilling over Nemene's already ruined dress. Then a single spark ran over the wound and quickly it began to seal. Within seconds the gaping hole in her side was no more, only scarred flesh. “Let us move her someplace...darker.”

Her eyes slowly cast towards the door behind her. It would lead into a building that Nemene had found to be an abandoned warehouse.

Perfect for what she needed.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Thankfully the Echani went down quietly and there was nobody suddenly fancying a quiet stroll down an ominious alley. Still, it was in their best interests to move to process elsewhere and it was just the right amount of luck that they were situated next to a warehouse and not, say a bakery or a puppy factory.

As she observed her Master remove the durasteel from her flesh Jenna was suddenly very glad that she was not volunteered to play the role of lost little lamb, or lamb shish kebab. She winced at the very thought.

Rushing over to the downed woman Jenna wasted no time in hooking her both of her arms underneath the Echani's underarms and began to drag the woman towards the door. Maybe she'd get brownie points for doing all of the leg work, or perhaps [member="Nemene"] would have simply expected that from her anyway. She frowned at the thought, Jenna was definitely not the right type of person mentally to play the role of servant.

Once inside she unceremoniously dropped the body and looked to Nemene. This was surely her show from here on out.

 

[Aela Talith]

After finishing this task, Jenna was useless. For now at least. The rest of this game was all Nemene.

From the small of her back she pulled the journal that she had hidden there, without further ado she placed it in the arms of the small Echani woman, making her hug the journal as she lay unconscious. She then positioned the Echani in a way that most would call...comfortable, smiling slightly as she finished.

The Darkside began to raise within her.

“Now.” Nemene said. “Simply watch.”

Nemene drew the knife from the small of her back, the darkside drawing all around her. The Journal seemed to glow slightly, coloring, brightening, shifting to bring an aura all around the Echani. Nemene grinned, looking at Jenna. Then she placed the knife at her own throat.

With a single powerful slice, the Sith Lord cut off her own head.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Jenna didn't know what to expect.

When the journal came back out to play she thought it would be similar to before, just with two bodies rather than one, much less of a struggle. However it was not the case.

It was really not the case.

She almost exclaimed at the reveal of the knife, finally putting to rest the fact that the witch had actually taken it. The young woman couldn't mask her irritation at this fact, eyebrow knitting together in a small scowl. Not that [member="Nemene"] was going to notice, given that she was too busy channelling her mojo.

And then Sith Lord decapitated herself.

Jenna swore. Jenna swore very loudly. You don't see that every day, what kind of body swap method was this!? A bit extreme no? It was only that confident look she was granted before the act that told the girl that this wasn't going to go wrong. Opportunism came into play.

She waltzed over to the scarred, and now headless corpse, prying her knife from the fingers of the body.

Priorities.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

Nothing happened as Jenna grasped the knife from the cold dead body.

There was no titanic shift, no massive explosion, nothing. Just like the last time it seemed almost anti-climactic. It was simple, easy. Suddenly a shift began, a small tiny twirling of hair, a small curling of toes and fingers. A hand closed around the Journal, a shake rushed through the Echai woman, a feeling of dread suddenly filled the room.

“Don't.” Said a voice unfamiliar in a tone that would resound in the warehouse.

It was biting, fierce, controlling. It was Nemene. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, Dark Orange revealed. She let out a heavy sight, blood slowly seeping in a pool towards where she was laying. A shake ran through her body, though she did not move an inch even as the crimson began to seep into her clothing.

“Lay down the knife sweetling.” Again that same pang of control. “You won't be needing it.”

 

[Beatrice Govan]

When the voice rang out she froze.

Jenna still had her back to the Echani at this point and had no desire to turn and face her either, she merely remained crouched, hand on the hilt of the knife in a white knuckled grip.

Did she intend on stabbing Nemene?

No. At least not at this point in her life.

But having the blade, having a weapon would give her a simple kind of comfort, a false safety, even with the knife in hand [member="Nemene"] could have had it out of her hands before she'd even finished a blink, they both knew this. Jenna didn't want to put it down.

“But it's mine,” she protested, especially punctuating that the blade had indeed been hers.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

Nemene rose in a ghoulish fashion.

Her back stiff as a board, her eyes set dead ahead, her neck straight. Bright silvery hair was dipped in crimson, and it flooded down her clothes as she slowly pushed herself up onto her feet. A second of stumbling, and then Nemene caught herself.

She looked...almost startled.

Her hands opened and closed, her arms flexed, her fingers crooked. Nemene shifted slightly, moving over Surah's corpse and stepping over towards Jenna. She didn't make a move towards Jenna, or even to take the knife. Instead she simple stood in place, smiling slightly, noticing the strength of her own body.

Her back was still stiff, and she looked so much more regal than before.

“Fine.” Nemene gave her the small concession, but only because she was in a good mood.