Bicameral Mind

[Matsu Xiangu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KBtEeHp7eU​

​

Once, Maena had been a jewel in the Outer Rim. Populated by millions it had thrived out of the public’s watchful eye, too far from the Core to be valuable for the factions squabbling over territory but full of enough valuable material to attract workers to settle on its surface and tourists to flood the government’s coffers. But it was for these same reasons that Matsu and Darth Prazutis appeared above atmosphere one day, blacking out the stars as they invaded the system in force. Over the course of several days they reshaped the planet in their image, bombarding select areas and sending their necromantic forces out to savage others. And they too had walked the earth.

By the time they were done, there was nobody left.

Once, Maena had been part sprawling city and part forested woodland interspersed with quiet volcanoes. The destruction of the bombardment had changed the landscape significantly. Torn earth had given way to magma beneath, fire leeching out from cracks and painting the planet red. Great, jutting slabs of stone reached towards the sky. What once had been green had given way to black. And Matsu had rebuilt.

If one flew down from atmosphere and gave the planet a good study as they approached, there would be much to see.

First, it was clear which side of the planet had been most heavily bombarded by orbital fire, one half of its sphere scorched and dead where vegetation had been choked to death by the ash and smog that hung in the atmosphere for days after the attack. No one but Matsu and Prazutis dared go to that side of the planet nowadays - there were rumors among the new locals, though they were not of the sort told to children to keep them from doing something. They were the kind that spoke of very real danger. On those dead, dry fields Matsu and Prazutis let their necromancy experiments roam. It was a perfect place to farm the Undead for future assaults on other planets, and it was thousands of miles of open space to let the more...interesting of their creations roam and watch what they were capable of. Those locals brave enough to head out in that direction and confirm such things for themselves came back with fear in their faces, or did not come back at all.

On the side of the planet still habitable, there were several large installations that caught the eye. First was the shanty town several miles out from the new capital city, populated almost exclusively by the wretches working the mines. Trillions of credits in valuable resources lay beneath the planet’s surface and those looking to make their own piece of it stayed in the clapboard rickshaws that had cropped up as the planet rebuilt. They were mostly happy to ignore the atrocity of it all considering the pay was steady and the death rate was average for the sort of job they were doing. A roof over their heads and mouths fed was enough for the lowest of the low.

Further on, sprawling over a plateau was a formidable, industrialized form of the site where the Old Capital had once been. Once the old population had been annihilated, Matsu had chosen to keep the city standing and reform it in to a testing facility. Many of the planet’s new population found work here as well though only the most trusted or valuable saw what truly went on behind closed doors. Officially it was a biochemical engineering planet. In truth, Matsu conducted research in to biowarfare and human experimentation. Highly militarized, ground-to-air installations slowly scanned the air, threatening to shoot invaders from the sky. Hired mercenaries, soldiers, and a personally trained military force patrolled it as well to combat any who might make it past the outer defenses.

In the center of it all stood the New Capital. From the surface it would not be immediately visible, but Air Control would guide any newcomers to the mouth of a hollow, inactive volcano that had been most marvellously rebuilt in to a glittering city. Perhaps the only beautiful thing on the surface, its architecture was wild. Part stone and part metalwork, it fit millions all on top of each other. Walkways criss-crossed seemingly everywhere, hallways and tunnels built in to the rock of the volcano to allow passage through all levels of the massive city and leaving the center open for ships to glide downwards and enter. Somewhat reminiscent of Utapau but on a much grander, richer, and more populated scale, Matsu felt truly at home.

_________________​

It was there, in the New Capital, that she woke from a dead sleep. Only the lights of the city outside glittered through her floor-to-ceiling windows, indicating it was deep in the night if no sun was filtering down from the mouth of the volcano above.

Something was changing.

RECIPIENT: [member="Connor Harrison"]
SENDER: Yaomo

5, 8
-27.8996 56.7890.

 

[Connor Harrison]

How the mighty had fallen.

Flecks of ice tinkled on the view-port window and large hull of the ship as it sat dormant in the mouth of the cavern. The frost was starting to spread over the brown and silver paintwork. A cold wind howled by, picking up a large sheet of cloth covering some crates flapping gently by the ship. Inside, the pilot was sleeping wrapped in a blanket across the pilot and co-pilot chair.

Connor Harrison looked awkward as he snored gently, but also somehow at peace. Today he had picked Rhen Var as his hideaway for a few hours. In effect he was trespassing on soil he was no longer welcome on, but nobody had flagged him up on the ships com still programmed to his signal. Typical Thurion - make threats but fail to act on them. Connor was probably still suspected to be operating as a Silver Jedi so why WOULD they bat an eyelid with his presence on the ice world.

But he wasn't here on any mercy mission; he was here after recent events to sleep and rest, and move on again. From having his own quarters and a network of allies and resources at his fingertips, he had lost them all in search of greatness. Sleeping in his ship had been the norm since leaving Voss, and he was a way off from knowing where he belonged in the bigger scheme of things.

Aria Vale was a fragile topic, and while he hoped she was now his, he couldn't yet be totally sure. And Taeli Raaf had made some revelations he was still getting his head around.

In all, he was a mess.

The neon blue light came on first and glowed softly beside his arm. After a moment, it started to flash. A few moments more, it began to chime. It did so until Connor stirred, stretched out and groaned like a waking ronto to loosen stiff bones and achy muscles before deactivating the incoming message.

Taking a minute to adjust to the icy blue and white light from outside surrounded by the dark rock, Connor blinked and rubbed his eyes and yawned, before blinking eyes a little wider and activating his ships communication log.

A message appeared.

RECIPIENT: Connor Harrison

SENDER: Yaomo

5, 8
-27.8996 56.7890.

He read it again, and again, and again. Blinked and wiped his eyes, and read it again. Coordinates, from a "Yaomo". Looking out, Connor frowned in thought. The word "yaomo" meant a number of things, and he knew of a couple. Demon. Immortal. To be fair, it could be a number of those who had crossed his path. Matsu Xiangu. Abyss. Even Taeli. Or even someone in the Silvers reaching out. Joza? He read it again and pulled up the nav computer beside it, keying in the digits. Scratching the back of his head, Connor really had to stop falling asleep in the chairs and get to his bunk. He pushed his tongue around his inner cheek as it came up; the edges of the Unknown Regions. Was that right? If this Yaomo wanted to meet in the shadows, it was obviously of some importance. He had a feeling if anyone, it was Silara wanting to meet over their mutual interest, Aria.

It didn't take Connor long to freshen up and make himself feel a little more human. A cup of milky caf, a quick wash and a bag of fruit and he was ready to move out. It would take a while, through the Parleman Route to the Core and then NNW.

The engines made short work of the massing frost, melting it and the surrounding snow in seconds as Connor took his craft slowly out of the mouth of the cavern and up through Rhen Var's atmosphere following the breadcrumbs laid by his mystery contact.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

“My Lord, we simply cannot account for all possibilities as regards potential outcome--”

“Doctor...” came a voice, sea-glass smooth and low, for the first time since she had entered the room. Nervous people liked to fill the silence - Matsu let them talk instead of asking questions. Her expression was nearly serene, hands clasped delicately behind her back as if she were observing something mildly amusing and not maddening. “Do you know what would please me more than your excuses? If you would just admit you do not know what happened and spare me the sound of your voice.”

She tasted his emotions. A spark of outrage and indignation quickly swallowed by a more sensible blanket of apprehension bordering on fear. Complex.

“My Lord, as I said we have been observing every protocol you outlined, treating the patient with the utmost scrutiny and yet still, he perished…” In front of the pair and the laboratory assistants lining the edge of the room in observation lay the deceased. His veins were black, coursing under pale skin like dozens of tributaries off a river. The details were complicated, but suffice to say that the subject had been carrying a most deadly virus - the first of its kind, a miracle truly. And yet the team assigned to him had barely been able to keep him alive for a day.

“And yet I was not notified when his condition began to deteriorate, Doctor O’Neill. I believe that protocol was quite clear as well - if the patient begins to fail, I will be contacted immediately. I find it troubling that you insist you were following my instructions to the letter, and yet failed to do something so simple.” The mood in the room was changing from one of apprehension to barely contained panic as the Sith Lord’s tone changed from mockingly annoyed to truly displeased.

“Lord Yaomo, I do apologize but we believed we had the situation in hand and--” His voice stopped, the flesh around his Adam’s apple seeming to cave in to some invisible pressure though nobody had moved. There was absolute silence in the gray, sterile steel room - one could have heard a pin drop save for the gagging sound Dr. O’Neill was making around the chokehold on his neck. There was no anger on Lord Matsu Xiangu’s face. The only indication that she felt anything at all was the vengeful swirl of amber in her irises, shot through with a red that licked around her pupils. Her tone was ice.

“I do not want to hear your excuses. I allow you people the prestige of working on something that will change the galaxy on the condition that you keep me informed should I need to intervene. I do not mind doing so - I have power you can’t imagine. And yet now I am stuck cleaning up your mess. Your incompetence and ego have lost me a month’s worth of research, and that...that Dr. O’Neill, is unacceptable.” She released him at the last moment, just as his face had turned a shade of purple that no human could survive. He dropped to his knees, gulping air just as her comm unit beeped softly.

“Lord Yaomo, a ship has entered the New Capital stating coordinates were sent to them for this location. A Connor Harrison, my Lord.”

Taking a deep breath, her features settling from the twist of the Dark Side, Matsu responded to the security personnel on the other end of the commlink.

“Very well. Please instruct him to land on Platform 42. No need for security to greet him - I will see to that myself. And send a few men to the air-controlled section of Building C in the medical compound. Have them bring Dr. O’Neill to the Gate. He should be fed to the undead.”

She turned on her heel, locking the door of the room in which she and Dr. O’Neill had been standing behind her to trap him inside until he was picked up. She didn’t even hear him slamming his fists against the glass as she went, begging for his life.

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

"Platform 42. Got it," Connor said into his headset, before throwing it down.

The trip had been a long one, but he had been carried on by the sheer mystery surrounding the coordinates, the sender and just what it all meant. The planet on arrival seemed war-torn, at least from a perspective he had seen coming in. It was as if a portion of it had been ravaged, while another had been left to flourish. A sign of what these dangerous times brought to the galaxy. He took the ship down to the planet with no escort, and surveyed what he could of the world below him as he banked to come across ann enormous volcano. Peering over, his eyes went wide for inside wasn't the usual sight of magma and rock, but a gleaming city within. He let out a small whistle and followed the trajectory for the platform. Descending slowly, a sheer dot as he went down inside, he was impressed at the architecture itself; a network of walkways and structures housing god knows how many. Ships passed him on the way up and out, and he was careful not to get distracted as he came down to a far platform, setting down gently.

Peering out of the viewport at the structure, wondering if this was some haven for refugees, or exiled Jedi, rebels, or what. Shutting down the engines, he grabbed his cloak and fixed it to the tunic lapel - noting that it was something he'd have to modify if he wanted to shrug off memories of the Order that banished him.

He lowered the ramp and stepped out amidst a swirl of steam and inhaled the relatively fresh air. He looked up at the mouth of the volcano so far up, and in turn he span slowly to take in a 360 of the city.

"Very nice," he said.

With nobody to meet him, Connor took slow, lingering steps forward, glancing left to right, seeing what he could for any sign of a welcome. It was times like this he missed him com-link, to feel connected to others. Now he was literally on his own. Slowly, he started to rub his fingers together in small circles. He hated waiting.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She was not there when he touched down, but she did not keep him waiting any longer than the time it would take him to look around and get his bearings. The city was completely new, but its millions of inhabitants had already dirtied it in the way major cities could never avoid. Even still, its thousands of lights glittered delicately, shining off the durasteel of Platform 42.

When she saw him, the sense of change was so strong it nearly choked her. Though a current of displacement, of groping for something to hold on to and continuously remembering there was nothing there - but for the most part, she recognized the darkness that clung to Connor now. It was so undeniably strange, all those years they had spent prepared to kill each other in the name of what they fought for...only to now be standing on that platform, a metaphor for the edge they could now possibly turn to their advantage.

“Welcome to Maena, Connor,” she said as she approached, looking far different than any other time he might have seen her. In armor or darker, more traditional Sith garb Matsu always looked the part expected of her. But there on the platform she wore a simple (though impeccably tailored) gray suit, hair long and loose about her angular face. Save for her eyes one might never have guessed it was she who was responsible for the decimation of Maena’s former population. “Come - there is much to discuss.”

She turned, walking back towards the entrance to the building off the landing platform. The floor-to-ceiling windows of the hallway inside suggested that these were her personal apartments - she was fond of being able to see everything. “I contacted you because I...woke up in the middle of the night. Suddenly I felt as if something had changed.” That he felt different in the Force went without saying, but whatever roiled inside of him was his to explain.

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor didn't even feel her there, watching, until she spoke. The Sorceress Matsu Xiangu. It was her. Of course it was.

Without spinning and going for his blade, or snapping into battle mode with a quip of heroic nonsense, all Connor did was turn and take her in. Totally not what he expected, and his face was a little confused, and a little wary. She looked...respectable and highly professional.

"Thank you for your invite, Lady Xiangu."

A small nod of the head; the respect he had for her now would sicken those he stood by months ago trying to kill her. There was no intent to harm her, but still he was wary. With a quick glance around as Matsu led on, Connor followed and took in as much of the complex as possible while she talked.

What was to discuss? His future, of course. Her role in the galactic game he was starting to play. Or, maybe his surrender? Torture? Death? Who knew. He had done little to show a real alliance with her or the Dark Side except touch upon it gently. And she too had shown him little in terms of an alliance. Why would they. They were enemies. Were. Are? He didn't quite understand what yet.

"Something had changed? Well I must say if that was my doing I apologize for disturbing you, but yes, certain things have shifted." Connor mused gently as he looked at the large windows as they walked by. "My time with the Silvers is over. I have been banished from the Order, stripped of my rank, command and protection in Silver space. I even got the Grandmaster to punch me in the face."

Connor wasn't going to be proud of that now, because it was nothing to what Matsu had probably been through. This was a case of the headmaster expelling a naughty student for being bad. Nothing more.

"But, before you ask, I am grateful you contacted me. I want to follow the darkness in me and walk the path you have done so well in your lifetime. I want to be something the likes of what the Silver Jedi, and one day the galaxy, have never seen before."

It felt empowering each time he admitted it.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

When he told her he’d gotten Thurion Heavenshield to punch him in the face, she laughed. It wasn’t the warm, pleasant laughter that she was - surprisingly - so free with, whether in sarcasm or truly amused. It was a riotous belly-laugh that nearly required her to stop walking. “Oh my - you managed to unseat Master Heavenshield? What a feather to put in your cap.” She did not have much personal contact with the Grandmaster or his wife, though both had felt her as she had assessed them. But she knew of his tireless patience and found the fact that he’d punched someone he had spent years with amusing beyond belief.

But the news that he had not only left the Silver Jedi, but been banished from Silver space was more exciting news than she’d anticipated. She’d interpreted the shift in the Force as his decision to follow the Dark, but to be ejected from the Order he’d known all his life? Fascinating.

She was clearly lost in thought as they entered a sitting room, her classic mix of lavish and modern understatement all over the interior design. Lowering herself on to one of the couches, she waved an arm as if to invite him to sit as well. “I will spare you the usual drivel about how the Dark will provide you the power to become that which you seek. Clearly you know that or you wouldn’t have chosen this path. You’ve tasted it. You know.”

There was a pause as she considered the options before her.

“We have spent our lives, thus far, seeking to destroy one another. Now we both stand in the Dark. Where does that leave us? Not enemies. But not friends. Yet.” A droid whispered in quietly, a pure-white thing dressed in traditional Atrisian garb, depositing a tray of fine wine in front of them. Matsu reached forward for her latest indulgence, swirling the drink in the glass and waiting for the droid to leave before continuing. “What I do here on this planet is sensitive and secret. I cannot divulge it when we haven’t yet gained each other’s trust, which makes my offer somewhat difficult to consider, I know. But hear me out. If you help me with something - something that will require all of the things you would never consider as a Jedi - I am willing to offer you a base here on Maena. You may build as you will. You may create as you will. My resources will be yours. I can help you master the Dark Side. You can train your apprentices, study the Dark, strengthen yourself - you can begin again. It could be your base of power. It could be your home. What I require in return is your help with this task, and your vow to protect this place should it come under attack.”

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

It was one of those surreal moments you have when life goes so fast, you fail to really notice how and why it happened. Walking a few steps behind a woman who, basically, was one of – if not THE most – dangerous and powerful Sith Lords in the galaxy.

Be a hero Connor. Redeem yourself. Take her life with a blade to the back. Go on. Save the galaxy.

Instead, he glanced around without a care in the world, amused at her already humane reflection on things. Maybe she wasn’t totally a monster after all.

Taking in more decorative furnishing in Matsu’s , Connor opted to sit opposite the comfy sofa on a hair backed chair, with the drinks before them. Connor hesitantly took a glass and held it with both hands. Not as enemies, nor friends. Yet. To hell with if it were laced with a drug, his head was already spinning. He took a generous mouthful of the drink – it had a kick that he noted for being one who never drank much bar Blue Milk.

He listened.

"Hm.”

He took another mouthful, held it, and swallowed it hard.

"I appreciate the invite, and the drink. If you were anyone else, I’d try to draw as much as I could from you, but I respect and fear you in equal measure to do such a thing, so I’ll be blunt.” He set the glass down. "I want to side with you. We’ve all seen the power you hold and the respect you command, and I want it. I’ve always wanted it. That’s why I could never bring myself to end your life, because I wanted to watch it from afar. Right now, I’m desperate. There, I said it.”

Connor shrugged, admitting his failing.

"I’ve got nothing. Nowhere to go, no ally to stand with. I am struggling to make the transition from the Light, and I will return to Voss soon to take what I need to sever it completely, but I will accept your proposition, Lady Xiangu. I will help you, for what you have said I can take in return.”

He studied her face, ready to ask a question that was so obvious, but he needed to hear the answer to believe it was real.

"You know how broken I am. How reckless I can be, how…fickle my emotion was. Why do you have faith I can help you succeed in this…secret plan of yours?”

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

You know how broken I am.

There were a thousand-thousand different interpretations of what it meant to be Sith. In truth, it tired her. They sat in their committees arguing about the Code, about an ancient set of words and tenants that hardly took the state of the galaxy as it stood in to account. Of course there was nothing else to call her - she was an animal, a beast final and terrible. (After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast, terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.) And despite all her controlled and careful behavior designed to paint her as something less dangerous than she was, for a moment she appeared as what she so carefully hid. Her pupils shrank to pinpoints, her metal fingers clutching around the stem of her wineglass until it threatened to break.

His words made him prey, and she was a predator.
It was her ability to control that let her remember the long-game she played.

“I would caution against expressng such opinions of yourself in front of other Sith,” she said quietly, her tone hungry and nearly out of control as she sought to press down that part of her that screamed to devour the weakness he put to words. “They will not wait to see what you become. They will only see what they can take for themselves.”

Like a starving man she pushed down the unbearble hunger, reminding herself of the power she’d felt when he’d grinded the end of his lightsaber against her cheek. There had been unlimited power in that revenge, a wound she had allowed out of curiosity. And she wore the scar with pride. Someday he would be a monster. Some day he would be something others whispered about in fear, worried that the volume of their voice alone would draw the shadows to move and manifest him. And someday he would be the sort of ally he didn’t imagine himself to be.

When she spoke again, she had stepped back slightly from the edge.

“So many Jedi fall from the Light. For some it is easy. Some Padawans have barely touched the Light by the time they turn. But you Connor...you spent years in its glow. You dedicated your entire life to it. All of your friends followed it too. I suppose many who know the Dark Side would think it ludicrous to follow anything else, but I believe I understand that it was not easy - at least for some part of you - to let go of everything you have ever known. To me, that speaks of a certain willingness to lose yourself to the wonder of the Dark that I am willing to count on being magnificent. I have faith because even if you do not, I believe you can become something terribly great.”

She paused, taking a measured swallow of her wine before finishing.

“And if you don’t, I will simply devour that which you don’t see fit to use of yourself and leave your corpse for my necromancers.”

There was silence after, the sort of silence that indicated he had a decision to make.

Accept his strength and leave behind the unsure shell he’d occupied for decades, or stay there and wallow and be killed.

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

He was a little fly in the black widow's web. And he knew it. But he didn't struggle.

Instead, he was transfixed. There was no noise except her voice which was so loud in his head yet calming. Connor's head started to loll slightly the side as he listened, and his grip loosened a little on the glass and it dropped ever so slightly in his fingers.

This...creature....this woman, this monster, was his only chance at breaking the spell the Jedi had cast over him, but her time was more limited than his. Keep asking questions, and he'd end up with no answers. Embrace the answers, and he would have no questions.

He didn't even notice his right leg shaking a little, the calf muscle twitching with adrenaline and fear. The greatest reminder he was still alive. And then, silence. It was even louder than when she was speaking.

The fallen Jedi swallowed and took a sip. One of those big sips that drained the glass in seconds and finished with a slight suck through the teeth.

"I'm done with the Light. It's fickle, blinding and rotten. I am ready to embrace the Dark. I want to live it, breathe it and understand it.” His chest swelled with that adrenaline, like it was bubbling up ready to blow with a sensory overload. "I will protect your world and I will protect you. I have information, on Voss, which I will give to you. You may find it useful, you may not, but it's yours from my time leading the Shadows, the elite assassins of the Silver Order. Names, aliases, planets under their protection.”

His fists clenched. The glass smashed in it.

"Don't you let me slip. Ever. Even once, Matsu. If I do, then you kill me. I'd rather die than go back to the Light again.”

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

The serious stone of her face when she lay the decision before him gave way to a grin nearly as unsettling as any rage she might have displayed as he lay Voss at her feet. What a beautiful gift. Someday she hoped he might have the chance to set his boots on its soil again, but this time with the Dark on his side.

Glass shattered and her pupils narrowed again, his adrenaline as fine as the drops of wine left pooled over the stem she still held.
She did not like promises.
But this was one she could keep.

Draining her glass as well, she placed it down and stood to her full height, however modest that was. Looking at him she reached out a metal hand for his. A handshake seemed oddly formal considering their history but in her mind it was only fitting. Every moment they’d spent together before this one had been violent. Every time they’d ever touched had been to inflict agony on the other. But he’d called her by her first name for the perhaps the very first time in her recollection and with a shake everything would change. A partnership, fragile and tentative, would begin and grow to a strength she imagined might be terrifying.

“I will Connor. But something tells me I don’t have much to worry about.”

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor Harrison returns to Voss to steal the Silver Shadow secrets for Matsu.

What happens there unfold in the thread below:

http://starwarsrp.net/topic/102049-in-the-darkest-heart/#entry1478286

​

 

[Connor Harrison]

To say Connor Harrison was angry was the under-statement of the century.

The flight from Voss, sickening his stomach even thinking of that name now, had been the most dangerous flight Connor had ever made. With no perception of anything except what he literally saw and smelt and heard inside the cockpit, he felt like he was dying.

His hands were trembling all the way back to Maena, gripping the controls as if he were throttling a neck.

His face was streaked down one side with dry blood that didn’t fade away as easily as clear tears.

His eyes were dotted with amber.

His soul was broken; his spirit destroyed.

Returning to the Sith Sorceress Matsu Xiangu could him putting his head on the block for good. A Jedi Master who, until recently, she had wanted to kill was now returning stripped of his Force ability with little more than anger and attitude to show for it. It could be her greatest blessing or her worst nightmare.

Numerous times in the flight, Connor had closed his eyes and tensed all his muscles trying to conjure something – anything! – and let out a deep growl in frustration and hatred. He was like a wild animal let loose with its neck clasped in a collar it couldn’t shake.

The world appeared before him on the coordinates from before and he headed to that magnificent volcano and came in, albeit a little fast, to the landing pad he had first arrived on. The landing was rough, and it sent a shower of sparks up as he dug into the pad with the heavy ship. But that was the last thing he cared about.

With the engines still active, Connor wasted no time once down and exited the ship with his cowl billowing behind him as he walked, almost staggering, for a few minutes to Matsu’s personal complex. Into the structure, up past the magnificent windows to reach the decorative doors that led to her hideaway.

He passed a couple of, what looked like, wardens in the hall but neither stopped him. The just watched and looked at the man in confusion and with a hint of uncertainty.

Connor couldn’t feel anything. He couldn’t sense her. He couldn’t see her. When he got to the doors, he stopped and placed both hands on it. Still nothing. He hoped she was here. He glanced to the panel on the side wall and without thinking tried to activate it with the Force. The wardens just saw a man staring at a panel, and then hitting the door in frustration.

"Matsu! Open the door!”

That swelling was coming back – the rage, the helplessness, the sensory overload.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Of course she had been awaiting his return.
But when he called, she felt nothing.
She didn’t know he was there until she heard his voice through the doors.

She felt the flutterings of uncertainty and panic as she shot up from her seat, datapad forgotten on the caf table. She wasn’t certain if they were her own or someone else’s but she had heard his voice and yet it didn’t feel like he was there? Fighting the question of her sanity, she opened the door to see that indeed he was exactly where he was expected but where the Force usually accompanied them, there was nothing but a hole. She blinked, momentarily lost in stimuli that she couldn’t seem to make fit when suddenly - it dawned on her.

Without addressing him she looked over his shoulder at one of the wardens guarding the hall behind him.

“I want the Shibito brought out and fueled. Ten minutes,” she said, satisfied as the man immediately made to follow her order. Then she turned her eyes to Connor. She had seen other Jedi severed from the face, sad creatures so lost without their gift that they wallowed and allowed it to slip away entirely. If there was anything left it needed to be awoken, to be consoled and convinced not to leave Harrison forever. “We have work to do,” she said quietly to him, some emotion like urgency tugging at her face.

__________________________​

Once aboard her private ship, Matsu wasted no time. A course set for the Ring of Kafrene, she settled with Connor in an empty room she usually reserved for meditating past the distance usually allowed by her mentalism. They would need the space.

Without a word, she closed her eyes and conjured. Sith sorcery would be the perfect choice for this illusion. As solid as if she were standing there, Coci Heavenshield walked through the door behind them. To allow the vision to just materialize would shatter the reality and for this, Harrison would have to be fully submerged. ‘Coci’ wore an expression of pious righteousness, a Jedi who believed she could do no wrong as she moved toward Connor.

“Tell me what she did, Connor,” Matsu said quietly. Now she would push. She would push and prod and cause pain until whatever weeping, wounded part of the Force that still lay in Connor got angry enough to show itself.

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Matsu Xiangu, Connor had learnt, spoke loudest when she said little. Now was one of those times her urgency was deafening with just a few short words. Not knowing what to expect or feel now he was like a walking shell, Connor steeled himself and followed the Sorceress.

The beginning of a submission – saying nothing and following the beacon.

Her ship was just a ship; he didn’t nothing anything as the world swirled around him and a thousand emotions bubbled in his blood. The sort of blood bubbling that made the fingers twitch, the lungs feel heavy and the nerves feel numb. He was led to a small-ish room, secluded and sparse. Was it there he was to be tortured or simply kept as a prisoner? Right now, he couldn’t call her hand.

With almost naïve eyes, Connor followed the powerful Xiangu around the room until a door opened behind them with a slight hissss.

It took him a moment to look, for not wanting to break from Matsu’s glance, he was nervous now as to what or who was here. Another Sith? A doctor? He closed his eyes for a second at her question, and turned partly to see.

It was Coci.

He openly shook for a second, like a ripple burst from inside his body outwards, making his skin tingle and system go into slight shock.

The second stage of a submission – trying to deny the grip it has on you.

”What did she do?” Connor looked at Coci, but almost looked through her with glassy eyes and distance in his voice. ”She lied. Betrayed me, and humiliated me. Stripped everything about me that makes me…me. Took it all away because she was scared. They all are. So they leave me like this. After all I did, and then they leave me like this. A fate worse than death.”

A small snort escaped his nose, a disbelieving snigger, a shake of the finger.

”Nononono…” he mumbled, trying to work out a puzzle in his own broken head, ”…don’t do this, she’s not here. There is NO logical reason she would be here right now.”

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Mmm, good.
His ability to resist mental manipulation would be good in the future.
Though for now she cranked the dial slightly.

“Coci and I know each other rather well,” Matsu said, absently answering Connor’s assertion that the Jedi Master’s presence made no sense. “She has been hounding me for as long as she has been hounding you. She found me on Maena before it felt like I’d even settled my feet there.”

“Years ago, Thurion and I saw her in a dream. It felt like a warning. She threatened us. She threatened our children. Months later she attacked Dromund Kaas. Since then we’ve made sure to know where she is at all times,” Coci spoke up, her voice a perfect replica, breathing further realism in to the illusion. It was - of course - an expert lie. Oh, the part about the dream was true. Thurion and Coci Heavenshield had seen Matsu Xiangu in a nightmarish premonition. But that they’d followed her around the galaxy was a lie. But it worked because they should have been. Matsu would carry their children’s heads by the hair and hold them up, tongues lolling out of open mouths, for the whole galaxy to see.

“She will use you until you’re no longer useful Connor. Without the Force, you mean even less to her than you did before. Come back to us,” Coci said quietly, that perfect cross between matronly and consoling that drove like bamboo shoots under fingernails once one was done with the condescension.

“And who was it that took the Force from him in the first place?” Matsu whispered from behind Connor, narrowing her eyes at her own illusion.

The Jedi Master narrowed back, almost as if in warning to Matsu. “I wouldn’t have had to had you not twisted his mind.”

The tension in the room was rising, Matsu letting the Dark roll off her in waves as if bait for whatever lay stunned at Connor’s core. This Coci standing before them was just as powerful as the real one. But this Coci could also bleed. This Coci could hurt. And this Coci could most certainly die.

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor didn’t move. Well, his dark eyes moved as he blinked slowly and watched Coci stand there as Matsu spoke. It did make sense…it DID make sense. His eyes relaxed as the gravity of the situation became clear.

Coci had broken him down to a mere shell of a man. Watching Matsu Xiangu, their greatest threat and watching the planet, they would know Connor would return to her after her clash on Voss. Following Connor to where the black widow hid was the best way to confront them both, and hopefully lead to either Matsu’s death, Connor’s redemption, or both.

Connor narrowed his eyes at his former friend as she spoke. And he felt empowered when Matsu whispered.

"No," he said, moving across the Sorceress to shield her.

With the greatest Jedi in the Silver Order out of the way, Coci would return to kill Matsu and take Connor back and mould him back into their pawn. It was evident that how Coci spoke of Matsu that she viewed Connor as just another little piece of the puzzle to get the Silvers into another position of power by using him.

"It makes sense. You push me away, and you strip me of my ability. You knew I’d come back to her, and you have been obsessed with Matsu for years and I’m the best chance you had to find her. And you broke me, not her. She saved me."

He walked forward to look at his former friend, pained by how he could feel nothing nor expect an attack. Cool. Calm. Collected.

"You shouldn’t have come here. I am not your pawn anymore. Nor your friend."

Then, he just looked at her. He looked at her with sorrowful eyes. Why was she here? Not for his sake, that was evident. She was here to claim the death of Sith Lord Xiangu and the salvation of Connor Harrison after she was the one who had played a part in his downfall.

It was ghostly silent.

Connor swallowed and inhaled a long breath before blowing it out.

And like a beast, he attacked, possessed by a blind rage with no regard to his own lack of enhanced strength or power. Arms shot out and clasped around her head like a vice and he pulled it down hard. Not HER, the person, but IT – the head in his hands.

An undignified fall to the floor as the two former allies went down with Connor on top with some strange, unearthed strength – was she too shocked to fight back? Her face was contorted in anger as her hands gripped his wrists, nails digging into the tunic. Her knee thudded his lower back, and he jolted, but held tight and pushed. Soon, a scream came from her – partly pain, partly frustration.

It was empowering – the power and control over her! The Master of the Silver Jedi in his hands, and he would show them all what he was and what they had done! Hopefully she felt nothing but fear and would try begging for forgiveness.

"Say it….SAY IT!"

But Connor put all his strength into the grip and snarled, hissing out saliva as he fought her as best he could before he slipped his thumbs over her eye sockets, and pushed. The soft flesh of the closed eyes didn’t last long under his pressure.

Like jelly, they collapsed and her body shook underneath him, the grip of her hand even tighter on his wrist. His hands and head shook as he expelled all he could as murder this woman who had murdered him. The eyes were amber – the Dark Side was empowering him. As the blood overflowed and fell down her face in small rivers, she groaned something, and the grip went limp.

Connor’s hands were wet with her blood as he stared at the soulless, ghastly body of Coci Heavenshield. It had been so easy. He scoffed, a little laugh escaping at the absurdity of the situation. She had fallen, and soon her children would. And her Order. And the husband would do nothing but watch.

Connor Harrison would make it right again. He turned to the Sorceress and released the breath he had been holding for the last minute.

"Make me invincible again."

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

When he turned around to face her, she would look as she had those times they’d crossed blades - wild, the Dark Side pinching her features to demonic height, her eyes a glassy yellow-red of excitement. But this time, for the first time, her predatory frenzy was not directed at him. His display of anger had been magnificent and without hesitation. It almost wounded her to reveal the truth. But letting him believe he had truly killed Coci Heavenshield would only damage the fragile trust that bloomed in that room. She could not and would not risk that.

Make me invincible again.

The glow of his eyes was proof that though the Force had been ripped from him, it had not left him of its own accord. It clung to his bones, begging to find the way back to his heart. And this time he would not let it control him - it wanted to be controlled.

“I’ve only read about those who have been severed from the Force. In some - most - instances it never returns. Please forgive me Connor but I would not see that happen to you. So I created Coci,” she admitted, nodding over Connor’s shoulder and moving to circle the spot where spatters of Connor’s blood stained the floor. The red he’d drawn from the Jedi Master had disappeared along with the illusion. “I hoped it would make you angry enough to kill, angry enough to give the Dark Side something to latch on to. And it seems it did,” she finished, looking at the corruption evident in his eyes. She stopped, hands gently clasped behind her back. Standing there covered in blood, she imagined the Connor that the Galaxy might know, given time for his wounds to fester and make him rotten with power. Sith Lord Connor Harrison. He smelled metallic, rusty - bloody.

“Someday, you will hold her lifeless corpse up for all the world to see. And it will feel even better than this did. And I will give you the Force to do it,” she said quietly.

______________​

The asteroid belt was packed so thick with floating rock that if one wasn’t looking, they just might have overlooked the space station built between two sister comets. Though it was beautiful to behold from a distance, proximity revealed it for something of a hovel. But looks weren’t everything, and business of all kinds thrived here both legitimate and otherwise.

“I don’t necessarily expect trouble,” she said to Connor as the two stood in front of the viewport while the Shibito was brought within the atmosphere-controlled bubble of the Ring. “But criminals aren’t known for their reliability.”

[member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

There would be no point try to think of a reason or a feeling to justify what he had done – or appeared to do – before Matsu’s vision. As it faded, Connor looked at his hands, and noticed he himself was bleeding and the splatters on the floor were evident.

It didn’t bother him. It didn’t hurt.

He nodded to the Sorceress and fell back on his knees.

It felt glorious.

______________​

Given time to freshen up and clean himself, Connor worked on darkening his navy blue tunic as best he can with various materials and a manner of soot and grime from the ship. It would do for now, but he really didn’t want to see the Silver Jedi colour on his body again. The crimson cloak would work with the darkening effect- a bold statement, and more akin to his inner darkness and lust for blood.

Yes it was a make-shift and overly grim, but now so was the man wearing it. This wasn’t Connor Harrison anymore.

Standing beside Matsu at her command as her ship came into their destination, he inhaled slowly and looked out, feeling empowered beside his new ally.

"What is this place," he asked.

The formation of what looked like an urban city was magnificent, and his eyes flicked from one asteroid to the other, some almost suspended in animation around them, other dangerously on their own trajectory.

The indigo-esque atmosphere bubble, caused by the shine of the sun at this particular angle, swallowed them up as the ship navigated downwards to a place reminding him of Coruscant lower-levels spliced with the hustle and bustle of Nar Shaddaa.

He leaned forward to get a good look. It was busy, and probably dangerous.

It was times like this Connor needed to remember his predicament – he wasn’t a raging Force warrior yet; he was still a walking liability to the powerful woman next to him.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

“The Ring of Kafrene,” she answered, turning on her heel to talk as she walked. “Long, long ago it was controlled by Darth Sidious’ empire but it’s since become rather lawless. You can find just about anything you want here, or someone who can get it for you.”

It wouldn’t have been difficult to find a broker for the particular project that Matsu had in mind but she was hesitant to bring anyone on to Maena that didn’t need to know about it as it was in the finishing stages. No, she would rather meet those who could provide her a service first and then...ensure their loyalty through her subtle shifts in their brain chemistry. Most of their minds were pitifully weak to begin with, and tweaking a few thoughts to ensure their silence would be a flick of the wrist.

As they walked down the ramp from the Shibito in to one of Kafrene’s dozens of spaceports the sound and bustle of the miniature city erupted all around them. Even still Matsu and Connor made for a dark pair, one that garnered a sizable berth around them as they walked.

_____________________​

“Darth Yaomo,” bowed the contractor, deep at the waist out of fear more than respect. “Chen,” she said by way of greeting, not returning the bow. Those surrounding the table at which the meeting would take place had also risen from their seats to lean in respect, their eyes shifting from the woman they’d seen once before upon being contacted to the tall man at her side.

“This is my associate,” she said by way of introducing Connor. It was better if she did not name him, if she allowed even deeper unease to bloom in those in the room at the thoughts of the unknown. As she and Connor were seated she spoke in to his mind, pouring extra power in to it to ensure he could hear her despite his severance. See how they look at you. They fear you simply because you might hold the Dark Side. Already you are more powerful than the strongest Jedi, for these people do not know a thing about you but already fear to cross you.

“So, how can we assist you Lord Yaomo?”

[member="Connor Harrison"]​