Building A New Spice Rack

[J3C0]

The earth rumbled.

Loose rocks, sand, and even small plants went flying as a massive dropship began to hurtle its way towards the ground, powerful engines roaring loudly as metal stands pressed their way into the earth, the ship coming to halt and suddenly standing still as it quieted itself. A ramp lowered, almost in the blink of an eye, and at the top of it stood a woman in black, flanked by a dozen soldiers.

Her face was impassive, crimson and contrasting with her starkly yellow eyes.

Before she even gave a signal the Soldiers rushed passed and ahead of her, moving in sow methodical steps as they secured the area. Ahead of them was a single massive blast door built into the side of a mountain.

“Lady Mierin. There seems to be nothing here.”

The Sith Pureblood looked to the soldier for a moment, and then offered him a curt nod.

It seemed whoever had made this their home, had never expected it to be found, or had abandoned it at some point. She quickly strode down the ramp and towards the blast door, waving over to one of the soldiers and pointing him towards the control panel. “Get this open.”

Her orders were carried out quickly, and before even a moment has passed the soldiers began to cut through the door.

This place was unknown to her, a world within the outer rim that was far beyond the territory that had been explored in her age. She had been sent here by the Dark lord, an order that had come directly from him. He had claimed that she would find something here, something that would held great promise.

Darth Mierin frowned slightly, waiting for the door to be opened.

 

[Hal Terrano]

Hal Terrano waited.

Huddled in the corner of that clinical white room was a shell of a man. Long gone was the diligent Jedi that had first been brought in, the steadfast Padawan Terrano, the joy-killer, the chaste, the stalwart defender of justice! No, he was no more. That's what Nemene Athaem Talith did, she broke people, she broke Jedi. That's what the case file had said and even if her still-living victims didn't say it out loud, that didn't make it untrue.

Hal Terrano waited for her.

How long had it been? How long had it been since those harsh lights in the room had began to give it, since they started near-constantly flickering causing his cracked eyelids to twitch with every blink. How long had it been since his drip ran dry, since his flesh grew sallow and cracked from dehydration and his body gaunt and weak from starvation.

Hal Terrano wanted.

He had been left like this, she had broken his principles, his mantra, or rather from the viewpoint that she fed him freed him from his bonds, liberated him from a life of denied pleasure. Hal was no longer a Jedi, but he was a man, and man was primal, man was passion, man was pleasure.

Hal Terrano wanted for her.

However unbeknownst to the broken man, Nemene was not coming back, never coming back and as each second of life trickled past it seemed more and more likely that these four sterile walls were likely to be his tomb, where he would be left broken, forgotten, craving.

 

[J3C0]

The door had been opened in no time, and the soldiers had rushed into the facility in equal amounts of time. They spread throughout the maze like halls within only a few moments, mapping the facility and quickly figuring out exactly what it was. It took an hour, but finally one of the soldiers found his way back to Mierin, saluting her as he approached.

She frowned slightly, sitting just outside the facility on a small tree stump, a book in her hand.

“Ma'am. The facility is a prison of some sort. We found multiple cells, only one is closed.”

Mierin raised an eyebrow at that last statement. One of the cells is closed? That would imply that it had something inside.

She rose with liquid grace, taking to her feet and immediately setting off into the facility. The White halls of the prison like structure were stark white, overhead lights flickering on an off and some of them began to die. She moved quickly, the soldier guiding her through the maze until they finally reached the one closed cell.

Mierin's face remained impassive as she watched a group of soldiers set up cutting equipment in order to get through the door.

“Stand aside.” Her voice echoed through the empty halls, and the soldiers quickly obeyed. With thundering boots the men removed themselves from in front of the door, Mierin quickly taking their place. Instantly the force filled her, a rushing torrent of power and strength.

She raised a hand, and then scrunched it into a fist.

The door of the cell bent, broke, and twisted, tearing itself from its hinges. The white door threw itself to the side of the hall where no soldiers stood, revealing the feral beast within.

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

Outside of the cell he could hear nothing, they had been built with that in mind. Each chamber designed to isolate, to wear down, to break. You lose everything, your sense of being, time, hope, it all slips away, those four white walls become your home. No, not home that's not strong enough. Your universe.

His breathing was shallow and feeble. Tired now. Sleep would be coming for him soon and not such a temporary sleep at that. No grand and noble end for Hal Terrano, no a slow flickering out like the lights above his very head.

The pitiful end.

A loud groaning noise roused him as the wall was bent and torn away. This wasn't her, wasn't who he wanted, where were the clicks? Click click click. That was the sound he craved to hear. Hal's eyes tried to focus upon the gap where the wall had been but the word was blurry and unfocused. He was tired, he was dying.

In his mind he already knew that it wasn't her, it wasn't who he craved he still held out for some hope that she had finally returned for him so she could give him what he desired.

“Nemene?” he spoke, voice hoarse and weak as his atrophied form remained huddled in the corner of the cell.

[member="Darth Mierin"]

 

[J3C0]

Mierin looked into the cell and was not surprised to find a man within.

Her chin tipped up high, and her bright glowing yellow eyes scoured over the broken form. He asked after someone, though the Darth didn't recognize the name. She frowned slightly, eyes shifting around the room before she slowly stepped inside of the cell. Flashlights shone behind her, illuminating the cell and everything inside of it.

“No.” She said with a stern tone. “Not Nemene.”

Was this 'Nemene' the person who had kept him here? Or was she some sort of lover that he had hoped would be his savior. Mierin frowned slightly, she supposed she would get the answers soon enough. Bright Yellow eyes started at him, studying him.

How long had he been in here?
[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

It wasn't Nemene, that in itself gave him a round of anguish. Why hadn't she come back? She had given him so much, opened his mind to the concepts of pleasure and freedom and then just like that never returned.

Did she not love him? Well, given that it was Nemene Talith that was a solid no, the woman would only ever love herself and that was the end of that. However that brought us to the next question. Did Hal love her? That was difficult to say, in his current starved and sleepless state of delirium he very well might have, but did he really? Or was he just an unfinished experiment in her vanity, a sculpture of lost principles left wholly unfinished.

The beams from the flashlights shone upon his face, the unforgiving beams of light causing him to squint and shy away even more-so.

“Who?” his hoarse voice asked, barely a whisper. Did his former-beloved Republic come looking for him? Better late than never to rescue one of their own? “Jedi?”

Oh how wrong he was.

 

[J3C0]

An eyebrow raised itself at that question.

A Jedi? Hardly. Mierin was perhaps the farthest thing from a Jedi. She was Sith, both in nature and in species. Her kind had bee the dominant darksiders in the galaxy thousands of years ago, and even now her connection with the darkside of the force was unparalleled, save for the Dark Lord of course. Her lips turned down in a frown, the bones protrusions on her face shifting slightly as she peered down at the man.
A wiry thin hand raised itself, and a burst of power flowed from her.

Power flowed from her. Blue and Purple spikes of electricity that burned and singed the air. They flowed towards Hal in a single powerful force, tortuous pain would lance through him, enough to bring him out of his daze and confusion.

“No.” She said as the lightning crackled.
[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

Could'a just said no, ya know? I mean, he's delirious, he wants there to be Jedi at to rescue him from death's door, and in his fragile state he let it sleep. I know, lobster face, you're totally not a Jedi, you're a Sith, pure and proud but you need to give that guy a break, he's having a bad time.

The lightning spewed forth bringing forth a torrent of agony. After how he had spent his time in this cell this was certainly a change of pace.

He screamed, body going through the motions of violent tremors as the power of the darkside coursed through his being. Talk about your wake up calls, huh? Of course, like all torments it came to end, still leaving him starving and dehydrated, but now also smouldering. Shocked is indeed the correct term here.

The lightning tipped Hal off, big time and while looking up at his aggressor the man seemed to huddle even further into himself. It wasn't Jedi.

“Sith,” he said, voice almost a whisper. Not the ideal rescuers all-in-all.

[member="Darth Mierin"]

 

[J3C0]

The lightning ceased, and Mierin pulled her hand to the side. Her robes fluttered for a moment, and the smell of Hal's singed flesh drifted into her nostrils. The Sith's nose crinkled slightly, and her lips turned down as she suffered from the unintended consequences of her own actions. Oh well, the creature had to be taught a lesson.

“Yes.” Mierin said. “Who might you be, creature?”

Addressing him as a Jedi seemed incorrect.

Thought she could sense him in the force, it was rather difficult to tell alignment. He seemed uncorrupted however, his flesh was taught over his bones and his eyes were bloodshot, yes, but that was due to being stuck in here, and her lightning. Neither symptoms of darkside corruption.

Mierin knew them well after all.

 

[Hal Terrano]

His fears were confirmed, it was not Nemene, nor the Jedi who had got to him first, but the Sith, the very people that he had once swore so valiantly that he would bring to justice. Perhaps in another universe a more steadfast Hal Terrano still had principles and spirit, perhaps that Hal put up a fight, perhaps that Hal was killed.

He was not that man. His sense of justice and duty lay around him, completely shattered.

The broken Jedi tried to move, his joints stiff and aching as his cracked and peeling skin shifted over his bones in a manner most grotesque. “I am Hal Terrano,” the man grunted, using the wall to help him try to get to his feet. He hadn't moved in so long, he was so weak, on death's door. “I am nothing.”

So devastating was his own personal set of tortures that he could no longer define himself as a Jedi. He had failed, he had broken his oaths, he had lacked discipline. Hal Terrano no longer knew what he was, but it certainly wasn't a Jedi.

He kept struggling, trying to get back onto his own two feet but with no luck, it was a pitiful sight. He was certain that this Sith was going to slay him, but something in the back of his mind held on for hope, a will to live that seemed to speak for him.

“Help me, please.”

 

[J3C0]

Mierin looked to the man, and then cocked his head slightly.

Her hand twitched, and then turned upside down. She raised him up, the force surging around his withered limbs and picking him off the floor. Her hand twitched again, and then flattened into a palm that she pushed forward. Another rush of the force, and Hal was pressed against the far wall, pinned in place by the power of the force.

“Help you?” Mierin intoned, her voice sanguine and regal. Slowly she stepped further into the cell, walking until she stood directly before him. A light shone in behind her, flashing directly into his face.

She inspected him up close this time, eyes focusing on his skinny bones and the cuts and scars that he bore. His clothes were rags, torn and ripped in places. She frowned slightly. Why had someone kept him here? He was not powerful, not strong in the force. Perhaps he was well trained?

No.

His connection to the force was strong, but not in an overt manner. She frowned at him again, cocking her head to the side. “Why would I do such a thing?”

 

[Hal Terrano]

I feel it's never a good sign when Sith pick you up and push you against the wall. Well, unless you're into that kind of thing of course, which Hal was definitely not. The man felt helpless, as if he were bound by chains once more at the mercy of more merciless women. It was not a pleasant feeling.

The light being rather rudely shone directly into his face was blinding leaving Terrano squinting to try and see. He could almost feel the Sith's eyes scrutinising him.

Hal wasn't really one to beg, if emotion left then man then it was surely done under the pressures of extreme distress. Pleading for his life didn't occur to him, nor did throwing out reasons and rationalisations of why the woman should have helped him right there. It wasn't who he was.

“I do not know,” he croaked flatly, “I'm not you.”

A moment of standard Hal Terrano. Not cheeky, not rude, just honest.

 

[J3C0]

She thought for a moment, her palm still pushing him into the wall. Mierin had a choice before her. She could either kill the man, and waste this entire trip, or she could gain something. This one had potential in the force, he had power enough to warrant recognition at the very least.

That was something.

He was human, which was a shame, but then again many of the children were Human now a days. Or some not too distinct off shoot. Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment, and when she opened them again Darth Mierin had made a decision.

Her hand pulled away, the tendrils of the force snatching themselves away from Hal sending him crashing into the ground. “Take him.”

She commanded her soldiers as she turned away from the broken Jedi. Two of them swarmed into the cell almost immediately, moving past her as she left the room. She quickly headed back to her own ship, which was where Hal would be brought.

From there, things would develop.

 

[Hal Terrano]

Time passed, as it often did and Hal found himself aboard the woman's ship, which, he assumed might have been a nippy little run around with a small crew, not a star destroyer.

So one prison was exchanged for another, at least this one as a little less maddening to be in. Hopefully he was done with white walls for a long time. There were surely more accomidating places to put him, I know she was a Sith and they have reputations to uphold but look at him? You can play those ribs like a xylophone, what's he going to do? Break a leg at you?

On the bright side they gave him something to eat.

And by something I mean food for mice. Apparently starvation itself actually took a bit of rehabilitation to recover from. Who would have thunk it?

Not Hal, because he was sleeping. I don't know how, that black slab that he was laying on seemed about as comfortable as the economy cabin on a flight across the world but none-the-less he was dead to the world around him, caught in a world of sleep and dreams.

And her.

 

[J3C0]

It was some time before Mierin made her way to Hal's cell. After all she was a busy woman, and maintaining command of a Star Destroyer was not exactly a simple thing, especially when one had so many other things to do.

Eventually however the Sith Lord made her way down to the dungeons of the Star Destroyer, crimson skin complemented by midnight black robes, silver facial piercings stuck through her flesh, bright yellow eyes glowing as she opened the door to the prison cell. The obnoxious biting sound of the wall retreating sounded for only a moment before Mierin stepped inside.

“Hello.” Her voice was strong and commanding, what one would expect from a king.

 

[Hal Terrano]

The opening of the cell door stirred him, tired eyes snapping open to look to his guest.

It was the woman again, the Sith. Now that he had a touch more wits about him once more he pondered upon her species, of course in his studies he had encountered Sith Purebloods but never thought that he would meet one in the flesh. Her very species was a direct contradiction to his former life, she was prepositioned towards the dark from conception. She was the enemy.

Was.

Now she was the saviour in all of her red-skinned glory although her motivation for doing such was left up in the air. He did not know her mind, and he would not guess why she had spared him. It would be pointless to waste time considering such. There we go, more shining through of good old fashioned Hal Terrano.

“Hello,” he replied, voice still harsh and tired, “how can I help you?”

 

[J3C0]

Respect. How interesting.

Darth Mierin stepped into the room, not surveying it or looking about, these cells belonged to her after all. She walked into the corner, where part of the wall suddenly shifted out and became a harsh metal seat, not unlike the bed that he sat upon. Mierin sat herself down, crossing her legs and laying intertwined fingers upon her knees.

“You may begin, by telling me your name.” There was no need to be harsh, yet.

If the man cooperated, then Mierin would be more inclined to be kind to him. If he did not...well the obvious answer was that the Pureblood would have quite a bit more fun over the next few hours, and Hals experiences would not be so pleasant as they had been under a certain other Sith.

 

[Hal Terrano]

He shifted, moving to sit up and finding that his body was still stiff. Of course, he wasn't going to recover from such blatant neglect so quickly. We might be mildly magical beings in this galaxy but let's at least try to keep a handle on the realism here.

Come on.

The man slowly craned his neck, skin shifting uncomfortably over his protruding collar bone. If only this scene was set in black in white and then it could have been a commercial for poverty and/or abuse.

“My name is Hal Terrano,” he said, not skipping a beat.

There was no logic behind lying to the woman, he was completely at her mercy. This was the easy question however. Because the man knew what was coming, the admission of what he was, or at least what he had been.

A Jedi.

 

[J3C0]

Mierin smiled slightly.

Honesty was the best policy and it seemed that Hal here knew that to be true. The protrusions of bone on her face seemed to twitch slightly as she shifted on her small uncomfortable seat, part of the expression of her discomfort. She looked Hal over one more time, ensuring that he would not collapse into a coma while the two of them spoke to one another.

“I am Darth Mierin.” She decided to introduce herself. “Hand of the Dark Lord of the Sith.”

The reaction she would gain from that was a test.

She didn't know how long he had been in that cell, would he know which Dark Lord she was speaking about? There was only one true one of course, but so many in the galaxy had falsely claimed the title.

 

[Hal Terrano]

Well he already knew she was a Sith so there was no large surprise there, but then came the second part of her introduction.

Dark Lord of the Sith.

Since it all began there seemed to be a never ending flow of Dark Lord of the Sith, whether self-proclaimed or etched in the books of history it seemed to be a constant in the story of the galaxy. Hal didn't quite know how to take her declaration, if she follow he who had taken Coruscant, or if it was just another damp squib of a power grabber.

His brow furrowed as he contemplated that nugget. This was the enemy writ large in front of him, Hal so-called Defender of Justice! Bring her down for the cause! No, no, you are no longer a Jedi.

“Which one?” he responded quietly.