Chemical Warfare

[Valik]

Valik had heard through various grapevines on various places on the holonet that a certain wealthy businessman was looking for someone to head up a chemical warfare campaign, and that he was looking for only the best. Normally Valik wouldn't have cared particulary, just made a note that a new business was starting but the rumors persisted, saying that men and women were continuing to be turned down, that none were good enough. As he continued to examine the rumors he began to notice patterns. Little leaks here and ther, each rumor containing a different tidbit to the puzzle, before Valik finally realized who was asking, and who they were asking for. To this he put up a fake account, went to one of the sites where the rumors had originated from and left a single message.

I am coming.


And he was. Heading into Bothawui's department of Blas-Tech corporation he headed to the front desk.

"I'm here for the Chemicals Job. I'm expected." He said to the secretary, an almost carved rutian twi'lek.

"Take the elevator on your left up to the top floor. I'll tell him you're here." She replied, before getting a call ready to send upstairs. She had obviously been informed that he, or someone like him, was coming. Interesting. Valik did as he was instructed, and headed up the elevator to the top floor. As he got off the elevator he was shown to the sight of a Sith Lord he'd met once before, though he sported a more covert appearance than one normally expected from a Sith Lord.

"I've heard you've been looking for me." He said factually as he walked towards the man, perhaps his new employer.

It would be an interesting day these two would have.

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

 

[Jacen Cavill]

Bothuwai​

Blas-Tech Offices​

Cade Lee's Office​

Another spoon full of meat and rice was pushed down his mouth, his body exhausted from the training he had put himself through earlier. Bits of sweat still visible near his sideburns and temples from the earlier torture he had put himself through. The shaking utensil repeated the task over and over until the bowl itself was empty. His hand trembling from exhaustion, he placed the bowl on the table next to a a few assorted items. The first, was a stack of datapads, all on the new Guardian project he had finally pushed into the prototype stage. On the other side was a very bland looking ring, but who's power was his primary disguise from Force-users. Next to that ring lay his glasses, another part of the rather weak disguise he used that fooled the masses from knowing he truly was. A rather simple coat lay next to it all, and for a moment he just examined it all before leaning back in his plush chair. Sweat rolled down his neck, and over the Iron Skin armorweave he wore. Cavill was being himself, because the day was almost over and none dared come to his offices unless they were specifically asked to.

Then he was paged, and a few things happened on the displays before his desk.

Instantly the camera feed to the area his secretary was in came up on the display. Then a message popped up on the employment registration database he had been using. Jacen's ears perked up with interest as he leaned forward to get a look. "Is that him?" Cavill's question met only the air for a moment as he reached out with his senses, and they came to the same conclusion. Well, about time. The thought only lingered for but a moment as he cancelled the rest of the day's Holo-meetings. A few images closed on the Holo-screens before him. Save for one, but he would leave that one open for advice later.

It was an image of a blonde headed Jedi Master.

Valik approached and entered, and Jacen simply pointed to the chair across his desk with the hand that was covered in Kreshh's gauntlet. "About time you decided to show. To what do I owe your presence finally?"

[member="Valik"]

 

[Valik]

Valik placed a hand on the seat invited to him before getting into it completely, doing a routine psychometry check to make sure it hadn't been altered or poisoned in anyway, nor being set up as a killzone for anything but the normal death stare of a CEO to his employees.

"Your persistence I suppose." He answered. "Shout enough and a man is bound to become curious as to what's all the commotion." Valik continued as he examined the room of the disguised Sith Lord. Looking around all datapads were inactive, all holomonitors turned off, save for one. It was clear that the business mogul valued an audience with the Alchemist.

"Isn't that . . ." He said, struggling for a moment to recall. "That was the Grandmaster of the Jedi back when Varanin was Empress." He declared, finally remembering where he'd seen the gold-haired man before.

"I can experiment on him if you wish, but I don't believe I can procure him myself." Not yet at least. Valik thought to himself. Perhaps with another few inventions he could isolate the man's skillset, counter his attacks, but now, unprepared? He wouldn't come out on top. "Or does our business concern something other than goldilocks?"

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

 

[Jacen Cavill]

[member="Valik"]

"Who, Wraith?" Cavill spun around before reaching over and cutting the monitor off. "That won't be necessary, he's my first target that I've been sent to go after." It was the truth, he had no need to lie to Valik. "Though, if you do have anything I could use to kill the man. I would appreciate it, Rave certainly didn't give me an easy first target." That was another nugget of truth, Cavill was genuinely nervous about the upcoming hunt. His plan was sound, as were the tools he was bringing. Anything extra wouldn't hurt when trying to take down a man who's specialty was fighting Sith Lords.

Jacen let the subject lie for a moment, there was more to discuss. He didn't launch a grassroots campaign to get the alchemist here just to talk shop about killing Jedi, that would have been a waste of both their times. So he instead pulled up all the relevant data on PharmaTech and turned his screens so Valik could see. "This can be yours, if you want it. I started this company up with you specifically in mind. What do you say Mr. Valik?" Jacen could only hope he would take the offer, the man before him was literally the only choice he had.

Plus, the reward for this could be substantial in the long run.

 

[Valik]

Valik found it odd that the man left one monitor on only to turn it off once it brought up. The question and the first statement were casual, almost saying "Oh, it's nothing.", but with his leaving only that monitor on and then subtly asking for any weapons or devices that might be helpful in executing him told Valik one thing.

He was afraid.

"If I had any Former-Grandmaster-Slayers lying around the lab I'd have told you I could kill him myself. I can make you something or make you into something but that would take me a little time." He answered. Valik might have had an answer or device for every situation, but not all of them were strictly built yet. If only there were more hours in the day, but then there would be more hours to think. He'd complete ideas only to make new ones and get behind again.

In any case the Sith Lord only let the question seep into the room for a moment, before discussing the real business at hand. PharmaTech, a new biochemical weapons firm started by Blas-Tech. Data was being brought up on factories, funding, resources, employee databases, planned distribution targets, advertising campaigns, the whole nine yards. It was rather impressive for a start-up in truth. Jacen then offered him the company, which explained a lot in truth, but also begged more questions.

"Not that I don't like having factories, and funding, and a strong employee basis and all of those nice things, but I can't help feel there's another angle here. You can start a bio-weapons firm, hire a smart professor from Coruscant Med and make profits. You and I know that people like us don't need credits, we need weapons, connections, power."

"What do you really want from me Jacen?"

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

 

[Jacen Cavill]

[member="Valik"]'s words hung in the air for a moment, Cavill merely soaking it all in. Reports from every division in PharmaTech littered the air between them both, the light from their displays illuminating his face. Dark circles could be seen around his eyes, and it wasn't just the darkside corruption marring his features. Those dark circles indicated just how little sleep he was getting, and how much he had worked himself here recently. If one were to stare thoroughly, the would notice that a lack of sleep had mostly contributed to this. They might also would notice that his cheeks were a little gaunt, he wasn't eating as much and the overtraining was costing him some of his weight. Upon real close inspection they could see the spots on his skin where the Sith poison had started to infect him further, it's cumulative use starting to show on his handsome features. All of this was due to one person, that same Jedi Master that occupied a lone screen all to himself.

Cavill was afraid.

Jacen wouldn't admit it, but he was being eaten alive by it. All of his physical abilities meant nothing against a man who could throw it all back at him. Too long had the Empire used him as a hammer against those who couldn't match against him. In the years since, he had adapted to hunt those he wanted gone. That meticulous planing had led to him always having the advantage, which combined with his abilities skewed all battles in his favor. The weapons he had accumulated along with his artifacts had only enhanced that advantage. None of those would matter though in this fight, and he knew it. It was why he was beating himself into the ground preparing himself for the fight. Valik was too perceptive to lie to, so he just ignored all mentions of the GrandMaster and just kept all talk on business.

"Honestly Valik, I truly believe you can do a better job than any old professor. You don't go into business with the intent to just make something good, you go to make something great that will make a lot of credits." The screens between them all closed down as their holo-projectors were shut down with a flick of a switch. "I know you can make wondrous things, but I really want more money. I have grand things planned, and the extra revenue will only help enhance Blas-Tech while further elevating yourself." That was most of the truth, but there was a bit more to it.

"I won't lie to you though. I need more from you, and I want to help forge a more permanent relationship when it comes to what you can make." A tug of dark energy could be felt in the Force, and Daesumnor sprung from the secret compartment from which it was being hidden. It laid itself down in his lap, the hilt in one hand while the rest of the blade rest across his lap. "This was made by one Rave Merrill for me, and she's promised further gifts to enhance me." Jacen put the blade on the table between the two, so that the alchemist could view it. "I have one simple question for me, you've seen what I can do for you." A devilish grin crossed his face.

"What can you do for me?"

 

[Valik]

Valik was admittedly disappointed in the Sith before. True power was not measured by the number of zero's in a bank account. Credits were, at best, a means to an end. Something to facilitate the acquisition and distribution of resources. Not something to put one's life work into, not something to rely on.

But then Valik felt it. Like a musician hearing a new sound for the first time he could feel the alchemical masterwork before Jacen even raised it in view and placed it on his lap. Before he spoke he knew it's maker, there were only contestants for Alchemist of the year after all. His senses, the way Jacen kept it clung tightly to him, made one thing clear.

It was not a weapon to be trifled with.

Curiosity still piqued Valik only half heard the words the CEO uttered, though he heard that last sentence loud and clear. Though it was perhaps not the most tactical response, Valik could not hold back a little laughter.

"The question is not what I can do for you Cavill, but what I can do to you. And the answer is a great deal. I can make you unmaimable, render your skin poison to the touch, replace your adrenaline with a compound that gives you strength in the Darkside, your fingernails into talons that rip through durasteel, your spit as acidic as the rainfalls of Vjun. So to your question I raise one of my own."


"Where do you wish to start?"


[member="Jacen Cavill"]

 

[Jacen Cavill]

[member="Valik"]

Being the head of a galaxy-spanning corporation made Cavill absolutely no stranger to hearing promises. If he had a credit for every time he had heard something meant to help him or his business, he'd be as rich as he presently was. At least once an hour he was promised the "next big thing," or a means to "make his name." At the heart of everything he could see the truth, and it merely caused him to yawn. Aside from the small clutch of R & D scientists that he trusted, everything else that dealt with his businesses were nothing more than white noise. The same could be said when he was his true self, and he was graced with hearing people beg for their lives. I would already stand Emperor of the entire galaxy if all of those promises were true. They weren't, and he had instead been forced to settle for weaponizing the galaxy and pushing for war on all angles. These investments he had recently made had been for many things. It was why he had worked so hard to get Valik to come to his office, because of what all it could truly accomplish. Had the alchemist only agreed to the business deal, it would have been a victory.

Which was why he was positively drooling at what he was hearing right now.

"You realize it's almost impossible to offer me things that I truly want, but you have piqued my interest. I want more power in the Force, so replacing my adrenaline would be a start." Then he rolled up his sleeves to show off his wrists,"what can you do about these?" Cavill pointed right at the small bones that made up the joint. "I don't enjoy having any weakness in any situation. If you can eliminate anything and everything that could be used against me, or make me indestructible from any assault I would give anything for such a thing." All pretense had been dropped, they were down to the nuts and bolts of the deal now, and Jacen was truly being the man he was behind his many masks.

"Tell me what you want me to procure, I hunt Jedi after all." Daesumnor came to his hand, and he held the weapon by it's blade, letting the light bounce off of it. "What can I do for you in exchange?"

 

[Valik]

Almost impossible. It was like Jacen was taunting him, prodding him to do what other men only dreamed of. He wasn't quite sure if it was Jacen's hubris in his own desires, stupidity in comprehension of of his ideals, or cleverness in prodding Valik that made the Blas-Tech CEO choose his words. In any case the man's next few statements were of the simpler sort, but gave Valik everything he needed to workon. The man wanted the adrenaline, and the bone structure improvement. Simple jobs. That last statement though. "If you can eliminate anything and everythign that can be used against me, or make me indestructible from any assault I would give anything." If nothing else he had ambition, he wanted power. Valik wasn't sure if the man quite knew what to do with it, but his hunger? His desire? Clear as day.

The Sith asked what he might need, and what Valik wanted in exchange.

"Today, a look at that sword will be enough. Further procedures will have their own cost, but for now, a good look at the sword will do." Valik said, marking his price before getting on with what he needed the Sith to do, or gather for the future. A clear message about his bartering position and desires.

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

 

[Jacen Cavill]

[member="Valik"]

"Fine, here's the sword. It will not leave this room." Jacen placed Daesumnor back on the table before reaching into a drawer and pulling out the mask of Nihlus. The smooth contours and surface of it were cool against his flesh as he placed it between the two men before sliding it towards Valik. "I know you've seen this particular artifact already, but I figured you wouldn't mind getting another look in case you decided you wanted to make something else." The artifacts out of Jacen's possession for a moment, the Sith Lord got up from his desk chair and walked over to the huge window that allowed him to view the city before him. Coruscant was still in ruins after the attack, but the One Sith had left his industry alone. All he had to do in agreement was produce cheaper weapons for the fledgling terrorist group and everything was square between them.

For now at least.

An idea formed in his head, and that smile he had been wearing appeared again."You know, I want the bones. But what would you give me for the dead, soulless body of a former Jedi GrandMaster whom I'm about to go hunt? What would that be worth to you?"

 

[Valik]

As Jacen placed the sword on the table Valik headed over and put two fingers at the flat of the blade, just above the hilt, then dragged them softly across the blade. His mind traveled backwards, to the blade's creation, to Rave Merrill using quite the clever combination of soul anchors, Force Imbued Blades, and Leviathan Blister traps. In effect this stopped shenanigans like Transfer Essence from being a problem after death. Next he threw to his attention a mask, one that resounded with power, hunger. Putting a hand over it he attempted the Psychometry but found the item was powerful, the hunger infectious, and upon realizing it he stopped. Traveling the history that item was dangerous, and would take time. Something to explore later perhaps, but not while he was having a conversation with Cavill. To show weakness would be inopportune.

"A good deal in truth." Valik mused. The soulless part of the body worried him, but researching how final the effects of the Daesumnor was couldn't hurt. That and researching the soulless body for latent Force potential would be interesting. "You do that and I'll show you how to make the bones into a weapon." He said with a coy grin. "But first we'll have to get you into those bones won't we? I trust you have an examination table somewhere? I'll need to perform a spinal tap."

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

 

[Jacen Cavill]

[member="Valik"]

"Make bones into weapons? How in the world can you d-"

Jacen's words just stopped as Valik continued on and said the words "spinal-tap." His head whipped around instantly, and a bit of shock was there for a moment. To say he wasn't prepared for that was the truth, he hadn't thought that far forward. Of course he will need a spinal tap to access your bones Jacen, how else is he going to change you? Cavill's breathing picked up a bit as he realized just what was about to happen. Those words implied a medical procedure, not just some hocus pocus Force magic that would instantly change him. His features turned grim as he walked over to the desk and grabbed the Mask of Nihlus as well as Daesumnor before motioning for Valik to follow him into the study of his office. Walking past all the bookcases, he instead made way to a neuranium statue of a man holding a planet over his shoulders. "You know sometimes this is what the Force feels like to me, the hunt for power. It feels like a burden I'm always carrying, because I can never let it go so long as I'm still breathing." It was a shocking admission from him to another Sith.

Then again, Valik was about to have him gutted like a pig.

A slight tremor fell across his hand as he pressed the secret switch revealing an elevator to his secret training facility. Motioning for the fellow Sith to follow, the pair entered and the turbo-lift took them underground below Blas-Tech's tower. A cavernous space was revealed with all manner of Sith artifacts, holocrons, training implements and firing ranges. A small medical station was also present, with several attendant droids. "Where do we begin doctor," he said as they exited the lift.

 

[Valik]

Valik watched as the man stumbled about to try and figure the implications of what Valik implied. Though Jacen was no fool, or at least not as foolish as most, it was clear that he was the CEO while Valik was the scientist. He'd catch on soon enough. In any case he was catching on to the meaning of 'Spinal Tap', and the implications stopped in his speech. Rarely had he seen a Sith Lord like this give pause for such simple words. The pain of the procedure was obviously not lost on him. For the next few moment's he didn't speak, only heading over through the bookcases to find a statue, which seemed to have some value to him, prompting a comparison.

"The galaxy as a whole is filled with weakness, fools and powerless men and women at every corner. We must gather and exude the strength they cannot, and cull the weak if we hope to have progress." Valik responded in an analytic fashion. The sentence reminded him terribly of his first master, Tirdarius, an Empire man to his core. "Though some can benefit from learning how to live without breathing." He added, a mixed comment that would hopefully get the man thinking. By the time Valik had finished his response they had arrived at a medical facility, past all of the shooting ranges, sparring arenas, and places of study. Slowly he began moving things around telekinetically, clearing his workspace and re-arranging the medical table to fit his needs. Then Sith asked where to begin.

"With you lying face down on the table restrained." He said coldly, without emotion. "I trust that you'll be able to restrict your use of the Force during this operation, but control over the body is much less likely, and too much movement could endanger the procedure." He continued in explanation, as he wandered around the table, testing various pieces of equipment before he found a syringe that was of sufficient length. From there he put a couple of fingers on it, changing the stainless durasteel until an obsidian color, reinforcing it's strength and sharpness.

"And I'll need you to remove your shirt. Better view of your systems, less property damage."

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

 

[Jacen Cavill]

[member="Valik"]

Cavill's guest walked around his private training facility, examining medical instruments that Jacen didn't even mess with. Instead, he walked over the a vault and unlocked it using a retinal scanner. Placing Daesumnor, Nihlus's mask back in the secure vault, he closed it and locked it. Taking one last look around the facility he heeded Valik's words and headed back towards the table, and then proceeded to take off his suit coat and shirt. Broad expanses of muscle were revealed, as was a necklace with a distinct ring on it. Darth Kryptus pulled it off of his neck and examined the ring for a moment before deciding on the next course of action. Do I allow myself to be stripped of the Force and endure this hell alone? Or do I fall back on Kryptus the monster and let him shepherd me through this. "The path to power is through pain," rang through his mind in the voice of [member="Ashin Varanin"]. She wasn't his Master, but she had given the monster within him a name.

"I'll do this without the Force Valik, Soliael Talith made this ring for himself and me." Jacen slid it on, and suddenly the room seemed much smaller.

All the ebbs and flows of the darkness and all the life around him suddenly dissapeared. He was just left with his five senses, and the feeling of invincibility he had suddenly left. Sure, he was a large man, and he was fully trained in combat, but this wasn't war. What was about to happen was due to his own volition, and he would be paying quite the heavy sum for it. No longer the monster, but now he was just the man, and he walked over to the table and laid down without saying anything.

"Just get it done, and make sure I'm alive by the end of the day....please."

 

[Valik]

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

Valik's attention was raised as the enforcer spoke of a ring to cancel out his connection to the Force. An interesting design. True to his word Jacen put on the ring before lying onto the table silently, before asking to make sure that Valik kept him alive. To see such fear in the man was reassuring. He'd definitely have to take note of that. Fear was a weakness he could exploit in the future, should the gun-king decide Valik was no longer useful to him. As he laid on the table Valik pulled metal bars over his wrists, above his ankles, one above his torso, then sealed the metal clamps. Valik then laid a hand on the clamp on his right arm, changing it into a much stronger metal with Alchemy, reinforcing it incase the man's physical strength was greater than his strength in the Force. As Jacen was supposedly without the Force he likely wouldn't feel it, though he assumed the man could reason what was going on merely from the time it was taking.

Next Valik gently stroke his fingers across the man's vertebrae, before finding the middle of the two he was searching for. He pressed the area with his fingernail, making a small indention that Valik would use as his marker, one Jacen would feel as a warning mark that process would soon begin. Next the alchemist took a small towel and soaked it up with disinfectant, before slathering it all over Jacen's lower back. It would feel cold, lightly sticky, a contrast that would be sharply picked up by the Sith's physical senses. With the target marked and the surrounding area sufficiently prepared he walked over to the needle he had alchemized a few minutes prior, and small ball-peen hammer. Putting the needle straight up over mark he'd made he took the hammer and hit it downwards over the syringe, pushing it downwards inbetween the man's vertebrae and into his spinal column.

 

[Jacen Cavill]

[member="Valik"]

Cavill was no expert on the art of alchemy, he had never really watched it done before. Yes, he did spend a great amount of time with Rave Merril, but she wasn't Warren Valik. All of his ability to feel in the Force gone, he could only guess that something was happening to the straps that now held him in place. Cool leather cushions kept him much more awake and alert than he wanted to be. Sharp fingers traced up his spine, and he could feel the alchemist feeling for a spot on his vertebrae. Which one is he going to pick? Jacen's morbid thoughts did nothing to slow his racing heart, but he forced himself to relax. Memories from his beginnings with the Sith came back to mind, when Tirdarius tortured him endlessly and poked and prodded at him.

Except this was much different now. He knew what true power was, and he was on the path to it. This temporary set back would only be that, temporary.

A fingernail dug quite deeply into his back, but that wasn't enough to draw notice. Then the cooling feeling of some liquid being washed across his back immediately told him what came next. Dread made his stomach drop to the floor, and panic started to take him over. Instinctively he reached deep within himself to find that burning pit of rage, and nothing responded. There would be no Kryptus coming to the rescue, dark tendrils of energy wouldn't flood his senses. In this state he was a mere mortal who couldn't fly away or shoot rays from his eyes to help himself. No, there was just the shadow of a needle above him. For a moment it hung there as he tried to look for it, then the next thing he knew the shadow dropped.

Pain followed, and he screamed.


"AHHHHHH!!"

 

[Valik]

[member="Jacen Cavill"]

The man screamed in agony, flailed horribly, but was restrained by the Sith Alchemized bars around his person. The tap was over though, and Valik had work to do. He should have been still for a little while. A lumbar puncture, or 'spinal tap' as it was colloquially called, was performed to obtain cerebrospinal fluid without going through the skull. The CSF, among other things, kept the brain buoyant in the skull and served as a buffer to protect from impact. The brain produced around half a liter of the substance a day, but was constantly reabsorbing the material. It was rare for more than 100 milli-liters of the substance to be circulating at a time.

Valik performed the procedure for the typical reason, to extract CSF. However, he was not using it to test for cranial bleeding, or various nutrient deficiencies. Instead, he took it, put it in a sealed culture, and changed it. He infected it with a toxin of sorts, reshaping the fluid into what in essence was the biological equivalent of a computer virus. Returning the CSF to it's rightful owner Valik then extracted the needle and began clean up, properly sealing the puncture and assuring sterilization. It may not have been immediate, but the CSF would return to the brain eventually, to be reabsorbed. From there the brain would change the man's DNA, tell it's body to produce it's adrenaline and bones differently. The adrenaline replacement itself would be painless, merely the changing of a couple glands, but no matter how 'minmaxed' Valik had made the Sith Poison, it was still poison. The moment any of it was dispersed his rage, his pull to darkside, the feeling of pain would all magnify intensively.

The replacement of the bones however, would be excruciating. In essence he was going through growing pains, all over his body though every bone simultaneously. Over the next half hour, perhaps an hour depending on how his body reacted, his entire skeletal structure would be re-written, rebuilt, and reinforced. Add to that the headache he might feel as around a third of spinal tap recipients did and, well?

Valik wouldn't want to be Jacen right now.

 

[Jacen Cavill]

[member="Valik"]

"The path to true power is wrought with pain, and absolute dedication."

Whoever had said that absolutely epitomized what Jacen Cavill was allowing to happen at this moment. His quest for absolute power had took him down a long, winding road that he was still traveling. Everyone he had loved had been left behind, all for him to chase the power he so desperately needed. His father had died so he could get rid of the specter of the past that had held him back, and his mother was somewhere. She had left him after seeing the lust in his eye, that craving for more. Menoetius himself had walked away, a vampire of human souls had found his lust too strong. Whatever feelings he had had for [member="Spencer Jacobs"] had been destroyed as he had allowed his rage to finally take full control of him. There was no connection for the man to anyone now, anyone who knew him really was only an acquaintance to help him reach an end he desired. Valik was helping push him down that path, and he wasn't going to be the same man after this.

Hell, he wouldn't even be human.

Screams escaped his lips as he writhed on the table, the straps and altered metal holding him in place. Every fiber of his body burned upon the liquid being injected into him, all of his cells screaming along with him. In the cavernous space, his cries were heard by only one man. Sweat poured down his body, his hair becoming stuck to his face as the flight-or-flight reflex kicked in. Cavill's breathing only increased in tempo as the cells underwent changes, his bones felt more akin to magma at the moment. Searing heat took over his body as he started to go into shock, a seizure kicking in. Tremors rocked his body, and blood escaped his lips as he bit his tongue. He lost all control over his bodily functions as all of his muscles began to flex and relax on their own.

In his quest for power he had become powerless for a moment.

Pain rocked his body, and then there was nothing. Consciousness left him, and so did his humanity.