Clash of the Titans

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

It came about by chance – though many maintain that nothing happens by mere luck – when two mortal enemies came to the same planet on the same day.
Of course, Director Kerrigan of Firemane and Mr Quoll Levert had no clue the other was there…except perhaps for a twisting of the Force.

Ostensibly Mr Levert had come to the planet to purchase some fine antiques from the former Sith Empire’s structures. In reality things were more complicated, and whilst he was looking for antiques it was not the kind one could admit to buying.

As for Siobhan, when her group arrived a chance remark would set things in motion.
Having seen the well-dressed business woman with her entourage one of the spaceport officials made an offhand comment.
“Welcome to Bosph, Ms Kerrigan. I guess you’ve heard about the Sith archive auction? We’ve had a fair few visitors coming to take part.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


Chance, will of the Force, destiny? Esoteric concepts Jedi loved to debate about. Siobhan had never had time for such talk. It was all semantics to her. Regardless, what set it all off was a mere chance remark. Bosph was a world that had once been an old stomping ground of hers. Way back, many years ago, it had been the seat of the so-called Sith Council, one of the many Sith splinter groups that had arisen after the old Empire's collapse and soon afterwards likewise collapsed like a sand castle before a flood. She and Ember Rekali had broken their pride, torn open their deepest vaults and destroyed their treasures.


Sith archives auction. Three magic words that immediately transformed her entire attitude from what had seemed like a boring and fairly standard business trip. The expression written across her features became dead serious. "Refresh my memory, where is this auction taking place?"


The spaceport official frowned slightly. "I thought you'd heard about, my Lady. It's taking place at the Wigford and & Hayes Auctioning House," he replied.


"I'm sure you won't mind arranging for me to get a guest list, am I right?" Siobhan said feigned warmth and politeness. A magic wave of her hand - literal handwavium! - smoothed away whatever layers of doubt the local bureaucrat might've had. "Because I'd be very interested in attending."


The official nodded, for the request seemed totally reasonable. "I'll...call my supervisor, Lady. I've been told there's a big turnout and plenty of antiques on display. Security is tight. There's not gonna be any nonsense like on Contruum." Of course, humble official that he was, he could not judge that. Some time later Siobhan had received a list and studied it intently, but it meant little to her. Some players she recognised, many she did not. Bosph was a neutral world unclaimed by any power, which meant it ideal for such gatherings. Officially, of course, they'd only be selling fine antiques.


Officially. For some reason, one name in particular caught her eye. Quoll Levert, though she did not know why. In the back of her mind, something told her this was crucial, that she had to attend. Perhaps it was the call of the Force or simply her own gut instinct. Boarding her speeder, she quickly headed towards the auction house.

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
“Mr Levert, the auction is about to begin,” the usher said.
“Thank you.” He turned to his apprentice, the Eldorai named Illyria. “Go in and take a seat. I will monitor.”
“Yes, Lord,” the Eldorai said, heading inside.
The Sith Lord watched her go, paused. Why was he here in person? There was no one who could determine the veracity of some of the items being sold, and he could not do that by holorecording. His powers were strong, but could not cross the entire galaxy.
More people were arriving, so the Sith Lord hid his power and slipped into an upper gallery where he could look down on the stage. Illyria was downstairs, and via a communicator in her ear would transmit his bids. Caution was always wise. One did not survive for centuries without it.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


On paper, everything seemed innocent and civil as Siobhan entered the auction house. By the time she arrived, the place was already filled with guests, but obviously the minions wasted no time with ushering her in. Bids had not been made yet, but the holographic projections of various items were on display at the stage. Most of them were antiques, for no respectable auction house would present artefacts of doom.


That said, she had it on good authority that a number of holocrons and amulets that might be the real deal could be acquired. Under the table, of course. Her eyes swept across the stage. Since Shadow had obfuscated his power and would presumably also conceal his dark nature, Siobhan would be unable to sense him. Alas, omniscience was not part of her skill set.


However, her eyes were drawn towards an attractive Eldorai female. Darkness could be sensed radiating from her, along with the Force. An apprentice could not conceal that from a Master. However, darkness did not automatically equal Sith, not unless Siobhan would be guilty of egregious hypocrisy. But there was something about her that set her teeth on edge. Call it a sixth sense, if you wish.


"Find out who that girl is," she spoke quietly into her comm, contacting one of her minions. A frown creased Siobhan's features as she made her way towards the upper gallery. Her lightsabre was concealed and around her neck she wore a pendant that was actually a hold-out bolter. Aside from that, the only weapon she carried on her person was a heavy-hitting sonic blaster pistol developed by FFE. In other words, by her standards she was rather underdressed if it came to a serious fight...but then she did not expect one. The fancy business suit and leather boots were a far cry from her usual armour.

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Illyria had performed an inspection of the room and had been about to sit down when she caught sight of the new visitor. She knew the face from the list Shadow had sent her.
“Lord, we have a problem. Kerrigan’s here.”
“Yes, my Apprentice…I see her. Bar the doors, deal with her attendants. I will settle this once and for all.”

As Siobhan entered the upper gallery, the Sith Lord was waiting. As she stepped out he suddenly revealed his power and unleashed a blinding discharge of lightning from both hands directly at her, hopefully catching her completely by surprise.

Down below Illyria gestured and the doors slammed shut. She ignited her crimson lightsabre and advanced on Siobhan’s retinue which was still downstairs.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


Clarity and pain. Both were so deeply entwined. No sooner had she crossed the threshold, than the dark presence had revealed itself. Darth Shadow. The vile Sith Lord who had tormented her, possessed her...then tried to murder her wife.


The last time she had tried to hunt him, she had been deceived and spaced. He was here. The blinding discharge of lightning swept towards her. Siobhan had perceived a warning through the Force, but it came a bit too late. Perhaps the shock of encountering the ancient Sith also played a role in this matter.


Pain, there was lots of it. Her body shook as the burst of lightning hit home, much like tendrils of electricity intent on roasting flesh and blinding her. Temporarily she was robbed of her vision due to the bright lightning and was forced down to her knee. Lightning swept across her body and she shook, suppressing a cry of pain by biting on her tongue. A stab of pain shot through the knee of her bad leg. Smoke coiled off her smouldering clothes.


Pain...it invigorated her. Jedi gained their power from the Light, though it seemed to fail them so often. But Siobhan was no Jedi and so she drank from the well of anger and hatred. She was not that little girl anymore and he was...just a man. A man she could kill. As her lightsabre moved to intercept and the brilliant blue blade sprang to life, lightning coiled around it like a snake. The defence was far from perfect, but it impeded his attempt to fry her a bit.


Raw hatred took over as power writhed inside her and she sought to envelope the Shadow in a massive telekinetic grip, much like the hug of a Wookiee. As telekinetic might crunched down upon his throat, she sought to lift him into the air and toss him across the room into the nearest wall, with enough force to break it, as she threw all her hatred and pain back at him. She would crush him like a bug, she would make him bleed!


Meanwhile, on the lower levels the Firemane escort would probably be engaging Illyria right about now. They had been ordered to stay alert for trouble. Doors suddenly closing and the elf chick advancing with a red lightsabre was a dead giveaway! Revealing bolt pistols and sonic blasters, they would open fire, seeking to spread out and attack her from several angles.

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Down below, Illyria saw the entourage were not mere functionaries and Pas, but somewhat trained guards.
Therefore she called on the Force to leap into the air whilst throwing her blade right at one of the minion’s chest. She then would call the blade back to her hand as she landed and face the next foe.

Upstairs though was where the real fight was going to occur. The lightning had struck, but now Siobhan replied with a massive telekinetic assault.
In response, Shadow called on the Force to form a lightning barrier to shield himself from the crush. Still, he was picked up and thrown against the wall, but the barrier cushioned the impact, and though masonry and duracrete splintered he was mostly unhurt.

Igniting his own lightsabre, the Sith Lord leapt to the attack, the Force carrying him close. He knew well that Siobhan, like him, preferred to fight at a distance, but in this case he was a skilled duellist with the lightsabre too.
Spearing forward with his blade he sought to run her through, make her defend and cede him the initiative.

As a side plan, as he’d charged in he had unleashed a blast of lightning from his free hand at her leg. If she moved to defend against it she would leave herself open. If not, it could deliver a nasty zap.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


The guards had been shooting at Illyria since she ignited her lightsabre. Sonic blasters had AOE, if you tried to block the blast with a lightsabre there was a nice explosion, impact left you dizzy and mucked up your concentration. Since these were Sio's people, it was likely they were more than somewhat trained, though obviously they lacked armour and such. Basic anti-Forcer tactics: Spread out, concentrate fire on the Forcer from multiple angles, give them no time to concentrate enough. Ideally use weapons difficult for them to block.


Moreover, she had just tossed her weapon away and was leaping through the crossfire. One guard went down from the lightsabre, as it sizzled through her chest. Three guards were left. Sonic blasts were coming her way, as did rounds from a bolt pistol. Even a Master like Siobhan would've gotten hurt a lot...and Illyria was no Master. By the time Illyria got her sabre back, it was likely she'd be either hurt a lot or down.


Anyhow, upstairs the real battle was taking place. It was no secret that Siobhan disdained lightsabre combat because she, to put it bluntly, sucked at it. Once upon a time, she had been somewhat decent at it, but that was before her writer switched sites and discovered that TK is more than Force Choke and Force Push.


And, now that the meta is out of the way we can get back to the action. A more mobile woman with similar deficiencies in close combat would have probably leapt out of the way, but Siobhan lacked mobility. She sought to gather the Force inside her, but it seemed he was faster as the Force carried him through the air.


What she did do as Shadow leapt towards her was bring forth her FFE-designed sonic blaster and fire, unleashing a concussive sound wave. Dodging or blocking sound was...difficult. The sonic blast was aimed at Shadow's sword arm. The energised containment sphere would explode on contact with lightsabres or anything else, rupturing inorganic matter and bringing concussive force to damage internal organs unless protected against. Likewise it could cause disorientation and leave you dizzy. Hopefully that would impede his charge as he leapt towards her. Her free hand held her lightsabre, to defend herself if needed. However, her preoccupation on keeping him from spearing her left her exposed to the blast of lightning. She saw it coming, but by then it was too late!


A nasty zap struck her leg - and it was her bad one again, because it appeared the Force or rather her writer liked to hurt it even more! Ouch. If Siobhan had worn her fancy armour, damage would've been mitigated a good deal. However, alas she was dressed in a fancy and thoroughly impractical skirtsuit. This meant there was no armour between the lightning bolts and the unprotected flesh of her leg. She shook as a searing pain snapped across her leg, Part of her skirt was burnt, flesh was roasted. Sort of like a barbeque or when you left the apple cake too long in the oven.


As her knee was struck she fell. Pain shot through her leg as she cartwheeled. She could have drawn upon tutaminis to absorb the heat, but she needed to hit back. Pain was something she could deal with for now. On instinct, she summoned a shattering blast and sent it thundering towards Shadow's chest like a massive invisible hammer with enough concussive force to break bones as if they were made of glass, and hopefully toss him away. Ideally also do nasty things to his internal organs, but that was the ideal and he was quite powerful! At the passage of the bolt, the air twisted in strange shapes and the ground was warped.

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Illyria had made a mistake. The reality was that despite a year of training under Darth Shadow and the experience she had picked up before she had not encountered such weapons before. Perhaps it was her bad luck to have never really encountered her own people after they banished her. Whatever the reason, she made the classic mistake that so many unwitting Force users made.
As she landed and called her lightsabre to her she swatted at a bolt pistol round, with the result that it discharged, spraying a stream of molten metal into her face. Quick reflexes saved her life, but the semi-molten metal cut jagged lines across her face.
Desperate, she deflected a sonic bolt, but the lightsabre was torn from her hands and sent spinning across the tiles.
Wounded, the Sith Apprentice staggered, taking cover behind the stairs. She’d taken a hit, but she was not beaten yet as she gathered her strength.

Shadow meanwhile was not taken in so easily. Seeing the sonic bolt coming, he made a split second choice and moved out of the way, his blade and arm now striking only air as he landed in a crouch. Her onslaught was powerful, but he met it head on. Whilst Siobhan was capable of absurdly powerful telekinesis, the Sith Lord combined it with lightning to a greater extent.

Energy met and clashed between them at point blank range. Lighting and telekinetic power met raw Force energy and the result was a moment a stalemate. The ground buckled, lightning arced and started fires on the carpet and drapes, materials fused and liquefied like water.
Neither side would easily prevail here, but the Sith Lord had enough spare power to send his lightsabre spinning out to the side and arcing in, aiming at Siobhan’s legs. It was a serious enough threat that she would have to do something about it, but would she lose her concentration enough to weaken the telekinetic struggle she was having?

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Darth Shadow"]

In the span of a few moments, an impressive light show had erupted. The sort of thing that would make any special effects director green with envy since Holowood could not match the real thing. The ground buckled and warped as the power of the Force was unleashed, lightning arced across the room and fires eruped.


Priceless carpets and curtains were set alight. It seemed the Sith could use blasts of lightning to block a telekinetic blast. How this worked was new to Siobhan, but she pressed on as she intensified her onslaught, with powers crashing against one another as they were seemingly locked in a struggle that could go on for ages as the room was torn asunder and consumed by the hellfire of the Dark Side.


And so suddenly the lightsabre was sent spinning towards her. Throwing an object against a telekinesis master was normally a very bad idea because they had a tendency of throwing anything back at you! However, the Sith had shown himself to be more ingenious by sending it spinning towards her side like a boomerang rather than attacking her head-on.


This obviously posed more of a problem! However, Siobhan had not survived this long without good instincts. Sensing an attack coming she quickly sought to move out of the way as she sidestepped. Alas, her manoeuvre was not perfect and pain shot through her as the tip of the blade sizzled and cut across her upper leg, causing a searing burn. Ouch! Not enough to slice it off, but it sure hurt like hell and good luck running like this! Telekinetic willpower crunched down upon the blade's hilt, blowing it up into little pieces. The smell of burnt electronics filled the air. Most annoyingly, a piece of it ended up slashing against her back.


Lightning washed over her, burning clothes and striking at her flesh. The sonic blaster had fallen out of her grasp. Fires were spreading across the room and it seemed like her firemane was wreathed in flame. As she drank from the fountain of the dark side, her eyes were a fathomless obsidian, wells of nothingness. She grit her teeth at the pain as heat spread across her body like wildfire, but she still stood her ground and did not yield an inch.


Heat..she absorbed it, as her hand seemed to glow. Her technique was not perfect as burns appeared across her scorched hand and smoke coiled off it, but she managed to absorb a portion of the energy to fuel herself and amplify her own power. He had his static shield, she had tutaminis and Force Protection. Logically those would be a superior barrier when compared to electricity. It helped that Sith Lightning was a very common Sith power she knew well. It probably also helped that she no longer had bionic limbs since otherwise she'd have lost one by now! But there was only so much energy she could absorb before her body reached its limits and she burst. It was power that must be unleashed and that was what she did.


With darkness radiating from her, she summoned her power and focused it upon Shadow's chest. Titanic telekinetic willpower crunched down upon his black heart with absurdly brutal force, seeking to crush it as she poured all her hatred into it, letting the pain fuel her. She would drive her unrelenting onslaught again and again, without pause, without mercy.


Meanwhile, downstairs the Sith Eldorai had apparently retreated to the stairs. The Firemane minions were wary of approaching her directly though. They could tell that she was not used to dealing with anti-forcer weapons, but a wounded, cornered animal was the most vicious and who knew what space magic powers she had. It was always difficult for an NFU to assess such dangers.


So after confiscating the sabre, one of the Firemane mooks produced a flashbang and, covered by her comrades, hurled it towards where the Sith was believed to be lurking. It was not an ordinary grenade, but an anti-forcer one, which meant that any pressure exerted it to change acceleration would make it detonate. Due to the internal mechanism, it also only exploded after reaching a safe distance from the thrower, which meant that prematurely detonating it would not work. Once it exploded they would go forth and fire. If the Sith emerged from cover, bolter rounds and sonic blasts would greet her.

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Down below the Sith Apprentice was cunning enough to appreciate the trap being set. As the grenade arced through the air she could sense it, and she reached out to it, not with Telekinesis, but with her ancestral powers of Earth. The metal of the casing, the internal components, all of it became visible to her.
Rapidly she reached out and as it reached the zenith of its arc she put all her energy into it, distorting the metal with magnetic energy and twisting it. The sensors on the grenade registered it had been tapped and it went off with a loud bang, a flash.
Illyria hid her face from it, but even through closed eyelids she saw the flash. Hoping that the detonation had somewhat affected her attackers she emerged to hurl a telekinetic impel at them to drive them back and give her a chance to either escape or find a way to strike back.

The Sith Lord had never actually faced Siobhan Kerrigan in battle, but had heard and seen displays of her power second hand. Now though he was perhaps regretting so many casual dismissals of her ability. A battering ram she certainly was, but what a ram….
So much of Siobhan’s power was focussed into one area whilst Shadow’s skills were more subtle and broad.

He was forced to give up his attack as she sought to crush his chest with the Force. In this he succeeded, but the blowback from releasing his pressure on her picked up the Sith Lord and hurled him off the balcony and down to the floor below, bringing down a considerable part of the ceiling around Siobhan too.

The Sith Lord picked himself up slowly, looking up at his nemesis. Blood formed crimson patches in his white hair.

“So be it,” he hissed.

Reaching out with the Force he sought to grip the pillars holding up the upper floor and bring them crashing down, knocking the floor from beneath Siobhan.

However, that was only part of his assault. It was, in truth a feint to keep her distracted. Now he sought to reach into her mind as he had done so many years before. This time though he sought to disorientate her, to fill her with doubts and fears. These would build to a crescendo of imagined noise, sights and emotions trying to overpower her.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Darth Shadow"], [member="Valiens Nantaris"]


And so the Sith Lord fell into the abyss. Well, not quite, as much as Siobhan would have liked to see him descent into a hellish pit of lava! However, she still allowed herself a a grim smile at the sight when she saw the blood form on his previously pristine white hair. The effect was a bit spoiled by the fact that her lips were bruised and a bit burnt. Hence why moving them hurt somewhat. However, there was no time to rejoice because firstly the Sith was far from beaten and secondly, part of the ceiling was coming crashing down. For a change, the poor roof could not blame Siobhan for its abrupt demise. Well, it could probably do so indirectly, but she had not directly dropped it! The floor shook as pieces of the roof crashed down, sending shockwaves through it. Siobhan grounded herself in the Force as the entire floor became unstable. Stretching out with the Force, Siobhan quickly moved her scorched hand in a circular motion to gather pieces of debris around her.


These ranged from permacrete chunks of ceiling to broken pieces of furniture and shards of glass, whilst flames whipped across the thoroughly wrecked room. Pieces of roof were gripped tight by her power as a wind sprang to life, forming a tower of multi-faceted death. She sent it hurtling straight towards Shadow, aiming to bury him. The entire room seemed to shake and she was tossed to the side, shooting towards a couch when Shadow began exerting his power to manipulate the pillars. Then she was suddenly sliding down towards the abyss as the room's instability increased. Rather than try and stop the process of decomposition, she pulled at the tangled web of the Force to pour energy into her muscles and, as the first pillar collapsed, leapt into the air.


As had been mentioned before, she had a bad leg and it had been abused by lightning a few moments. As such, there was a tribute in pain to be paid, though Crucitorn kept it down. It was only her command of the Force that granted her such mobility and undoubtedly there would soon be a price to be paid, but for now she pulled through as she was carried by the winds. Thing was, the fallout of the floor's destruction worked both ways. It meant she could not stay there at a comfortable vantage point and telekinetically bombard Shadow, but it also meant that he risked getting buried beneath the collapsing floor. The whirlwind was carried across the hall, gathering up debris and furniture along the way as it blossomed into a mini tornado, and her power directed the spinning cloud of debris towards Shadow.

Then there was pain, a crescendo of voices, emotions that slammed into her mind with the force of a tidal wave. Her mind reeled under the terrible pain as her head was sent spinning. Trying to make out the Sith became difficult as images flashed through her mind. The overpowering crescendo of voices acted like a hammer blow to the head as they sought to drown her inside an ocean of insanity.


This had the effect that Siobhan, as she tried to rally her mental barriers, fell out of the sky and collapsed to the ground, after being brutally flung around by the wind as it raged across the hall. Ouch. She had enough of a presence of mind to wrap the Force around her in a bubble to somewhat cushion the fall, but it still hurt. However, some things had changed since their first encounter, when she had been helpless to resist his mental manipulation as a newly knighted Jedi. In a way, Siobhan had been preparing for this day for almost fifteen years.


Focus. Clarity. Think. Kill. Images of the past flashed through her mind, of her past torment at the hands of Shadow, how she had fallen for his lies and been manipulated. Words were branded into her mind, calling her a failure. It was like a biting cold had set in, weighing her down and seeking to freeze her helplessly. Meanwhile, chaos raged across the room as pieces of furniture, priceless tapestries, portraits and antiques were uprooted and hurled across the hall. The voices became louder and louder...it hurt to think, but she pushed back. Violently. Powerfully, as she summoned mental claws to crush the pincers trying to slice through her mind. She was the eye in the storm. She had defiled nations, broken cities, fought Elder Gods! The pain she was feeling stoked the fires of her rage.


I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration
I will face my fear
I will permit it to pass over me and through me
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to its path
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing
Only I will remain


Thus was the mantra she had learned from [member="Mirien Valdier"]. The words echoed through her mind, meeting the crescendo of voices and clarity returned to her. Shadow was just that: A man. A very powerful one...but one who bled like any other. One she could kill. And so, with all her power, she pushed back against him, driving the mental power forth like a hurricane to rid him from her mind. Her own thoughts were kept fluid as a Kaeshana storm, making it difficult to latch onto one and use it against her. Violently she lashed out, driving her very real and physical storm towards him. She would crush him, she would bury him!


xxx


Meanwhile, a bit further away things proceeded quite fast on the NPC front. The Firemane guards were presumably not unaware of the fact that Eldorai Forcers tended to have elemental tricks, but terramancers were quite rare, even among the space elves. Hot elves tossing fireballs and lightning around were a lot more common.


Fortunately, they did not lack in presence of mind and sought cover when the grenade prematurely detonated and exploded in a bright flash. Alas for them, they lacked helmets or some form of ear protection and so the ringing sound seemed to momentarily stun one. There was no reprieve as Illyria charged and let loose with her telekinetic attack. One guard was flung hard across the room, two fired, one with a bolt pistol, the other with a sonic blaster aimed at her legs. It was in this moment that the storm came to their attention, for though Shadow and Siobhan were not in the same room, they were quite close and as such the storm could be seen.


Feth it. That really changed the game plan! Sith Apprentices they could deal with, space magi unleashing natural disasters was a different story. If either Illyria or the guards stayed too close, they'd risk being consumed by the funnel. A Sith Lord and a Dark Jedi Master could perhaps survive that, they could not! It was time for a tactical retreat.

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Many buildings, especially those in disaster prone areas, were built to resist hurricane force winds. However, very few of them were designed to resist them coming from inside the building!

Illyria had knocked one of the guards, but the others opened fire at her. Bolt pistol rounds whizzed past her as she made for the door, and she’d had to dive prone to avoid a sonic blaster bolt. Running out of tricks, she rolled over, looking as the Firemane troops levelled their guns.

However, the titans clashing next door provided some relief. The storm in the main room of the auction house had finally started to get too much, and the roof started to bow and collapse. In this outer hall a wall suddenly gave way, and Illyria dived for the window and smashed through as more blocks started to fall. She did not stop to see if her Master was still alive, but made for cover to escape her pursuers…or at least she hoped so!

The cause of that blowout was Darth Shadow’s own repeated counter blows. Hoping that his mental manipulations had done their trick, he countered her just as she replied with her own attacks. Gusts of telekinetic power and lightning blasted the walls, melted the floor, brought down the room. The auction house could not endure the beating for long, and began to give way.

The Sith Lord stood his ground, tearing pieces of duracrete and hurling them at Siobhan, only to have to deflect them again when they were thrown back. The air became so charged with Force energy that it almost seemed a nexus of Dark Side power.

And then, abruptly, the Sith Lord vanished. His absence caused a sudden depressurisation of Force energy, and all the power directed at him struck the wall behind, causing it to begin a slow and devastating collapse.

However, though not visible with the eye, the Sith Lord’s presence could still be felt. His voice echoed telepathically through her thoughts.
“You have grown strong, Siobhan Kerrigan. I mistook you for a simple brute of limited skills. Now I see you are a simple brute of considerable skills.”

In the wake of the destruction mirror images of the Sith Lord appeared in the rubble, each looking and sensing as though they were real.

“Will you thrash and stomp and try to crush everything?”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


And so the Sith Lord managed to stand his ground without taking any damage or even struggling. Truly, such power was impressive. It made one wonder why'd never managed to go far in the old Sith Empire. Or why he, to put it bluntly, played no role in the present Sith power structure.


Regardless, he was no god. Such concentration and focus took energy. Then the Sith vanished from sight. This was a useful power, but he made the mistake of not concealing his Force presence and then talking. Contrary to popular belief, talking was not a free action, which was why Siobhan never indulged in it.


A 'simple brute' Siobhan may be, but she did not waste time. There was no point in wasting time by taunting an opponent. Especially one who was not vastly inferior to you. Mirror images of the Sith Lord manifested in the rubble. Each looked and felt like they were real...and they did nothing. Manifesting such illusionary copies was obviously something a mentalist could do. Siobhan herself was familiar with it from Coryth Elaris. It took energy to maintain them, though. And while these seemed to serve the purpose of distracting Siobhan, they did not seem to take offensive action.


Siobhan herself had expended plenty of energy and taken hits. Both from the lightning and the blunt trauma earlier when she crashed. But her mind was focused and her goal was clear. She would not let pointless taunting and illusions get in the way. Perhaps if the Sith had not wasted time with talking, the illusions would've bothered her more. Actually that's probably what would've happened.


But even the best illusions had some flaws. For instance, they commony lacked a heartbeat. Sweat dripped down her face and back, she struggled to even stand due to the injury inflicted earlier on her leg. As it was, she was leaning against some rubble to keep herself from falling. Her clothes and a good portion of her flesh had been scorched by lightning or was covered in dust.


Yet, she stood. She closed her eyes as she focused on the Force and followed its threads. Illusions only had power as long as you believed they existed - and Shadow was trying to both keep himself invisible and maintain the illusions. After having already expended energy to block most of her blows with minimal damage. The old Siobhan would've gone for more wasteful AOE attacks in an attempt to simply hit every 'Shadow' in the hall. This one was more focused as she followed the threads of power, the brief link that had been established when he spoke into her mind.


Telekinetic willpower wrapped around the real Sith Lord, focusing upon his throat and his groin as a massive telekinetic hand manifested. With her powe, she attempted to lift him into the air and slam him back into the ground with the impact of a meteorite. A speeder crash could result in enough kinetic impact and blunt trauma to cause cause intracranial bleeding and explode internal organs and Siobhan was trying to throw the Sith with a speed far in excess of that. Of course, Shadow had his static barrier, but it was simple logic that electricity would not be much of a barrier against concussive force.

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
He had made the classic villain mistake of talking when he should be fighting. Perhaps the Sith Lord believed a little too much of his own hype. Perhaps he believed that with all his hundreds of years of experience he was inherently superior to Siobhan.

He was mistaken.

Swiftly she had zeroed in on him, and the sudden onslaught surprised the Sith Lord. The illusions vanished as he tried to shield himself. This one cannot comment on what went through the minds of game designers thinking lightning made good protection, but in this case it was not good enough regardless.

Picked up, he was slammed into the ground. The shield slowed his descent, but not enough. The combination of the impact and the breaking shield cracked the ground as the Sith Lord formed a circular divot in the duracrete.

Pain…pain was something he was not used to. The Dark Side had sustained him for so long that the impact brought him back to horrible reality. Bones broke and flesh ruptured under the impact and the Sith Lord let out a cry of pain. He could not move his legs or his right arm, and his back was a mass of pain.

A hiss escaped his lips. With the last of his power he prepared for a final trick. He would not die…not yet…not ever!

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


Everything and everyone died one day. Vitiate, who had tried to consume the Galaxy for...no real reason really, had one day met final death. Presumably some time after the whole Eternal Empire gambit. Plagueis had been murdered by Palpatine after drinking too much. Palpatine himself had been finally dragged into the netherworld. Even that brat Akala had been destroyed one day.


Immortality was a false hope; a delusion. One day Siobhan would die, too. Perhaps on the battlefield when she encountered someone stronger than her. Perhaps gunned down by hordes of common soldiers since blasters and bolters can even kill 'Force Gods'. Or, if she was lucky, in bed surrounded by her loved ones.


Siobhan breathed in heavily as Shadow came crashing down upon the ground. She was feeling a bad headache. All the dust and smoke in the air made it more difficult to breathe and so she coughed. She was leaning against some of the rubble, but she pressed on. She was not spent. The scorched fingers of her hand curled into a fist as she made a gesture. Brutal telekinetic power crunched down upon Shadow's black heart. She hoped for cardiac arrest and for his existence to be extinguished.

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Before the final blow struck, the Sith Lord unleashed a blast of telekinetic power straight up with tremendous force, as it were.
The building, long abused and weakened by the titanic battle, finally started to give way, falling in upon himself and Siobhan. She would have to look to herself quickly to avoid being squashed!

However, before that happened, Siobhan reached out and crushed the black heart of the Sith Lord. The Dark aura he had about him swelled for a moment, then faded as the roof came down.

“This is not the end…” a mental voice hissed, then dissipated, as if carried away on the wind.

Far, far away, across the stars, in an ancient Sith device now concealed in a starship far from civilisation, a crystal started to glow. The droids which mindlessly maintained this ship never realised it, but their Master would return.
It would take many years, possibly decades, as well as a suitable host, but Darth Shadow would one day return.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


She was close, so close. She felt it. As telekinetic energy compressed around his heart, she could feel the life seeping out of him. Physically the Sith Lord was beaten and now lay prostrate before her. But then the dark presence was pulled out of his crushed, bloodied and broken physical form. Transfer essence, she should have expected that. For a moment the dark aura swelled inside him, then it was gone, as his spirit departed its vessel.


The roof had been torn asunder and was collapsing. Presumably summoning a mini tornado in the middle of a building had had something to do with that. If Siobhan had had more energy to spare, she would have simply flown out of the chaos like the mythical bird Phoenix. However, she lacked the energy for something as intensive as Force Flight. Her muscles strongly protested against it. Nor did she have the presence of mind to suddenly deflect everything falling her way.


Rubble was deflected as she tried to get away, but she could not run anymore, then there was...pain. Pain surged through her and her control wavered as the ceiling came tumbling down. Blood was on her thigh, and she could not stand. As she fell down to one knee, she had enough of a presence of mind to manifest a protection bubble.


The shimmering barrier of energy came into being just before she was buried under rubble. Thanks to the bubble, she would not get squished and reduced to paste. It would not prevent broken bones, though. Or her jaw getting seriously messed up. Or her needing more than just a cane to walk since her bad leg had been crushed. For a long moment there was just silence, then ripples were felt throughout the Force before a powerful kinetic explosion blasted the rubble outward, sending it flying everywhere.


Covered in blood and dust, her face contorted in pain, Siobhan crawled out of the small crater. Tires eyes swept over the utterly wrecked auction hall that looked like a massive bomb had exploded inside it. She coughed and spat blood, wheezing when she drew breath. But...Shadow was gone. His body had been utterly crushed. She stood victorious, though it was an unfinished victory since his spirit had escaped her. One day he would return, but today she stood victorious on the battlefield. Hopefully her minions would find her since walking was...difficult! Pain hit her like a tidal wave, but she would rise up again, like the Phoenix would. A Dark Phoenix.

 

[Darth Libertas]

Far, far away, Sumiko had been meditating in her room on Denon. Immersed in the Dark Side, she was abruptly thrown out her meditation when she felt a disturbance in the Force and was granted a vision. One that was accompanied by an ear-splitting headache. In her mind she saw carnage and destruction. Two powerful figures faced off against one another.


One she recognised as [member="Darth Shadow"]. The other was...oh, this was interesting. Siobhan Kerrigan. Sumiko had never met the woman and, as a matter of fact, was not aware of the rivalry between the two, though she was familiar with her due to her own time in the Atrisian Inquisition. The building she recognised to be an auction house was utterly torn apart, then Shadow was struck down in the cataclysm. Abruptly she awoke from her trance, having suffered a bit of a headache. Her eyes were wells of nothingness, pure obsidian. Was Shadow truly dead? Sumiko had speculated about how he had been able to survive for so long after escaping Vitiate's oubliette. Transfer essence was one such skill. Presumably he had taken precautions...but at the very least he was not part of the game board for now.


Death comes to us all one day. Well, this throws a bit of a wrencher in things, Sumiko thought to herself as she got up, fetching a glass of water and some aspirin. But it might've spared me from an odious dilemma. She did not know the fate of Illyria, though she was less concerned about her. She looked around her spacious room in the HQ of Eidolon Transports and Supply. It was a pity that the Sith Lord had been slain, for cooperation with him had promised to be lucrative. Then again, she was a pragmatist at heart. Her thoughts drifted as she pondered. At least some of the Sith's occult library was located in the deepest vaults of this building. And, well, the guards were droids...