Common Appetite

[Mauda]

The Weeping Cliffs
Won Shasot
Outer Rim
Twilight

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Around 4,000 years ago, they said a mere thought could draw Him. Nothing more than a fleeting glance in the mind, and He would arrive. And if indeed He was drawn, He brought with him pure death. Everything before him crumbled under his infinite appetite. Whether that was a mere man, or an entire planet. Everything served to satiate Him, and yet nothing ever did. Fortunately, He was destroyed. Killed before his hunger could bring the Galaxy itself to its knees.

Killed? Or simply silenced? Silenced until another Shadow would bring him back.

That Shadow has come, and indeed it has brought Him back. And now the pair of them are drawn across the gulfs of space to a beacon in the Force. A beacon of Darkness. With a hint of Hunger.

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Orex stood in his personal quarters aboard the Myrkur. He stood before a mirror, gazing into himself. If the eyes before him were someone else's, they would have faded to oblivion by now. But they were not, they were his own. Or rather, IT was his own. The other concealed by the Mask. Buried beneath a scar in the Force itself. He looked himself up and down, slowly and analytically. He studied every crack and crevice. His Armour protected a body riddled with scars and history. His gaze found its way to his ungloved hands. By his sides, his Hands were once that grey-white like the rest of his flesh. No longer. Having been used to fend off lightning and blaster bolts, they were now blackened charcoal. They were closer to a heavily burnt steak than a hand. And yet all of this was all to his benefit. And he knew this.

The Myrkur punched through the Won Washot atmosphere with a tremendous crack. This Crack was quickly followed by the terrible Groaning Scream of the Impes Engine propelling the black corvette. Orex heard the chattering in his ears. The Voices of the Force that drew him across the Galaxy to items and entities that held a strong connection with the force. He knew this was a man. Though it was the voices of a man tainted by great dark side energy. An intensity he commonly found in Nexuses, especially The Rupture on his new homeworld of Skism. This Nexus was his stop. The Myrkur rocketed up to the cliff edge, a sea raged below.

Orex took heavy steps from the boarding ramp and the corvette swiftly returned itself to Orbit. His boots landed upon the rocks with muffled thuds shrouded by the noise of the deadly seas below. The moment he set foot on the cliff edge, the Dark Side encroached on him. Infecting his senses and filling him with a heightened sense of power. His roots in the Dark Side ran deep and strong, tainted by immense pain and .. death. As tendrils of the Dark Side found their way into Orex's soul, they would have only fallen. Consumed by a growing void. A tear.

Here he stood, below a withered tree, revelling in the Darkness and with his mere presence, announcing himself in a screaming beacon of darkness and death.

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

Dax was no stranger to the Dark Side. He'd seen the carnage, destruction, the rot, the corruption. The power. He wished sometimes, that even in his younger years, he could say that he hadn't that strange desire to use that power. That he hadn't been foolish enough to believe that he was immune to the corrupting influence of the Dark Side. He'd be lying if he said hadn't believed in such naiveties. In some ways, he still did. Why else would he have come to Won Shasot in the first place. When he'd first heard the call of the shadowed planet, he'd took his best friend and came running straight to the source, when he should've most certainly run away. He'd paid for his foolishness then. And yet, he was still here, standing at the peak of the strangely Sith-like temple on the dark world, beneath the orange glow of her ember-moon. Some people just never learned.

Staring out over his world, the Reaper could across the bustling city below and beyond, to the great expanse between here and the ancient Force Nexus. Perhaps too far away for him to see from where he stood now, but he could feel it, an omnipresent weight on his soul that pulled him once more to it. He was being called.

---

From the tree line of the forest, Dax could see the ship that had brought this newcomer to his world. Beyond that, his presence in the Force was a beacon, even without the efforts to project his existence. But there was something familiar about the shroud of death and ruin that projected off the man, a familiar desire that Dax feared he knew all too well. Athena let out a low growl beside him, the Force-seeing beasts sight clouded by what surely appeared like an endless ominous cloud to her. It took only a thought to calm the beast and have her follow her master as he began to approach his unexpected visitor.

"I don't believe you and I are acquainted," the Rogue said as he got within hearing distance of the man. Although the visitor, Dax guessed was a few years younger than himself, he looked about an entire era older. Skin with a deathly pallor, dark rings circling his eyes and a mask covering half his face. A monument to the Dark Side personified. It set Dax on edge.

[member="Orex Mauda"]

 

[Mauda]

With gloved hands clasped behind his back, Orex did not turn from his angle toward the sea. His gaze drew away from the oceans and turned in toward his shoulder, the man he sought lay now in his peripheral vision.

"We are not. But in terms of nature, we are very much a pair." The Mask vocoded his voice, artificial and baritone. He turned to face the man he had come for. His appetite stretched throughout the Galaxy, though it could only truly be felt within arms reach. But Orex was much more attuned. The man's own cut in the Force screamed out to Orex regardless of distance. And he was here now, drawn countless light years.

He slowly moved toward the man. His own aura proving vastly superior, though Orex could feel the other like a chunk of coal on his tongue. It was this that he was drawn to, but it was the life he fed on. He stopped short of the man, gazing into his eyes. The whole thing was a charade, a game. Orex's proximity to the man and his deliberate gaze into his eyes, all a test. Orex was placing his hand in the water, and seeing whether it would fall away, or remain stable. HIs proximity was a perpetual jaw devouring life, his Gaze a black hole that consumed what it was placed before. Both together would prove an ample demonstration of the man's ability.

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

"...in terms of nature, we are very much a pair."

Well, that confirmed Dax's suspicions...The Rogue wasn't quite sure whether to be relieved or concerned. At the moment, he was certainly leaning towards the latter. One man with the desire to consume a galaxy was bad enough, but two? That spelled disaster in the most dreadful manner. There was no doubt as the man approached, that that peculiar sensation of hunger came from him. But where Dax's own wound in the Force was like the incision left by a knife, this other man was like a bullet to the heart. It screamed endlessly, rippling through the air, almost tangible in its pure and unsuppressed form.

The Outworlder towered above Dax, forcing the smaller man to crane his neck upwards to look the man in the eyes. His eyes matched his skin, like polished steel, sharp, piercing, and devoid of color. Perhaps the most alive part of what remained of the man's body. Dax's own eyes stared back, burrowing into the other, a flash of crimson passing over Dax's eyes as if someone passed a light over them, hinting at what lay beneath the surface.

The Rogue had faced down many Sith, Ren, and countless other Dark Siders, on battlefields from Kaeshana to Skor. This one was different. It was different when you faced what very well could be another version of yourself. But Dax wasn't about to back down, "What are you doing here Outworlder? If you're looking to satisfy your hunger, there's nothing here for you."

[member="Orex Mauda"]

 

[Mauda]

Stable. Strong. Unwavering. Orex allowed his gaze to linger only a moment longer, then broke off, then turned away from the man again. He had not fallen unconscious, or even dead. That was a start.

"Well I'm glad to know you're aware.." Orex folded his arms before him and turned back around, now a few steps away.

"So I'm sure you understand that what you said has no meaning. As long as there is life, there is a maw to consume it."

Orex thought momentarily. Question shaded his face.

"Why am I here? Not for that. Unlike the individual in this Mask, who I'm sure your own hunger recognises, I'm in control. He certainly wasn't. I'm here for you, whoever you are. Your hunger stretches the lengths of this Galaxy, and I'm the only one who heard it. You aren't what I expected and I want to know more."

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

"As long as there is life, there is a maw to consume it."

Well...Dax couldn't exactly argue against that. It was the circle of life after. Something is born, it eats something, then it gets eaten, the whole cycle starts again. But that didn't mean that life wouldn't fight to survive. Life always fought back.

"You aren't what I expected and I want to know more."

"What I want to know is how you even found Nihilus. How you bound him in that mask, and how he hasn't consumed you yet." Honestly, the fact that it really was Nihilus' spirit bound inside such an unassuming article worried him. Both that Nihilus hadn't been damned to Chaos, but also that he had somehow been confined, if not controlled.

[member="Orex Mauda"]

 

[Mauda]

Orex clenched his jaw. There were those who simply answered, and those who diverted. The latter he didn't enjoy conversing with. Nevertheless he chose to indulge the individual's curiosity. After all, boundless curiosity was something Orex was guilty of. Among other things.

"No artifact is lost unless it is destroyed. His Holocron was waiting to be found. From what I saw of it, it had already been found some time in the past. Although whoever that was evidently had no interest in the Sith. I did. And we spoke. For a creature of infinite darkness, he was surprisingly coherent".

Orex felt Nihilus poking him. Seeding him with his whispers and his temptations. Such things he had kept under a tight rope for years. As he spoke about him, the whispers grew.

"We spoke and I learned of his past. Where he lurked, who he existed beside and his ultimate demise. He told me where he placed himself and where he could be found. So I sought him out and I discovered his Mask. And just as he had said, he lay dormant inside. Instead of speaking to a representation of him, I now had the being itself. I took the Mask and I meditated with it. Through meditation, I communicated with him.."

Orex reflected on that occasion. The conversation that changed him forever. Nihilus' power extended through speech alone. Communing with his Mask was equitable to speaking to him in the flesh, and it changed Orex.

"Nihilus was not a Sith. He couldn't have cared less for them. He regarded their existence as much as the next soul he devoured. He was.. is nothing more than destruction with legs. When I detailed my own stance in the Galaxy, my plans et cetera, he was indifferent. However, when he realised that I was offering a medium through which he could exist again, persuasion was no longer necessary. He bound a portion of himself to my Mask. We exist in a tentative harmony."

Orex stopped. Nihilus was vocal now. Silence was his preferred state. When Orex spoke of their relationship, he surfaced himself. Out of concern? Maybe. But a man no longer a man is an entity difficult to discern.

"He ravaged this Galaxy once. I have given him the opportunity to return."

Orex stepped forward, a solemn concern in his eye, though barely noticeable.

"You ask how he hasn't devoured me yet."

Orex considered removing his Mask. But did not. He simply tapped it as he spoke.

"All negotiations come at a price. I gave him this part of me, and he eats away at it always."

He straightened and composed himself. Having divulged everything the individual wanted, Orex probed the man with curious eyes.

"I've answered your questions. Answer mine. I feel your hunger. It's more than a drain, it's an echo of him and you recognise it. Who are you, and how have you come to gain the appetite."

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

As the mysterious stranger before him spoke, a thousand realizations suddenly dawned on Dax. Answers to questions he never realized he'd ever had. A decade of suffering, struggle, and ultimately death suddenly made sense in this moment. If there had ever been a being in the universe who's fragments held the power to retain its identity, even in something as insignificant as a mask, it was Darth Nihilus.

It was time Dax obliged the Outworlder. The Rogue silently pulled off the two sabers on his belt. He hadn't concerned himself with whether or not the Outworlder would take the action as a threat. Men like themselves had a certain sense for such things. The Rogue held out the first saber, presenting it to him. The metal gleamed with an insidious intent, despite its clearly tarnished appearance. The Krayt Pearl in the center pulsed its orange light like a heartbeat.

"This was where it all started. Some years ago, there was an event, dubbed the Omega War. It was one of those great threats of the galaxy that binds enemies together to make them allies. One of the few Sith who had sided with Omega was called Darth Moreth. It took four forcers and countless troopers to bring her down. At the end of the day I found this saber on my belt. I don't recall putting it there, or even picking it up. In time, I found that as I meditated, I could feel this blade, and that it had a will of its own. I doubt it ever was in the hands, or even the presence of Nihilus, but it is very clear to me, that on some level, this blade desires souls much like him. I don't know where it attained this hunger, but it stained my soul."

The first saber was lowered, and the second brought forth, its curved shape sitting comfortably in Dax's palm.

"This one, however, its previous owner, Selka Ventus, was a host of our appetite. Somewhere out there," the Rogue gestured upwards with the saber, his arm making a wide arc across the sky, "Near the planet Aterka, lies what she called a vector prime. A tear in the fabric of hyperspace that allowed one to instantaneously jump from the bounds of our galaxy into the void beyond it. She sought to do this for one reason, and for one reason alone. To starve out her appetite. I was onboard the vessel when it breached the vector. I was the one who pushed the button that sent us hurtling into the beyond. Unfortunately, one of my comrades had made the poor choice of making her angry. She attempted to devour both of our lives. I don't know why she didn't finish it though. She turned her blade on herself and killed herself long before either of us had succumbed. I left that ship a very different man that I was."

The two sabers were placed back onto the Rogue's belt as approached the close of his story, "Through many battles, wars and tragedies I learned the truth of my new nature. I sought to devour the souls of others, just like she had, just like he had. Moreth's blade felt the hunger in my soul and encouraged it. That brings us to today. Perhaps we're even more alike than either of us had thought."

[member="Orex Mauda"]

 

[Mauda]

Orex gazed at the Sabers individually. Masterfully crafted and packed with history. The second piqued his interest much more. The residue of that hunger still clung to it. Weak, but there. An artefact in itself.

“You’re afraid of it. Cautious. You’ve kept it roped down since it came to you. I understand. The hunger was his downfall. He let it grow unchecked, became a manifestation of his appetite. He lost any sense of humanity and became an entity bent only on furthering his hunger. He would have consumed this Galaxy if he had not been destroyed.”

For Orex, what he had read and learnt of Nihilus gave him only a proof of concept. Not a warning. It was a power and it worked.

“Control over what is powerful is the greatest form of exploitation. I have become an extension of what he once was. I keep him and the appetite on a tight leash, using it only when needed. To further my power, in the interest of my future, not my hunger. It is an addiction that cannot be allowed to grow.”

Dax was wise to push the appetite into the corners of his mind. Taming and exploring it was a tremendous gamble that if lost, could spell Galactic disaster.

[member="Dax Fyre"]