Do You See What I See?

[Ayden Cater]

Ayden had done some weird things, made weird things, seen weird things. But this... As the Corellian took stock of everything he had in the room, he could not help but grin maniacally at just how weird the assorted parts were. There were odds and ends that he'd expect to find; various plates of durasteel, electronic sensors, wiring, etc. There were some more unusual parts like a holographic matrix, svolten rhyolite ore, and shell spider silk. But then there were some down-right expensive (miniature Kerts-Bhrg Generator, stasis booth), exotic (Jakobeast horn and Nihil smokestone), or utterly useless (fried nuna, Little Black Book).

There were a few minutes allotted for Ayden to gather whatever tools or items he required after reviewing the components, but it was made explicitly clear that nothing he brought in could be a part of the finished product. Easy enough, really. Ayden did not bring much in with him. Aside from his clothing, Ayden brought with him a crystalline sword of his own design though only partially of his own creation. The other who had aided in its creation... There was an interesting air of familiarity and utter confusion whenever he tried to think of who it was who had helped him with it. He knew that he was not the only one to make it, though he could not put a name or even a face to the other person. The only other things he brought in with him were a mass of soil in a two-by-two meter box and a kit of tools

What he did remember though, as the door shut and the timer began, was what they had done. Immediately, Ayden began sorting through the assembled materials. He casually moved parts around with the Force while he set himself down to the monotonous task of reactivating the 3PO unit. It was actually a relatively simple task of flipping a switch to bring it back on-line, but he had more in mind for the droid. Activating the memory dump, he wiped out all the programming installed in the droid and began working on a small interface that would like a palm-sized device with the droid.

It took the better part of an hour to get the interface down right, by which he had collected all the parts that he'd need. Sliding the device into the back of the 3PO unit's neck, he stood back and took a moment to ready himself. If this didn't work, if he blew out the droid, then he'd have to proceed to some sort of back up plan on what to do. He had a very clear idea of what he wanted to do, but did not have the technical skills to do it. There was a moment of silence as he flipped the activation switch on the droid and waited. And waited.

Just as he began to fear that the droid would not activate, it gave a slight twitch. And then another. Finally the droid rose up to full orientation and turned to look at the Corellian with those wide, almost perpetually surprised eyes. The voice that came out though was quite unlike the typical 3PO's normal vocal modulator. "I see your first plan was successful."

Ayden smirked and tossed his hat off onto the bed. "Now for the second part."

Time Elapsed: 1 Hour 7 Minutes

 

[Ayden Cater]

"I must protest this, sir." The droid complained rather loudly as it worked, finishing up the joint of its new appendage. Ayden had taken some time to fiddle with the droid's hands, increasing the complexity of the joint work to give it finer dexterity. "When you first designed me, it was to oversee vast works; works of such technological complexity and scope as to eclipse anything a common sentient could imagine." It then turned and looked at him, eyes still surprised, as it sported what appeared to be the beginnings of a dress. "This is undignified."

Ayden turned from his kneeling position by the soil box. Sweat was already beading around his brow at this point, though the sprouts of a brylark tree could testify as to the value of his efforts thus far. A smirk crossed his lips, though he refrained from snorting in amusement at seeing the droid stare at him. "It's a good look for you, Roland. Besides, I don't have the sewing skills that you do." He of course knew that the AI had not been given any sewing skills but rather had downloaded them from the holonet just prior to being cut off from the outside. "You can't do what I'm doing right now. So you have to settle on doing what you can do."

The fried nura had been torn to bits and settled into a hole beneath the dirt. Ayden then planted the seeds of the brylark tree in the center of the box and settled down into a meditative stance. He called out to the Force, encouraging the micro-organisms within the dirt to activity far beyond their normal pace. He needed nitrogen-enriched dirt, and the only way he was going to get it was by accelerating their efforts at consuming and decomposing the nura.

Were he given more time, Ayden might have considered sitting down and tampering with the stasis booth. That was a truly brilliant piece of technological engineering, and he would have loved to tinker with it and see if he could figure out how to accelerate local spacetime within it to achieve exactly what he was doing now. But that effort alone would have taken up the majority of his time and efforts, and there was still so much work left to go.

As old as Ayden truly was, and as many different things as he had done and experienced, it never ceased to amaze him just how much he hadn't done. Consitor Sato, more commonly referred to as Plant Surge, was an old and rare Force talent. It used the Force to manipulate aspects of a plant such as rate of growth or other attributes. He had heard of it used a handful of times in recent years, and new the rough basics of it, but had never practiced it himself. It was only through grasping the Kasha crystal in one hand and channeling the Force through his sword that he was making any progress, of that he was sure. And even with such rare and powerful artifacts at hand, he could still feel how deeply he was exerting himself to get this far.
But Ayden pressed on. He would sleep when this was over. There was still far too much to do, and too little time to waste.

Time Elapsed: 2 Hours 47 Minutes

 

[Ayden Cater]

He shuddered and emptied the contents of his stomach, what little there was, onto the dirt. With a bit of durasteel, he worked the sickly-sweet smelling mass into the dirt with one hand while wiping the back of his mouth with the other. The crystal sword lay untouched on the ground, almost pulsing within the Force. He could almost feel its agitation at him for drawing on the Force through it. When he made the sword, he had not woven into its design a means of checking how much he could pull on the Force through it. While that meant he could do potentially unfathomable feats with it, it also meant that he was perpetually at risk of destroying himself with it. To draw too deeply on the Force meant risking much, even his life.

But staring at the human-sized tree in front of him, Ayden could not help but feel as though the backlash and effort had been worth it. The brylark tree was hardly mature, far from it, but Ayden only needed so much of it. As well, he doubted he had it within him to manipulate the tree to full size and maturity without taking a second backlash. This would suffice.

Standing up, Ayden turned to find the droid dutifully working on its own project. By now its apparent dress was revealed to be a robe. Simple in design, the robe was easily large and loose enough to be mistaken for a Jedi's outer robe. Roland was basing its work off of Ayden's measurements, as those were the only ones given to it prior to the task. A shirt and pants would follow eventually, though the robe's completion meant that Ayden could take it and move on to the next step of his work.

Taking the Nihil smokestone, Ayden peered within its structure and began the all-too-familiar process of clearing imperfections and realigning its molecular structure to suit his needs. It was a common exercises, one even the most naive Padawans were taught and practiced. He was fortunate that this was a rather pure piece, as it reduced the effort needed to shape the mineral. Taking it into his hand, Ayden deftly worked the mineral over the razor fine edge of his sword until he was left with a thumb-sized rod. From his readings of Sith books and holocrons, Ayden was familiar enough with the stone to know that it was normally implanted into an individual. Such a crude, barbaric practice would likely put him at disfavor with the judges, so instead he worked on reshaping the mass, elongating it until it resembled a narrow strip.

The Kasha crysal lay on a table along with the Jakobeast horn. He had plans for them, but they would need to be powderized before he could use them. It would also help to have the shirt and pants finished, but he could get started on other things while those were processed. Picking the crystal sword back up, Ayden gave it a few practiced swings. Though it was mostly meant as a symbol and to be used to augment his use of the Force, the sword nevertheless remained a sword. And as he precisely sliced off a piece of the brylark bark, he was reminded exactly of just how sharp it was.

Time Elapsed: 3 Hours 44 Minutes

 

[Ayden Cater]

Ayden sighed in frustration as he sat there, staring at the mass of powdered Jakobeast horn. He had spent the better part of an hour extracting the essence of the Jakobeast from the desiccated horn to work into the tunic that lay beside him. He had hoped to embue the shirt and then later the pants, but as he stared at the unnatural fire that burned from atop the powder, he decided he would have to revise his plans a little. Had a master alchemist, or even a moderately experienced one, been there to walk him through the process or utilize the ingredients themselves, he was sure that they could easily achieve what he was looking to do with half the material. As it was, there went four kilos of the horn.

Opting to take a break from the horn, Ayden settled on the Kasha crystal. He was far more familiar with manipulating crystals than he was animal parts, though he would still have difficulty here. Kasha crystals were prized for their ability to enhance concentration, but such a feat required crystals with very specific matrices. Without such structures within the crystal, it would do him no good to reshape it. It was a fair sized crystal, easily larger than his palm. The Nihil smokestone was a transceiver, something to transmit and receive. But it was most effective as an implant. While he could keep its transceiver properties by reshaping it into a band, it would lose effectiveness without that direct connection. He hoped to remedy that flaw with the Kasha crystal.

Though... He paused and looked over at the dinko beast that sat in its cage. It sat motionless in the cage, almost appearing asleep or dead. But any time the Corellian so much as twitched, the creature's attention was fully on him. Motion-based sight... Interesting. He smiled to himself and set the crystal down. Now there was an idea. He reached out with the Force and began to inspect the dinko. It was small, virtually harmless were it not for the nausea-inducing toxin and razor sharp talons. Much like with aspects of the Force like Plant Surge, Ayden was not a terribly proficient biologist. But the Force opened up many possibilities, and he knew the basic elements of Sith Alchemy as well as having spent time analyzing the Vong Shaping Codices.

He paused briefly, wondering about a method of extracting the essence he needed without killing the beast. Looking at it with a look almost of pity, Ayden snapped his fingers and promptly snapped the small creature's neck. Just because he would not be utilizing it in quite the manner imagined, Ayden knew that the creature was not listed as an ingredient with the expectation that it would get out of the competition alive. Taking out a small blade from the assorted tools, Ayden removed the side from the cage and began his work.

Elapsed Time: 5 Hours 18 Minutes

 

[Ayden Cater]

Ayden's eyes opened hesitantly as he roused himself from the meditative stance he had slipped into. It had been more than three hours since he began the delicate work of blending the essence gathered from the dinko's motion-based sight into the tunic. He had only the one shot at getting it right, as there were no other dinkos for him to use. This led to him taking more time than might otherwise have been necessary in order to ensure the success of the operation. He had already wasted almost half of his Jakobeast horn, he did not want another alteration to his design to come about because of his own clumsiness.

He felt fatigued, even after the meditation should have restored some manner of health and energy to him. Were he more learned in the related fields of Sith Alchemy, Vong Shaping, or a half dozen other fields, he would not have had to draw so heavily on the Force. But he did not have the time or skills to apply finesse to the project. That meant that he had to apply brute force, as it were, to achieve his goals for the product. But brute force would only carry him so far without proper caution and intelligence. If he was careless, he was liable to give himself a stoke or worse. It had been a long time since he had called so readily upon the Force.

Rubbing his eyes, he cleared his throat and looked to find the droid standing over the finished pants. The base outfit was done, but more work was still needed. "The bark is over on the other table. It should already be shaped into forms for inserting." The AI-controlled droid simply turned and began grabbing parts that would be inserted into the robe first. The brylark bark was exceptionally durable, equal in hardness to most metals. This made it ideal for use in projects like Ayden had devised. Carefully, he had manipulated the bark carvings to extend their life. As long as the wood was bathed regularly in nutrient-rich waters, at least once a week, it would retain its hardness while also still living. The still living part was key to the next phase of his plan.

Eating the last bit of fried nura skins, Ayden set himself down to the task of imbuing the Jakobeast horn essence into the wood. He did not have the technical skills to bind the properties of the Jakobeast essence to nonliving material, even material like shell spider silk. He needed a living vessel of sorts to house the essence, which is why he went to such lengths as to include the bark into the design for his project. Not all of the bark inserts would need the imbuing; some of it was purely decorative. But the pieces that would be inserted in the tunic would need it. If he was right and managed to keep the Jakobeast essence contained within the bark, he wondered what would happen if the bark was left to dry. Perhaps the defensive properties would endure even if the bark 'died', or perhaps they too would waste away should such a thing happen. He didn't want to waste such precious materials, and time, by testing that question later. For now, he settled on the task at hand.

Time Elapsed: 9 Hours 34 Minutes

 

[Ayden Cater]

Things were getting slower now. Ayden was sure he was moving slower now as time went on. The more work and force he put into bringing together all of the various ingredients and parts, the more drained he felt. It would be worth it though... He was sure of that. The basic construct of the robe and garb was done. Roland was busy crafting buttons and gilding from the metal present as well as the left of parts of the brylark tree bark. In many ways, the outfit he had made could be considered alive. He had taken every pain to ensure the essences blended together properly and safely. The Jakobeast essence resided within the brylark bark and the dinko beast essence was being carried by the tunic. Yet even though the essences had be bound to the objects, it had not yet been brought forth and awakened.

Worse still, because the process which bound the animal essences came from the Sith arts, he could feel a very subtle aura of the Dark Side. It was not so powerful or overt as to be felt by others away from him, but it concerned him nonetheless. Such auras would grow, in time, as it was used. As well, the nature of the Dark Side was to corrupt, to twist and destroy. If he left it alone, it would perfect what he was working on. Perhaps it would simply be destroyed, or worse perhaps it would consume him. It had to be taken care of. And Ayden could only think of one way to handle it. But if he played his cards right, he would take care of two problems with one act.

Closing his eyes and entering into a meditative trance once again, Ayden began to travel. Many things had a spirit, a will, to them that could be touched with enough practice. It was to such a place that he went, appearing in his own mind's eye dressed as he was currently. Even here in this immaterial plane, he could feel the strain put upon his body. He would likely sleep for a very, very long time after this was all said and done. But that was for another time. Drawing a metaphysical facsimile of his crystal blade from his side, Ayden began the hunt. He was unsure of exactly what he would find or in what order he mind find things. Such journeys as this always had a way of keeping one surprised.

it appeared that he was on a desert-like world of some sort as he could see great red sand dunes rise all around him. There was a quiet part of him, a part that would not speak when he awoke and he would not recall hearing speak, that knew he was on Proxima Dibal. He could hear in the distance the soft melodies of the song serpents. It was an almost tranquil place to be, were he not here for a purpose. Walks such as this could be dangerous as one could become lost, forever separated from one's body. Ayden made sure to keep his focus and continued his search. If he was on Proxima Dibal, then he was here hunting the dinko essence. Behind him came the soft clatter of pebbles falling down a cliff-side.

Turning, Ayden found himself staring at what might have been a dinko - might have been owing to the fact that this was far larger than any normal dinko. Not the diminutive pet-size most were, this dinko was a full five meters tall. But standing there, Ayden wasn't afraid. He could just reach out with the Force and...

Oh.

Ayden's eyes widened slightly as he realized that he could not feel the Force the same way here as he could in the physical plane. This was, after all, a metaphysical problem being attacked and depicted in his mind's eye the only way it knew, even through the Force. With a rather intimidating roar, utterly unlike what a dinko would utter, Ayden was forced to throw himself to the side as a giant spiked claw what slashing through the air and slammed into the sand where the Corellian had been only moments ago. This was clearly not going to be an easy task. He could not tell if it was the dinko essence fighting back against its placement within the silk, or if this was some manifestation of the Dark Side that was twisting the essence in such a fashion. Whatever the reason, Ayden knew that he would have to subdue the dinko here if he was to settle the essence within the tunic.

Time Elapsed: 14 Hours 16 Minutes

 

[Ayden Cater]

He panted in long, ragged draws as he stared at the twisted for that had once been a dinko. Blood, both his and the creature's, rolled down his face and spattered soundlessly against the sand. He did not know exactly how long he had taken to subdue the creature. Roland had been given an order to rouse Ayden if he was still trancing when the final hour mark came up. But he still had time as long as he remained on this plane. Out of the corner of his eye he caught movement and so turned in time to see the creature's form begin to fall apart to luminous smoke that spread out in all directions. It was beautiful in an unnatural sort of way as it flowed and pulsed with light. It finally began to sink into the sand and Ayden knew that the essence had been awakened and settled. One part down, two to go. Ayden turned...

... and found himself walking across an icy tundra. Such a sudden shift in location was stunning as his mind reeled in an attempt to process what had occurred. He knew of course that this was not entirely real, but there was still a part of his mind that attempted to tell him that it was. After taking a moment to settle, Ayden began to trek across the snow and ice. The air felt bitterly cold; it slashed at his face with fine ice particles and heavy splashes of near-frozen water. Much like before, Ayden could tell that he was on Hoth now. Here is where he could find a Jakobeast. Though as he wandered the white landscape and could see naught but white, white, and more white, Ayden began to realize that this task would be considerably more difficult than he first believed.

Again he could not tell how long he wandered, but he began to feel a dark presence stalking him. Perhaps this too was a manifestation of the Dark Side. He curled his hands around the hilt of his lightsaber.. When had his crystal blade shifted into his lightsaber? He had no time to ponder that question as he felt a massive swipe come at his back. Diving forward into a roll, he turned in time to spot the barely-visible frame of a wampa slashing wildly at where he had been. It was clearly after him and wanted to tear him limb from limb. Not letting up after the first failed attack, the wampa kept approaching him with frightening speed. It was all Ayden could do to keep hopping out of the way. It might have been an easy affair to just let his lightsaber drift to one side to take an arm off, but there was no guarantee with all the jumping was doing that the arm lost would be the wampa's.

With a grunt, Ayden hit the snow and was rewarded with a loud crack as the ice beneath him started to give way. His hands immediately reached out, scrambling for anything to hold onto. His lightsaber went tumbling past him into the gorge that had opened up below. However immaterial this experience truly was, it felt all too real to Ayden as he hung there for what felt like dear life. As he struggled to pull himself out of the crevasse, Ayden could hear the muffled footsteps of the wampa as it drew closer. Without a weapon, he was defenseless; hanging on the side of a cliff like he was, Ayden was less than defenseless. Staring upward at the grey sky, Ayden saw its ugly maw peer over the side.

Before it could do anything to him, the wampa's figure was suddenly hurled bodily over the edge of the cliff and fell screeching into the gorge below. Unsure of what had saved him, but not wanting to dangle over the cliff side any longer, Ayden managed to scramble up and back onto solid ground. As he took a moment to collect himself, he found that a creature much larger than a wampa was staring at him. Larger than a bantha, the creature stared at him with eyes that were far too knowing for the Corellian's taste. But the curved horns on either side of its face made him stop to think twice about attacking it. Without his lightsaber, the beast would make short work of him. The beast... Ayden shook himself with a start as he realized exactly what he was staring at.

Larger than he expected, and regal in bearing, he was staring at a jakobeast. Behind it in the distance, Ayden could spot a whole herd of Jakobeast. So that had been how it hurled such a massive beast like a wampa. It continued to stare directly at Ayden as if assessing what he planned to do now. At first he contemplated calling his lightsaber to him in order to fight and slay the beast, but that somehow did not feel right. The creature had saved him, not to mention he had no idea where his lightsaber was. No... Rather than slay it, Ayden bowed to the noble beast and gave it his heartfelt thanks. It started at him for a moment longer before bowing in its own way.

As it reached the lowest point of its bow, its form began to waver and fade away as the Jakobeast turned to smoke. He had apparently appeased the essence with his respect, and avoiding of lashing out at it through fear and force. It would settle then into the brylark bark pieces held within the tunic. That would settle the matter of awakening the essences, but there was still the matter of the Dark Side aura to deal with, and something told Ayden that it would not be an easy task.

Time Elapsed: 19 Hours 07 Minutes

 

[Ayden Cater]

"You'll never be rid of me!"

Ayden ducked, narrowly avoiding having his head taken off by the red lightsaber. Swear poured down his temples and fatigue screamed in all of his muscles. Every time he stopped moving, that lightsaber slashed out again. It felt like an eternity had passed since he had begun searching for the Dark Side presence within the robe, and a longer eternity still since he had come face-to-face with a twisted, pale mirror of himself. Mirror Ayden sneered and slashed again and again with his red lightsaber. Ayden brought up his own silver lightsaber to parry the attack but found himself being pushed further and further back.

Transparisteel cracked beneath him, an ominous and unsettling sound as the vacuum of space lay just beyond that glass. Further below, Ayden could see his homeworld of Corellia, whole and untarnished. But ever strike by his evil doppelganger caused a faint rippling within the planet, a distant rumble that Ayden could still somehow hear and feel despite the distance. This felt less like a fight for his own life and more like a fight to save his homeworld, a fight he knew he had already lost once before. That did not stop Ayden from trying though as he poured everything he had into those steps, every parry and counter-attack he made against himself.

The station they were on was a familiar one to Ayden, as it should have since he was the one who designed it. They were fighting across the ruins of what had once been the grand foyer for the FLEETCOM station that had once hung in orbit over Corellia. Glass and twisted bits of statue and metal were scattered all about. The great fountain that had sat in the heart of the foyer lay cracked open, its water draining away like the life force of one who had been gutted fatally. There were no bodies strewn about, which somehow only served to further enhance the weird and otherworldlyness of the place.

But his attention could not stray. He was again forced on the defensive as his opposite attacked with wild, vicious swings. "You think you're better than me, that you've moved past me! I am you! On your worst day, I am everything you truly are. Everything else, everything you pretend to be is just a lie to numb you from the truth!" It snarled and cackled with mad glee as it made perfect counter strikes to every one of Ayden's attempted attacks. This other knew everything about him; his fighting style, his thoughts, his history. Ayden did not know how to get around it if it could defend itself from everything he threw at it. "What about all the people you killed? The people you let die? How many died for you, Ayden, so that your little plans could move forward? Were their lives worth it? Were the lives of your wife and children worth it?"

Ayden's eyes narrowed and his lightsaber froze. For an instant, silver began to bleed and twist towards red, his eyes softly glowing a sickly gold. As he reared back to strike, faces began to flash across his face. Slowly he began to revert back to his normal visage while his opposite began to snarl and gape in a panic. It attacked again, but this time it was Ayden who perfectly defended against its strikes. He pushed forward, take step after step to reclaim the momentum of the fight. "You know nothing of the good I've done, the people I've saved." It tried to take his head, but Ayden merely weaved to the side and brought his own saber up in a quick cut that cleaved the red saber hilt into two pieces.

Rather than cleave his opposite into pieces, Ayden stepped forward and embraced him in a tight embrace. The opposite Ayden frozen, its form wavering in that comforting hug. "You are me, just as I am you." It seemed to relax further, the edges of its form fading away in smoke. "But just because I accept you does not mean you have any sway over me." Ayden smiled to himself and let go of the figure, watching as more and more of it destabilized and vanished into smoke and then nothing. "You'll have your place and time, but not here. Not now. Go... Be gone."

With a start, Ayden sat up from his position on the floor and immediately regretted moving so suddenly. His mind throbbed and screamed with every beat of his heart and his limbs felt like durasteel. He had virtually nothing left in the tank, so to speak. Nothing in his memory ever spoke of feeling so drained and weak, but as he looked upon the robe a weak smile began to cross his lips. It had been worth it. He could feel the essences flow around the robe and tunic, feel their power pulsing softly as if in a slumber. He had done it. Looking at a chronometer, it had taken him more than a day, but he had managed to make an artifact of his own and even managed to suppress the normal taint that came from certain acts needed to make the attire. He coughed and gasped slightly against the dry mouth he had taken on before being offered a small bottle of water from the droid. The worst of his task was over, but he still had to put together the last pieces.

There was still work to be done.

Time Elapsed: 28 Hours 47 Minutes