Private Dragons of Atrisia

[Darth Themis]

Well, at least Alyosha Drutin was confident. Themis was nervous...her vision wasn't infallible by any means, though this fallibility occured rarely.

When it did though, things could go terribly wrong.

Terribly wrong. One need only look at how her vision failed her at the Final Battle of The De Lifte's...she had thought to die with them...but Phyre intended a much more horrible death.

Themis, unable to remember the plans she had laid due to years of madness in death from eternal torture, hoped that whatever circle of hell that beast had fallen into, it was a deep and dark one (It should be noted that Themis would get her wish: Three months after the events in this thread, Syd Celsius would find herself trapped underground with Starlin Rand on Zeffo.)

Themis chuckled as he mimicked stabbing the gigantic Kaiju. She then honed in on the repair shop where the speeder bikes were. She wasted no time cutting open the abandoned shop entrance with her spear, and went inside.

The whole place was relatively intact, even with the recent invasion, and Themis spotted all number of tools and scrap parts from droids and computer displays.

Themis inspected the bikes, doing safety checks. Out of the corner of her eye though, she noticed a photo, and stopped, going toward it.

It looked as though it had been scavenged. She saw a sticky note attached that read: 'Found this weird photo if Jedi in a landfill the other day. It dates back to The Plague!'

Themis peeled the note off and stared.

It was a photo of her as Moya De Lifte posing with her Knights on Commenor. It was an early photo...they had not yet acquired the Purge Trooper type power armor they were famous for, instead her knights were clad in scavenged, retrofitted armored Biohazard Suits with a light exoskeletal frame. The Jedi Order's symbol crudely painted on some of their armor. Moya was the only one in typical robes.

"I remember this..." she trailed, folding the frayed photo up...


"You stand..." Moya De Lifte trailed as she addressed the crowd of new recruits in the mountains of Commenor. "On the verge of taking the first step into a larger world. A World of danger and suffering. Of the endless need to protect the innocent. Of being at risk of the most violent and grisly death imaginable, or suffering fates much worse than that. I explained as much to you when I first sought you out, how difficult a path it is you have chosen. And yet, you still are here, ready to learn, in spite of it all. Your bravery is an inspiration to me, and it will be an inspiration to the countless lives you will save, and whatever allies we shall gain along the way. Though I cannot tell you how our journey fighting evil will end. I will tell you how it shall begin: by swearing ourselves as kin in The Force, and kin with the galaxy we are sworn to defend from that vile beast butchering entire vibrant communities. Some of you knew the victims. We do not live in ideal times. You may find your urge to punish the wicked--"

(Cutaway of Jon Bernthal Punisher randomly firing two assault rifles at once.)

"--can be near overwhelming. We all have our own personal battles. Many of you were very hesitant to trust me. Some of you even thought I was a Sith trying to brainwash you at first. But you listened. You were ready to believe that a better world beyond what the Plague created for us was at hand, if only we were willing to fight for it. By being willing to take that leap of faith, you have made me more proud of you than you can understand."

They were in the ruins of an ancient Jedi Temple, an abstract construction consisting mostly of pillars and a crude stone framework.

The recruits, clad in scavenged flight suits with a simple brown poncho with the Jedi Order's symbol painted on, all gave small bows. Moya, flanked by the members of the De Lifte Family that were actually full blooded De Lifte's, some wearing armor based on those of the Senate Guard, bowed back.

"We are all a family now. And to protect this family, discipline must be maintained. As discovery of anyone of our strongholds will severely compromise all of us, strict counter-espionage measures will be maintained at all times. You will be taught to ignore pain. Ignore the weather. To eat things that would make a billy goat puke--"

(Cutaway of John Rambo firing light machine gun into the air screaming like a madman.)

"--Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape...you will learn it all. And together...we 'will' drive back the darkness..." Moya proclaimed. The recruits fist pumped in triumph, cheering and whooping.

Moya ignited her spear saber, waving it over all of them, symbolically inducting them into The Jedi Order...

Themis snapped out of the intense recollection that had occurred over a split second and set to work on looking for supplies, anything that might give them an edge against the Kaiju.

As she worked, she began to speak of herself.

"I was a rebellious adult in my species. Thrill seeker. Didn't like staying put. Used to ride bikes like these..." Themis spoke as she went to work on modifying the bikes.

My need for adrenaline gets so bad, one day, I start smuggling. That's what got me caught by the Sith...speederbike full of galvening circuits for disruptors...what a fething way to get recruited huh? Being a dumbass smuggler who knew no better, flying into the belly of a monster she didn't know if she could escape. Sorta like now..."

Themis worked a little more, making sure nothing got knocked loose by accident during her upgrades.

Finally, Themis finished her modifications of the Speeder Bikes.

"Those should give us a turbo boost in a pinch...hopefully..." she trailed.

Heading over to a workbench and pulled out a few sheets of paper, she began to chant, green electricity flowing through her fingers that traced the unnatural looking wards on the page.

"Alyosha, I feel that, due to the current horrible Crisis, emergency measures to enhance your survivability are required. I don't do this lightly but must make an exception in this case. Here. I have with me Enhancement Wards. Touch these, and your connection to the Force will be permanently augmented in some small, non horribly mutative way...or even slightly mutative, in case you were worried I was trying to use wiggle-language to con you..." she joked dryly. "Unfortunately you are young, so your body can only handle so many enhancements at once. About...007 by my estimate. I made fourteen for you. Pick what you think you will need..." she trailed, holding out the sheets of paper whose symbols moved...

(God of War 2 Main Theme plays for a few seconds.)

(Darth Themis has provided Alyosha with enhancement wards. These convey special, permanent enhancements by magic to the body or one's force capability.)

(Please make your selection now)

(CHOOSE WISELY)

Limit: 007 out of fourteen enhancements

FORCE ENHANCEMENTS

1. PRECOG: IMPROVED SHRAPNEL DETECTION

Spoiler

This permanently slightly enhances Alyosha's ability to sense and potentially avoid lethal, fast flying debris from many random directions. Becomes more able to tell when explosives well detonate as an indirect result.

2. PRECOG: IMPROVED OBSTACLE DETECTION

Spoiler

Permanently slightly enhances Alyosha's ability to sense and avoid dangerous obstacles in his path while traveling at high speed. Reflexes will now kick in faster while being attacked in personal combat

3. PRECOG: IMPROVED LIVING PREDICTIONS

Spoiler

Slightly improves Alyosha's ability to predict when living things in his immediate vicinity (Like, say, a Kaiju...) will attack him and what direction the attack will come from.

4. FORCE CHANNEL

Spoiler

Permanently slightly improves Alyosha's ability to call on the Force, requiring less strain. All learned powers require less effort to use by a a small amount.

5. FORCE COORDINATION

Spoiler

Moderately improves Alyosha's ability to coordinate attacks with all allies through his ability to sense them in the Force. Also gives him greater ability to sense allied distress.

6. FORCE STRENGTHENING

Spoiler

All offensive Force Powers Alyosha learns are permanently increased in strength by a slight amount. Offensive powers become slightly easier to learn. Alyosha will subconsciously use telekinesis slightly to rely on the lifting of heavy objects. As his skill in the Force grows, Alyosha's ability in this latter aspect also increases

007. FORCE ATTUNEMENT

Spoiler

Alyosha will grow moderately stronger with all Force Power effects while in a Nexus

BODY ENHANCEMENTS

8. BONE DENSITY INCREASE

Spoiler

Permanently makes Alyosha's bones much much harder to break or crush from kinetic impact.

9. OXYGEN CAPACITANCE

Spoiler

Alyosha is now able to hold his breath up to fifteen minutes while in an environment with no oxygen. Can be paired with bone density to make one much more difficult to kill with telekinesis attacks, such as wave, crush, or choke. Also useful if buried under heavy items but only in limited circumstances.

10. REFLEX/SPEED ENHANCEMENT

Spoiler

Moderately enhances Alyosha's reflexes and speed without the Force

11. SENSE SHARPENING

Spoiler

Sharpen sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell by a high amount. This enables easier perception of Stealthed targets.

12. PAIN REDUCTION

Spoiler

Moderately reduce sensations of pain, even very extreme ones. Useful only in an emergency, as it does nothing to mitigate actual damage suffered, and may accelerate injuries if utilized improperly.

13. REDUCED BLEEDING

Spoiler

Alyosha will permanently lose blood at a moderately slower rate be the injury external or internal. This effect only occurs during the event of actual lasceration, and ceases as soon as injuries are repaired, so blood is ultimately unaffected. Don't ask how it works. Just...don't.

14. KINETIC INJURY REDUCTION

Spoiler

Alyosha 's skin is moderately more difficult to pierce with sharp objects or projectiles.

Themis waited for Alyosha to pick before she got on the bikes and headed out. She folded the ones he hand not selected up and put it in her belt before she did. Couldn't have them get found by some random nobody.

"That thing wakes in two minutes..." she called out to Alyosha. "Our plan is this. We're gonna get real close to that thing. As close as we can! I'm gonna use an adhesion spell on it. It'll start drawing the debris dust from the buildings it smashed around its eyes. This will piss it off massively. Then we guide it through every natural hazard I can find."

The Force gave her a vision. She signalled him to make a slight detour and turned left.

Her vision showed her a Sith Lord that had used the darkness to go into hibernation in the sewers to avoid detection. He was due to emerge in fifteen seconds from a sewer lid. If he escaped Atrisia he would go on to become powerful enough to destroy worlds. No redeeming him.

"Hey Alyosha, make a silly face as we pass by this next jackass. Pretty please?" Themis called out jokingly.

Themis timed it just perfect. She saw him emerging, dark and terrible, in smouldering black robes in a silver mask that reflected everything, and the first thing he saw was Themis extending her middle finger and waving 'bye-bye' at him as she sped by. This was followed by a massive dark green bolt striking him from above and instagibbing him.

"Now we can piss the monster off. Onward!"

The Bright Lord of the Sith flung dark green bolts from above at the Kaiju as it started to rise when they were at last in range. This knocked it down a bit. As she raced by, she used a spell so powerful it temporarily drained her.

Massive clouds of dust gathered around the head of the roaring Kaiju. As she predicted, this pissed it off massively and the ground trembled terribly as it began to stagger after them...

"Ancient power grid underground! Weak road system above it! We're gonna trick the bastard into stepping on it! Hope you like your build Drutin, because now its time to use it!" She exclaimed as she gunned the turbo thrusters, the monster getting closer...

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Alyosha watched Themis break into the deserted repair shop, clearly looking for supplies. He followed. Though he wasn’t a mechanic and would have little use for spare parts, there was always a chance of scavenging something worthwhile. No such luck.

While Themis had her reminiscence, he examined the abandoned speeder bikes. He could drive one, certainly, but he had yet to be in a high-speed chase. This would be a new and fun experience for him.

Themis’ voice behind him drew his attention. “A rebel amongst your species?” he echoed with a crooked smile. “You know, I’m still not exactly sure what you are, Themis. Most Atrisians can’t heal as fast as you, or from the kinds of wounds I’ve seen you bounce back from.” If she didn’t want to discuss it, it was no skin off his back, of course. He didn’t much care whether people told him their whole life story or left him completely in the dark. But he allowed himself to be a little curious about other people every now and then. Besides, she was his master—he felt obligated to at least know the basics.

The hints she did provide without prompting were vague enough to tantalize anyone else. He was just glad she knew what she was doing when it came to the speeder bikes, or else they’d be up Chit Creek without a paddle.

His brow furrowed as she suddenly moved to the work table and began scribbling on scraps of paper, his confusion only deepening as she explained what she was doing. “You mean to tell me you can create enhancements that can be downloaded instantly into my body, as if I were a droid getting new and improved parts?” he asked in disbelief. “My old employer would’ve killed for that kind of power. Good thing he never met you...” Or perhaps it was too bad, since Themis would’ve been able to end the rotten bastard’s life with ease.

He moved to the work table, examining the abilities available to him. Given all the trouble and false starts he’d had when it came to using the Force for more than basic danger sense, the first option that jumped out at him as a necessity was Force Channel. Upon touching the paper, he felt something akin to taking a massive breath of fresh air after spending his whole life submerged in liquid concrete. Everything felt freer, lighter, boundless.

He would’ve been happy with just that, but luckily for him he had six more improvements to choose from. His eye was drawn to Reflex/Speed Enhancement—he’d always had good reaction times, but this promised to improve it tenfold—and to Precog: Improved Shrapnel Detection, Precog: Improved Living Predictions, and Precog: Improved Obstacle Detection for use in surviving the Kaiju and any other big nasties he might encounter in the years ahead.

For the last two, he knew what he wanted, but he was still reluctant to make the selection. Kinetic Injury Reduction would be useful no matter what, but he was bothered by the fact that he wanted it more because it would reduce the likelihood of scarring. He hated scars. Not on other people—Laertia, for instance, was still quite attractive to him even with the abundance of markings on her tombstone skin—but when it came to his own body, he obsessed over every notch he received in his flesh. Was it vanity, or something else? He didn’t know.

His last begrudging pick was Force Coordination. Begrudging, because he while he hadn’t had the best experience so far when it came to feeling the pain of others, he had to acknowledge that it might be a gift he had. And if there was anything he had learned from training, it was that you couldn’t take natural talent for granted—you had to hone it into a practiced skill with hard work and dedication. Maybe then it would be a little less unpleasant for him.

Having made his choices, Alyosha stepped away from the table and followed Themis to the speeder bikes. Their final stand against the Kaiju had begun. At least, he hoped it would be their final stand…

Though he had no clue why they were taking a detour, he smirked at Themis’ request. For a split second, Alyosha’s boyish face contorted clownishly, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. For his efforts, he tasted the burnt carbon in the air as one of Themis’ green lightning bolts struck the would-be destroyer of worlds dead.

They were gaining upon the Kaiju. As Themis used her power to enact the first part of the plan, Alyosha leaned forward, buckling down as he matched her increasing speed. He could sense the obstacles in the road and avoid them easily with his now sharpened reflexes. He could also feel Themis’ brief weakness after putting some dirt in the Kaiju’s eye, and the creature’s lumbering anger. Oh, this promised to be a wild ride…

Darth Themis

 

[Darth Themis]

Themis gunned the engines to her speederbike as the monster gave chase, avoiding falling debris thanks to her visions.

Almost there...(Use The Force: 90 XP)

"SWERVE RIGHT! NOW!" Themis shouted through the howling of the engines for that was the only way she would be heard.

She did so just as the Kaiju's foot slammed down on the street...which promptly collapsed, and massive bursts of lightning erupted from the ground to violently shock the beast, which made the fires on the surface of its body rage all the harder. It dropped to the ground, struggling to get up between two smashed buildings, only to fail again and again, roaring.

Themis signalled Alyosha Drutin to slow down and she stared at it, the dust continually swirling around its head even as it was burned and electrocuted. But it still was not beaten.

"We have to let it see us..." she explained to him. "Two minutes before the juice in that grid it stepped on runs dry. No...wait...

Themis held out her hand, and a massive bolt of dark green lightning from the sky slammed into it, knocking it down a little more.

"Three minutes..." she corrected herself, swooning a bit from the power exerted.

"And in answer to your earlier question..." she trailed, trying to fill the silence inbetween the monster's roaring. She didn't want to kill the beast. But in every future where she found a way to spare it, it would inevitably escape, killing thousands in the process. Themis didn't want to be responsible for that. She was talking to distract herself from the fact she was killing it.

"I'm not Atrisian...I'm Shi'ido. We're a species of Shapeshifters. The reason I'm so familiar with Atrisia is because this is where I recruited Julia's parents...and its also where my arch enemy Darth Phyre murdered me hundreds of years ago. I only managed to bring myself back through magic recently...only a few months before I met you and Lucien, in fact..."

As the monster thrashed about, Themis felt her mouth draw into a slight frown.

"But not before she murdered my entire family. People I'd known for years, she slaughtered with a chuckle. She torched the apprentices, feasted on the souls of the knights. Then burned everyone else. She killed me by dumping me into a lake of unholy black fire where my body roasted but my spirit was left trapped in agony. So yeah...you can bet I'm pretty familiar wirh Atrisia. This was Phyre's stronghold."

Themis didn't say anything else, suddenly hearing the screams of her family and Phyre's cackling.

In case you're wondering, yeah, it's gonna be a pretty hostile reunion. Holy crap is it going to be hostile.

As if on cue, once the three minutes were up Themis signalled to take off in the opposite direction.

"There's a military base ahead! The Atrisians used it to dismantle old warheads and prep the parts for disposal, but myyyyy vision is showing me two massive napalm bombs they had not taken care of before The Sith invaded! The grid did most of the work but we hit it with those...we can finish it off..." Themis trailed as she sped along before adding. "Of course, we should injure it as much as possible in the process. Like so!"

Themis signalled Alyosha to swerve a corner of the street wit her, dodging abandoned military vehicles and long stretches of debris, forcing the beast to ram itself through a bent skyscraper to keep up, which staggered it, but it kept going. Themis breathed in and out, and another heavy bolt of dark green lightning struck its injured eye, making it roar in pain as it chased them.

Finally she spotted the mostly destroyed base, its gates wide open. The warehouse containing the devices they needed the beast to wade itself into--while not getting horribly burned alive, as not even Themis could survive a Napalm blast at the ranges they would be in if they got it wrong.

Meanwhile...

Laertia fitted another blade into her cybernetic arm. As an emergency she had flown the ship farther away from the beast, despite the health risk.

After using The Force to heal her injured body via meditation, Laertia had spent a few precious moments hugging and petting her rabbits, kissing their heads. The rabbits seemed to inherently sense the lethality of Laertia's situation, because they seemed to actively cling to her as she put them back in their pens. Then she grabbed every remaining det charge she had and her last Stouker clip. She teleported out of the ship, leaving it in a zone where the authorities had already set up a defensive perimeter, and began teleporting her way to the monster. She could not take medicine due to her body needing relief from it, her armors were in no condition to be used, and she thus had to risk a migraine...

Fun times.

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Things got very hectic, very fast. Alyosha put the pedal to the metal and put his new enhancements to good use, evading the falling debris. He heard Themis’ shout and did as she ordered, swerving right and narrowly missing the Kaiju’s gargantuan foot turning the street into dust.

Alyosha was able to slow down immediately, maintaining an unnerving calm after the high-speed chase and even as the Kaiju was in flames before him. Themis on the other hand was talking to distract herself from what was happening.

His eyebrows rose. A Shi’ido? He’d heard of them, but had never met one before. Or at least, he hadn’t been aware of it if he had. That was the way with alien shapeshifters—you might never know you had encountered one unless they revealed their true nature.

More startling to him was the fact that she claimed to have died and brought herself back to life via magic—and that the nasty person responsible for her death might still be around. “Do you know where this Darth Phyre is now?” he asked. “I mean, if there’s any chance she might still be out there…”

He trailed off. His usual laserbrained lack of empathy meant that he hadn’t picked up on the downward shift in Themis’ overall mood until he bothered to squint. She didn’t show much in her expressions, but he could sense that she was having a traumatic flashback. Well, they only had three minutes to talk anyway…

At her signal, he pushed forward, gunning the engine. Military base up ahead. Massive napalm bombs to finish it off with. Injure it as much as possible in the meantime.

While Themis used her favorite green lightning to divert the beast, Alyosha stretched out with the Force, not really sure what he was going to do. He only knew that he wanted to do something, be an active combatant rather than an appendage of his master only acting on her orders.

The outside of the Kaiju continued to burn, but now it was suddenly fueled by the creature’s own rapidly dissipating body heat. Alyosha had drawn it out of the Kaiju’s body with the Force, leaving the creature’s insides frigidly cold. Its lungs would collapse, its heart would freeze, and its internal organs would cease functioning under these conditions—at least, until the fires warmed it up again. For now, it was considerably slowed down by the effect.

Alyosha meanwhile had unwittingly taught himself Cryokinesis by the time he and Themis blazed through the open gates of the abandoned military base.

Darth Themis

 

[Darth Themis]

The beast was badly, badly wounded by this point, the cryokinetic attack having frozen its insides.

"We're in the future where you learned Cryokinesis! That's a good sign!" Themis called out. "And as for Phyre, don't worry! I arranged for her death after mine! That schutta's in the frostiest circle of hell possible!"

(Cutaway of Syd Celsius lounging in a chair aboard her ship on Kashyyyk, idly studying a photo of Laertia Io.)

Themis raced into the military base with her apprentice, the Kaiju plodding after them out of sheer hate, crushing everything in its wake as it chased them to the warehouse where the napalm devices were.

A shot from a concussion rifle smacked into its head from afar.

Laertia Io kept the concussion rifle trained on its head as it turned to face her.

Themis smacked its head with lightning again knocking it to the ground, but she was so close when it hit the ground she was knocked from her bike, half her face shredding off and leaving a green smear as she skidded across the pavement of the fighter base. Laertia was knocked off balance but managed to recover, teleporting and reappearing behind and firing at its head and back, emptying the weapon...

...then the migraine hit...

Laertia collapsed, clutching her head as the Kaiju started to recover. It spotted and began lurching towards her, snapping it jaws. Laertia began to weakly crawl backward, leaving the rifle behind...but it would reach her.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Themis yelled, standing back up, conjuring tendrils of water out of the moisture of the air to restrain it by the neck, keeping it from reaching Laertia, but she was weakening, her flesh shuddering as she struggled to keep it in place, face still heavily damaged.

Laertia's migraine ceased. She spotted the napalm bombs in the cracked warehouse. Screaming in pain, Laertia pushed her teleport ability like never before, nose bleeding heavily as she stretched out her hand.

The bombs teleported into the creatures mouth, jamming themselves into its teeth.

Laertia blacked out...and so did Themis. The monster kept crawling slowly but surely to Laertia...

It was up to Alyosha Drutin now...

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Still a bit stunned that he was able to freeze the creature’s insides, Alyosha stared at Themis in bewilderment. “What?” he shouted over the roar of the speeder engines, the crashing noises coming from the enraged Kaiju, and the wind buffeting them as they raced to the abandoned base.

He sensed rather than heard the shout from Laertia’s rifle, causing him to tear his eyes from Themis and the road. What the hell was she doing out here? She was supposed to be recovering from her wounds back at the ship!

Even more alarming was Themis’ panicked, knee-jerk reaction to the sudden appearance of her granddaughter. Alyosha narrowly managed to maneuver his bike out of the way of the crashing Kaiju. His master wasn’t so lucky, being knocked from her seat and skidding painfully across the pavement.

The next few moments were pivotal. Laertia tried to finish the beast off, only to be struck by a migraine. Alyosha’s overall sense of his surroundings and the Force had increased to such a degree that he could practically taste her pain. He turned his bike around in a wide arc, trying to pick up speed, but Themis was still in a mode of senseless emotional reaction, striking at the Kaiju even though she was badly weakened by her injuries. Laertia pushed herself to her limits as well, desperate to plant the bombs…

And before he knew it, Alyosha was the only conscious person on the scene. He was headed toward the Kaiju at top speed, aiming for its right side as it lunged toward Laertia. It started to turn its head toward him and its mouth went slack, intending to devour him whole.

As he came within spitting distance of the monster, he lifted himself into a crouching position on top of the bike seat, balancing there for a couple of seconds as he cleared the rest of the distance. At just the right moment, he leaped up and off the bike, sailing through the air on the remaining momentum. His bike crashed into the Kaiju’s mouth, impacting the highly combustible napalm.

The bombs exploded, taking most of the beast’s head with it. As flames bloomed beneath him, Alyosha was still hovering in midair—and about to come hurtling down.

He flipped end over end, the son of an acrobat showing off his craft though there was no one around to see it, until he landed on his feet on top of the monster’s back. His Light-Spear was already out, the blade igniting, ready to do even more damage, but he saw that it wasn’t necessary. The Kaiju was very, very dead.

“I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” he quoted humorlessly, scaling down the sharp ridges on the creature’s back. The city around him was in ruins, a massive and incredibly hot fire was burning where the beast’s head had been, and it was putting out toxic fumes rather too close to where Laertia lay.

Retracting his Spear, he hurried over to her and lifted the scarred cyborg woman’s body in a fireman’s carry, moving her as far away from the gas as he could. He set her down in the hollowed-out shell of a military truck, then likewise retrieved Themis before he turned his full attention to Laertia. Themis would regenerate over time, he knew, but Laertia appeared to be merely human, albeit with a few enhancements. Her healing would take effort.

“Hey,” he said, lightly shaking Laertia’s shoulder in an attempt to rouse her. “What the hell’s your deal? Why didn’t you stay on the ship?”

Seeing the blood smeared under her nose, he pulled her into an upright position so the blood wouldn’t choke her. Blood from the nose was a bad sign, usually meant brain damage. A bit unnecessarily, he wiped much of it off her mouth with his gloved hand, splattering red droplets on the ground as he removed said glove, pressed his bare fingers against her temple, and attempted to speed along (or strengthen, at the very least) her healing with the Force. The first time he tried healing had been an embarrassing and difficult trial, but even if it did trigger another of his "episodes", he would simply have to deal with it. This couldn't wait.

Darth Themis

 

[Laertia Io]

Laertia's blade, a pulsing, humming green whose power was barely properly vented, slammed into the Indigo colored blade of Ursula Sandraven on the grasslands of Odessan.

Ursula retreated. Laertia pressed the attack, as was her nature, her style a focused, one handed version of Form One.

Ursula's indigo lightsaber was held in a Form Six stance. Laertia was curious about this, as Ursula hardly ever used Form Six. She preferred Form Four with a bit of Three mixed in.

Laertia's dark gray eyes followed the movements of her master, clad in her preferred white combat suit, waiting for her to strike. Ursula's take was a bit 'heavier' then most interpretations of Form Six...Ursula had a little more Djem So then what Laertia would have used. She had beaten her 007 times at this style.

"Yuzzin yurr weeurd forrm sixx againz?" Laertia asked in curiosity as they circled each other.

"You sound surprised, Laertia." Ursula noted formally. Her sharp blue eyes tracked Laertia's unstable looking green blade.

"It'z jusst...I alwayyz duhfeetz yooz whennz yoo yuze dhat stylez..."

"I know. But I am trying to surpass my limits. Have you surpassed any of yours lately?" Ursula asked as she flicked her blade at her former padawan-turned Knight's torso.

Laertia turned the blade aside but Ursula followed up very quickly, attacking and forcing Laertia momentarily on the defensive, catching the indigo blade with the sputtering energy quillions.

"Yoo knowz duh strongg stylez, frumm Luke Skywalker's Jehdii Praxxeeummz?"

Ursula raised an eyebrow.

"I learnndz itz!" Laertia said excitedly as their blades locked.

Ursula was given pause before Force flipping away.

"Show me." Ursula challenged.

Laertia's blade went high over her head. She sprang forward first, wide, extremely powerful swings aiming for Ursula's weapon to tear it from her hands. The Jedi Master countered with a stab at the same time. The Strong Style had very few defensive options save for a good offense, and Laertia was forced to attack continuously in a series of short, controlled swipes ahead of her as she advanced, before her swings became wider and more aggressive.

The pair attacked each other savagely, Ursula's style mimicking the Falling Avalanche technique, the pair bashing their sabers continuously from a vertical position. Laertia's styles were never pure academically trained variants...a life time of streetfighting in enclosed spaces as well as open went into every swing and stab. She had inflicted nearly every lethal and non-lethal injury one could inflict with a knife or a machete, and had occasionally received near fatal wounds in turn. Laertia began to swing for Ursula's shoulder blades, slashing and swinging with as much speed and power as she could...

Then Ursula flick-thrusted her blade in a feint that caught Laertia off guard and hit one of her blade's quillions, knocking it out of her hands.

Laertia, unfazed by her defeat, only grinned.

"Yooz beenz pracctycingz!" Laertia gushed.

"We both have..." Ursula said, not for one moment kidding herself. Laertia hadn't mastered it, not by half, but what she had learned so far had been quite a lot. And that feint trick would never ever work on her again, she would anticipate it every enemy duelist from that point forward and conpensate. In her victory, Ursula had made Laertia even deadlier.

"You push your limits you can eventually surpass many of them. For example...my weapon..." Ursula said, holding out her weapon to Laertia in a tight grip. "Will it into your hand."

Laertia blinked.

"But Ursy..." Laertia trailed quietly, occasionally breaking eye contact. "I'vve trieddz tellyportinz stuff outtaz people's grip. Itt nevuh worrkz."

"This sentiment from the same girl who pushes the limits of how much she can learn in a lightsaber battle. The difference is only in your mind.
I don't think your teleporting is any different from how your telekinesis is applied in terms of focus. Both are fundamentally concerned with the movement of objects from one physical space to another. Think of it as mentally prying it out of my hands..."

"Okayyz Ursy, I'yll givz itz a shottz..." Laertia promised her mentor.

Laertia concentrated, struggling harder than she ever had before. The device refused to leave her master's grip. She began to think about how she would steal it if that wasn't a hand holding the hilt. She pictured a thick box in place of Ursula's hand, with a lock. She began to mentally pick it, concentrating harder on picking that lock than any other she had ever gotton past.

Laertia could imagine the hilt inside the box...

The hilt disappeared out of Ursula's grip, and reappeared into Laertia's.

Laertia stared in shock. She looked at Ursula.

"I...I don'tz buhleevz itz..."

Ursula smiled. "That is why you failed before now..."

Laertia finally stirred after a few minutes from the healing technique Alyosha Drutin applied to her.

The first thing she heard was Alyosha asking why she hadn't stayed at the ship.

"I don'tz abbanndonz duh peopullz I sharedz a mealz wyth..." Laertia groaned in pain, sitting up, looking at Themis, watching as she stirred, mostly healed by this point.

Themis spotted Laertia and pulled herself up, looking at the Kaiju they had slain...

(4000 XP to each character)


"Huh. Alyosha just graduated to Badass." Themis joked grimly. "I know there is some cool as feth line I could say about the giant destroyed corpse, but we've probably already heard the really cool ones in the movies."

Themis waved at the corpse, conjuring rain to put out the flames.

"A pity the meat will go to waste but then again I don't think anyone would have been comfy eating it..." she remarked, examining the hide and the remains, pulling what looked like crystal formations on the inside of its mouth as well as samples of its massive teeth and putting them in a small container she had with her.

"Wherr yoo beenz spendinz yorr nytez?" Laertia muttered under her breath in Themis's direction as she groggily pulled herself up.

Themis went over immediately, examining her grand daughter.

"Alyosha got to you in time..." she said looking the blood covered woman over. She looked at Alyosha.

"Thank you for saving our lives, Apprentice. I owe you one."

Laertia was still woozy. Themis slung Laertia's arm over her shoulder.

"Let's get the hell out of here. The authorities will arrive soon. There's an old abandoned transmission tower a block down. We won't be bothered there...

Themis found her spear and began helping Laertia walk, signalling for Alyosha to follow when she heard shuttles approaching.

Twenty minutes later...


The tower had been trashed when the Sith had invaded. It was a partly collapsed building, the tower itself a burned out wreck of metal girders.

Laertia kicked open the door and Themis set her on a half burned chair, mutated eyes hiding her worry. She closed the door once Alyosha was in.

"Just rest for now, Julia. We all need it."

"Wut I needz iz annzwerz..." Laertia trailed, shaking her head from nausea.

"And I promise you will get them."

"Arr yooz a Syth?"

Themis paused, going silent for a few moments before answering.

"It depends on what you mean when you say 'Sith'."

Laertia looked at her, glanced at Alyosha with what could best be described in modern speak as a look of 'LOL Really?' and sighed.

"Just rest for now..." Themis assured. "I'm not your enemy."

Laertia kept silent before shutting her eyes and letting herself rest.

Themis went into a burned out office room, put her hands to her face.

"Every time I look at her its like I'm staring at her parents..." Themis whispered to Alyosha, weary and tired suddenly.

"How the hell do I tell her the truth?" She asked herself under her breath before summoning the energy to keep being Alyosha's instructor.

"I'm very impressed Alyosha. 'Very' impressed. It seems your acrobat training paid off. That stunt was crazy!" she exclaimed quietly. "That beast with a Sith Spawn, created solely to keep the ancient populace in line. That is the kind of tyranny the Dark Side favors. Endless oppression and misery. That is why I left the mainstream Sith...there is no goal beyond continued oppression to mindlessly stay in power. You would have thirsted for the death of the ones who made that beast, had you met them. Of that much I am certain. But you did good. You do the Light Side Sith credit."

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Hearing Laertia mumble an answer to his question, Alyosha finally let his hand drop away from her face. His fingertips had begun to nervously trace her scars when she didn’t immediately respond to the healing. Now he needed to stop fretting over her like an old nurse and let her get herself together.

“Was still pretty foolhardy of you,” he muttered, the walls going up once more. “You almost died.” No doubt she knew the risk when she went in, but he still couldn’t bring himself to thank her for putting herself in danger on his behalf. Themis, sure—she was her long-lost grandmother. They had a history. They were kin. Alyosha was just Themis’ apprentice.

Speaking of which… “As if I wasn’t already a badass,” he deadpanned. “And I’m pretty sure I already took care of the obligatory cheesy movie quote.”

He pulled his glove back on, observing with mild distaste that it was still smeared with Laertia’s blood, then turned to face the smoldering hulk of the Kaiju. Themis was already taking samples. She and Laertia exchanged some brief banter, then Themis thanked him for saving them.

“Well, I couldn’t exactly let my master and her granddaughter choke on napalm fumes,” he replied blithely. He made no comment regarding her owing him one.

From there, they headed to the abandoned relay tower. While Themis placed Laertia in the chair, Alyosha strolled inside the room and leaned casually against one of the few intact walls opposite the cybernetic woman. He started to pull out a pack of cigarras, wondered if Laertia would be affected by the smoke, then begrudgingly put them away again. Denying a smoke for her sake—gee, he must really like her.

When Laertia turned to him in bewilderment at Themis’ responses to her questions, she would have seen him with that same grimacing smirk on his face. Since she had looked at him, he suddenly became attentive, but at that point the discussion between the two women had largely died out. Themis clearly didn’t want to talk about it, and Laertia needed to rest. Not wanting to disturb her, Alyosha followed Themis into the side office room.

"Every time I look at her it's like I'm staring at her parents… How the hell do I tell her the truth?"

“You just do it and hope it doesn’t backfire,” he replied, not very helpfully. He’d dealt with backstabbing, troublemaking, and even downright evil relatives before (although at this point in his story, he still didn’t know the identity of his biological father, which would easily prove the nastiest family secret of all) and the best he could say was that you learned to live with it. Even if you had to drink, shoot up, or turn tricks in order to do so. Or kill people for a living.

He was glad when the conversation switched to something other than talking about their feelings, doubly so when it involved his master praising him.

"I'm very impressed Alyosha. 'Very' impressed. It seems your acrobat training paid off. That stunt was crazy! That beast with a Sithspawn, created solely to keep the ancient populace in line. That is the kind of tyranny the Dark Side favors. Endless oppression and misery. That is why I left the mainstream Sith… there is no goal beyond continued oppression to mindlessly stay in power. You would have thirsted for the death of the ones who made that beast, had you met them. Of that much I am certain. But you did good. You do the Light Side Sith credit."

“I try,” he said, flashing a boyish grin. His smile flickered slightly as memories of his time with the Black Sun and the Grey Forces came surging back. He had tried then, too.

“Sithspawn,” he murmured, changing the subject. “Isn’t that an insult in most systems? But I can’t say I know what exactly they are… are they supposed to be created by evil space magic or something along those lines? Is there a process?” Then, in a lower voice, he added, “Could we do it ourselves, using the Light?”

Darth Themis

 

[Darth Themis]

"Sithspawn are typically organisms created using the Force alone or they were once a normal organism mutated by it. Darth Phyre was either one or the other, but I've never been certain of which origin she stemmed from. And yes, Alyosha, you can use the Light to create such creatures...you've been speaking to two of them for quite some time, although the alterations I gave Julia are not as extensive as my own were." Themis answered, recalling the day she had stopped being mainstream Sith...


Themis stared at the results of the ritual she had prepared.

The Red Ankarres floated above the ritual site, the mysterious red gemstone glittering over the ritual site.

The Shi'ido had spent days alone studying her mysterious gift. At first her thoughts had been, 'How do I corrupt this?'

But over time, her thoughts had shifted during her study of the blood stone from how to corrupt to how to embrace its power.

Themis had only ever known The Dark Side. In a way, that alone had made her more vulnerable to the stone's power than she otherwise would have been.

Themis was confidant she could harness its power, to learn to use the Light they way she and all proper Sith used the Dark--by controlling instead of submitting.

(Cutaway of Jane Seymour getting possessed by the Aether.)

Oh, holy crap, the next few moments were about to be both bloody and hilarious.

She had drawn the wards properly, preparing to enhance herself with the raw power it emitted. Soon, if it all went to plan, she would at last have an escape from the Darkness on her own terms.

Make no mistake, Themis had grown genuinely disillusioned with The Sith Code ever since slaying her master, who was the closest thing she had ever had to a friend. But she was still not willing to do it the Jedi way. She saw the weakness in their code, the systemic flaws that allowed their enemies to survive again and again.

She had drawn the wards in her own blood, the pale being, a carved from marble beauty with a red diamond on her forehead serving as her marking, stripped off her dark blue armor, sulphur eyes staring at the crystal as the sun of Korriban filtered through the alchemized window she had spent a month crafting, focusing its light like a lense into the crystal, supercharging it. The crimson crystal glitered, but shined a strange, pale green light from its core, which made the wards the cone of light formed from the center of the crimson sapphire glitter.

She felt the surge of the Light. It was a surge no true Dark Adept on Korriban could ignore. They would be coming for her soon, to stop her. No time. Now or never.

Just before she stepped into the light, she suffered a moment of doubt, sulphur eyes brimming with it as The Dark Side tried to draw her back with sweet promises of power.

It tried to convince her she would become weak, a punching bag, a joke.

The problem was this:

Power had ceased to be actually attractive to Themis.

She felt dozens of Sith approaching, investigating the presence of the hated Ashla. She leapt into the cone of pale green light.

A group of Sith Marauders in their black, armored robes, burst into her laboratory red lightsabers pulsing as the Former Archivist for the Library screamed in the light as it mutated her, warped her flesh down to the molecular level. A burst of lightning from the more arcane inclined amongst the Sith did nothing, dissipating against the cone of light, the flesh of the Shi'ido at the center shuddering and rippling as she shrieked.

They stood back as she emerged from the cone of light, the red crystal dropping into her palm. Her flesh rippled like water, her new power source coursing through her. Green lightning arced off her body.

"I have seen the truth..." she spoke calmly, the sulphur in her eyes replaced by mutated bronze and dark green. She could see the glorious Golden Age ahead. She saw the billions, the trillions of futures all splitting off as little webs of light and dark in her mind. She could touch them. Influence them. Make things the way she wanted tgem to be, all without the disgust and dishonor of using the Dark.

But none of that would happen if she did not make it out of this room alive.

"The truth is that you are a bunch of thieves and butchers."

(Cutaway of Ivan Vanko activating the self destruct in his power armor)

"You have betrayed the Dark Side!" One of the Sith, a Marauder trained in the old way of Rage and Hatred roared, sprinting towards her, blade aimed at her head.

"The Dark Side deserves no loyalty!" She sneered at him. A flick of her hand and he was suspended in the air, a discharge of green lightning from her hand killing him instantly, instagibbing him.

The others sprang forward but the future was her ally and she knew where the blades would swing before they did, baffling veteran duelists as she evaded blows that would have hit nearly anyone else, her power to restrain the limbs of Dark Adepts allowing her to force their limbs out of position from attacking, flipping and jumping and then lightning-instagibbing them like a deadly game of pinball.

She siezed a lightsaber from a dying Sith and used it to fend off three others at once, her vision guiding her defense. Eventually, she carved through alk but one, and it was his vision that overcame hers, at least temporarily.

He succeeded in lopping off her hand. Themis cried out, only to stare in fascination as the skeleton and flesh began to repair itself.

The Sith looked helplessly at her, Themis winked before using the light to restrain him and toss him out of a nearby window.

Themis glanced at her hands in wonder.

"I have powers beyond reason!" She exclaimed in astonishment. (YOU, AND THEN ONE DAY, YOUR HEIRS!!!!: 90 XP)

"Now..." the Bright Lord trailed, grabbing her purple armored catsuit and spear.

"Let's see if I can't save a few souls before I leave this place..."


Themis blinked out the memory of her rebirth.

"Yes, it is possible. I will teach you such things. Such ways. In fact, that's the secret of what the fishing village contains: Your first steps to that larger world. A crystal is hidden within that ancient library, concealed by a Force Mirror. The Light of The Sith. Pure, solidified light from Korriban's sun. A powerful alkahest agent. Very few still exist. Laertia is a Jedi, so we will have to be careful in how we approach the whole thing. I'm going to try and bring her over to our side." Themis spoke quietly. She glanced at a sleeping Laertia, who dreamed only of running around in a grassy field playing with her rabbits, or having her hair combed by Ursula, the first parental figure she had ever had.

"It won't be easy. I can see her past somewhat...by the Force...she has a strong connection to this place, like her mother did. She killed thousands of soldiers during the Sith Invasion, both on the enemy side and hers trying to halt the advance on the Dark Side corrupted City of Jar'Kai by the Sith, some of them were with a fething chainsaw..." Themis went silent at the stuff the Force showed her.

(Snippets of BFG Division plays for a few seconds)

But so much of her grand daughter's life remained clouded to Themis. She could not pierce the fog to get the whole picture but she saw some of the horrific bits.

Themis shut off the font. She was too close to Julia emotionally. It made it nearly impossible to be objective. Impossible to see.

(Cutaway of Laertia and Syd fighting dozens of Purge troopers and Inquisitorious on Midvinter in a future thread that is yet to be.)

Themis held out her palm. She drew the moisture from the surrounding air.

A sphere of water formed above her palm.

"Mastering water helped me hone my ability to see the future. When you can form a sphere this size and hold it, perhaps you will be able to see why..."

It was part lesson, part challenge to Alyosha. Hydrokinesis was extremely difficult to learn, however. But Alyosha had surprised her by picking the future where he got cryokinesis. Perhaps he had a knack for elemental powers.

Themis clutched her spear, deciding to meditate while Alyosha practiced and Laertia slept.

"By the way, don't leave the office room until after Laertia wakes. Trust me." Themis advised as her eyes darted about under the lids.

A few hours later...

Laertia shot up in a panic, black bladed, green aura lightsaber sliding out of an obsidian hilt, hidden sword in her mechanical left arm sliding out with a Logan-worthy snikt!

She looked about, sweating, hair matted to her scalp. She thought she was somewhere else for about thirty seconds as her eyes darted about in pure fear, caught in the moments she lost her eye and arm. She was hyperventilating until she saw Themis and Alyosha in the other room.

Laertia gradually began to fight past the fog her brain damage created and she remembered who they were. Both blades retracted.

Laertia unzipped her spiky jacket, hooking her lightsaber to her belt. She threw it onto a chair and went into the office to join them.

Laertia said nothing about what had just happened. Themis knew in that instant the question was on her lips.

"So wut nextt? Wut arr yooz boothh heerz forr?" Laertia asked quietly and patiently.

"Julia. Its time for honesty..." Themis spoke. "Once, I was Moya De Lifte. And I did indeed lead a sect of Jedi. But I was always a Light Side Sith Lord in truth. I am Darth Themis."

Laertia recoiled backward, lightsaber going active, pointing it at Themis's face. Themis sighed.

"I get that a lot."

"Duh Dred Cobbraa. Duh Scaledz Scholarr! Whisspuhrerrz ov Duh Forrtiieth Herruhsee!" Laertia whispered in a panic, knowing the name.

But after a few moments, bodily exhaustion once more set in and she shut off the saber.

"Fethz itz. I ain'tz gotz duh enuhgee." she grunted.

"I know you have no real reason to trust me. You've been killing Sith most your life, no doubt. But you know I'm not lying. I know you know I'm not your enemy."

Laertia paused.

"Whyy dooz I havvz a speechh impeddeementz?"

Themis sighed.

"I altered you at birth with Alkahest."

Laertia's cybernetic hand unconsciously clawed the wall behind her.

"Yorr duh reezunn I sounndz lyke a fethinn foolz myy wholl lyfe?" Laertia asked bitterly.

"My alterations made you faster stronger, more intelligent. More aggressive. Your structural perfection was to be matched only by your hostility. But there were side effects to your neurochemistry. That was a likely one I discovered in my research in the months before you were born. I'm sorry for what that caused you."

Laertia stared pointedly at Themis.

"Cann yooz fyx meez?"

"I will try. If you come with us."

The Jedi was quiet for a few moments, staring at Themis.

"Allrytez...I'yll heerz yoo outz."

Themis smiled, not daring to reach out.

"You won't regret it."

"Littul layte fer dhatz..." Laertia replied quietly, walking out of the building to meditate in private.

Themis turned to Alyosha Drutin .

"I know it does not seem that way, but it went swimmingly. Nearly all the other futures had her violently dismembering us."

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Alyosha stroked his jaw, eyebrows raised. So there were people running around the galaxy that had been not just tainted, but physically altered by the Force on both sides of the moral aisle. And he’d met two of them already… all righty, then.

Themis was having another flashback. He started to raise his hand in front of her face, but she snapped out of it before he got that far.

The conversation turned to the original reason they had come to Atrisia in the first place. Alyosha admittedly had forgotten all about it in the excitement of chasing the Kaiju. A burst of impatient eagerness filled him at her words, but it was dampened by the physical fatigue he felt and the mention of Laertia. The fact that what Themis was—and what she would inevitably mold him into so long as he remained under her tutelage—meant that the Jedi would never trust them hadn’t fully hit home before now. Laertia is a Jedi, we have to be careful with her. Try to bring her over to our side. The words sank like a rock in the pit of his stomach. He liked Laertia and certainly didn't want her as an enemy. Not to mention that Themis didn’t sound all that sure that her attempts at convincing her granddaughter would work, and considering that she could see the future, that was a bad sign. He took a deep breath and forced himself not to think about the long-term consequences.

The hydrokinesis lesson began. Alyosha followed Themis’ instructions. After a few attempts, he was able to draw some moisture from the air, just not very much and not very well.

“I don’t think it was the ability to manipulate water that I learned,” he said, droplets trickling down the fingers of his black gloves as the tiny ball of water he had gathered abruptly spilled into his palm. “I think it was heat. Its presence and its absence.”

If that was the case, he should be able to alter the temperature of the room. Stretching out, he tried to draw the heat of the air into himself. The air rapidly dropped several degrees before he released it again, the space immediately surrounding his body feeling quite balmy as it was dispelled.

Nonetheless, he continued with the hydrokinesis until his vision grew blurry with mental as well as physical exhaustion. With Themis meditating and Laertia asleep in the other room, Alyosha figured he might as well get some rest too…

The image of the sphere of water lingered in his mind, just as Themis said it would. He dreamed of a dilapidated homestead on an abandoned world. The windows were shuttered and the paint was flaking off. A single gravestone stood nearby. The place reeked of decay. He walked up to the front door and raised his hand to knock—why he expected there to be anyone home, he didn’t know.

Before he could see what happened next, the vision shifted. Now he was in the midst of a lush, verdant forest, kneeling before a clear mountain stream. Across from him there crouched… himself. It was him, his body, his face, his weapons. But no… something was off. His clothing was different, very different. And those blue eyes somehow weren’t the same ones that stared back at him in the mirror. Something about the way they gazed at him, soft and warm.

The doppelganger spoke, and it was Alyosha’s voice, but the tone was slightly different. “What are we going to do now, Yoshi?” Only his brother Val called him that. Alyosha looked down into the clear water of the stream, and saw Val’s face staring back at him with dark eyes that were cold and hard as stone...

His dream changed for a third time. He was aboard his ship, lying on the floor of his private quarters. Outside the room he could hear muffled voices shouting, but he couldn’t understand them. He was clutching an empty syringe in his hand—

The sound of a lightsaber activating jolted him out of his troubled slumber. He was sitting on the floor, his back leaning against the wall, where he had passed out while practicing. Standing up, he risked a peek into the other room, finding Laertia awake.

During the confrontation that ensued, he kept to himself, moving as far out of the way of Laertia’s blade as he could. Better to let them solve this among themselves.

Alkahest. Wasn’t that the same thing he was supposed to retrieve from the village? He grimaced. While he didn’t look down on Laertia for her speech impediment, he wasn’t looking forward to developing one himself. Or anything worse than that, for that matter.

Laertia begrudgingly agreed to give Themis a chance, then abruptly left the room. And this was supposed to be the best possible outcome? Alyosha exhaled sharply. “I’m glad she didn’t fillet us. Really, I am.” His tone was quite dull because he was still a bit groggy. “But how many futures have you successfully fixing her problems or, if that doesn’t work, her not killing us?”

Darth Themis

 

[Darth Themis]

Themis closed her eyes, twisted her will around the Light to find a vision, and answer to the question Alyosha Drutin had posed.

She frowned. The futures were there but very difficult to see fully.

"Well, we're over the choke point certainly--the situation we were previously facing was an Either/Or type. Either we lived after giving her that answer. Or we died."

(Cutaway of Animated Series Two Face flipping his coin.)

"Now that we are over the chokepoint...the futures open up. Unfortunately...all the futures where I end up fixing her are the ones where she decides to trust us fully. There is a very strong chance that will not happen. Whoever trained her expertly indoctrinated her--even after wading through literal oceans of blood she remains of firm belief that the Jedi are the better answer, whatever her own flaws, or how much or how little she truly fits into their structure. That is Belief, my Apprentice. Belief is extremely difficult to overcome. But we have an advantage still...she knows I've told her the truth...and the Truth, when it strikes on such a fundamental level, is capable of shaking even the staunchest belief..."

Themis sat up.

"If she does trust us...She would become a very powerful Light Side Sith...more powerful than me, certainly...Darth...Xiphos I think her name would be...if she doesn't become that here, because of us, then there are other futures where she could, but they're hard for me to see...but from what I can see...all the futures where she becomes Xiphos without her conversion happening here? From what little I can see. They all involve her having a really bad day..."

(Cutaway of Nicholson Joker shooting Carl Grissom in 89')

(Cutaway of Caesar Romero Joker randomly laughing insanely.)

(Cutaway of Ledger Joker laughing as he is thrown off the building by John Preston)

(Cutaway of Mark Hamil Joker laughing for some reason)

"From all the 'Bad Days' I've seen...its better for her if we convert her here. It is a near-certainty only sadness for her awaits otherwise." Themis answered grimly, knowing in her gut it was true. She saw only fragments in some cases, but none of them looked good.

As to the other part of his question...

"We escape her in most cases. Or you escape. You always escape. Sometimes she tries to take me prisoner. Sometimes she kills me. But I never fight her. I can't. I won't. Even if it would doom me, I will not raise a hand towards her. Her parents meant too much to me. She means too much to me."

Themis sighed, rubbed her eyes.

"I'm sorry you're in the middle of all this, Alyosha. I truly didn't know she would be here. I wish could have settled this elsewhere. Anywhere but Atrisia. Oh Hell, at least the Loot Boxes will be worth it..." she joked without smiling.

Themis felt Laertia in what was left of the parking lot, meditating on the wreckage.

"I'm going to find transport. Keep an eye on Laertia. I'll be back in ten minutes...my vision is already showing me this sweet muscle speeder worth...'acquiring'..."

Themis left the room to go seek out the vehicle in her visions. They could at least ride in style.

Meanwhile...


Laertia meditated in the wreckage of what had once been a vibrant meadow close by the destroyed comm tower they inhabited.

She was devastated.

Moya De Lifte had been a fraud.

Laertia had modeled herself partly on the De Lifte's approach to fighting the Dark Side. Moya had been an inspiration.

To know this...knowing it was all a lie...

Laertia did not understand. She had tried to fight the Sith the only way she knew how...aggressively.

What was she to do now, knowing how she had idolized a heretic?

What did that say about her own nature?

Needless to say, Laertia was 'not' dealing well with having been revealed as some twisted Super-Soldier...

Laertia tried to ease her stress by trying to remind herself of the Jedi Code, but to know one of her personal heroes had been a fanatic...

...wait...who was 'she' calling fanatic? Or was she going to tell herself taking the chainsaw to those bastards in the invasion had been less than zealous on her part?

Who was the real heretic here--?!

Laertia was so nervous she wanted to cry at what she had been told...instead, her armor went up. She never let anyone see her cry voluntarily. Not even Moya.

Laertia began to deliberate as she meditated...

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Over the chokepoint…

Alyosha sighed softly as Themis described Laertia’s indoctrination. He had his own set of deeply-held beliefs, though they were perhaps best described as principles. There were certain things he would never do, never participate in, no matter how much he was offered in return. He liked to think that everyone had them, but he knew deep down that wasn’t the case. He’d encountered his fair share of careless, callous folks in the galaxy—people who believed in nothing at all, perhaps not even themselves.

In Laertia’s case, they had a rare thing: true belief. He didn’t like the idea of crushing her belief, but if Themis was right and learning the truth had begun to erode at the foundations of Laertia’s beliefs, he wouldn’t have to. She would give the final push that crumbled her tower.

You always escape…

When Themis left to go find transportation, Alyosha avoided thinking about the long-term consequences of everything she had said. If he lingered on this precognition stuff too long, his head would explode, and that was a mess nobody deserved having to clean up.

“Keep an eye on Laertia,” he echoed his master’s order as he left the building, lightly tracing the Jedi woman’s Force signature. He took his first couple of steps outside at right around the same time her armor went up. He approached her slowly and with empty hands. She appeared to be meditating. He weighed the possible consequences of bothering her, given what he knew about her emotional state… and the ghost of a boyish smile crept across his lips.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked. “Not that I have much choice—Themis asked me to keep an eye on you while she finds us some transportation. Something about a sweet muscle speeder nearby…”

His tone was light, but devoid of the carefree attitude he usually had. He paused, mildly concerned at this development. Was this a sign that another ‘episode’ was coming on? It didn’t usually feel like this…

A bit more cautious, he perched on what was left of a sidewalk curb and looked at Laertia. “You’re pretty good at hiding your feelings,” he complimented genuinely. “I’m not even that good yet, and I’ve been doing it all my life. But when the people around you already know what’s happening to you, there’s not much use in keeping it covered up.”

He hesitated, suddenly plagued by self-doubt. What was he doing? He didn’t know how to handle this. Hadn’t he heard a word of what Themis had said about the possible futures? He was playing with fire. But he stamped on those doubts, set his jaw, and stubbornly pushed forward.

“I never believed in a cause,” he began, expecting only silence from her in return. “I worked for the Black Sun because that was what I was raised to do, but I broke with them the first chance I got. Then I was with this short-lived little faction called the Grey Forces. It was basically a cult of personality surrounding this jerkass OP sorcerer, although they didn’t advertise it as such when I first joined. Anyway, I left them after a little while too. After all the places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen, I haven’t really made any friends along the way, although I’ve met good and bad people—it’s probably harder to drop everything and leave when you have people you care about that will get left behind.”

He stopped talking for several seconds, studying Laertia to see if she had any reaction at all, or if she was even listening before pressing on. “If you have friends among the Jedi, then when this is all over I hope you can go to them. But if you don’t, then I hope you and Themis can patch things up, because if she can’t at least be a friend to you because of ideology or some arbitrary Force alignment system getting in the way, then the entire concept of friendship must be pretty damn worthless. I mean, it’s clear that she cares about you—I’m sure you picked up on that. If I were in your shoes—” He nodded down at her combat boots. “—or rather, your boots—I’d be jumping at the chance to stick around with somebody who cared that much about me.”

He leaned forward, hugging his knees to his chest. “I don't wanna ramble about my personal life, but… I have a little brother named Val. When Val was just a kid, he was taken by a Sith Lord and trained in the Dark Side. He’s much more advanced than I am—the things he can do are incredible. But he’s… well, he’s a helluva lot nicer than the source of his power would suggest. I mean, last week he almost got himself killed trying to save a mouse from some greedy scavengers…” The thought of that particular incident made him crack a small smile. “I can accept Val as my brother and love him anyway even though I’m learning to use the Light Side. Force knows he’s the only real family I’ve got left. But even if he wasn’t, it wouldn’t devalue our relationship. He’s still my brother. And Themis is still your… grandmother? Godmother? I forget which.”

Alyosha had run out of things to say and was getting tired of talking anyway. He fell silent, waiting for Themis to return.

Laertia Io

 

[Darth Themis]

Themis, after a few minutes wandering, found the Speeder of her vision.

She fell as close as she could to being in love with a machine.

It was a four seater, closed canopy, all black muscle speeder, with flared wingtips. And a protruding turbine shaped frontal powerplant. Like someone had taken Keaton's Batmobile and given it to Aratech. It was inside an exposed, blasted open garage. It was unscathed, and she was already getting all sorts of costumed crimefighter fantasies at the thought of riding in it.

The Bright Lord quickly inspected it.

"Hello, gorgeous. My name's Themis. What's a well built premium engine speeder like you doing in a run down garage like this all convenient-like?" Themis whispered seductively, her mental instability letting her hear the gorgeous noir-esque saxophone music playing OOC.

She climbed on the chassis, running her finger against its windshield like she would the chin of an prospective mate.

"Daddy used to warn me about big mean muscle speeders like you..." she cooed. "I bet I could push your engine to the max for hours on end and you would only need very light maintainance afterward."

She put her ear to the car, hugging its canopy.

"What's that? You wanna run away and elope? You say you wanna go on a crusade of justice purging the heretics?"

She pulled back as though shocked by a response.

"Why, Sir, you kinky devil! I'd be scandalized to have that repeated beyond us!" The Bright Lord gushed.

She heard the whine of powering up blasters. She turned to face a number of armed scavengers, carrying a bunch of high end electronics salvage taken from military vehicles. The unsung workers of the War Economy--the salvage they recovered was sold at ten times its price on the black market or high end aftermarket storehouses. It all made its way everywhere eventually.

Themis cocked a grin at them, taking a meditative position.

"Hi there! This is my new husband. We just eloped. I've named him..."

She paused, frowning as she peered at the speeder she sat on.

"...Bruce. No, that's a terrible name. Oh! I got it! His name is Edward! No, too dry. Wait! Morgan! Yeah, that's a good, respectable name." she joked before reclining back luxuriously on the speeder.

"C'moooonnn, guys, I saw him first, and I'm a Badass. Get your own muscle speeder." She whined petulantly to the four men.

"That's OURS, dumbass." The Rodian leader chided angrily.

"Its got the rest of our haul in it to boot." another growled.

Themis paused, chose the future that would yield the most positive results.

"I got an idea. Here..." Themis whipped out a crimson metal vambrace with the Mandalorian Mythosaur Skull inscribed into it. She handed it to them.

"Here. Pure Tal'Kar."

"What's Tal'Kar?" The Rodian asked.

"Something that's worth this speeder, your entire haul, and will all make you very rich men due to its rarity." Themis answered. "Even if you divide it four different ways, you'll still walk away with thousands."

"Is it truly so valuable?" One asked, staring at the Vambrace.

"Why would you part with it so willingly?" The Rodian asked, insect face scrunching in suspicion.

"I'm loaded. I'm in a hurry." I guarantee you it will fetch a fine price." she assured. "I'll prove it to you..."

She took the Vambrace and placed it on a bench. The green shoto slid out of her spear and she held the blade to the metal. She held it there for five minutes. Nothing. Then she shut it off.

The Stalkers, once they realized they were dealing with a Force user, wisely did not go for their weapons while watching the demonstration, growing more intrigued.

She held the vambrace up again.

"Feel it."

The Rodian felt it. "Its not even warm."

"But I get your whole haul. The Speeder too."

"Deal..." he whispered.

Themis smiled as they dropped their haul and began walking away.

Themis then shoved their loot into the trunk and took off, admiring the primitive red heads up display in the interior as she headed back to Alyosha Drutin and her Grand Daughter...

Laertia, too her credit, sincerely listened to Drutin as he spoke. What troubled her was that he spoke the truth. Themis DID care for her.

Laertia did not know what to do with that as he talked, especially given the person in question. She knew things about Darth Themis Alyosha did not, having come across mention of her in the Jedi Archives. Her reaction had been justified. Too justified.

So why was she so conflicted now?

Laertia decided to reserve judgement for now, as she felt the Bright Lord approach.

Laertia was quiet as Themis entered the area she and Alyosha were in.

"I found us a ride. Loot also. Electronics and such." Themis explained. Hop in!"

Laertia hesitated a moment, then went with her. She glanced over the speeder parked outside.

"Dhatz a sweetz rydez."

"He's called Morgan!" Themis added enthusiastically.

Laertia shrugged. "I naymedz wun ov myy blasstuh kannonz Robert, so I reelee can'tz tallkz..." she admitted, hopping into the speeder giving off crime fighter vibes...

 

[Kai and Gerda]

In the quiet that followed his big speech, Alyosha’s mood dropped back into its usual barely-tolerant cynicism, but this time it was tinged with a hint of cringing embarrassment. He’d said too much. He knew he had. He should’ve shut up a long time ago, but something kept him going, like it had all been bottled up inside and suddenly came tumbling out…

Themis thankfully arrived soon after, rescuing them all—and with one hell of a ride to boot.

Alyosha examined the muscle speeder. He wasn’t particularly into machines, but he recognized a sexy vehicle when he saw one. The engine roared to life when Themis started it, then purred quietly as it sat inert, waiting for them to get in.

He climbed into the back, letting Laertia take shotgun, and sprawled across the seat as if it were a luxurious couch in a palace. Why didn’t he have a speeder like this? Considering how ugly his old freighter ship was, he ought to at least get himself a pretty young thing to ride around in whenever he went down planetside.

“What model and make is this baby?” he asked Themis, leaning forward to peer over her shoulder. If he had been excited before, now he was absolutely stoked—although he did have a vague sense of nervousness, too. Themis might know what the future held, but Alyosha had no such reassurances. He’d hate to see this speeder up in flames… although he supposed it was only fitting for something this beautiful to go out in a blaze of glory.

Darth Themis

 

[Laertia Io]

Themis hopped in and the canopy slid shut over them. The red heads up display lit up the dark interior in scarlet. Laertia had removed her spiky jacket to avoid damaging the seats. Themis grinned as she fired up the rocket engine in the back and the speeder rocketed into the sky. Alyosha Drutin asked what make and model it was.

"Good question! Not sure. For now though, I'm referring to it's model as 'Hell' and its make as 'Yeah'."

Laertia gave a small snort of amusement in spite of everything as the speeder traveled through the sky.

"I can't believe you kept the freighter." Themis gushed suddenly.

"It'z wuz myy onlee homme..."

"Hey, what happened to your first caretaker?" Themis asked. "The one I sent with you?"

"Dhat Allkymyzedd Sharrd? Itt'z wuz dammaged inn ann enngyneeringz acceedenntz whennz I wuzz reel smallz. Summtingz deestroyedz itz boddy, anndz damagged duh krysstall ittsellf. Ittz reevivved a whilez backz, anndz I wuz forrced tuh uze ittz az a spyyz by havyngz itt taykez ovuh ann olld enuhmeez boddy I wuzz sworrnz byy Jehdie manndatez annd not insygnyfykannt persunul irez tuh slayyz att all kosst. Itz beenz a krayzee yeerz so farr."

"No chit?" Themis asked.

(Cutaway of Themis's soul burning in the Lake of Black Fire on Atrisia)

"No chittz." Laertia confirmed.

"Has my secondary creation been adequate?"

(Cutaway of Laertia sleeping on Moya's shoulder wrapped in a blanket during movie night on the freighter.)

"Itz notz a mattuh ov adequaatez..." Laertia replied quietly.

Themis wasn't sure how to interpret that answer, so she changed the subject.

"So tell me, Laertia, how did you come to be familiar with some of the more colorful sobriquets my detractors applied to me?"

"Yorr 'Duhtraktorrz' werr Highly Russpekted Veterrannz ov Duh Jehdie."

Themis sighed.

"Look, Julia, maaaaybe the Scaled Scholar and Dread Cobra moniker is accurate, if only because I have often chosen to appear in the form of a Serpent. But that whole 'Whisperer of The Fortieth Heresy' thing was pure bullchit cooked up by that motherfether Duranst Ghnosh. Insufferable Jedi never lived down his defeat at Mon Calamar, and he held it against me his entire fething miserable career. Darth Rigor is the Whisperer of The Fortieth Heresy, which covers Necromancy. I'm the Whisperer of The Thirty-Fifth Heresy, which covers Alkahest. But try explaining the difference to that ignorant cow Duranst." Themis grumbled. "He would have considered your existence a crime."

"Yoo forrcybly exxperymenntedz onn Syth. Wyllingz Jehdie Konnvurtz tooz..."

"I was trying to preserve The Reconstruction Era. Stave off the Plague. I was unsuccessful. Part of it was trying to either wipe out or heavily weaken the Sith, but it was mostly about preventing or delaying the Gulag Plague if at all possible. That required targeted killings of people who would have made it happen sooner or would have made it even worse or mutations. That was just how the dirty business was done back then." Themis explained. "How many thousands have you killed? Because I'm keenly aware of my own body count, including today."

"Enuff tuh knowwz jusst howw dirrtee a biznesss ittz cann getz."

"Then you know I didn't inflict it casually."

"Neethurr didz I. Duzzint meenz I wuz allwayz inn duh rytez tuh dooz itt."

"If we thought like that, chit would never get done and you know it. If I...If I wasn't so ruthless you would not be here."

"Howw diddz myy parentz dyez?" Laertia asked.

"They were murdered saving you from Darth Phyre."

Laertia was instantly at full attention.

"Darth Phyre murdered them. She murdered them right outside that ship you live on. She knew you would be strong in the Force, and her prophecies painted you as her heir apparant. She's dead now...I arranged for it beforehand."

(Cutaway of Syd Celsius healing injured soldiers on Kintan with The Force.)

"Whoo wuzz Phyre?" Laertia asked.

(Cutaway of Syd Celsius dueling Laertia many weeks later on Kashyyyk.)

"The most vile, murderous, sadistic abomination of The Dark that I have ever come across. A ForceSpawn like myself. Her command of Magic was terrible and all consuming. She was leader of the Cult of The Brain Demon, who never met a village full of innocents they didn't like to slaughter and torture in the name of The Dark Side."

"I knoww ov dhis culltz..." Laertia whispered in shock. "Myy nemuhsys, Duh Amalgam iz a memmber ov dhis gruup."

Themis turned to Laertia and the Brain Damaged Jedi was caught off guard by the pain, the terrible pain Themis had felt suddenly.

"Are you absolutely certain of this?" Themis asked in a strained whisper.

Laertia nodded.

Themis looked taken aback for a moment, on the verge of tears as her jaw clenched. She forced herself to pilot...

Thirty minutes later...

The speeder set down at the edge of a small island not far from the main land mass. The island had clearly been settled a while. Good access to the mainland. It had been abandoned during the invasion.

Laertia hopped out as the canopy slid open above them, spotting an intact T-3c Shuttle...surrounded by dead storm troopers in red armor. Her lightsaber was out as she went ahead to look for enemies, moving the bodies away.

"I'm going to make the first Overture to her, Alyosha. The next lesson I offer is as much for you as for her, but keep watch outside the shuttle. Peer in occasionally." Themis whispered.

Themis removed all the loot from the speeder, forseeing a workbench in the shuttle they could use. In the meantime she glanced over the dead.

"Very vicious. Vibroweapons mostly...barely a fight..." she observed before heading into the shuttle with Laertia, who removed her cybernetic arm and began rifling through the loot bag for parts.

"If I might be so bold, Julia...I can teach you to heal your arm and eye."

"No. Brayne, mayybee. But notz duh eyez annd duh armz..." Laertia replied quietly.

"Why not?" Themis asked.

"Eturrnull ruhmynduh ov duh pryce ov huubriss..."

"If I'm going to heal you, Grand Daughter, I need you to understand the method I use. So far, I've told the truth. Does that not give me some credibility?"

"Summz."

Themis sat next to her.

"The way I use the Light is not wrong. Just different. I don't like to be guided. I prefer to guide. To direct. To not leave it up to the energy field's whims."

"Ann inherenntlee danjurruss approacchh." Laertia spoke, slowly replacing key parts.

"All paths worth knowing are dangerous."

"Duh Lyte duzzint havv tuh beez..."

"Says the Warrior."

"Says duh Surrvyvorr."

Themis held out her hand, channeling Dark Green Lightning between the fingertips.

"I use the same energies you do. The difference is I am not afraid to use The Light to its fullest capability."

Laertia hesitated before reaching out with her organic hand and clasping Themis's hand. She felt the strange twisted light energy coursing up her arm. It was not unpleasant. It sort of felt like The De Lifte Crystal. She hadn't understood the nature of the light in that object. Now she did.

"You may bear the title of Knight...but you don't think like most Knights. You are already outside their philosophy. Mere Jedi could not survive the hell you were put through. Many would have cracked long before they died. Or turned. One of the three. Has their way really 'solved' the problem of Dark Side? Or is it merely a rehash of their previous failures in every other war? I knew the Jedi would not have the will to do what was necessary to stave off the horror of The Gulag Virus. So I acted. I make no apologies for who I killed. I was getting chit done. I was trying to build a safety net for Galactic Civilization. But I was fought tooth and nail by the Order every step of the way. Did I kill a few dozen? Yes. And I would again. But how am I any different than you? You would kill a dozen Jedi personally if you thought it would cripple The Sith Empire or destroy it."

Laertia thought about this a moment, remembering how she had sent out those sappers to set det charges on the skyscrapers to keep the Army and abominations of the Sith from breaching the defense wall, knowing they would not have time to escape. Knowing she was deliberately sending them to die to slow the enemy.

"Probablee rytez abboutz dhat."

"I want to make up for lost time. Get to know you. I want to show you my secrets, my knowledge. I want to show you that you don't have to be a Jedi to use the Light just as well or even better. Can I at least show you something?"

Laertia thought a moment.

"Alrytez..." Laertia said quietly, admittedly lost in the novelty of having an actual Grand Mother.

Themis smiled. She held up her hand. A glowing ball of swirling green light sparked into existence, like it had been fired from a Flare Gun abover her palm.

"A light that draws that attacks of the Dark to it, then rushes its power back to them to destroy them with the gathered energy. Try manifesting it."

"How?"

"Instead of being guided by the Light...command it..." Themis advised. "You must be very dispassionate when you do this. Greed cannot be a factor. Lust for power cannot be a factor. Only necessity. Necessity and will, stripped clean of arrogance. Even when twisting the very Light itself, it can never be truely for yourself, but for the good you know that can be accomplished. It is a 'very' tricky discipline to master."

Laertia closed her eyes, tried to focus on pure necessity and will. Due to her criminal life on Nar Shaddaa, she knew all about will and necessity. Themis had a strange approach. Laertia had to push past her self completely, and all her hangups, and focused solely on the need to know this knowledge that might save others in the future.

To her shock, the flare she summoned was a bright, burning blue abover her hand, sparking. She disappated it immediately as the Force had twisted in her as she had done it. Not in a Dark Side way, amazingly enough, but it had twisted certainly.

"Don't be frightened of it, Julia. Try again, please."

Laertia ignored the twisting feeling and committed to the technique. The blue Flare summoned again.

"Very good, Julia."

"Itt duzzint feelz rytez..."

"Its the muscle of will, being truly flexed."

"A Jehdie iz suppozed tuh ruspektz duh Foyce."

"Does it ever return that respect?" Themis questioned. "Being respectful does not seem to have improved everyone's situation."

Laertia had no response to that as she stared at the flare sparking above her hand before willing it away...

(Plasmid Acquisition Theme Plays)

(Laertia has learned a new Force Power!)

Power: FLARE

Spoiler

Twisted version of Force Light that manifests as a glowing blue ball of light. Draws Dark Side attacks into itself. Then rushes enemy caster for potentially lethal damage. As skill grows, capacity and number of flares that can be summoned are increased. Cannot affect or harm Light Adepts.

"I havv tuh workz." Laertia spoke.

Themis nodded and left the shuttle.

Laertia continued finding compatible parts to her cyber arm. It required more than a few creative rearrangements on the inside, but eventually she finished, having acquired significant upgrades...

(Zelda Acquisition Theme Plays)

(Laertia has acquired more upgrades for her cyber arm!)

Upgrade: BLADE FIRING RANGE

Spoiler

Improved electrical firing mechanism increases the range Laertia's arm-blade can be fired by twenty meters.

Upgrade: BLADE PENETRATION/ACCURACY

Spoiler

As the firing mechanism is partly based off a crossbow, improved torsion devices within give the fired blade such speed and impact even the heaviest armors are endangered.

Upgrade: BLADE CUTTING POWER

Spoiler

While housed in the arm, an improved, heavier blade of a higher ratio of Cortosis to durasteel improves cutting power.

Laertia came out of the shuttle a few minutes later, not noticing her use of the Light had already had an effect...her organic eye, not the cybernetic one, had turned the same mutated color as Themis, which made the Bright Lord do a double take when she saw Laertia.

"Wutt?" Laertia asked innocently.

Themis pointed to a reflection in a puddle of water. Laertia stared at her eye in the reflection and rapidly grew alarmed.

"Its nothing to be ashamed of. You take to the new knowledge easy..." Themis said.

Laertia was quiet a few moments.

"So howw dooz wee reech dhis hiddenz sanktumz ov yorrz?" Laertia asked, deeply unsettled. Learning a new Force Power had never caused such an effect physically before.

"You aren't worried about all the dead soldiers." Themis asked with a raised brow.

"I eatz dhese speshull foycez typez fer brekfaast." Laertia replied nonchalant. "Pluss, weez wyth a doodz whoo kylled a skyyskraypuh syzed monnstuh. I don'tz tink annytingz dhey gotz iz gonna fayze uss."

"I was talking about whatever or whoever killed them."

Laertia looked at Red, Dead (Redemption) Stormtroopers again and shrugged.

"I eatz wutevuh kyllz dhese typez fer lunnch."

Themis snorted and then laughed in amusement.

"Worse comes to worse, we'll hide behind Alyosha."

"Heez nott tallz enuff."

Themis glanced at Alyosha.

"Chit, she's right..." Themis snorted. "Well, the hide behind Alyosha plan is shot to hell."

Deciding to be a troll, Themis imitated the voice of an infamous Space Marine with disturbing perfection.

"Well that's just fething great. What're we gonna do?! Game Over, Man! Game Over!"

Laertia rolled her eyes at this Trollery but smiled...slightly.

"Alright, everyone, follow me. I know where to go..." Themis spoke, walking to the center of the island at a slow pace. Laertia walked slowly with her, past abandoned huts and through eerily quiet streets. There were very few dead bodies...it had been mass abandoned. The Sith had found it probably easy to take the island. Whatever had killed them had likely done so even more easily.

Themis looked unworried. Evidently there was no danger at the moment.

"Yoo shudd keepz dhat shuttle wee founndz Alyosha. Allwayz go fer milluhtarree harrdwayrez iff itz canz be helppedz. Annytingz less iz jusst askinz tuh getz shott downnz. Stealz Imp Stuffz. Dhey gotz duh besst. Orr Manndalorryan iffs yooz can'tz getz Imp."

"I dunno. I've always been partial to Arkanian." Themis countered.

"Ehh, Arrkaynyannz iz deecentz. I'd goz fer dhatz if I cuddintz getz duh foyst orr sekunnd." Laertia argued. "But Alyosha, wutevuh yooz dooz, nevuh uze Echanniz. I nevuh haddz 'wun' gudd exxpeereeince wyth Echanni Techh."

"Are we talking ranged, or Melee, because I'm rather fond of their melee line." Themis asked as they walked.

"Too lytewayt. Breakz iffz yoo swyngz too harrdz."

"How hard do you like to swing your weapon?" Themis asked.

"Harrdz enuff tuh gettz dhat 007 X kommbo mulltyplyer."

Themis burst into laughter as they walked together.

Alyosha Drutin

 

[Kai and Gerda]

"I'm going to make the first overture to her, Alyosha. The next lesson I offer is as much for you as for her, but keep watch outside the shuttle. Peer in occasionally."

Alyosha did as Themis asked and stayed outside. In the absence of either of the two women, he lit up a cigarra, puffing away as he watched and listened.

The assassin was deceptively ignorant when it came to the Force. He usually expressed a total disinterest in all intellectual matters, especially philosophy, but he was more than capable of wrapping his head around the ideas they presented, should he decide to put his mind to it. He eavesdropped on the debate between grandmother and granddaughter about how the Force should and shouldn’t be used, the dichotomy between Light and Dark, and found himself a bit on the fence, actually. Perhaps there was a reason why Themis was such a unique case, and it really was rather impossible to utilize the Light the way the Sith used the Dark in the same way she did.

But Laertia evidently was like her, and had no trouble with the first lesson. Alyosha, still riding high on his discovery of cryokinesis, didn’t pick up on the new power as quickly or as easily, though he had had nowhere near as much training as Laertia did.

His first attempt amounted to nothing. The second as well. But on his third, something did spark between his hands—only it wasn’t the Flare. What manifested between his hands, spurred on by his impatience and frustration, was the yawning mouth of the void, a black hole in miniature, feeding and drawing on his anger. Though no one was there to tell him what had gone wrong, somehow he knew, could sense the darkness at its core.

Right around that same time, Themis left Laertia and headed down the shuttle ramp. “Chit,” Alyosha hissed, waving his hands like he was flicking water from them. The little death ball dissipated at once. What was it his master had said? That he had to be dispassionate about it?

The sixth time was the charm. He finally managed to generate a Flare, after purging himself completely of all feelings. Doing so was probably going to hurt him in the long run—an episode with Val was almost certainly waiting for him just around the corner—but at least he had succeeded.

At that point Laertia came out, her organic eye mutated bronze. Alyosha didn’t have much of a reaction to it, but he did think to check his own eyes for a similar change. It had yet to take effect. He wasn’t sure whether he should be disappointed or grateful.

As for the exchange involving his famously diminutive height, he just smirked, dropped his cig on the ground, and crushed it under his boot.

“I’d rather you didn’t use me as a human shield anyway.”

Along the way to the center of the island, the two women fell into a discussion about equipment. Alyosha was partial to anything he could find that didn’t break on him, which had included all manner of weaponry, both ranged and melee. But he agreed that Echani was overrated, its reputation based more on the stark image of dainty snow-white women swinging their equally delicate swords around than actual effectiveness. Besides, the Echani were better known for their martial arts than their ability to make good gear.

He would have voiced his opinions, had he not been thinking about what had happened back at the shuttle. The strange ball he had created before the Flare. His eyes, still unchanged. What did it all mean?

Themis was laughing at something Laertia had said when Alyosha abruptly spoke. “Themis, you’ve trained others to use the Light the way you do, right? Have you ever had a student try to tap into the Light, but hit the Dark instead?”

A very sobering question, he knew, but he might as well get this chit resolved before things got out of control. He hated losing control of things.

Darth Themis

 

[Darth Themis]

"Oh, THAT happens 'all' the time." Themis remarked as Alyosha Drutin asked his questions as they walked the destroyed island. "Harnessing the Force is never a cut and dry process...many students accidentally tap the opposite due to sheer inexperience...as long as you tighten up your focus and discipline, you should be fine..." she assured him as they walked. "Practice is essential, however."

"I've slippedz intuh anguh mysellf...itz frytenynglee eezee to do..." Laertia admitted.

"For, that, I am sorry, Julia. I had to increase your capacity for aggression and problem solving. It was inevitable there would be side effects. Even when I was doing my absolute best not to turn you into a puddle of goo in the process." Themis explained apologetically.

Laertia then asked another question after another few minutes of quiet, the distant crashing of water on nearby shore carrying.

"Wut diddz Darth Phyre lookz lykez?"

"I refuse to describe that animal..." Themis said flatly, genuine pain and grief slipping out suddenly. Just saying Phyre's name seemed to bring Themis on the verge of tears. "Let it remain nothing more than a name. Forming more than a cursory image of it in your head would only reward it posthumously, for it wished to dominate your life. Ask me anything else, Julia. Ask me about every crime I've ever committed and I will give you the gory details. But don't ask me to give a description of that beast. It doesn't deserve it."

(Cutaway of J. Jonah Jameson laughing in his chair uncontrollably.)

Laertia sighed, than nodded. They continued walking in silence

They at last reached the exact center of the Island, more Stormtrooper bodies piled around the round, grass covered stone dome with a sealed door covered in bloody handprints.

"Oh, surely there is nothing ominous going on here." Themis joked dryly as she approached it. A few words whispered under her breath and the door parted...

(Zelda Unlocking Theme Plays)

A bloody staircase leading down into darkness greeted them.

"I dunnoz, Maybeez itz jusst a mysunduhstanndyngz..." Laertia joked.

"Oh, yeah, BIG misunderstanding. I'm sure whatever turned the soldiers into dog food will treat us with perfect civility. Maybe it'll even offer us cocoa..." Themis joked back, taking the lead. Though the staircase was covered with barely dried blood, the chamber that led into the library proper was guarded by a door with a closed mechanical eye.

"Don't look directly at the eye, whatever you do, Julia. You, on the other hand, Alyosha..." Themis said, turning to him.

"Inside that eye is what's known as a Hypergem. Its not bound by typical spacial dimensions. Some go mad looking at them, others find them so beautiful they starve. The gem behind that eye is the size of a grapefruit. You must prove your will superior to that of the effects of the Gem, for the controls to unlock the door can only be accessed by removing the eye, which hides them. You must command the Light to shield you, twist it around your mind to bare the effects. Now breath...shed your emotions, focus only on will. The will to make the Light your protector as you work..."

The eye opened, revealing a golden, glowing gem whose inner facets are impossible to describe, for they were not bound by typical physics...

"You can do it..." Themis encoraged Alyosha Drutin while Laertia covered her eyes.

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Darth Themis

Alyosha observed the carnage around them with a suitably detached air, not allowing it to affect him. Or he would have, if it hadn’t been for the pungent smell of blood which only worsened when they opened the door leading to the staircase. Grimacing, Alyosha reached up to snap his helmet on, only to hesitate as Themis told him what he had to do.

A visor would presumably mess with the test. He let his hand drop to his side and began to descend the stairs while his master muttered words of encouragement behind him.

Gore smeared the steps, making them slippery beneath his boots. He paused on the last step, feeling lightheaded. Something about the smell of blood had a strange effect on him sometimes. He didn’t understand it, but it made him feel… enraged. Could it be righteous anger? No… but it was like lust, this fury, begging to be quenched.

He had to shed his emotions and focus only on will, but the blood was making that very difficult. What could he do, plug his nose? Drawing on the Light to shield him could only do so much… or would it be enough?

There was only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, as Themis had advised, Alyosha took the final step forward. A sensor was activated by his presence, and the closed mechanical eye gradually began to open, as if drowsily waking from sleep. Alyosha stood very still before it, breathing steadily—but his own eyes were firmly closed against the hypergem.

The Light was slow to come. He felt it approach, gentle as a breeze tousling his hair or the touch of a feather on his cheek. It didn’t seem strong enough to withstand something that could either make him go mad or become so obsessed with it he neglected his bodily needs. It didn’t seem like it could conquer death.

But he knew that his perception of the Light was limited. He’d barely scratched the surface of the Force, hardly knew what might lie in store for him. In his view, he had to just accept that the Force was infinite, and it let those who wielded it accomplish the impossible. Like gazing into a hypergem without losing oneself in the unreality of its composition.

With that in mind, Alyosha opened his eyes and looked directly at the hypergem. His vision swam almost immediately, his brain begging his tear ducts to blur his sight and spare him from what lay ahead, but he wiped away the saltwater that welled up in his eyes and kept on staring.

And staring.

And staring.

He looked at it until Themis presumably started asking if he was okay, no doubt fearing he had fallen in love with the thing and was already headed down the path to self-starvation for it. At the sound of her voice, he seemed to jump a little, then turned to glance back at the two women at the top of the stairs. “Sure, it’s pretty, but it’s no Laertia Io,” he said with a roguish smirk. Then he faced forward, reached out, and yanked the hypergem out of its socket.

The door immediately slid open, revealing the library beyond—and the overpowering odor of death.

 

[Laertia Io]

Laertia actually giggled nervously when Alyosha Drutin said the beauty of the gem did not compare to her own.

She did not know how to use her beauty. She noticed it sometimes made people stare but Laertia personally had never actively used it. She simply did not think of herself at this point in that context.

She had noticed it in others. But for Laertia, making note of someone's beauty was currently like observing fine art. She considered her android Mother Moya to be a radiant example of a living masterpiece, with Themis and her at a tie due to looking the same almost. But she herself had no knowledge of how to use it. Nor desire to. People always noticed the dangerous hum of her Lightsaber more than her pretty face most of the time anyway.

Still, Alyosha HAD gotten her to giggle...

Themis noticed and picked up on it, but remained silent...

They decended into the steps after him, and Laertia's black blade hissed out of the hilt, its green aura lighting a bloody stone floor full of body parts. Laertia, who had been exposed to corpse odors in the slums since a child, tolerated the horrific smell, while Themis was forced to cut off her sense of smell through sheer will.

Her cybernetic eye went active, going for nightvision. Sith Troops had been ripped open and splattered everywhere. It was all over the shelves full of datatapes.

"Oh yeahh, dhere'z gunna beez cocoaz attz duh ennd ov all dhis..." she muttered.

"What did these fools do?" Themis growled, cautiously advancing with her spear.

"I'mmz guezzingz dhey lefft duh stovez onn..."

"Y'know, I actually knew a guy who died like that once--" Themis spoke before cutting herself off.

"Julia, please stop."

Laertia stopped.

Themis raised her spear and aimed it at Laertia.

"DUCK!" Themis yelled.

Laertia dived just as the spear went sailing over her head and into the chest of an invisible creature cloaking its presence. The beast, a pale, skinny, humanoid monster with no eyes and just teeth, that frightfully reminded Laertia of The Amalgam's emaciated form after kidnapping a recently knighted Laertia. She lunged at it out of instinct, slicing its squealing head off...

"Diddintz evunn sennse ittz..." Laertia breathed, voice hoarse with terror.

Themis went to examine it. She started swearing things that don't bear repeating quietly.

She stood up after examining it. "We're in deep chit. Deep deep chit..."

"Wutz izzit?"

"It's a fragment of Ersethy..." Themis answered grimly.

"Wutz duh hellz iz a fraggmunt ov Ersethy?"

Soulless living remains of an extremely ancient and homicidal Dark Side Witch who brought horror and death to this planet thousands of years in its ancient past. Her crimes were so sadistic and horrific that the ancient Gods are said to have struck her dead with a divine meteor as she wandered an ancient swamp to corrupt it. The god Kagutsuchi is said to have burned her soul to nothing, annihilating her consciousness and inflicting what gamers refer to as 'Perma-Death'. But you see, Ersethy was so evil, so vicious, that even after her soul was truly gone forever the evil that infused her flesh simply couldn't be fully expelled from this plain of existence. A tomb was constructed around her blasted apart remains, prayer wards holding back the abominations that would otherwise constantly spawn from her never fully rotting pieces."

"So wutz dhis piiece doinz outzsydez hur tommbz?"

Themis blasted one of the invisible abominations as it tried to sneak up from behind with dark green lightning.

"Dunno...but I'm sure we'll come across the reason..." Themis spoke. "We cannot retrieve the Light of Korriban, nor advance Alyosha's studies, until we figure out where the piece of Ersethy's flesh is and create a barrier around it. But this place...it blocks my vision to all but the most serious danger."

"Alyosha..." Themis said, getting control of her fear. "There is a way to detect them if your senses are blocked. Feel the vibrations on the ground. Even they can't hide that."

Laertia went ahead, deciding to take Themis's advice herself.

She stretched out her senses, closing her eyes as she moved ahead of them, letting herself sink into the Force as she held her blade out in front of her with two hands...

She felt the vibrations on the ground closing all at once, and lunged with wide, frenzied slashes in Form One. She moved with such fluidity it looked both savage and graceful as she cut through hoards of abominations. Themis was taken aback as she absent mindedly slashed through three of the invisible creatures with violent spins of her blade through the blood splattered library halls trying to keep as many off Alyosha as possible. Her grand daughter's skill had become amazing.

Laertia retreated closer to Alyosha but not too close to avoid interfering with his offense, beheading another four as she did. She moved at a slow pace to better feel the vibrations, as did Themis.

"Mimmik myy muuvmentz, Alyosha. Formm Wun iz fer mulltypull enuhmeez..." Laertia advised, wanting to keep her friend alive.

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Laertia Io

Distracted by the stench, Alyosha barely noticed Laertia’s soft giggle. The muscles in his back clenched, his stomach roiling with a weird hunger.

He also turned on his lightspear, the silver blade casting a pale glow on the blood-smeared floor. At the commotion nearby, he whirled to face the source of the noise, weapon at the ready. Fragment of Ersethy. Not supposed to be found outside her tomb. Great.

But now that Themis mentioned it, his senses were blocked. He couldn’t feel the presence of any creatures. Holding himself steady, he concentrated on picking up the vibrations in the floor beneath his feet.

The Fragments crept around, invisible to the naked eye, then would strike from the shadows without warning. Alyosha’s reflexes were honed to a razor’s edge. He whipped around, striking with the blunt end of his spear and thrusting the blade into the darkness. The spearhead entered something soft, and with a cry the beast died.

From there, he gave himself over to old instincts. Just outside of Laertia and Themis’ spheres of combat, Alyosha dragged the Fragments into a deadly dance full of acrobatic leaps and kicks, swings, barrel turns, and other impressive displays of athleticism. He had learned all this well before he had any idea of what the Force was, or his own sensitivity to it. Unlike Laertia, nothing he did was superhuman—but it was certainly the peak of ordinary human physicality, to move the way he did.

Soon the air was filled not only with the smell of blood, but burning flesh. Panting from the exertion, Alyosha began to wonder if he was just hungry. It had been a while since they’d had that sushi, after all. But such a simple, if a little strange, answer seemed too good to be true.

“Form One… as in the lightsaber form?” He mimicked Laertia’s fluid, lethal movements with the spear, executing another Fragment in the process. The convenient timing made him smile like a mischievous little boy who had just pulled off the perfect prank. “Graceful as well as beautiful. You must be the envy of—”

He cut off as he ducked to avoid a swiping claw, then thrust forward and up into the creature’s gut, impaling it on his spear. With a startling violence, he dragged the blade across the Fragment’s belly, ripping it open. Gore splattered him, blood spraying his face, and he wished he had thought to put on his helmet beforehand. Wished he hadn’t instinctively licked it from his lips. Wished he couldn’t taste it.

When next Laertia came near him, Alyosha almost hid from her view. He caught himself in time, but she may have seen him take a small step back. Probably just trying to give her plenty of room to swing her saber around. Nevermind the strange look on his face, hidden in the dark.