Private Game of Minds [Duel]

[Aloth Sang]

Location: Rutan, Aloth's Laboratory

Tag: Juun Sekkar


Nestled within one of the mountain regions of Rutan was a complex structure. It was built with the intention of blending with the terrain save for a small hanger where two freighters could safely dock. One spot was clearly occupied by a peculiar Z-95, and old relic as many would say. Yet somehow was in working condition with some modifications to it. Occupying these hangers and throughout the laboratory were humanoids don in a plain red robe. Their mouths were visibly stitched shut as their eyes lacked the usual spark of life as people tended to have. The will to life, the will of their own. All of it had been robbed, leaving an empty husks of their former selves as they mindlessly obeyed the one person that commanded them, and the one who had stolen their will.


At the heart of this laboratory was a well lit room with a workbench on one side filled with tools and components for medical purposes. Whether it was for fabricating toxins or medicines, Aloth made sure to both keep her guests entertained and stray them away from death. No matter how close or how much they wanted death to be away from their torment. Lined along the northern walls were bacta tanks filled with the bacta water. Some of them were occupied by humans, all were unconscious. There were several strange baubles and beakers filled with various liquids as they traveled from one container to the next.


Strapped to a lone table in the center was a human female garbed in tattered robes. The brunette had short hair save for a lone braid that trailed past her ear, and although she was young there was much fear in her eyes.


"Just let me go! You know once the Jedi Order finds out that I'm missing they will find you, and there is nowhere for you to go," she said as her hazel eyes were as wide as saucer disks. Aloth chuckled at the threat as she delicately lifted a peculiar vial filled with a thick black liquid before she stuck a syringe through it.


"Perhaps they will, and perhaps they will find that their precious little Padawan is no longer… well, sane. Besides, there's something that I will need your help with. You're the only one around here who can do so," the Chiss said as the black liquid slowly filled the syringe. It was only a hundred milliliters, and the syringe itself was relatively small at that. Fear was mixed with confusion on the young girl's face as she tried to look over to the Sith Knight. The restraints on her head, wrists, and knees made it difficult to move or muster the strength to do so.


There were only three doors, and each were flanked by a pair of mindless red robed figures. Sometimes, the Padawan could've sworn she heard one of them mumble something, but it was hard to hear if it was even comprehensible.


"What do you mean?" The Padawan was hesitant to ask, but she braved through her own fear to figure out what it was that Aloth wanted her for.


"As fate would have it, you're the only one to survive this upcoming trial. Just take a deep breath, calm your emotions, and endure." Aloth turned on her heel to face the restrained Jedi with the syringe in hand before she menacingly approached them. Despite what Aloth loathed about the Jedi, her visions had shown this particular girl to be resilient to this toxin. Fabricated from Sith Alchemy, Aloth wanted to test to see how lethal this poison was, but she was also curious as to see if the body could resist the poison and ultimately adjust to it.


Despite her advice, the Padawan's fear continued to grow as desperation to fight against her restraints increased tenfold. Aloth continued to approach at her leisure as she allowed the fear to fester in the young one's mind. Suddenly the Padawan's left arm was seized by a vice grip of Aloth's as she could see the veins. The thin needle punctured the Padawan's skin, and just as Aloth injected the toxin into the victim. She was shown another vision by the Force. Another presence, one who was more experienced and wielded a lightsaber. Yet unlike the typical Jedi, this one felt more torn. A vision of such an individual coming to her was shown, and with it Aloth felt a presence in the Force that was flying near the facility.


She turned to her henchmen after she took the needle out and wiped off the spot that was punctured with a disinfectant wipe.


"We shall have some company soon. See to it that they're… entertained, while I finish this up." The mindless husks did not speak, but they each grabbed a peculiar pike that produced electricity on both ends. As the robed slaves ventured towards the hanger as it was the only entrance and exit out of this place. The Padawan was hyperventilating as she was expecting burns, pain of untold measure, something that would attempt to break her down. Her mind was running wild in fear as the expected never came to her. Aloth smiled coyly.


"Oh dear, you honestly thought it would take immediate effect? Well, don't you worry. You'll feel it soon enough." So Aloth sat down on her chair with her chin propped by one hand. The other was simply twirling a single cylindrical hilt that many would recognize to be a lightsaber. It wasn't Aloth's, as she wasn't fond of the bright colors. But if there really was a Jedi coming here. Then Aloth had a mind to toy with them as a mockery of the Jedi Order and their beliefs. All the while her lightsaber remained strapped at her side by the belt. It was definitely longer than the one Aloth was holding, and instead of one blade emitter her lightsaber possessed two blade emitters.

 

[Juun Sekkar]

Rutan, Aloth's Laboratory
Tags: Aloth Sang ​

He had finally found the sponsor of the gang who had sent him on his path. Juun had been naïve once, a young boy who had thought himself capable of taking on the world. Now he was just angry, bitter. The Jedi way had done him nothing when held captive all those years ago. Juun killed his captors and committed himself to hunting others like them, but he assumed his torture to be one of necessity done by some lowly gang. This couldn't be far from the case. A Sith had funded their exploits, one who left a very thin paper trail. Still, he had managed to trace the Sith in question back to a facility on Rutan. There was only one thing on his mind: Revenge.

Juun soon found himself facing off against the lackies of this Sith. Apparently, they had been expecting company, but whom he wasn't sure. If it was him, he assumed they would have moved to take him out sooner. There was something different at play here. There were a good handful, robed and armed with electricity pikes. They were seemingly mindless, acting only on the orders of whomever they served. It seemed to be alchemically induced, but how Juun couldn't say. Regardless, it was something he'd need to keep an eye out for. The robed figures quickly surrounded him.

"You're in my way," Juun muttered.

Juun used a force push to knock them back before dragging one towards him, driving his purple lightsaber through the henchman. Vaapad was his chosen style. Fast, aggressive, and built around brute force. It bordered on the dark side, harnessing the anger of the wielder. Juun was walking a very fine line, but it ultimately didn't bother him. Given his end goal, he considered his methods to be perfectly justified.

The henchmen began to fall in rapid succession, each to a heavy, blindingly fast strike. One moved their staff up to block an incoming blow. Juun didn't stop. He continued to send blow after blow until crushing the electrified portion of the staff. Was it overkill? Absolutely, but after an experience that had killed his innocence, the Mirialan wanted to send a message. Before long, the robed henchmen were strewn about the ground lifeless.

With no more opposition, all that remained was the Sith. Juun continued, unbothered by his wake of destruction. Even with a mask, the rogue knight radiated with apathy. He had revenge to fulfill, after all. There would be plenty of time to reflect afterwards.

 

[Aloth Sang]

Location: Rutan, Aloth's Laboratory
Tag: Juun Sekkar

One by one, the servants were cut down swiftly. One that was devoid of compassion or mercy that left little room for such kindness. Technically killing the poor things was a kindness that few rarely ever made so quickly. The Seer did not have to feel them being slain, rather the Force merely played a projection, a vision in her own mind's eye of what transpired. Each slave that was slain released a horrifying screech of pain and sorrow that attempted to assault the Jedi's mind. Normally this would be enough to bring any Jedi to a halt, but this one had such rage that burned like wildfire. Its blaze was growing so massive that it very well might consume the man himself.

The slaves were adequate in combat, but against a highly skilled combatant with a lightsaber with little remorse they were practically younglings compared to that monstrosity. Some Sith might view this as a failure, and many more would be enraged. However, Aloth would only smile as she had seen enough of this Jedi. To what end did the Jedi hoped to gain remained open to possibilities, but one thing for certain was the sole intent he had towards herself. The burning desire for revenge. Whether he realized it or simply lacked the care the Jedi was stepping closer and closer to being like the Sith.

"What did you… what did you put inside of me?!" The Padawan exclaimed in a low growl. The girl's mind was starting to burn as the dark side infested her body. Her once delicate young skin was quickly being webbed like dark cracks along her flesh. Her eyes began to darken as some black liquid began to fill her eyes like the encroaching darkness. Aloth shifted her red eyes over to the Padawan as she knew what the phase was. She's performed this experiment on several people, and just about all of them simply lost their minds. As their mind was too weak to withstand the Sith Alchemy that was violently mutating the host by tearing down their mind and midi-chlorians before reconstructing them into something extraordinary.

"Consider this as a parting gift, but once the pain subsides you will be reborn anew. Stronger in both body and the Force than you have ever been." The Sith answered before the main door opens to reveal the masked figure and his purple lightsaber still ignited in his hand. Several possibilities flooded her mind as nothing was certain just yet. Aloth turned her eyes to greet the newcomer.

"Not many Jedi venture this far out from their comfortable temples. But from what I've seen you're far from being a Jedi even by their obnoxious standards." Aloth stated with a drip of mockery. The lightsaber she held in her hand wasn't activated just yet, but there were powers in the Force that few understood the true depths. Aloth didn't just kill Jedi because despised them. She sought to break their minds and if they were capable convert them to the dark side as one of her apprentices. Not many have succeeded in doing so, and many ambitious apprentices always met their end when they try to take Aloth's life.

The first step was to get inside her victim's head, and that was mixing the reading thoughts as she was talking. It was how she conquered so many of her opponents since she often read what they were thinking. Paired with her own force senses of precondition, her predictions were uncanny as she always stayed three steps ahead of her opponent. But in this one's case all she read and felt was the pure ire and rage he directed at her. He had every intention to come after her hard and fast just as he had done so with her slaves. Aloth figured this one's fighting style would be tiresome to bat at each other's sabers around, so instead Aloth would avoid the Jedi's strikes rather than meeting them.

Aloth would never deal the finishing blow, the Force had shown her that it was too early to assume he would be defeated so quickly. Instead she would evade the incoming onslaught with her own predictions and inhumane agility. Only when she cannot dodge would she ignite the blue lightsaber to deflect the incoming blow and step away. Her defenses in the Force weren't half bad either as she sought to defend herself from being tossed around like a rag doll. If anything, she sought for the Jedi to tire himself out.

 

[Juun Sekkar]

Rutan, Aloth's Laboratory
Tags: Aloth Sang ​

"Not many Jedi venture this far out from their comfortable temples. But from what I've seen you're far from being a Jedi even by their obnoxious standards."

"Perceptive," Juun complimented his adversary. "I abandoned the comfort of the Temple long ago... See, I've been searching for something. Criminal organizations, a ring of kidnapped Force sensitives, remains found indicating that the cause of death was torture, with the few surviving driven mad. And all of this lead me here; To you."

Juun drew his blaster with his free left hand. Realistically, this Sith was a lighter opponent. She would try to space him out and bait an attack. Giving her the option would be foolish. Fortunately, Juun had no problem fighting dirty.

"I have to admit," the rogue knight continued, "The fact that you left such a thin trail is rather impressive. I almost didn't find you. Almost."

With that, he was done making small talk. Juun ran at the Chiss woman, firing three blaster bolts before swinging at her diagonally with great speed. Vaapad was a fast style. In some cases, users even appeared to be wielding multiple lightsabers. The strike blended into itself, a blur of light swinging with the force of a hydraulic piston. If the Sith did intend to tire him out, he'd just have to kill her first.

 

[Aloth Sang]

Location: Rutan, Aloth's Laboratory
Tag: Juun Sekkar

“So you fancy yourself a vigilante then? Doing what others won’t do for your own reasons? Quite selfish if you ask me.” Aloth spoke with a coy smile. Questioning his own person and sowing doubt within the mind was one of few subtle strategies that often took some time to fester. It wouldn’t affect much in the upcoming battle between them, but it might antagonize the man even further than his agitated approach led on.

“It was bound to happen at some point, just… not so soon.” It truly wasn’t any harm to her that she was found out. She reckoned the Jedi or someone else would find her one way or another no matter how careful she was to not leave any trace of her behind. She had even gone as far as possessing other people’s minds, forcing them to act in obedience to her commands. Forcing the people, the criminals, to do her work for her so that hardly any of the act could be traced back to her. Of course, in her defense, not many people even among the Jedi could track through the Force. In theory, Aloth could track through her visions within the Force, but sometimes the visions could be unreliable to track.

Suddenly, Juun ran towards the Sith as he fired a trio of blasterfire at her person. The warrior was like a burning blaze of force energy as he quickly pressed on her with a diagonal slash. Aloth’s red eyes glowed as the lights around them flickered. The walls and floor groaned in protest. Aloth simply rolled out of her chair to the side as the three bolts struck her chair. Sending the furniture flying back as the result, and much as she predicted Juun came at her like a homing missile. A blue blade ignited as Aloth rolled away to bat away the slash with an incredible force. Even as she rolled to her feet, Aloth continued to evade and deflect the swift warrior. Even though it was a single purple blade, Aloth was pressed as if she was trying to ward off multiple attackers.

Aloth never engaged in a contest of strength against Juun’s strikes for she sensed that such an attempt would be futile in her case. It wasn’t to say that she was weak, but Aloth knew that wasting energy was not the way to go here. No, instead she had to be smart and use what she was good at. With every deflection Aloth had made, she mentally assaults Juun’s mind by bringing up tragic memories. Brief though they were, they occurred just as fast as he was swinging his lightsaber. As she does so, Aloth soon worms her way further into Juun’s mind. Not so that she could effectively stun him per say, but the goal of Aloth getting into his mind was to induce the dark side within him.

“Infest and prosper,” she muttered in the Sith language before she injected a seed of the dark side into the back of Juun’s mind. With him being so close to the dark side already, all Aloth had to do was give him a push in that direction. A subtle notion, but one who was versed in shielding their mind would pick up on the subtle change. It wasn’t violent, but it simply magnified the emotions that led Juun down this path. In his case, the rage he felt would only increase higher than he’s experienced before.

The Padawan soon begins to flail frantically as she lets out a painful scream not just by sound, but through the Force as well. Aloth would only smirk as the test result was going along swimmingly as Aloth proceeded to lead Juun around the table in their deadly clash of blades and minds.