Give My Regards to Charon

[Mishel Kryze]

"Do I get a phone call? Hello? Maybe? No? Okay, great talk guys, great talk." The Jedi padawan's voice was rough, harsh from the strength gathered to make conversation with the guards. Mishel's eyes were heavy with exhaustion, her body screamed in pain and as much as she wanted to scream out herself. Her voice refused, her lips were dry, cracked and bled easily these days. Slowly she forced her eyes to open, hazel-green eyes were dull in their color. Red blotches of irritation consumed part of one eye while the other threatened infection. Mishel's vision blurred and there was the after taste of iron in her mouth, blood, had been a force to deal with when she met with the Corbos dirt. The Princess Leia laid in a wreck thereafter she and the team found themselves hounded by Sith-Imperial patrols. Their guns made short work of the Leia, thankfully they had already been up in the Corbos skies. So they didn't have to deal with the effects of burning through the atmosphere. Still, there was the crash and even when that was over it felt as if a horde of stormtroopers had been unleashed.

[member="Marakai Al'Orren"] had gone feral as far as Mishel could tell, and with her own fight to deal with she lost track of the Jedi Master in the process. Mishel didn't catch the name of the Sith who captured her. She knew only one thing; this woman worked for Lady Raaf which meant that Mishel would most certainly be utilized in some way against [member="Coren Starchaser"]. Mishel's only hope was that Lav had somehow made it out of Sith Empire space and was working on contacting the Jedi at this very moment. The padawan looked down at her dirt-covered hands, finger nails chipped and at least two of them were gone. Mishel was also certain that she had broken her wrist, dislocated a shoulder and most likely had a broken arm. Ashira blessed that they all seemed to be along the impact line of where the Leia landed, left hand, arm, and shoulder were the injured parties here. "And that was my good hand, or was it this one..." Her voice hoarse, whisper-soft she chuckled mostly out of disbelief.

How long she'd been in the cold, dank cellar of wherever it was she'd been brought. Mishel didn't know, all she wanted now was to escape and spend time with her wife [member="Shia Kryze"], find her mom Valessia and her sister [member="Alessandra Creed"]. What she wouldn't give to hear her family again, in fact, what she wouldn't give to hear properly. At least one had a constant ringing and the other was fine, she suspected. She placed her back against the damp wall and looked at her feet, Mishel was sure that one of her toes shouldn't be facing the way it was but there wasn't much she could do about it. All she could now was wait, and that was perhaps the worst part of it all.

[member="Taeli Raaf"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Romi Jade"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Mishel Kryze"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

When Soraya had communicated to her master that she had... acquired one of the people close to Coren Starchaser, the Lady of Secrets was... more than just a little excited. The fact it was the annoying little ex-Knight of Ren made it even better as the girl had distinctly irked her during Operation: Eclipse and the girl was Coren's apprentice. She would serve the perfect draw to finally put the Jedi Master into a position where he could not escape. Or... oh so many ideas were floating through her mind at the moment.

She had to wonder why the girl would venture so far into Sith space, and to Corbos of all worlds. The planet was a breeding ground for Sith Leviathans and other monstrosities that assisted the Sith war machine, not a place many would visit without a Sith beastmaster present to keep the monsters away. Not to mention the defense fleet that had shot the girl's ship down.

"Lady Arcanix," Soraya said, the Chalactan bowing before the Lady of Secrets.

"Soraya, how did you come by our guest?" Taeli asked, the woman who ran the espionage portion of her power base falling in step beside her.

"One of my agents discovered the girl's penchant for crystal gathering and a small custom lightsaber building company in her name," the Chalactan explained. "From there, it was relatively simple to float pieces of rumors and heresay about a unique crystal deposit here on Corbos until the girl caught wind of them. We even had some of the Creeping Lignan implanted at a site in case we needed to lure her there, but her ship was... rather hard to miss."

"I'm sure," Taeli murmured. Knowing the girl as she had thus far, and her Master, subtlety was an art form lost upon them. "Where is she now?"

"The dungeon here, my Lady," Soraya replied. "I've taken the liberty of using ixetal cilona extract to dampen her Force abilities for the moment."

"Lead the way," the Triumvir of Power ordered.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

He had not been far when he had been notified of the Jedi that had been captured on Corbos. It didn't take him long to reach the world either, not when he had been informed of the prisoner's identity.

His shuttle settled onto the landing pad deck, like a black, wingless, carrion-eating bird; like a nightmare insect. Its ramp lowered like a dragon's jaw, and the Emperor's Imperial Crownguard ran down, red robes flapping, as if they were licks of flame shooting out of the mouth to herald the angry roar. They positioned themselves at watchful guard in two lethal rows beside the ramp. Down emerged the Emperor, the Dark Lord of the Sith; Darth Carnifex. A heavy cloak of maroon silk hung loosely from his broad shoulders, draping along the ground behind him as he strode forth with strong purposeful steps. Each pair of Crownguard flanking him quickly fell into position behind him as he passed, turning with crisp precision so that none of their movements fell out of synchronization.

A phalanx of local Legionnaires, their armor pinned with the iconography of Corbos and its surrounding territories, were assembled to meet him. Their leader, a medium-built Pureblood Sith in officer's uniform, stood ahead of the pack. At the Emperor's approach, all soldiers fell to one knee in respectful submission.

"My Lord-Emperor, there can be no words to describe how humbled we are to bask in your presence."

Carnifex stopped only a meter away from the knelt officer and bid him rise, "The Jedi, take me to her."

The officer inclined his head in acknowledgement, "This way, Supreme Excellency."

[member="Mishel Kryze"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

 

[Mishel Kryze]

Mishel had dozed off, body slumped up against the wall and she woke to a terrible headache. Her stomach gnawed at her and the pain was still seething, the cell had gotten dark and there was little light now. Her body smelled something fierce, but the odor wasn't what got to her so much as the sight of her injuries now bruised. Or the high pitched ringing in her ears that were felt in the back of her skull. She opened her jaw and forced it to stay open, shifting it from side to side. Mishel's mouth was dry, throat parched and she so desperately wanted to be out of this cell. "Don't suppose you guys wouldn't mind tossing a biscuit or two this way, huh?" She asked the guards with their opaque masks, helmets with frowns and large eyesockets.

"One call, c'mon. Gotta, gotta let my sister know where I am-"

Her sister was a high up in the Confederacy.

Not that it mattered here. Mishel knew the story now, she as a Jedi had been caught trepsassing into Sith space knowingly. A violation of Sith Imperial laws, so they would have been well within their right to take her. She shut her eyes and felt her teeth grind against one another as pain pulled at her body once more before becoming dull. Either that or she was getting used to it, and for a moment Mishel had to thank the Ren. The Ren were good at conditioning their people to torture and abuse it was how they all truly came into their own. Papa Sieger made sure of that, the brunette scoffed, "schuttas." She cursed beneath her breath and shifted her body against the wall.

"So um, how does- how does this work? You talk? I talk?"

"Maybe a song?"

Delirium. Most would say Mishel was never too far from that state of mind to begin with.

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts..."

[member="Taeli Raaf"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Mishel Kryze"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

"Obstinate as always I see," Taeli muttered as she observed the girl through the hidden security cameras. The young woman had always been irritating for Taeli, but she presented a unique opportunity. She could feel the arrival of the Emperor, his presence an event horizon in the dark side that approached menacingly.

"Blood samples taken upon her capture do indicate genetic manipulation in her DNA," Soraya stated next to her Master. "Clone madness setting in?"

"No, the girl's natural tendencies and Coren's influence," Taeli said. "Have we done anything to her besides her capture and drugging?"

"No, my Lady," the Chalactan answered. "The background of the girl that we recovered, her time with the Ren, would suggest a resistance to... enhanced interrogation methods. Perhaps a more subtle approach to gain information from her? I have a mask that would create a lovely cover, fellow Jedi prisoner, someone she might come to trust?"

The idea had merit, but with the Emperor coming, no that wasn't likely going to be the girl's fate. No, another more devious plan was forming in her head. Of course she would need the Emperor's permission for the procedure, but having an unknown asset so close to one of their most hated enemies... She would love to see the look on his face when the betrayal and possession came. Plus, he had taken Romi back on Rhen Var, thus proving how the Sith poison used was of subpar quality.

"My Lord," she said, once the Emperor arrived, bowing before Kaine.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The lift came to a stop, the Emperor emerging from behind the sliding partitions once they had fully separated. Each step was heavy with power and purpose, his personal guard swooping in behind him like a scarlet shadow.

"Lady Raaf," replied the Emperor, his voice rumbling with authority. "Always a pleasure to see you in good health."

Courtesies from the Dark Lord of the Sith were few and far between, though individuals like Lady Raaf were the usual recipients of his shrewd praise. Dutiful, tenacious, loyal beyond all shadow of doubt. Her contributions, more than most others, has greatly expanded the Empire's power and influence across the galaxy. It was by her design that the Galactic Alliance was irreparably broken, withered away to fleeting remnants who cling onto the last vestiges of power that they once enjoyed.

"The girl lingers inside?" His dark eyes, one molten corruption and the other a deep emerald, were fixed on the entrance to the confinement hold, his gaze piercing through metal, stone, and flesh; his question purely rhetorical. "I will grant you the initiative, Lady of Secrets."

[member="Mishel Kryze"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

 

[Mishel Kryze]

Mishel had a litany of medical records from her time with the First Order. If those records survived they would indicate the number of surgeries she had endured, from sterilization, and forced accelerated growth. A mind that had been tampered with more than once. An old implanted chip that Mishel had been able to crack on Mustafar when she discovered the truth of her origins. She had been Siobhan Kerrigan's daughter before Kaeshana. She had another name altogether - Riona Kerrigan-Alcori, a child made from the Force born to a woman named Valessia. Mishel was a fluke, an abomination is what Kyrel often taunted her with. Sieger saw her as a pet and recreated the Ren as a family for this purpose. Stolen away from Tygara during the Uprising, she was placed in a bacta tank and from there had been treated like a clone.

The knowledge that only Sieger wanted her to know, she knew - his will, his words. He would be her father, but it didn't work out - Mishel regained her memories, she regained a lot of what she wasn't supposed to have. Samka Derith let her go - for reasons that were still a mystery to the woman now. There was silence now and Mishel's mind wandered to Ossus where she valiantly proclaimed that she would carry out Sieger's will. Then to L-49, she was to reinforce a First Order line but instead took the opportunity to run. Run to the Outer Rim Coalition and be free of her shackles. Hazel green eyes searched the room for a way out, but when she found that escape on her own would not be in her best interest...

She sighed and waited. "Well, whatever you guys got ain't got nothin' on Papa Sieger. Let me tell you... When he got mad, he got mad, Force Pikes, Lightning, anything to drive his point home."

"So please, do - let's see what you guys got."

Deprivation of senses, hunger - feeling only pain.

Probably the exact reason that the moment she left the First Order, and had the cash to afford food. She ate so slow, she wanted to savor every bite. Life in the Ren was not easy, and while the First Order had propped it up to be some honorable thing. In many ways, they weren't that different from the Sith, and in fact, were more akin to Dark Jedi. Mishel felt the cold bite of the duracrete beneath her legs and her body reacted. Involuntarily muscles moved and she winced, her eyes flew open from the pain but nothing else laid there - just the dead cold stare of her past. The reality of her situation and the haunting words of the Ren echoed in her mind.

Her attention turned to the guards there, and if it weren't for the shackles she wore that inhibited her abilities. She would have burned them in their armor, a game she quite enjoyed when sparring with Kyrel back in those days. She rolled her jaw and heard it pop, "didn't like the coconut song? Alright, guys. It wasn't my best, I know."

She drew in a breath.

"Any of you guys wanna send a note to my wife? Clan Kryze, just you know - the usual. Tell her I love her." Mishel swallowed hard she'd rather die at this point. "Oh did I tell you guys how I met my wife? See it's a funny story that one - love at first stab. I know. Crazy I tell ya."

Mishel didn't bother looking at them and went on to regale the guards with the story of Utapau and how the Coalition drove them off. How she and Shia had fought and how desperate Mishel had been to rid herself of her past, "see being a Ren - sucked balls. Depressing really, at least for me, I mean look at me. I'm cute. Or I was... " Her voice trailed off as her mind slipped again, and her thoughts betrayed her again.

[member="Taeli Raaf"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Mishel Kryze"]

"Thank you, my Lord," she responded, smiling faintly at the Emperor's words. It was not every day or every one that received such platitudes from the Dark Lord of the Sith, but Taeli had endeavored over the years to ingratiate herself with Kaine Zambrano. She had made herself an invaluable asset, between her infiltration of the Jedi that led up to Operation: Eclipse and the experiments that she used to further the Sith agenda. It was she that had helped the Emperor access the temple on Lothal, although the final secrets contained within had not been breached. It as she that had recreated the original experiments with the Children of the Emperor to create deeply concealed and unknowing extensions of the Dark Lord's will. Most of all, she had proven her loyalty enough that the Emperor trusted her with secrets even some among the highest echelons of the Sith had no idea even existed.

A far cry from her position in the One Sith.

"She seems quite confident that she can hold out against torture," she mused aloud. She ignored the girl's vocal desire to send a message out. Honestly, she had to know the rules for how this all worked. Trespassing into Sith space, the apprentice of one of their primary enemies... no she wasn't going to be getting message or visitation rights any time soon. Regardless, Taeli knew that her past as a Ren, while they didn't have full records from that shattered ally, she figured her training may have included inuring her to pain. But... there was something about playing good cop, bad cop...

"But then Sieger was a charlatan," she continued to say, "a rank amateur. Perhaps you would like to show her a true lesson in pain, my Lord? Or perhaps we extend her a balm, treat her injuries from the ship wreck, begin the slow process of challenging her views of the galaxy and the age conflict with words and quiet subtle actions. She has preconceived notions of what we are, no thanks to Coren, but perhaps we can break her of such conditioning... and then we make her a Child."

The ideal agent, perfectly positioned to slide that blade between Coren's ribs, both literally and metaphorically.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"They all believe that in the beginning."

The cell door disappeared into the wall partition, a pair of detention officers emerging to allow both Sith Lords entry. They would not follow, instead standing guard at the door so that the Emperor and his companion would have full control of the room. When both Carnifex and Taeli had passed through the threshold, the door would slide back into locked position behind them.

Sealing all involved inside.

Assuredly, the sight of such an imposing Sith flanked by the greatest Jedi traitor in modern galactic history would be quite a shock to the beleaguered Mishel, whose only companions had been the silent, implacable, and faceless guards that monitored her condition and kept her servile. Now she had a true audience to her suffering, the dark energy radiating out from both Lords of the Sith more noxious than anything else she had experienced thus far.

The Emperor would break the silence first, "Mishel Kryze, once known as Mishel Ren, Mishel Zanteres, and Riona Kerrigan-Alcori." He produced a small datapad from the confines of his robe, the item powering up and summoning a long detailed file on Mishel's history as recorded by several galactic institutions. "When the First Order fell apart they lost many of their records, some were destroyed forever. In the aftermath of Dosuun's fall I took it upon myself to collect any information I could find, including records pertaining to past and present Knights of Ren. Sieger's secrets have revealed much, but then again you do not appear very secretive about your past as Sieger's play-thing."

All the while he spoke, the Emperor's eyes never wavered from staring unblinkingly into Mishel's own; if she dared to meet his gaze. "I assume you know who we are?"

[member="Mishel Kryze"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

 

[Mishel Kryze]

Mishel had been halfway into the story of how she tried to Kyrel into a radio when the guards disappeared. "Ah? What? Didn't wanna stick around to hear me get punched into the wall?" She shrugged and exhaled her eyes shifted to focus on the threshold and the figures that emerged. Raaf she recognized from Coruscant, the Emperor? He was the sort of guy that would be hard to miss at a wild party like the one on the Technobeat. Upon sight, Mishel's heart sank and her nerves felt as if they'd never return but a moment or two as they stepped forward and the door sealed shut behind them. The so-called Jedi relaxed if they wanted to zap, spell and smack her around that was fine. Force knows that Sieger did enough in her day that the Tygaran felt pretty confident she'd be able to take the torture.

If the Force had a weight, then the dark side weighed a lot heavier than the light.

In that case, the aura radiating from the Emperor alone would be enough to suffocate the light in any radius near the man. Mishel could feel the darkness as it engulfed the room, her own dark side energy yearned to reach out. A slight flicker of sulfur leaped forward breaking the hazel-green colorization of her eyes. She swallowed hard and brought forward teachings of her master [member="Coren Starchaser"] and [member="Romi Jade"]. Mishel looked at Raaf and then the Emperor before fixating on a random spot on the wall.

There was silence, and then it was broken.

The Emperor's voice was about deep as she had imagined it would be. Although she certainly didn't think that she'd be in his audience - but here she was.

He addressed her by name, then names - the countless last names, or so it seemed that she had gone through - and then the very first name she could remember. It stung to hear it from his lips a name she had struck off the list. A reminder of who and where she came from, he continued on - elaborated on the records he had - since the First Order had fallen. Mishel hoped they were gone for good, but she supposed that somewhere - someone had the information. Wonders of the 'dark' holo she supposed, and then a slight scoff - amusement when he mentioned her being so talkative about her past. "Yeah well, that sorta druk kinda eats you if you let it, best to let it out."

She paused for breath and lifted her gaze meeting both Raaf and the Emperor, one then the other.

"Yer kinda hard to miss - not just by size but by aura, so, there's that... " Mishel's head seemed to swivel as she looked Raaf straight in the eyes. "Can't forget the face of the woman who tore apart the Alliance, talk about stealing the First Order's thunder." Her tone held part amusement and part matter-of-fact. She pursed her lips a moment and shifted her weight against the wall and did her best not to wince with the injuries as she moved around. Returning her attention to the Emperor, "Sieger was a dick, but I don't think you got me in here to talk about Old Man Ren."

[member="Taeli Raaf"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Mishel Kryze"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

"The First Order certainly didn't deserve any of the credit," Taeli chuckled. She was never going to not enjoy the fact the plan she and the Emperor concocted all those years ago to destroy the Alliance worked out so well, and the First Order had been left holding almost none of the honor. Oh sure, they were allies then and now they were shattered allies come to them for scraps, but Taeli had never liked them and their Knights of Ren. Secret order, please, her first fight with one of them during the first time the Alliance went to war with them had all but announced his title.

"But then again, it really didn't take much to turn half of the New Jedi Order and the Alliance military to our way of thinking," she continued. "Something about the zealots and dying the hero or living long enough to see themselves become the villain or some such."

The girl was right on the matter that, at least for Taeli, she could care less about what the girl knew about Sieger or any of his former plans and assets. He was a non-entity now in galactic affairs, the Sith once again showing they were the superior wielders of the dark side. But that was pride talking. In the here and now, Taeli was to play the good cop to whatever bad cop the Emperor was planning to be. And knowing Kaine Zambrano as she did... she was going to have her work cut out for her.

Soften the girl up, and then on with the procedure.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"No, we did not."

An explosion of light illuminated from the Emperor's right hand, bolts of hateful electricity arcing through the stale air to slam straight into Mishel's torso. The energy danced along the Jedi's body several times, each point of contact slashed with oozing lacerations and minor burns. Shadows slowly returned to the gloomy cell as the light ebbed into nothingness, faint traces of lightning crackling as excess energy began to expend with nowhere else to go. It was clear from the coloration of the lightning, a soft dull blue rather than the Emperor's usual brilliant crimson, that it was meant to torment and elicit agony from Mishel rather than cause any real lasting damage.

A taste of the Emperor's dark power.

"The Knights of Ren and their absentee Lord hold no value to us Lords of the Sith, not as they presently stand." He reached out, gloved hand gingerly brushing against the abused flesh where his energy had kissed her, tracing a line from her shoulder up to the underside of her chin. Finger clenched around her jawline to draw her eyes fully up into his own. "But what they have done may yet serve us."

[member="Mishel Kryze"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

 

[Mishel Kryze]

The darkness choked the light here, strangled it until its very grasp for life had been extinguished. It made Mishel's fight that much harder, the fight to hang on to the light - to hang on to the hope of getting out of this cell. The words of the Ren haunted her, echoed in her very mind, just like the image of Samka on Daogbah. Did Samka know this would happen? Did any of the foresee this? Seiger was irrelevant, Siobhan was irrelevant - what mattered now was the product that sat in this rank cell. Mishel's eyes followed the figures of Raaf and the Emperor and studied them, it was Raaf who spoke first.

"I dunno," her casual tone a little harder than usual. Mishel licked her lips and breathed in, breathed out. "In some ways they weren't the best but they were my start, people I'll never be rid of, events that will never not haunt me." Her eyes locked on Raaf in particular, "and I remember you from there too- not by face, by reputation. Your name was spoken in the Halls of Ren." Mishel's nostrils flared, and she listened to Sith woman as she continued to speak.

Tired, exhausted expression from Mishel shifted into something of defiance. The Tygaran nearly sneered right then and there, but it was the trickle of energy she felt that drew her attention away from Raaf. The Emperor's words were short and the explosion of light that followed did ripple through her body. The former Ren, current Padawan reacted more than she would have liked. Mishel's mind rushed and then she saw his face, Sieger's. Sieger's eyes and his laugh, taunting her - demanding her attention, reprimanding her for showing weakness. His voice echoed through her bacta tank where she had been grown, cuts and burns ran through her body with ease.

Mishel's hands were outstretched on the floor as the electricity ran through her until it dissipated, blood dripped from her mouth. What neither the Emperor nor Raaf could see with their eyes the spark of sulfur that begged to grow. Slowly she pushed herself off the floor and the river of crimson could be seen. She breathed in and let the cold wall hold her body up. "Daddy spanked me harder," she retorted, almost mockingly, with the sneer she had held in before. Then the Emperor reached out and took hold of her chin, finger grasped around her jawline so that their eyes would meet. Even now, her struggle to conceal the darkside could be seen - bloodshot eyes that betrayed her very self.

It wasn't a secret that Raaf had it out for Starchaser, and by virtue of being Jedi - it made Mishel scrapmeat for the Emperor's meatgrinder. Mishel chewed at the inside of her lower lip, she would die as she was born - defiantly.

[member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Mishel Kryze"]

"I would certainly expect my name come up in among the Ren," Taeli laughed. "I was a leading member of the New Jedi Order, and then its leader before we saw to its demise after all. That would just have been a further failure in intelligence if they didn't try and keep track of my movements."

Taeli watched impassively as the Emperor unleashed a small taste of his power upon the younger woman, and had to fight the urge to roll her eyes when the girl cheeked him after he relented with the surge of energy. The young woman really just did not know when to not talk did she? But the girl wanted to be defiant, to meet her end with... what had she called it to Coren before? Ah yes, the foolish noble sentimentality of the Jedi self-sacrifice.

But then again, her Lorrdian trained eyes caught the flicker in Mishel's eyes. Try as the girl might want to, she could never really be free of her heritage or her previous training. Siobhan was a dark sider, in a looser sense of the term, but a dark sider nonetheless in the eyes of the Jedi. That sort of power inevitably left its mark on even the very DNA of the offspring, and a clone or genetic experiment created with that code even more so. To then have improper training at best on the nature of the darker side of the Force thrust upon her...

"One thing you should be made aware of, don't give the Emperor goals," Taeli sighed.

She had seen what could happen when the Emperor really started to work on someone. A grisly scene to be sure, but that wasn't the girl's fate. Not that she knew it yet.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Defiance is a welcome challenge."

The Emperor relinquished his hold on her face, letting it fall where it wanted. Anti-gravitational generators located above and below the cell were turned on at that moment, taking hold of the prisoner's limbs and pulling her up into the air. There she would hang suspended a good foot off of the ground, well within the sight and reach of the Emperor and the Deceiver. Carnifex turned away, gently pressing a hidden pressure sensor in the chamber walls that extended to reveal a slab upon which rested multiple medical instruments kept snug in polyethylene packing foam molds. With delicate precision, the Emperor retrieved one of his personal favorites, a lean sharp silver hook about as thin as a hair's breadth.

He turned back towards Mishel, now suspended in the air. "Some will tell you that interrogation of the mind is the most effective method of information-gathering, that torture of the body is an archaic art." He held the instrument up so Mishel could clearly visualize what exactly the Emperor had in store for her. "I disagree. The mind is surprisingly fragile. Push it too far and you risk breaking it, condemning it and its contents to madness and incoherency. But push the body too far..." He leaned in close, inserting the sharp, hooked point of it into the tender pink corner of her eye, letting the edge of it barely caress her eyeball.

"And you can repair it, mend all inflicted wounds, replace lost organs, there are portions of the body that are not conductive to life. They can be removed without fear of losing what you seek, but with the mind? Too delicate."

[member="Mishel Kryze"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

 

[Mishel Kryze]

Mishel cast a sidelong glance in Taeli's general direction, "y' know lady, for as pretty as you are - you sure are daft."

The Alliance had been worse for even believing the woman that long, "the worst part is your bloody Empire claiming victory after the First Order did all the work, but maybe that's typical for a dafty broad like yourself. It's a wonder you've managed to even uphold yourself on all that weight and ego. At least he's got a proper reason, I've been around Panatha, you? You're just a two-bit holofilm that couldn't make it past the screens." It was perhaps the last set of words Mishel would say toward Taeli, at least for the moment. It was only now that Mishel could recall one particular holoflix she and Shia had watched about a set of Corellian gangsters. Gangsta always recognized gangsta, power always recognized power...

As she was pulled up, the woman relaxed into it - tensing yourself only made it worse. The Emperor began to speak and of course, as Mishel expected out came the instruments. "Oh look, here we go - as expected how fairly predictable."

"Okay, that's new."

Admittedly the hook heading toward her face was not where she was expecting it, Mishel figured if they wanted her to talk they'd leave the face alone. "Oh c'mon, not the face - not the face, it's my only good part." She lamented but had no other choice, drawing in a long breath the Jedi and former Ren exhaled. She could smell his breath and actually wanted to thank him for freshening up. Force knows Sieger never did and so his breath always tasted like molded old bread that had seen too much oxygen and moisture. "This my good eye, I like that one honestly and really cybernetic eyes are not good for the bedroom." Her wife would not appreciate the loss of glorious eyeball. "It's an original, unlike some dafty broad in here."

Internal monologue, oh no look at me I've betrayed the Jedi Order. Oooooh, I'm an edgy lady and once again the Jedi have been betrayed. Yes, reads just like a novel don't it? Wait a tick, wasn't she Connor's old lady? Or did Ara misspeak? Gross. Ah by Ashira's tits that gross. She can do better than that ol' fart, damn it to all nine hells bloody hook. Shia likes that eye, or was it the other one? Wonder if she'll smite me with another fear spell. Or maybe I can help her with that limp biscuit of a glowstick. It's just awful craftsmanship really. Her mouth, on the other hand, closed up as the hook carved its way through the flesh. "Chit tickets." She muttered beneath her breath doing her best to reign in the underlying reflexes, another splash of sulfur erupted and was replaced by the hazel-green once more.

If there had been a pain, Mishel's mouth did a good job of masking it. Her body, on the other hand, betrayed her, small involuntary twitches and the rise and fall of her blood pressure.

In truth, Mishel was a horrid fluke of the Force. Born to the now Lady Valessia Creed under mysterious circumstances, sent to be adopted by another family - only to realize at a very young age she was also the biological child of Siobhan Kerrigan. Mishel in that age had no idea what the name meant or the weight it carried. It wasn't until later on she realized just who in the nine hells that Siobhan was. Valessia only came forward and this was after Mishel learned of her sister Alessandra. Valessia had been a descendant of some Banite Era Dark Lord when her bloodline combined with Siobhan's on some fateful night - it resulted in Mishel who by all accounts should lean more toward the dark side.

A Forceborn is what Sieger told Mishel she was, a child created by the Force for purposes that elude even the greatest of all masters. But, she would serve him and his Knights of Ren as an extension of his will in this Galaxy. Trained, and raised by the Ren she was told when to speak and what to speak at all times. Thus, when she finally escaped from such a life she swore to never let another rule over her in such a manner.

Even now as she seethed through the pain that now coursed through her, the darkness lurked just beneath the surface.

[member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Mishel Kryze"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

Taeli rolled her eyes as the girl tried to get under her skin by saying the First Order deserved the credit for the Galactic Alliance's death and not the Sith. Honestly, if she had a credit for every time a former First Order officer said the same... well she would be richer than she already was.

"I'll give you that the First Order was very good on defense, considering the Alliance never won any offensive battles, but considering the worlds the First Order attacked... not that impressive," Taeli replied. "Mustafar, Dagobah... truly the Alliance was doomed when those worlds fell to the overwhelming might of the First Order and the Knights of Ren. And then they failed to take a world of blue furred junk traders... twice. Meanwhile, the Sith devastated Thyferra, the primary provider of bacta to the galaxy, and my Order of Shadows was corrupting the Alliance from within. Taken hand in hand with how I saw the Ren fight..."

She let the sentence hang, but the look of pure contempt on her face was clear. Bespin, the Ren blew himself up to try and kill her, on Mustafar she would forever chuckle about the cave fight where she kicked Connor around and the Ren who threw themselves from the top of the castle after planting a flag on it.

"But that's the job," she continued conversationally, even as the Emperor started one of his favorite past times. She didn't cringe away at all as he selected his hook and started towards the girl's face and her eye. After all her experiments, well she wasn't exactly squeamish. "Did I gain infamy for my actions? Certainly, but that wasn't why I did it. Ultimately, for me, it came down to a very simple reason. The Jedi didn't do anything to honor my sister, not even a period of mourning. Can you imagine that insult to her memory? One of the Jedi Grandmasters of the modern era, beloved by her students, respected by her enemies and allies alike, and not even five minutes at a Council meeting for a moment of silence."

Just talking about it still brought a fresh wave of pure hatred to rise in her soul.

"But then that's the Jedi, always asking for everything from someone and then abandoning them once they get everything they can from them."

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The fringes of the Emperor's sleeves were stained red.

His fingers were thoroughly coated.

Soaked was the instrument.

But as the Emperor pulled away, all that remained was a surgically cut empty socket. He placed the hooked blade down on a new stainless steel tray, scarlet fluid dripping off to form stagnant maroon puddles. The eye itself sat by its lonesome on the same tray, gazing blankly up at the gloomy ceiling while it oozed a grotesque viscosity. What the Emperor now retrieved was something different; a small opaque glass container shaped like an oblong bell. Though the glass was impenetrable by the naked eye, the faint semblance of something writhing within was clearly evident.

"The Dark Side taketh, and the Dark Side giveth." Monotonically chimed the Emperor.

He twisted off the sealant and angled the tapered neck towards Mishel's empty eye-socket. After a few moments a creature emerged, spherical and limbed with many nimble worm-like appendages, and latched itself onto the edges of Mishel's socket, hauling itself out of the container and thrusting itself into where her eye once resided. The anchoring was painful, it was not meant to be pleasant. It dug into the skull, worming its many tentacles into the bone and even into the brain. When it had, at last, finally settled, it mimicked the appearance of the eye that the Emperor has so callously taken from her.

Except the iris was a deep emerald hue.

Much like the one in the Emperor's left socket.

[member="Mishel Kryze"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

 

[Mishel Kryze]

Mežsrožu.

An ego, Mishel had fought for so long to keep hidden, to keep at bay.

Mežsrožu was the child Seiger had so desperately wanted, the child Sieger raised through the darkness that long played behind the frame of Mishel. Mishel was silent, there would be no sound of pain, not even a scream but instead an eerie dreadful silence. Her lone hazel green eye had gone black and Mežsrožu began to surface as shards of sulfur appeared. There in her face, the feral form of a Kerrigan could be seen, the indignant disgust of Brentioch plain as day along with her features. The child the First Order experimented on the creation they had so long for success began to take form here and now. In the months Mishel had been taken from Tygara and sent to the bacta tank. She had been the subject of many of their experiments but they had failed to properly stimulate the girl.

Darkness.

Mishel's body began to convulse as blood emerged from where the new eye had been placed for as surgically precise as it may have been. The eye was always a vital organ and thus the hemorrhaging started, and it started fast - and it would have, it should have killed the woman right then and there. Until it was quite obvious that there was more happening beneath the surface. Foam formed at the mouth and the creature that rooted itself deep within her skull would be left on the floor, dead. Its own worm-like tendrils having been burned and all that was left was an unnatural black grasp around its being.

Mežsrožu, now fought for singular control over Mishel.

Gasps of air as sulfuric shards shot forward from beneath the black, and the ooze that Mishel had long touched at the start of the Incursion began to formulate within the empty socket. It had to heal what had been lost and it took the data necessary from the creature and as her body trashed on the table, the corruption of the dark side became increasingly evident. In another moment it would vanish and in the next, it would return. Left, then right until an unholy growl with the vibrato of something machine-like the after-effects of the ooze no doubt. A garbled form of language, drawn from the Eldorai - mixed with screeches that would make even the most steadfast of sirens cringe.

Lights would pop as the octave increased, glass shattered and the convulsions increased in their violence. The once synthetic skin and prosthetic hand fell to the floor as the black ooze formulated in its place. A gaping hole appeared in her abdomen where the old blaster bolt wound had been as memories were accessed and the battle for control came to a violent end. All at once her body ceased motion flopping to the table with a sickening thud the wound consumed in blackness healed at once, as if it had only been a metaphysical cut.

Mishel was gone and in her place.

Mežsrožu.

Smoke rose from her body and a dark aura permeated from her, and for a moment she remained so still it was almost an angelic apperance. Then the corruption set in, only to be wiped by a vanity spell whispered from a just still lips. Mežsrožu's eyes flew open where sulfuric colored irises met with Carnifex, while the one blinked with an emerald hue before dissipating into sulfur.

[member="Taeli Raaf"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]