Private Hell Hath No Fury

[Lina Ovmar]

It happened almost overnight, in the small hours for which Club Deceptions doors were closed, the Red Hand worked fast, agents dispersing into the night, with backpacks full of explosives, weapons and enough credits to grease the cleanest of palms.The bags were delivered throughout Faldos, settling into the hands of the restless, of those who had little power to change their circumstances.

Persons of interest, flagged by the club themselves to help Darth Strosius maintain control found themselves in the possession of resources that had been previously denied and a time to act. And the club itself? Knowing that the inquisition would catch wind of movement, even if they did not know the specifics all employees were like smoke in the wind. Word would no doubt reach Strosius as he made his return from Formos, knowing that on his return to his last bastion, the she would be waiting for him.

And Lina was.

Her pathway through the headquarters he had once invited her to was marked by the corpses of those that stood in her way, once barren walls now marked with scorches from blaster fire, the occasional scored line from an over extended saber and the unmistakable splatter of gore.

His office remained almost clean in comparison, were it not for the bloodied footprints, belonging to the boots that now rested upon his desk, waiting patiently for his arrival home.

 

[Darth Strosius]

The remnant and refugees from Formos might have limped to Faldos in their freighters and warships with as much dignity as one could expect from such a dejected and defeated populace, but their master held no such dour mood. In fact when he was informed by Bailiff Station of a growing issue on the surface, he sprung into action almost immediately. The troopers of the Inquisition and the Legionnaires of Wonosa marched through the streets of the capital not long after the fleet appeared in orbit, sparing no insurgent nor traitor in their path as they hung the bodies of their foes from the streetlamps.

A sight that would be more than enough to keep any other rabble-rousers in line while they hunted down the sources of this little insurrection. The Lord Inquisitor himself knew exactly where to start looking however, and as such Lina wouldn't have to wait long. He could be sensed long before his heavy footsteps could be heard echoing down the ruined and bloodied hallway, his presence recognizable yet with an odd new addition. A new power that swelled in him, one that felt so much like him yet was still distinct enough to be sensed.

Yet when Darth Strosius stepped through the doorway of his office there was no mistaking him. As always his being swirled with anger and wrath, barely kept in check by the emotionless visor and the heavy robes obscuring his form which twitched with energy. "Lady Zambrano." It was uttered like one would a curse, a slur even, and indeed he seemed to intend it as one.

"I see you've already taken to your in-law's tradition of murdering and undermining the Sith. Disgusting wretch that you are." The lightsaber clasped in his ironclad grip ignited with its crimson blade as he stepped forward with slow methodical steps much like a predator approaching its prey. "You think that marrying into that monster's family is enough to keep you safe from me? That I will hesitate because I fear retaliation?" With a flick of his wrist the tip of his blade stabbed into the ground and dragged through it as he kept moving forward, making an awful hissing sound.

"I'm going to enjoy wringing the life from you, and then from every single Zambrano swine that pollutes the galaxy with their insufferable presence!"

Lina Ovmar

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Lina let out a low chuckle sliding her boots from the desk as he approached, spitting angrily like a cat, his lightsabre scoring a lone beside him.

"Actually, this is more my mother's style than the Zambrano's." She stepped from behind the desk fingers trailing along its top as she did, her sabers swinging untouched at her hips. "Sow a little chaos and watch it unfold. It was one of the many reasons I hated her, see she didn't care about fault or innocence, she just wanted to see the galaxy burn and laugh at those who scrambled to put the flames out."

An inky black pool grew beneath her feet with each step, inky tendrils rising to coil around her limbs, staining her skin whwre they settled, her eyes shifting from bright green emeralds to obsidian orbs as she finally came to rest in front of the desk arms folding across her chest.

"Still, her methods have their uses, wouldn't you say?"

She tilted her head. "I don't need the Zambranos to keep me safe. In fact given the opportunity, I'd lend you my blades to wipe them out, save that of of my husband and child."

"However, that is not why I am here. You delivered an insult by crashing my wedding party as tou did and you threatened the life of my daughter. This is pennance for that. In fact..." she paused checking her chronos with a smile, "if you listen..."

In the distance the explosions began, some closer than others, but they were scattered throughout the main city, the targets of no real strategic value, chosen simply for mass destruction.

"There we go." She gestured to his saber, "now are you going to fuck around and find out, or do you think its possible for us to have a conversation?"

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Sounds like your mother didn't perish soon enough then." A harsh and quickly spouted remark, more a reflex than anything resembling an actual insult or statement. It simply served as a vessel for his ever more apparent anger. Whether Lina knew it or not he was still reeling and writhing from his most recent defeat and she had just positioned herself as the perfect outlet for his frustrations. And once he was done taking her apart piece by piece then he could get back to work without any distractions or disturbances.

Darth Strosius paid little heed to the ominous and mysterious pool at her feet, his gaze only really drawn to it due to him noticing the tendrils curling around her limbs. In a more stable and sensible state of mind he might have questioned them or at the least been wary, but nothing about him was cautious in this moment. Instead he simply disregarded them and fixed his glare on the woman before him once more.

"Penance?" A sarcastic, venom filled laugh escaped him. "Penance? For threatening a Zambrano? If anything you should be thanking me, and apologizing for consorting with their kind." His next step paused as the sounds of explosions echoed around them, his head cocking to the side as he listened and sensed their damage with a quick pulse through the Force.

Then his gaze slowly drifted back to Lina as she spoke, his clenched grip around his weapon now quivering with anger. "I'm going to flay you and everyone you know alive." With a growl more familiar from a beast than anything upright he bolted forward and swung for her head, intent to wipe the smugness from her visage even it did mean invalidating his threat.

Lina Ovmar

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"I couldn't agree more." She replied wuth an almosy genuine smiled at his comment regarding his mother. It was fascinating to watch him, coiled and tense like a viper, his anger so palpable in the force she could not only feel it, but taste it.

She didn't flinch as he leapt for her, his sabre swinging for her head. He was blinded by his rage, unreachable by any reason.

So be it.

She unfolded her arms and flicked her wrist, the pool at her feet snapping to life rising up with sickening speed to form a protective lattice shield his blade hissing as it struck it. Lina regarded him with a slow inky blink.

"Very well."

Another flick of her wrist and a wave of energy rolled from her intent to shove Darth Strosius from her, her hands graping the hilts from her belt with an eerie calm, igniting her dual baldes in unision as she stepped towards him.

 

[Darth Strosius]

Another growl, this one of frustration, hissed through his mask as his blade met the tendrils rather than flesh. For a brief moment one could almost see the golden shine if his eyes through his visor as his free hand crackled with lightning, although the push came before he could loose it upon her. Darth Strosius stabbed his lightsaber into the ground to stop his momentum as he was pushed back, enough to separate them, before drawing his sword as she ignited her blades.

Lightning arced up the dark blade as he crossed it with his crimson one for a moment before charging forward again. "I'm going to scatter your pieces all across this fetching building!" This charge was slightly more thought out than the last had been, his lightsaber moving to try and clash with her own while his sword was thrust forward and aimed to pierce right into her gut.

Lina Ovmar

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Where Darth Strosius was a storm of fury crackling in the force Lina was a quiet simmer. Such a waste of time for them to cross blades and for why? Because she married a Zambrano? Because she retaliated to an insult he had delivered unjustly? Or perhaps he was simply looking for an outlet.

Twin blades hummed and spat as they snapped up to meet his incoming assault, spinning one blade into a reverse grip, catch the stab to her gut as she twisted to avoid it, the other spitting angrily against his.

Her focus was on defence, not assault, she had no intention of truly harming him, but if she needed to, to stop the insanity, she would.

Tendrils writhed spreading from her back, appearing for a momeent like dark wings before each feather broke away, forming a dark shear their points till a dozen hovered at her back awaiting the moment to strike.

 

[Darth Strosius]

She was quicker to intercept him than expected but it was no matter, Darth Strosius was nothing if not a master of attrition. It was rare that he crossed blades with another that wielded two at once as he did but he was not totally bereft of experience in such a duel. For all her tricks there must have been a very good reason that she preferred to stick to the shadows and insert agents rather than acting overtly as he did, and that was what he was counting on.

The masked man pulled his blades back, stepping back in turn, before immediately moving in again with a wide slash across her top with his lightsaber while his sword moved to slice at her leg. The tendrils around her back were concerning but he was unsure if they were genuine threats or simply an intimidation tactic and so chose to keep his movements direct for now.

If he did strike towards the tendrils only for them to be simple illusions or diversions then he'd be left too open to counter in time. A single stab or slash may not be enough to kill him, unless Lina proved exceedingly accurate at navigating his armor, but any impairment to movement in a duel such as this would be just as fatal as decapitation.

On the chance that they were capable of attacking however, he could only hope that she would be too emboldened and would leave herself open in a brash display. Nothing short of a fatal hit was of concern, even if she did somehow incapacitate him then his forces would ensure she couldn't leave the planet. She had her back to a wall and she didn't even know it yet.

Lina Ovmar

 

[Lina Ovmar]

He was aggressive in his attacks. rage and a relentless desire to see her dead his drive, a desire that held no rational reason behind other than a hatred for the name Zambrano. She understood it, she understood the need to kill Kaine and to see his seemingly endless line pay for the multitude of crimes that lay at his feet. But did he not see the opportunity she presented?

Of course not.

So blinded by his anger, he was unwilling to listen, incapable of doing anything but striking again and again in the hopes that something would come of it. But what had come of his latest strike? A secondary explosion echoed in the distance as if in answer to her silent question. Would Strosius truly throw himself against the wall again and again until there was nothing left of him?

His incoming attack was hardly creative, a typical move fror a dual wielder and one easily blocked, but where he lacked creativity, he made up for in speed and strength. Sabers that had once belonged to her mother crackled angrily in protest as she tilted her head to regard the golden eyes hidden behind the visor of his mask as she pushed back against his blades.

"I never wanted you to be an enemy, Strosius. We have similar goals. It is possible, if you stop allowing your anger to control you, for us to be allies."

The shears moved as she spoke, shifting from her back to his flanks.

"Please reconsider, before you force my hand."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

Another set of interceptions that drew a frustrated growl from the masked man, clearly motivated and fueled by rage alone rather than anything productive or effective. His pride had been wounded, his people uprooted, and now a Zambrano stood before him with more deaths adding to an already bleak day. Victory was an afterthought for in this moment all he cared about was spilling enough blood to make losing a planet just a little less sore on his mind.

"For someone that claims to be an ally you have such a hostile nature do you not?" Darth Strosius snarled as he leaned forward, pushing back as their blades clashed. "You plant bombs in my city, you infiltrate my world, you marry a Zambrano." Each word was more venom-filled than the last, with the surname being hissed like the most vile curse that one could speak.

"I'm starting to think that my goals are not clear and evident enough to those that claim to be aligned with me! You cavort with the enemy and even go so far as to bear one of their children, Malum openly challenges me to a duel to the death over a matter not of his concern, as I see it I have no allies!" With a grunt he separated and was about to step back when he noticed the shears now orbiting him, having moved while he was distracted. His fangs ground together as his sword lit up with lightning once more, eager to end this little duel before it got out of hand.

"I seek the death of the sinners and failures who claim authority! I seek vengeance for the fallen! I do not vie for power in the shade of tyrants, I work to see them dead as they deserve! And if I am the only one willing to do what must be done..." He thrust his sword up and let out a burst of bolts to try and ward off the shears while his lightsaber stabbed forward to impale Lina right through her chest. "Then so be it!"

Lina Ovmar

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Anger found a spark within her at his words

"You crashed my wedding, insulted me with your gift and then threatened my daughter. And you expect me to do nothing? No, Strosius, you don't get to pin this on me. My retaliation is exactly what the Order needs to see, to do nothing would have me appear as weak. You forced my hand!"

As he stepped back, so did she creating the space needed as his focus shifted briefly to the inky black spears that were encircling him as she shook her head at his response a sadness in her eyes. "You misunderstand... And I am not sure you will ever have the patience to listen."

Her own focus shifted to the spears as she launched them at him from every angel, several of them shattering under the explosion of lightening from his sword. but her shift of focus cost her, slowing her reaction to his thrust. both her blades snapped up towards it, parrying it up and away from her, but not before the tip found flesh, scoring a line from the centre of her chest to her collar bone, a scream of pain erupting from her lips as she staggered back.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"And you forced mine!" A rather childish remark but one that was no less true or genuine when spoken with such hatred that it couldn't be a lie. While he may not have ever truly trusted Lina, he had at the very least assumed that their goals were aligned given her situation. An assumption that had been proven very wrong and thus his crashing of her wedding, a fitting retaliation in his mind.

Not that he was particularly worried about fairness now, not when he was trying to tear her apart.

"Oh I understand completely, you chose the easy path just like all the rest of them! Threw away your morals and ambitions just to beg for crumbs of power!" As if to punctuate his accusation his lightsaber finally met his opponent, far from a killing blow but one that no less served to satisfy him immensely as it broke her veneer of control and position and forced a scream from her. Not to mention the very satisfying sound of his lightning destroying the spears.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough. The burst of lightning might have saved his head from any potential strikes but the rest of his body was hit from behind as they pierced through his heavy robes and sank into the skin hiding beneath. What was meant to be a noise of triumph quickly became a strangled and pained groan as he fell to his knees in surprise, his sword clattering out of his hand as it quickly shot down to support himself.

Darth Strosius took a breath and slowly trailed his gaze back up the woman before him, the next breath coming through teeth clenched in both pain and wrath. "I have waited over thirty years to avenge my empire, I have been patient enough." With a growl that hid a pained wheeze he slowly started to rise back to his feet, his lightsaber still clenched tightly in his grasp even as his other hand grabbed onto the desk for support. "First Ophidia, then You, then Malum, then all the rest of them! One by one until my work is done, until the Sith are saved! And no Zambrano is going to stop me!"

Lina Ovmar

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"Oh for Bogan's sake!" she spat at him, her breathing heavy, the wound in her chest stinging. She could have killed him, while he was crumpled on his knees, it would have been so easy, kill him there and then, take the inquisition and solidify her position but what would that actually gain her? If this inquisition were anything like the one her mother had risen in the First Empire, then they would be loyal to Strosius to a fault.

She would spend a decade rooting out those disloyal to her and replacing them with members of the Red Hand. Why waste so much time? When if only she could make him see...

"You and Malum both see my movement only as treachery at first glance. I am surprised as former apprentices of Ophidia that you are so utterly incapable of seeing the opportunity at hand." She deactivated her sabers. "You keep throwing yourself uselessly at Kaine and everyone else you want to kill, and everytime you do, you lose resources, men and whatever shreds of dignity you have left. You are the definition of insanity, repeating the same mistakes, over and over. You cannot win this war like it. You want to beat these people then you need to get inside their heads, you need to understand them and you need to fight from a different angle."

She took a step towards him, knowing the danger she was in in doing so.

"I will bring the Zambrano network down from the inside. I will burn everything that Kaine loves. And when I'm done taking everything from him. I. Will. Kill. Him. That is my path. I am not your enemy."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

A scoff came from the masked man as he hauled himself up, as though offended. "Malum never sees opportunity, only more boots to kiss. He is too attached to the methods of Ophidia, of playing around in the dark while everyone else makes their moves." He chuckled, quickly resulting in another wheeze as he leaned against the desk for support. "And look how that ended for her." Outplayed and put down just like all the rest would be, by his hand alone no less.

Which was why he fixed Lina with quite the hidden glare as she deactivated her weapons and proceeded to try and lecture him. As though she had any right, any standing. "All I need is one fatal strike. One to cut the heads off of the parasites infesting the Sith, that is what I need." Darth Strosius leveled an accusatory finger at her, refusing to let her take another step closer while he was still recomposing himself. "That you have the gall to speak to me in such a way after all that you've done is insulting! Do you think I'm daft?"

He waved his lightsaber in a dismissive gesture pointing outwards in the vague direction of where the last explosion had come from. "Here you are spearheading an assault on my world in the name of the Kainate and you say you're not my enemy? You call for my position to be revoked in a public gather and yet you claim to be after Carnifex's instead? You marry a Zambrano, and yet you want to lecture me about killing them?" The masked man took in another breath and slowly stood up straighter, his breathing growing more steady and stable. Renewed.

Vitriol gradually replaced the pain laced into his words as he spoke. "And when does this scheme of yours come to fruition then hm? When do you kill him? Will it be before or after this new Sith Empire collapses due to his failures and betrayal? Because I intend to see him dead so that he can't ruin another empire for his own gain, not wait and wait and wait to do nothing at all!"

Lina Ovmar

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"I wouldn't lecture you about anything if you had actually been successful in killing any of them!" She took another step forward, despite the warning finger. "But you haven't, have you? The only thing you have successfully disposed of are pawns, easily replaceable for a man like Carnifex who's resources are without end. What have you actually done to harm the Kainites?"

She shook her head. "Nothing." The word was filled with vemon as she noted his slow but steady recovery, the wheezing in his breath gone. Had she allowed herself to be drawn in, allowed herself to succumb to the anger he was so easily rising in her, then she might not have noticed. "You earned the destruction wrought today, but I can assure you, none of it is in the names of the Kainites, nor was it done with their help. If your men are smart enough to capture anyone today, they will find no loyalty to Carnifex, the Red Hand are mine and mine alone."

She closed her eyes at his questions, knowing that in truth, she had no answer to them. There was no grand scheme, no well thought out plan to bring him to his knees. Every move she made was made based on the information she had to hand, she couldn't make a plan yet, not without seeing all the pieces on the board, and he still had many hidden.

"You want to keep trying to kill him, be my guest, just leave me and my daughter out of your line of fire. When I have valuable intel worth sharing to grant you an opening, I will let you know."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"I killed Ophidia." It was a quick and incensed retort, one made to correct but was spat more like an insult or curse than anything else. "She rivaled Empyrean and Carnifex both, only sidelined by her own will and foolishness. If I can slay her, then no one is safe from me." Any lingering weakness or pain in his tone seeped away, replaced by the same burning flame of anger as before. Albeit one that wasn't entirely leveled at Lina. For now.

"Capture?" A chuckle escaped the masked man, this one not riddled with wheezing or panted breaths as the last had been. In fact it sounded almost concerningly normal compared to the previous one. Despite his Inquisition Troopers being meant as martial law enforcers, they were almost never ordered to take prisoners. Not for anything more than holding them for a more public execution later anyway. And the soldiers of Wonosa barely knee the meaning of the word at all.

"Openings, opportunities, these things are made Lina. They do not simply occur. That is what you and Malum fail to understand, action comes before all else. Hiding in the shadows and gathering information is a temporary measure, merely the prelude." As if to emphasize his statement he sprung forward suddenly and without warning, his clawed gauntlet threatening to wrap around her throat if it connected. "If you wanted you and yours out of my 'line of fire' then you should have never entered it in the first place!"

Lina Ovmar

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Lina actually laughed, it was humourless and fuelled by the astonishment that he would claim such a thing was achieved on his own. "You. Had. Help." She shook her head. "You have achieved nothing of your own accord Strosius, and your continued determination to alienate everyone that might want to help you will see that you will never achieve anything!"

She opened her mouth to retaliate further, to educate him further that the openings he needed she could create, but moved, faster than she was ready for, her eyes widened in surprise as she made to move back but not fast enough. The cold metal of the gauntlet enveloped her throat, a natural flicker of fear passed across her eyes, swiftly followed by annoyance at her own lack of vigilance, finally settling on cold, unsettling, rage.

Lina did not struggle against his grip, she knew well enough that writhing in a trap made it worse.

"Impressive regeneration," she commented as the dark side tendrils uncoiled from her body, "but how good is it really?"

The tendrils shot forward seeking every crack, every weak point in his armour, seeking to burn or simply punch through him.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

A smirk spread across his masked visage as he held up Lina with a single hand, a dark chuckle of his own in response to her earlier laugh. "Achieved nothing have I? Are you sure you aren't looking at your reflection when you spout such drivel?" His grip slowly started to tighten as he let out a growl. "There are none that wish to aid me, I see that now. None that know what must be done and are willing to go to great lengths to achieve it. I have none but myself and my followers to rely upon, not that it matters. My cause is righteous, the Force itself is the only ally I require."

Darth Stroisus began to raise his lightsaber to skewer the interloper on its crimson blade when the tendrils returned to the fray, his gaze narrowing as he swiftly attempted to carve them apart when they shot at him. However he couldn't quite cut them all down even if he was quick enough to do so, there was simply far too many of them going for every angle all at once.

His tightening grasp around Lina's throat faltered as he reeled in pain once more, nearly doubling over before he managed to hold himself upright as he gritted his teeth and bore through the pain. "It's good enough to see me through." Despite his own injured state he stabbed forwards, seeking to close the gap between them once more and impale his opponent in one fell swoop.

Lina Ovmar

 

[Lina Ovmar]

For each one he cut down another rose in its place their assault relentless. If she had to fill him full of holes to make her point she would, it was clear he could recover from it easy enough. But dark tendrils required concentration, they were not meant for close quarters. She had allowed herself to be drawn in, blinded by he need to have him see the truth of things...driven by the need to have another ally.

She felt the heat of the blade, before she felt the pain, searing through her stomach and back rising with each breath she took. The black orbs that had become her eyes fell away as the tendrils became nothing more than smoke, fading in the wind. She was aware of her own heartbeat, of the rapidity of it as pain followed the heat and her hands seized the one that held the lightsaber steadying herself, her own lightsabers clattering to the floor.

Silly, little, Calina.

She blinked. It was like her mother was there, breathing in her ear, her lips curled into that wicked sile she always had when she had caught young Calina in a mistake.

Mist blurred her vision and she blinked it away.

"I just wanted a friend."

Friends, will get you killed.

She swayed slightly, trying to see past pain, past the whispers of a woman long dead, trying to see a way out.

A way back to Lucia.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

There was no greater moment of satisfaction that he had felt in the past decade than when the smug look was wiped from Lina's face as his blade struck its mark, his own wounds painful yet nowhere near enough to bring him to his knees just yet. "Looks like your regeneration isn't nearly as impressive." He noted with a dark humor as he extinguished the lightsaber, his free hand coming up to grab hold of her shoulder in order to keep her upright. He wasnt quite done with her yet after all.

Her utterance utterly confounded him for a moment, the masked man actually recoiling as though in shock. "A friend?" The genuine confusion in his words lasted only a moment though as his grip on her shoulder tightened to a bruising one. "I don't make friends with the enemy, Kainite scum." The hand holding the lightsaber twisted until his slightly opened palm faced the wound that it had made, lightning starting to crackle and arc around his hands and fingers despite their clenched grip around the hilt of his blade.

There would be no bolts of electricity however.

Instead a cold sensation spread over the wound, digging into her body yet providing relief from the pain there. "Luckily for you...I have need of a messenger." Darth Strosius leaned in, Lina's face reflected in his visor. "Someone very close to me was taken by your kin. Revna Sharr. Tell your husband, tell Carnifex, Prazutis, I don't give a damn who, just tell them very clearly that I want her back. And if she isn't returned to me, then I'm going to bring devastation to every Kainite world and every Zambrano that still draws breath until I dig her out of your wretched grasp!"

Lina Ovmar