Private Impotent Fury

[Ghruna]

Anet Raine

The Abregado night winds pushed a chill through the streets.

Darsun Crossing was a quiet town between two major cities. It had once been a mining colony. There were plenty of hotels and bars.

Inside one of those bars Ghruna sat at a table that looked just a little too small for her.

The bench creaked faintly under her weight. Her horns almost brushed a hanging light fixture whenever she shifted. A glass sat in front of her, untouched, while the rest of the room hummed with quiet conversation and music from a cracked speaker.

Across the street, visible through the dusty window, stood the Crosswind Hotel. Three storeys of cheap durasteel panels and flickering lights. Nothing impressive.

But their quarry was inside.

Jedi Master Elira Vael had checked in an hour earlier.

Ghruna had watched her arrive. The woman had walked calmly to the entrance. No guards. No weapons drawn. Just quiet confidence.

It was irritating for some reason.

Ghruna leaned forward, forearms resting on the table, eyes still on the hotel.

 

[Anet Raine]

Anet walked down the street. The chilly air was comfortable to her.

She kept her mask in her robes for now. Hopefully, the stench of darkness wasn't too loud, but the disadvantages were apparent. It was stealth or power - nuance sacrificed.

She entered the bar and sat across from Ghruna. Her eyes flicked, if only briefly, towards the hotel before falling back on the acolyte.

"Any luck?"

This was her first joint mission off-world. Outside of the Academy. At least officially, with another acolyte. There was that time with Reina Daival , but the circumstances then were quite different...

Anet reached for the drink in front of Ghruna and took a sip, grimacing seconds later when the awful taste burned into her tongue.

"Bleh - what is this, starship fuel?"

 

[Ghruna]

Ghruna watched @Anet drink.

Her expression didn't change as Anet grimaced.

Her gaze drifted back to the hotel across the street. The Crosswind’s upper lights flickered. Third floor. One window still lit.

"She checked in an hour ago," Ghruna said. "Room three-twelve."

Her golden eyes narrowed slightly as she studied the building again.

"I watched her arrive," she said, keeping the conversation simple in the public bar.

She pulled the drink back to herself and took a sniff.

"Maybe it could clean an engine?" she offered before taking a swig. Shr offered a hint of a smile.

"I say we go through the back entrance, take the stairs. Kick down the door and get it done," she whispered.

Ghruna stood from the bench, the furniture giving a small protest under the sudden loss of seven feet of Maldrani weight.

"Unless you have another idea?"

It seemed brash and bold, but inside she felt a touch of panic. Why was it on her to come up with a plan. Ghruna had no idea how this should be done.

 

[Anet Raine]

Ghruna

Anet let go when Ghruna reclaimed her beverage.

"Yeah, maybe."

Her reply was rather absent-minded while her eyes searched the hotel across the street. They only returned to the acolyte when she proposed a plan. Simple, effective. Perhaps a touch reckless. But they were dealing with a Jedi, and Anet suspected stealth would not be in their favor for very long.

"No... I think your plan works in our favor. If she really is a Jedi, she'll know our presence as soon as we enter the building."

Assuming she wasn't already aware. Anet touched the cloth concealing her mask.

Rising from her seat, Anet noticed a hint of anxiety on Ghruna's features. She scrutinized it with squinted eyes.

"Come on," she waved her along.

When they stepped outside. "What's the matter?" She looked at her.

Anet's concern wasn't because of her good nature. Rather, she wanted to know that Ghruna still had her back. Maybe it was pre-mission trepidation, but the scholar hadn't experienced that back on Humbarine. Rather, it was Ghruna who led proudly and with great effect, while Anet followed in fear.

They crossed the street and entered a side alley that led towards the back entrance. Save for a few drunken loiterers or staff on their break, it was quite empty, and security was lax.

 

[Ghruna]

Ghruna didnt answer straight away. She couldn't immediate gather the answer to the question.

Her steps slowed slightly as they moved into the alley, boots heavy against the duracrete. The noise of the street dulled behind them, replaced with the quiet hum of vents and distant machinery.

"I am not afraid," she said firmly, before pausing.

"Not of the fight."

That much was entirely true.
Her tail flicked once behind her, slow and deliberate.

"I do not like this kind of hunt."

Ghruna’s brow furrowed slightly, searching for the right words.

"I have hunted. By tracks and scent. And I know how to take down prey that flees or lashes out."

Her gaze lifted toward the back entrance of the hotel.

"This one waits. I am not used to making decisions like this."

She rolled one shoulder, loosening it, as if preparing for impact rather than stealth.

"But I will not back down," she snarled.

Now she looked down at Anet properly, eyes steady, certain.

"If she runs, we chase."

A faint grin pulled at her lips, showing the edge of a fang.

"If she fights..."

Her hand flexed once at her side.

"...then it is a good hunt. Are you satisfied?"

She didn't want one of the few sith who had fought by her side to see her as weak. The acolytes had saved her when she had run off to hunt alone. It had been a painful lesson.

Anet Raine

 

[Anet Raine]

"Hunted?" A question for herself, not Ghruna. "Mmm... I've hunted in my own way, I guess." Anet considered her work.

What was archaeology, the life of a historian, if not a hunt? Even if the site was inert--and sometimes, they weren't--there was a place for instinct. Experience. Technique. A thousand different outcomes, if you forgot a tool, made a different choice, failed to notice a mundane detail.

If anything, she was more comfortable with a static mark. Still, this was a Jedi.

"Could it be a trick?" She questioned. "I mean - maybe we're being led into a trap." Her tone was skeptical.

"But yeah - if she runs, we follow. If she fights, well..."

She noticed an employee's keycard nestled in a stack of recycling. Looking over her shoulder, there was a small group of staff talking on their smoke break. She swiped it, opened the door, and in she stepped. From there, it was a simple matter of climbing the stairs until they reached the Jedi's floor.

An empty hallway greeted them, but it was far from quiet. The Force was serene, emanating from where the Jedi was.

The acolyte reached inside her robes and drew her mask, affixing it to her face. In an instant, the Dark Side poured into her form. If the Jedi weren't already aware, they likely were now.

She looked at Ghruna and nudged - a hand on her back shoulder. "You first," she snickered.

 

[Ghruna]

Ghruna followed without comment as Anet took the card. That seemed efficient of her.

The stairwell climb was silent but for the weight of her steps. Byy the time they reached the floor, Ghruna could feel it too.

There was no fear, instead there was something… still.

Her lip curled faintly.

"I do not like it," she muttered under her breath.

The hallway stretched ahead, empty. Too empty. Then Anet put on the mask. Ghruna felt the shift in the Force immediately.

Her head tilted slightly, eyes narrowing as that surge of the Dark Side rolled off the other acolyte like heat from a forge.

When she was nudged, Ghruna glanced at her, then gave a slow, approving nod.

"Good," she said simply. She did not realise she was being urged forwards in case it was a trap. She took that as an honour.

She stepped forward, boots heavy against the floor, not even attempting to hide the sound now. If the Jedi wanted quiet, she would not have it. Not until this was done and she found silence and darkness forever.

Ghruna stopped at the door.

For a brief moment, she just stood there, listening. Feeling. That same calm presence on the other side, unbroken and unmoving.

Ghruna took a step back. One kick through the base of her boot smashed the door from its frame. The Jedi was sat on the floor, cross-legged and eyes closed.

If she wanted to die...

Ghruna charged forwards and bounced off an invisible wall. The Jedi did not move.

 

[Anet Raine]

Ghruna

"It's a Jedi, Ghruna. Not liking it is half the point." Anet quipped.

Still, she felt it, too. The way the Force bent to the Jedi's spirit. "It should be the other way around," she thought, intertwined with disgust towards the Jedi way.

How could anyone detach themselves from the universe? What power. What purpose could be found in it? There was time to be one with the universe, and that time was when you died and your body rotted in the ground. A lesson she was more than eager to impart this day.

Anet watched as Ghruna approached the door. She was a little surprised by her behavior. At first, she imagined hesitation, but she knew a thoughtful act when she saw one. The acolyte was trying to ascertain the other side. So, she stopped behind her, hand clutching her unignited blade.

When Ghruna stepped back, so did she, if only a small amount. Anet gripped her weapon with both hands and ignited as soon as the maldrani smashed through the door, boot first. The half-pantoran swept in behind her, circling the room, with eyes cast fiercely on their target. But something was off.

"Wait!" Anet called out to Ghruna. Too little, too late.

She looked between her and the invisible field. Luckily, it was a barrier and little else. The scholar knew of such techniques which could leave more than an impact bruise. But of course, that was not the Jedi way. She imagined this wouldn't be a simple case of brute force; try as Ghruna might, other methods would likely need to be called upon to solve this riddle.

Anet held her weapon low - didn't even bother to keep a guard at this point.

The acolyte groaned. "She's toying with us."

 

[Ghruna]

Anet Raine

"I would not say that," Elira Vael said quietly. She briefly opened one eye.

"Toying? This is not a game."


Ghruna was back on her feet. Her tail gave an angry flick. She shook her head, growled and - before - Anet could stop her - charged back into the barrier.

Her lightsaber rolled across the floor and she started to slowly pick herself back up again.

Elira looked to Anet..

"Can you make her stop doing that?"

 

[Anet Raine]

Anet scoffed at the Jedi's retort.

So it was going to be one of those encounters then. Leave it to the so-called 'galactic peacekeepers' to sustain themselves in passivity and soft, verbal jabs.

The acolyte glanced over to Ghruna, who was already back on her feet a second time.

"Can you make her stop doing that?"

"No," she answered flatly.

Truthfully, Anet was a lousy sorcerer. Dispelling the Jedi's techniques would require study, which they didn't have time for. However...

"I might be able to get you inside, though." Yeah, it didn't bother her that the Jedi might hear.

The scholar had been on the cusp of teleportation techniques. Far from the mastery of say Srina Talon , whom she knew to fold space (to show up at a party in 1313 no less) but enough to move an object, and even herself... albeit at the cost of personal harm. But Ghruna? Anet believed she could blip the brute a few feet forward, just past the barrier.

"It might hurt... A lot."

 

[Ghruna]

Anet Raine

Ghruna didn't hesitate.

"It already hurts," she growled.

She wouldn't back down in the face of pain. She couldn't. She was here to learn sith techniques and to prove to her father that she was worthy of fighting for the crown one day.

The barrier shimmered in front of her, that same wrong, untouchable calm pressing back no matter how hard she struck it. Her jaw tightened slightly, more from frustration than pain.

She turned her head just enough to look at Anet.

"If you can get me inside..."

A single heartbeat passed as she paused.

"Do it."

There was no fear and no second guessing.

She rolled her shoulders once, setting her stance like she would before a charge. Muscles tensed beneath worn leather, breath steadying as she prepared for impact.

"If it breaks me," she added, blunt as ever, "then I was not strong enough."

Her golden eyes shifted forward again, locking onto the Jedi beyond the barrier. That calm. That stillness.

It made her lip curl.

"I want to see if she bleeds."

 

[Anet Raine]

Ghruna

Anet's heart fluttered, and her scowl was replaced by a grin. If Ghruna was game for this idiotic plan, then that was all the scholar needed to hear.

Still, she was curious how the Jedi might try to get in the way of their little plan. The way the master just sat there, meditative, under the guard of her barrier. What the hell was this all about? Anet wondered. They'd find out soon enough, she suspected, or maybe not - maybe the Jedi would die and that would be that; no mystery to solve.

The half-pantoran recalled her blade and lowered herself down to the floor. She sat, cross-legged, and closed her eyes, mirroring the Jedi in meditation. The only difference is that Anet wasn't seeking serenity. She was centering herself in the pain, the fear, and the impatience of her inner darkness. Difficult feelings to navigate while -- at the same time -- feeling the space where the Jedi meditated, and Ghruna as well.

In stark contrast, the Maldrani was anything but calm. Unstoppable force meets unmovable object, was it? Well, that was kinda how it felt watching her slam into the barrier.

She had only used this ability twice now in the field. The first time, during the invasion of Coruscant, was an accident. And the second time left her incapacitated for several days. The acolyte had time to study and practice since then, but there was really no telling how it would affect Ghruna. However, Anet at least endeavored not to kill her companion, whom she was just starting to like.

Ghruna might feel as if the Force shifted in the room, drawn to her like light to a mass shadow. At the same time, that invisible energy tied itself to the Force that swirled inside the Jedi's barrier, touching boundaries made of flesh, stone, and the barrier itself to create a 'safe' space where Ghruna could reappear.

Then, the Dark Side burst from where Anet knelt. Reality itself would split around Ghruna as if shears through thin fabric, pulling her into a space between spaces, then ripping her back out the other side.

Anet opened one eye a peek, hoping to see a very intact and alive maldrani inside the barrier. And hopefully, the Jedi hadn't interfered.

 

[Ghruna]

Anet Raine

Ghruna felt the shift. It wasn't like a push, it was like a pull into somewhere else.

Her body tensed instantly, instincts screaming at her. This was not a blow she could brace for. Not something she could meet head-on.

For the first time, there was hesitation. Then the world was torn away from her.

Her teeth clenched hard as something seized her whole body at once. Every muscle locked. Every nerve lit white-hot.

Then... She was somewhere else.

Her boots hit solid ground with a heavy crack.

Ghruna staggered forward one step, then another, catching herself before she fell. Her breath came in a sharp, ragged inhale that sounded almost like a snarl.

There was a deep, linginer pain.

"...good," she muttered.

Then her head lifted.

Her golden eyes locked onto the Jedi.

Up close, that serenity felt even worse. Like standing in still water that was too deep to see the bottom.

Ghruna took a slow step forward.

Another.

Her posture lowered slightly, not out of fear, but readiness. Like a predator testing ground before the strike.

"You hid behind it," she said. "Now you cannot."

Her hand clenched into a fist. This time, there was no barrier in the way.

"Oh for goodness sake," went Elira Vael. She rose smoothly to her feet and stepped aside from the punch.

"This is...utterly...tedious..." she said as she ducked and dived beyond each fist.