Krath Rising

[Ellie Mors]

Empress Teta

The planet had long been a fortress world that rivaled many others and held an economy that nearly toppled that of Coruscant in comparison. It was a world of ships, kings and queens, and most of all nobility, business, and subterfuge. Where the planet had once repelled the famed Naga Sadow of the Sith Empire of old, it had also fallen to the temptations of the dark side as a collective whole during the period of the Krath youth, of Aleema Keto and her sibling. It was this very planet that became a defining pivot for the entirety of the galactic core for millennia to come, costing the Republic in some books, and bolstering them in the next. It was a fickle world, as fickle as the queen for which it was named. But it was also a world that had been so corrupt, so dark and cold down to its roots, that it was inevitable that it would come under the control of One Sith, the heir apparent to the long line of Sith Empires that came before it. Its scarred surface had heard the very voice of the Dark Lord speak out, it had seen his mighty grip take hold of the planet and refuse to let go.

It had seen innocents die, their blood stain its soil with their sweet blood, their flesh becoming fertilizer for the soil to come from the ashes of their young. None were spared in the invasions of Empress Teta, not a man, woman, or child. Even their mighty Sith overlords were not spared of the judgement of the force and its ever-expanding chains that bound all to its judgemental stare. But where blood and tears had colored and washed the dirt stood a Sith Lord that had fought at one of those very battles, had lost her own child, her own blood and tears, and it was here that she came not only to meet with the ruling class of the planet, but also to tie some loose ends. Empress Teta, under the rule of the One Sith, had again succumbed to the reinvigorated Krath - the cult that manipulated the planet-city's events through meticulous plotting in secrecy - and for the longest time it had gone unnoticed to most, if not all, of the One Sith, but an ever-cautious Silara had caught wind of something a bit more organized than a business meeting. She wasn't quite certain what it was that attracted her to the planet - she had no good memories of the place - but her arrival felt oddly calm, as if though she should have been expecting a welcoming committee.

 

[Ellie Mors]

Cinnegar

The city was, as always, a sprawling ecumenopolis chalk-full of civilians, business men and women, and the occasional Imperial guard. In the six or so years since the invasion she'd partook in occurred times on the industrial world had certainly changed. Architecture had been altered, high-rises replaced, and the clothing of those living on the planet had significantly been altered as well. They favored a more neutral color scheme, grays, blacks, whites, and browns, though she couldn't necessarily perceive all of this through her sight, which was nonexistent, rather she used a far more advanced form of telepathy to "see" through the eyes of those around her, a trick she'd learned while controlling the mind of an acolyte of the dark side in the crypt of Darth Andeddu some two years ago, following her training with Darth Mierin. It certainly made things much easier for the blind woman to see, although on occasion she was met with much greater resistance than she expected, and of course there were the occasional epicanthix that made this completely impossible, and it was this adaption to her lack of sight that also made her into a proverbial 'ghost' among the city-planet of Coruscant, where she'd spent the last several years policing while awaiting the redrawing of the Voice's various territories, changes she presumed would be in order to ensure none would ever be so close to the Dark Lord again, though she was certain the opportunity for growth for the five voices was certainly a reason, as well as the new imperial edict that she and the others had signed as witnesses to a new era.

But she wasn't here for the purpose of monitoring the world that was still, reasonably, well under her jurisdiction of control. In fact, she was here for a slightly more personal motive, one that would finally begin the propulsion of her into a greater sphere of influence, one which would serve her greater than simply being the Dark Lord's voice. As she ventured down the streets, her head bent in a downward angle, something eluded the sight of those that she had been using as eyes - knocking against her side and nearly tripping her. In moments she felt the cold of steel against her ribs and a hand at her neck. It was expected - she'd known that she was being followed after the feeling of foreboding she'd felt prior. But what these fools did not anticipate was that simply being within the vicinity of the Sith Lord was enough to give her reach over their minds, and while she couldn't quite pinpoint her stalker in the crowd, now that she was being grabbed it was much easier. She needn't even speak the work, much less think it. The moment a hand touched the base of the back of her neck was the moment she was in control.

Qâzoi Kyantuska.

 

[Ellie Mors]

In the breadth of a second, like the hiss of air escaping from a compressed chamber, Silara's assaulter's mind was her own. Perhaps the group knew that there was someone on to them, perhaps they were even aware of whom, but by the looks of it they had not expected it to be her of all people, or they underestimated her. As quickly and as naturally as the man had pushed her down and jabbed his blaster into her side, with little resistance from the feeble assassin, he tossed away the weapon and took a step back, only for her to rise up to face him, touching her right hand's fingers to his head. "You should have shot when you had the chance." She said with a smug grin. What followed was a leap of faith in the Sith's abilities in the force, combining telepathy with a variation of her method of consuming emotions. The result was the painful siphoning of the man's knowledge of the planet's inner workings, or at least as much as he had been allowed to know. She had been told musings of the ability to drain the life of another through the force by the reinvigorated holocron of Darth Andeddu, and of a variation to siphon the knowledge of another through a painful and torturous method, both of which she was prepared to perform now.

In the man's moment of vulnerability, born from his ineptitude, the knowledge of the Krath that she needed was given to her, and shortly following that, came the wide-eyed unspoken scream of a man that felt his very essence, the living force within him, being pulled away and into the body of the Sith Lord. The experience was... indescribable. The moment she had pulled away the last vestiges of the man's hidden knowledge was the moment the world stood still, as if she had just achieved a high on spice that was well beyond normal. Everything around her seemed to slow in her perception of hearing, and the vibrations of her touch on the man's head almost created a visible image in her mind of what she was feeling. Through the force she could see the sway, billowing, form of the man's very soul being ripped from the protective shell of his body, pulled out like white-hot flames that were immediately extinguished by her touch. It was at that moment that she realized just how different the utilization of that draining ability had suddenly made her, as if though she had cracked open something within her that now leaked the darkness that she could contain within her around her being. But the man's knowledge was hers, and with a firm thrust of her hand she discarded his corpse to the side, much to the surprise of those who had seen it happen. Luckily the crowd had since thinned after her leaving the spaceport, and she used those who stopped with the same puppetry to discard of the body of the man, only to rid themselves with his corpse.

 

[Ellie Mors]

In the wake of her assailant's death things seemed far more quiet, and for a moment she wondered if he had been the sole person tailing her, but now that she was heading directly towards the location of the Krath's place of meeting she doubted that very much. It appeared that in all the years of their existence, the Krath had depended on a traditional centralized location, that of the Iron Citadel. It was fitting for a powerful manipulative force to reside, being the center of the government of Empress Teta and the system enveloping it, and had she known more about them personally it would have likely been the first place for her to have visited. But as she rounded a corner, just several blocks away, she found herself confronted by a stun bolt rushing to meet her center-mass, immediately bringing the Sith Lord to her knees and knocking her out of conscious. When she began to wake she could hear the faint sounds of several others arguing, while she herself was bound slumped over in a chair with something attached to her wrists and neck to ensure she hadn't a chance to escape, much less use the force based upon the materials. She wasn't quite certain what it was - she couldn't very well see them - but her captors had certainly succeeded in bringing her guard down and the pain in her ribs told her she had at least been kicked or hit in some way.

As her unseeing eyes slowly fluttered open, a habitual instinct that generally did not take place even while waking from sleep born from being tortured by Darth Mierin in her younger years, she was greeted with a swift fist to the gut, causing her to groan loudly, in pain, and spit copious amounts of saliva and some blood from a split lip over her torn dress - something she became aware of only because she felt the touch of skin on skin when her captor struck her. "Look at this, the schutta who killed Nam is waking up! How's it feel, huh? Bet that just felt great, didn't it?" Howled a distinctly younger female voice in mock happiness, clearly upset that she'd killed the nameless assailant that had held her at gunpoint some point earlier in the day. "Come on, Leena, you know who she is, you can't just beat her - she wasn't supposed to get banged up either." Rang the voice of a young man, revealing the name of the woman while making it clear there had been some sort of plan behind her capture. "Oh stuff it, Bant. Nam wasn't supposed to die, either, but an eye for an eye, right?" Leena replied, clearly quite angry that her friend had met his end with the Sith Lord. "As surprising as it was for him to get himself killed, she's his fiance. You know who I'm talking about. We can use her to get back at him, and she's also a Sith or something, I hear she's important. Don't throw it all away and get him coming back to get rid of us - he's way too rich to think nothing of his fiance disappearing, even for a day." The man revealed to be Bant shot back, clearly a voice of reason in their posse. A firm, hard, backhanded slap to the face ensured Silara that the woman didn't quite care what he said, or who she was, but after that she seemed to suffer no more beatings for some time later, though she shortly passed out again regardless. While she wasn't quite aware at the time, the signal on her necklace went haywire with concern sent to [member="Alric Kuhn"] and his Sons of Titan.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Silara"]

“WHY DOES SHE KEEP DOING THIS?!” He screamed at the top of his lungs as he and fourteen Sons of Titan walked onto the ramp of a transport shuttle.

“I don't know sir.”

The answer came from Kiran Vess, the head of the Sons of Titan and perhaps one of his only friends.

“I mean...” He trailed off, grumbling to himself. Of course only a short time ago Alric and the Sons had received the signal from Silaras necklace. That pang that told she had been knocked unconscious, that her vitals were spiking and that she was in danger. The reaction had been immediate, almost instant in fact.

There had been no Sons of Titan present on Empress Teta, nothing of Titan Industries in fact. He had not been home in some time actually, not since before he and Silara had become engaged.

It wasn't that he avoided the planet, it was more that he didn't have a cause for visiting it...not anymore at least. Now however he found himself rushing towards his homeworld with a small army at his back. One hundred and fourteen Sons of Titan, each equipped with weapons and armor designed to kill.

“Find her.” Alric said quietly to Kiran as the transport lifted off from the deck. “Then find out whose responsible and kill them.”

Despite his own words Alric had a sinking feeling that he already knew who was behind this. He had told them last time he would destroy them, now his hand was being forced. So much for legacies. Alric thought to himself with bitter resentment.

“Sir? Are you sure its wise to come with?”

Alric eyed the zeltron. “I am getting my wife.”

They weren't married yet, but it didn't matter.

 

[Ellie Mors]

The Fallen

Pathetic. As her mind slowly came to a coherent consciousness, she could not help but feel absolutely worthless. She was the Dark Lord's voice, a Sith sorceress, and yet now she found herself trapped in a damp, cold, room without sight or the wherewithal to utilize the force to any extent. A low groan was elicited from her lips and seemed to bounce off the walls and grind themselves back into her ears. A short giggle, one of delusion and insanity, rang out. It was her own. Her face, could she see it, was beet red with frustration and shame. Was this her fate? Was she to be a pathetic waste, a worthless schutta to hang off the side of some man's arm just to give her a purpose that she wouldn't fail in? As her face flushed a burning sensation was caught in her throat, as if her tongue had swollen, and immediately she wanted to cry, to vomit, sickened by her own disease, a plague of incompetence. She pictured herself on her knees, hands bound behind her, hair at her face and clothes torn, all worldly wealth stripped of her, with eyesight returned only to be staring at the feet of her dead master. The pain of being wracked with force lightning returned to her, and for her failure she obsessed over it, craving its lacerating punishment. Yes, she was sick - she'd known it for long. It had happened the very moment her master had passed at her own hands, a duel that she was not prepared for - far too young and inexperienced for such to be the case.

Everything that day had came too soon, the power, knowledge, all of it was thrust upon her and for a while she carried the weight, shouldering the burden. But even in her moment of denial she refused the opportunity to succeed her in her master's shoes as the Dark Lord's hand, the responsibility too much - rather she allowed her rage to propel her to take the place of the traitor, Junra. Now she could only laugh at herself, her hair hanging in clumps around her face, damp and caked with dirt, blood, and tears. What a mess she was, entirely worthless, completely devoid of purpose. In her head she had been safe for a time, at least until she failed at Kashyyk. It had been completely unlike her, so totally different, a mirrored perversion of who she had been. And for once she couldn't blame her love for Alric on her shortcomings, she couldn't shove it on him and keep quiet. Reality hit her like a star destroyer, and the pain in her chest had never struck her so badly. Where Carach was misunderstood as selfish, she was such - where she believed Reverance to be lenient, she was weak - where she saw Vornskr as arrogant, disloyal, she was incompetent. Reality struck her as being the weakest link, and for once it wasn't rubbed off right away. If anyone caught wind of what had happened to her here, and how, it would be the end of her.

But just when she sought to escape with her prosthetic limb came a sudden change of pace, something she'd not expected. A single pair of footsteps, far too heavy to be the two youths that had taken her to her prison, approached with extreme prejudice. The sound of an older fellow clearing his throat, the tone of it sounding like a smoker's baritone, broke the silence and brought her limp head tilting back as if to see with her eyes who stood before her. "I see you've woken up, Miss Kuhn." Came the man's voice, gravelly and thick with an accent of the locals. "I suppose you've perhaps came to investigate the various changes taking place on Empress Teta, otherwise known as Koros Major. If you look for a figurehead then you have came too early, or perhaps not quite understood what it is that you are doing here, and how much painstaking planning was put into making sure word reached your ears, and yours alone, that certain people were going missing, or that money was being laundered." He continued, not quite patient enough to give her room to talk quite yet. "You see, we happen to know quite a bit about you, and a little more about your fiance than he'd like to let you believe." The man continued, the sound of a mechanical lighter and the scent of spice in the air hinting at a cigarillo being lit - immediately triggering her craving for spice that she'd gone several days without. "That's not true, Alric and I don't keep secrets from each other anymore, if it were important, he'd tell me." She spat, quite literally spitting saliva in the general direction of his feet, though apparently missing based upon the chuckle of the man standing some feet away. "Quite beautiful for a Glitbiter, you know." He cackled, apparently aware of her drug habits.

"Simply put, you are under the custody of the Krath, and I have a proposition for you." He said, blowing out a puff of smoke into her face. "We'll let you get out of here with the skin of your teeth, even throw in the Koros spaceworks that's been nearly defunct for the better part of nine hundred years, if you give us the satisfaction of one thing." He explained, pausing with baited breath with a tone that just screamed a sinister grin to be plastered on his face. "Leave [member="Alric Kuhn"] and come with us." Almost immediately she laughed at his demand, finding it to be the most absurd thing she'd ever heard. This, of course, earned her a heavy punch across the face with a knuckle covered in at least two heavy rings, both of which broke skin at her lip and chin. "I have a better one - I'll kill you, take over this karking dump, buy out Koros, and then focus my authority on this miserable planet." Silara shot back, earning a quick grab of her throat. "Listen here, you karking harlot, it's my terms here, and Sith Lord or not I am going to make you bend over this table and take my demands like a good little woman, got it?" He hissed in her ear, her silence defiant at this horrendous reversal of normality.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

The transport landed quickly.

Empress Teta was his homeworld, and though he held no real sway here, his position as head of Titan Industries and the renown that his name carried on this world allowed him to gain more than a little traction with the government officials that would normally bar a private army from landing on a planet.

“FIND HER!” Alric screamed as the Sons of Titan began to fan out.

Of course, they would have help. The necklace that Silara wore so tightly around her neck was also a locator beacon. It served as a health monitor and as a way to find Silara to the nearest meter of where she was actually standing. The technology had served him well before, back on Coruscant when she had gone after some fool.

Now it was being used again, only this time Alric would be there for her.

Suddenly a loud crack rang out.

A projectile struck the hull of the starship only inches from where he was standing, metal rebounding off of metal. His eyes went wide, and he whirled slightly, trying to pinpoint the direction of where the shot had come from. His Sons were already in motion, three of them using jump packs to find the assailant. Alric whirled about and stalked forward, using the locator beacon in his glasses.

There was no walk, no calm or cool collected stride.

Alric sprinted.

Kiran and the others ran with him, their worry evident. Alric didn't care though, he didn't care about his own well being or the idea of getting hurt. Her vitals were spiking again, adrenaline levels, fear, everything. Someone was hurting her, and he couldn't let it happen.

An explosion ruptured the wall he was heading towards, One of the Sons breaking through the outer rim of the structure.

Alric threw his hands up, stopping fragmentation from peppering his face, letting it tear through his clothes and skin. He felt blood seep from a small wound in his chest, but he found himself ignoring it. A ringing erupted in his ears, but again, there was no time for it. His arms came down, and he found himself already within the dark tunnels. “Kiran!”

The Tetan shouted, and his Commander rushed forward.

Blaster fire rang out, screams, the sound of death erupting.

Alric only followed the signal.

That tiny blip, that beep. That was her, that was what was important. He ran through the halls, not sure if there was a Son following or someone else. His ear was still ringing, and his hand clutches a blaster which he had taken from somewhere. A man rushed at him, he pulled the trigger, once, twice, a third time, stomping on the mans face to silence his death.

The blip happened again, and Alric turned a corner.

Somewhere in the facility he heard a cry, down the hall. He rushed forward, no inhibition or stalling. His shoes pounded against hard stone, and he turned, firing his blaster at the doors locks.

There he found her, another man reaching and grasping her.

Alric's eyes went wild.

He was a man that was used to fighting bare handed, a man that was used to the cold touch of fists to his face. He had given it up after his heart attack, had let himself relax and focus more, but seeing this, the woman he loved grasped and assaulted. His vision went read.

Like the Titan he was Alric surged forward, Blaster forgotten and a primal yell escaping his throat. He tackled the other man away from [member="Silara"], pulling him off her and throwing him into the ground. His fists then began to work, knuckles pressing deep into the mans face. Once, twice, a third time, then again and again. He broke teeth and shattered bone, not stopping even when the man before him was little less than a bloody pulp.

 

[Ellie Mors]

It was as she fell from her seat to the ground that the cold, hard, blunt hammer of reality struck her. She wasn't in power anymore, she wasn't anything. Every time she'd gone to do something as she had in the past she had failed. It wasn't Kashyyk, it wasn't plotting, she simply ceased to be as she was. The sharp pain of oxygen flooding back into her lungs informed her of all she truly needed to know - what Alric perhaps already knew, what she should have realized. The events in the Netherworld had crippled her beyond her sight, beyond a heart condition that put her on blood thinners. Her entire connection to the force had been ruptured, with her ability through farsight - blind or not - the person who had been lying in wait to knock her out should have been realized, she should never had been captured - none of this should have happened. Her ears were ringing still, and she could have sworn she heard the familiar voice of her fiance's most trusted bodyguard, Kiran, shouting at Alric as he passed her - as she fell. Blind to the world, and now numb to the force. What sort of Sith was she? Perhaps she could fall onto the teachings of the pretenders that took the mantle of Sith, those who populated most, if not all, of the One Sith and their allies, with the belief that her love was her flaw, the weakness that caused this. But all of these misfortunes stemmed from the day on Coruscant that she was completely cut off from the force and the world around her - unable to see, hear, touch.

Most subconscious issues resolve themselves when discovered consciously, others manifest as a flinching fear. While she lay, waiting for someone else to come for her, perhaps Alric himself if he didn't hurt himself barging in, a frustrated smile etched itself on her pale face. She had always bore a strong connection to the force, and for a while her blindness seemed to be a gift wrapped as a curse by increasing this connection at the cost of her eyesight, but now she was simply a shadow of her former self. A shade. Now she was as she had been as an Acolyte, perhaps worse off. While Alric would most certainly be happy to have her near his side on a leash at all times for safety at this point, there was nothing she hated more than captivity, and her blindness and confusion with the force only seemed to bolster the sense that she was a helpless caged animal. Almost as if those same chains that bound her prior were redoubled in strength, those of fate. "Kark me." Came her angry whisper, laying her head down against the floor when she suddenly felt sick to her stomach. As she recalled she'd arrived on Teta at what would generally be morning hours on Coruscant, very early at that, and if her sense of time wasn't as fethed up as her control of the force, it was still prior to noon. An eyebrow rose, but she shrugged it off as a case of food poisoning or the likes. Eventually someone got to her and cut apart the metallic binds at her wrists and helped her to her feet. The first thing she wanted to do was back away - Alric's rage was like a fountain of energy for her, the ability to consume the essence of emotions for power seemingly the only instinctual force power she retained on a level that she had carried prior to this whole debacle, and she knew he'd be upset with her - but she also had plans set in motion to take control of Koros Spaceworks and then the planet's infrastructure itself.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Silara"]

It was one of the Sons that pulled him off the man, though truth be told he should have been able to get up off of his own volition. The feeling of anger had over come him however, that hot streak that ran through his core, that saw him in a rage and seeing red had simply overcome him. As the Son of Titan pulled him free of the bloody pulp of a Man Alric thrashed, only stopping when a hand rushed against the back of his head.

Alric looked confused for a moment, then found Kiran standing to his side.

The Zeltron frowned for a second, his helmet clipped beneath his arm. He jerked his head towards Silara, standing there alone.
Alrics heart sank, and almost as if everything had been forgotten he rushed over to her. His hands embraced her, feeling her, ensuring that she was okay, that none of her bones were broken or fractured. They swept up her body and to her neck, eventually grasping her face in a gentle hold to tilt her head upward so he could kiss her.

He was angry.

There was no doubt in his mind at that. He felt a white hot rage, perhaps at her, perhaps at the situation, but as his lips came away from hers his tone was more than biting. “Stop.”

His thumbs stroked across her cheek.

“Stop doing this.” Anger mixed with concern flowed through his voice. “I don't know why...I don't know why you keep going off on your own. Maybe you think I'm weak. Maybe you think you're stronger this way. Maybe you think I won't support you, but you're wrong. I'm not a weakness, I'm a strength.”

His voice was stronger now, confident, stating facts. “I may not have the force, I may not have all of your knowledge or even half your skills, but I can still help you. Titan spans the galaxy. I have contacts, connections, I have an army bigger than half the factions In the galaxy have.” That wasn't exaggeration either. “I may not fully understand the games of Sith, but I can still help. I am an unquestioning, unwavering ally. I'm your husband.“ Not yet technically but he was making a point. “I will always be at your side. I will always help. I will always support you. You just have to let me.”

Even with his scathing anger it was more than clear that he still loved her. As he spoke his thumbs gently stroked her cheeks, his fingers dabbed at her neck, and his boy remained pressed against hers.

 

[Ellie Mors]

How easy it would have been to cry, to sob tearlessly into his arms and beg for forgiveness. He'd give it, she assumed, but no matter how much she wanted to break down simply from realizing her connection with the force was not as it had been, it was his words that metaphorically hammered the nail into her coffin. Everything Alric told her spoke of worry, of frustration, of hurt. She hadn't thought to think about whether or not if this escapade or the last would make him think she didn't trust him didn't believe in him. Maybe he even felt his position undermined because of her. She'd always been about herself, never for anyone else until recent. "I know." Came her quiet response, so not used to this. More than anything she just wanted to put this all behind her, to simply give up on everything and crawl into bed under the covers. Nowadays it was the only place she felt like she was alone, safe to have her breakdowns or to wallow in self-pity away from prying or worrying eyes. Slowly it began to become clear that she was losing her touch - years of experience quickly amounting to nothing and at the moment there was little she could do. It had been months since she last meditated, longer still since she last performed an actual session of training. But none of that really mattered.

Alric's pride, his trust, had been wounded, and worse yet by her. She hadn't came with the intention to do so, her intention had been to seize the corporation that funded the Krath, to take control of Empress Teta in a similar but more or less behind-the-scenes approach to Rendili in the past. Only this time she hadn't been accepted into a meeting of kind words, rather thrown into a cell and smacked around for a bit. She lifted her hand and touched it to Alric's as he held her face, her pale face becoming a bit pinkish as her heart rate accelerated slightly - not that she was having an issue so much as choking back tears. Again her stomach lurched and she felt sick to her stomach, and that combined with her rather eventful day just set the mood wonderfully. "I was afraid of becoming weak.. but I guess I missed the point of no return there." She mused, a sad smile plastered against her face. The whole day had gone to chaos in a handbasket, and all she had wanted was to prove to herself she was still a valuable asset to the Sith. She sighed, trying to find her words, failing several times to get them out. "I want your help, Alric, I do. There are just some things I want to do on my own, like beat down these miserable thugs for taking advantage of you. Maybe I'm just getting old, I don't really know." She continued, rambling, "But when you and I are sitting together and you sound like a hurt little kid it moves me into action. The other day you told me of your history with these idiots, of your past, and you sounded so afraid I was going to be upset, disappointed, or something." Silara explained, holding her eyelids tightly shut as she tried to think. "Maybe I'm not doing this just for you, maybe it isn't just for me, but I like to think I'm worming my way passed that wall of discomfort. Besides, taking control of this miserable dump and the remaining Krath would be a brilliant way to get rid of your enemies here, Koros spaceworks would be a good start, too." She added, leaving out her thoughts on taking control of the company herself, along with the Krath.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Silara"]

He remained quiet for what must have seemed like an age, his thumbs stopped moving across her cheeks, his lips thinned.

Finally, he leaned in an kissed her forehead.

“You're not weak.” He said quietly, ignoring for the time everything else that she had said. “I won't pretend to understand the force or even the basics of how it works, but I know you, I know the woman I love. You're not weak in any sense of the word.”

Alric's voice was firm, stating fact.

“You can do things on your own, I know you can, but you don't have to do everything alone. You have me. You have the Sons. You have all of Titan. You have everything I have and more. I'm not saying you can't do things by yourself...” He smiled slightly. “...I'm just saying if you're going on a mission of planetary conquest...bring some help.”

“Any problem. Any issue. Anything that stands in our way, we can overcome. The Krath, my competitors, anyone in the galaxy, they're nothing as long as we have each other.” His thumb gently stroked across her cheek, trailing across a thin line. For him, there had never been any doubt about his success, there had never been any thought of failure. At times he thought it was that confidence that drew Silara to him, that made her fall for him.

He hoped now that it would help her understand.

"And you're not old." Alric said as he kissed her forehead again. "When our kids have kids and were spoiling them rotten, that's when you can complain about being old."

He touched upon a light subject, a reminder to her. They would survive, and thrive as Silara and Alric Kuhn.

 

[Ellie Mors]

Why did everything have to be so complicated with them? With this? Was she a Sith Lord first, or his wife? Both? She couldn't tell anymore. Lines were blurring, and the way they'd grown attached to each other was so unlike the both of them that it caused quite a bit of confusion within her that made her act so differently around him - not that she wasn't herself with him, just that she was incapable of being the tower of strength that she wanted to be and that was not a normal situation for her, something she would have to adjust to in time. She related her inability to use the force as masterfully as she had a month ago to this confusion, and came to the conclusion that they were inter-related, and though his words were meant to be kind, to be affectionate, they came off as brash and impertinent to her frustrated ears. Another pain in her stomach and her already pale, bruised, face was overcame with a look of annoyance and discomfort. "You don't understand, when you're around me - when I'm with you - you become my weakness, I'm afraid of losing you and I don't want you to get involved so you don't get hurt." She shot back, interjecting her frustrated words hastily and pushed him away when his lips touched her forehead. Immediately she regretted it, and the look of shock on her face, as well as pain and fear, was evident, but she was as stubborn as a bull when it came to these things and she shook her head and turned away, her blind eyes going wide at the realization of what she said and the possible consequences.

Rather than try to be a vulnerable little flower any longer she stormed off, cursing herself under her breath as she pushed her artificial hand into the wall as she passed it, tearing at the synthflesh that covered the sturdy material beneath. 'I'm a fething mess. I can't do anything without somehow karking it all up!' She screamed internally, every ounce of her aching along with her head as one would while experiencing a migraine. She fished her right hand into the pouch at her waist to retrieve her medication and hastily swallowed several multi-colored pills, some of which were certainly not for bipolar disorder, and immediately felt her stomach lurch. She hadn't ate anything, so the feeling of being sick certainly couldn't have been from that - and it wasn't from not eating, she was capable of slowing her metabolic rate in order to keep herself alive for weeks at a time without a good source of food. At that point she would have looked over her shoulder, if she could, but instead assumed that she'd have hurt Alric far too much, too much to be immediately forgiven at the very least, and figured he'd probably still be there - though she had no doubt Kiran or one of those other bastard Sons would be coming after her to bring her back - not that she didn't like them, they were like an extended family to her, she just felt oddly moody at the moment, frustrated with everything around her, everything with her. And then - well, and then -

She threw up.

Right on the center of the hall in front of her.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Silara"]

Hurt?

Her words stung him like a smack to the face, he almost recoiled when she said them, standing dazed for a second as she stormed off. He had seen the hurt and confusion in her eyes, but it hadn't quite reached him. The anger that welled inside of him, the stinging pain. He shook his head, focusing for a second, clenching his fists.

Alric turned toward where Silara had gone, following after her. “I'm not a child!”

His voice was stern, strong, authoritative. It was a tone that Silara rarely heard from him and it was laced with anger.

“You don't have to be afraid for me. You can't be afraid for me.” He yelled to her, trying to find her. “You know what I've survived. You know what I do. Every day. Every single day I go up against Terrorists, Jedi, even Si-”

He was cut off as the sound of retching could be heard.

It echoed loudly through the halls, and though his anger was still present it was quickly overshadowed by concern. “Silara!?”

None of the Sons would be throwing up, and he doubted any of the pirates were still alive, it could only be her. With no datapad and no holo-screen he couldn't check her biometics, and quickly he felt a spiking surge of panic. He rushed forward, his boots pressing against the metal floor. He searched frantically, finding Silara bent over in the hall, vomit covering the floor.

He went to her, still seething but filled with concern.

“Schatz?” The pet name rang out in his native tongue, his hand reaching to soothingly touch her back. Even in anger he could still comfort her, love her. He had promised to do that.

 

[Ellie Mors]

She had heard his voice echo down the hall behind her as she leaned against the wall and heaved, her mind moving a mile a minute. She could hear the rage and the hurt, both which matched her frustration, her confusion. If she loved him, why did she doubt them, why did she question herself? She had hoped - she had wished - that he had realized she wasn't lashing out in outrage. But his touch against her back was cold and she recoiled on contact with the tips of his fingers and groaned loudly with frustration and nausea. "I don't care that you're not a child, you big-headed idiot." She grumbled, pushing herself to the side, into the wall, and slid to her knees. "Look at me, I'm on my fething knees sitting by a puddle of my own vomit, and you're lecturing me on not being weak." Silara complained, taking her prosthetic left hand and bashing it into the wall that she leaned against, tearing more of the synthflesh away. "I hate this, I hate what every day has become. I go to do something and you come to rescue me, then we fight about it, and then I resent you for it." She rasped, her right hand running over her artificial left, acutely aware that she'd need to repair the covering for her left - not that she cared, she hated the robotic limb. Lightly she pushed the side of her head up against the cold steel wall, which brought relief to her aching head.

She felt nauseous, her head ached, and every ounce of her being hurt. She didn't want to deal with this, she hated these problems, and she just wanted them to just disappear - she could blame it on life, she could blame it on herself, but it didn't matter, they happened and she hated it. Every last minute of it. She waited for her tidal wave of anger to wash over her from Alric, she knew it was coming. At this point she was in no mood to let the situation cool down, and she didn't want him to just stop in his tracks out of fear that she wasn't alright, she was tired of being pitied, treated like some delicate bauble meant to be kept on the highest shelf. "I don't know what, who, I am anymore. Just go away, it isn't like you don't have someone else to run to." She spat, immediately regretting her outburst. Silently she wanted him to shout, to yell, and to help her get over it, while her stubborn anger wanted him to walk away from her and let her wallow in her own self-pity, to fuel her cycle of self-loathing.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

"Stop." Alric said, his tone serious, stern, hard. "Just fucking stop."

His words were harsh, but a reflection of his thoughts. Bright blue eyes cast down at her though they evened out as he slowy squatted down to stare her in the eyes. She wouldnt see it, but the action was importanr, was powerful. It conveyed the strength of his conviction. "You are Silara Kuhn. Darth Vitium. The woman that took down a Titan and made him love her. The woman that achieved something that no other had ever had a chance at doing."

There was a biting tone to his voice, a strength of anger, of rage hidden behind a veil of absolute devotion and love.

"You are not weak." His voice was nearly yelling now, a slight emphasis put on certain words in order to get through her thick skull.

He wanted her to feel good, he wanted her to be happy. He wanted her to have everything she could ask for. Yet at the same time he was still angry with her. He wanted her to understand. Understand that he loved her and wanted her to succeed.

"Stop this. You know I love you and only you." His voice contiued to have that bite to it. That convincing anger. "I will not leave. I will not go, and you will listen."

Alric moved closer to her, his hand reaching out and grasping her own. "You will find that strength within yourself. You will conquer them all, and you will have me at your side. You are not weak! I am not weak! Together we are not weak! Get that through your head. Understand it. Move past it!"

His voice was filled with strength, passion, authority. His tone denoted anger, command, and passion like she had never heaed before.

"I love you." He said. "Understand that. Find the strength within it, because its not stopping anytime soon."

His hand squeezed hers.

[member="Silara"]

 

[Ellie Mors]

The touch of his skin against her made her flinch, she expected a slap, something, but instead she found her hand being held tightly - much to her surprise. She'd thought the buttons she'd pushed would have enraged him, and though the force told her his emotions were heightened they were not as she thought they would be, instead he offered her his hand in a way that both touched her and upset her further. She was angry with herself for coming off like some helpless two-bit schutta of a woman, and with him for being so controlling, but when he did things like this - appearing to forgive her, even ignore her bad moments, at the drop of a hat - it made staying angry with him or herself incredibly difficult. "I love you, too, sometimes I just.." She replied, pausing to gather her thoughts, which seemed to be scattered about her. "I just get so overwhelmed with the changes in my life that I take it out on the first thing that makes me upset." She explained with an extended sigh. She wasn't satisfied with the reasoning she'd given, but it was the best example she could think of at the moment.

"I came alone because I didn't want you involved with them, you've told me about them, and it didn't sit well with me. And.." Silara continued, trying to explain herself - as she suddenly felt the need to do so. "Well, and I had plans to take over the Krath and their front company, Koros Spaceworks, that involved a bit of kidnapping and torture, things I've been subject to by my late master. I hadn't exactly planned it to happen so quickly, but it was going along with what I expected." She said, elaborating on her plot to take control over the small faction of elites and nobles. "But, if you want to get involved, then I wouldn't, you know.. mind a little help here and there." She stammered, her nose wrinkling and her brow pushed together in mock frustration. She pressed her lips together tightly and off to the side as she had in the past when confronted with a problem or situation she wasn't in control of. "Will you forgive me?" Silara asked quietly, knowing the answer but still anticipating the unlikely.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Silara"]

He stared at her for a few moments.

Thoughts ran through his mind, his eyes searching her, looking at her and trying to see something. A slight frown found its way to his face. His lips thinned and for a brief second he looked away from her, staring at the vomit on the floor. The smell wafted in his face, his nose scrunching automatically as the unpleasant odor stuck in his nostrils.

“Of course.” He said with another squeeze of her hand.

Alric would always forgive her in the end, he loved her after all.

“I always want to help, and I will always help.” Alric said quietly to her, his hand reaching up and grasping her chin, lifting her face so that she would look him in the eye. “But I understand if sometimes you don't want me there”

He harkened back to her earlier words of feeling weak. “Just...just don't keep me in the dark. Tell me things. Don't just run off and do it. I need...i need to know you're safe. If...if anything happened to you...I wouldn't...i couldn't...”

That anger that had sung within him quickly masked itself, wrapped thoughts of a ruined future. He shook his head slightly.

“I can't...” He trailed off again. “I just can't.”

Alric couldn't quite put voice to his thoughts, but he hoped she would understand, that she would know. What he was trying to say. If she died, if she got hurt again, if anything were to take her from him...it would destroy him.

 

[Ellie Mors]

She understood, nodding her head to make that much at least known, and felt a bit of her fear alleviate itself, and with it left a large amount of the stress she'd been under - held to an impossible standard by the Sith to operate a massive project some weeks from now, her husband experiencing a heart attack at an age far too young to die, and then this strange anxiety that her medication seemed to do nothing for. Could she had glanced at her feet to look at the vomit that stained the tiled flooring, she would have, but settled instead on wondering why in the force she was suddenly so nauseous. At most she ate a salad the night before she arrived on Teta, and that morning she had abstained from eating, so the urge to do so was most certainly not for food, and the health scan she'd received for having passing through a crowd of Neimoidians had shown she wasn't carrying any pathogens and was not sick. It was incredibly puzzling - puzzling until she realized that almost every night for the last several months had something in common, something lacking protection

"Oh my.." She gasped, wondering when it had happened - and suddenly extremely guilty for having put something so precious in such danger for doing what she did. Though she realized it so suddenly, she didn't want to tell Alric unless she was completely positive - and she knew he'd probably have another heart attack if she told him just then. "Let's get out of here, I need to get to their main office on the other side of this building." Silara said quickly, hoping to remove any unwanted suspicion from her health, and removed a small napkin from the small pouch that hung at her side to wipe away the spittle that dotted her lips before discarding it with the rest of the filth on the ground - she'd have the place cleaned spotless after she was in charge. "Are you feeling better, hon? You've been drinking enough water, right? Not staying up all night too, hm?" She asked, turning her attention for the moment to her husband's well-being as she got up and waited for a little help in directions.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Silara"]

Alric smiled at her.

“Ja Liebling” His tone was softer, half joking. “I also brushed my teeth.”

Truthfully, he was doing better. He was eating better, regularly exercising, and thanks to Silara he was now sleeping at night. She had done her best to keep him in bed, giving him an avenue of rest and relaxation, then forcing him to stay there. Alric smiled at the thought. It helped of course that Titan was now not just being run by him, but also Shil. That and Kiran had taken on more responsibility.

Ever so slowly Titan Industries was beginning to run itself, giving Alric more freedom. A good thing for the man who wanted nothing more than to be with his wife.

Slowly he leaned in close and kissed her forehead. The sick on the floor was forgotten, assigned to her nerves and the brief bout that had just happened. Alric rose, gently taking her hands in his own and lifting her to her feet. His arms wrapped around her, embracing her and kissing just above her ear before whispering. “After this...when this is done. I want to marry you.”

They had never talked about a date before, about when it would happen, but he realized that he didn't want to wait.

“I don't care who we invite. Where we do it. How many we tell.” Whether it was the galaxy or only the two of them, it didn't matter. “I want this. I want you.”

That was all there was to say. She had told him it wasn't all about what she wanted, that she wasn't a fragile flower, that she needed to be told no and that he needed to have his wants seen to as well. This was something that he wanted, if only so that he could call her his wife. He squeezed her slightly, and with that would begin to guide her to where she wanted to go.

 

[Ellie Mors]

She smirked and felt the instinctual urge to roll her eyes, though the lack of movement in her eye sockets were a dead giveaway that her disapproving amusement hadn't completely translated. She felt a little better about scolding him for not sleeping now, although she hadn't expected him to quite literally collapse from overworking himself. She smiled slightly when his lips touched her forehead and then tugged on his hands as she was pulled up playfully, she knew what was coming next - or at least the physical portions of such. A hug, a kiss, they weren't just an everyday thing for the couple, she loved every moment they spent doing it - it was special to her even if it had become so common, so unlike many of the other things that had been "special" to her in the past. This was a man she could, that she would, spend her life together with and never grow tired of his constant sarcastic replies, his dry humor, or even his absent-minded and blunt responses. But the whisper in her ear brought her not only out of her sad-happy mood, but made her perhaps as elated as she would possibly get, the thought she had in her head momentarily forgotten. "Yes!" She shouted, or perhaps shrieked was a more apt description of the level of excitement that increased the intensity of her singular scream. "Of course we can do it right away!" Silara added, suddenly as self-conscious as the day they met. She smiled crookedly, her lips scrunching up at the left corner of her mouth as if she was mulling something over - the memory of his face flashing in the front of her mind. 'Get a hold of yourself, girl, you sound way too excited!' She screamed to herself internally, her thoughts sounding just as pent up with excitement as she was. "I have a few people in mind, but I don't have much family or friends to speak of, I'm perfectly fine if you invite or tell whoever you've had in mind." She said happily, turning towards the hall to tug him along with her, now oddly happy as they walked off toward the front end of the building, her senses homing in on a familiar presence in the force however faint.

-

It hadn't taken quite as long as she expected, though she supposed the several times she'd been pulled away from walking into a broom closet by her fiance did prevent her from getting quite as lost as she'd expected. Together they found themselves in the lobby of the building, where she was less-than-surprised to find that the Sons of Titan had already been and were currently standing about, the lingering sensation of recent death hanging in the air like a dense fog. She didn't quite feel very affected by it so much as she was strengthened by it, but was glad to find that the two people whom she'd been looking forward to meeting again were on their knees with their hands behind their heads up against a wall. "Well it appears I didn't have to get my hands as dirty as I would have expected, though I was looking forward to a more subtle takeover than this." She mused aloud, walking towards the two as she gestured for one of the Sons to give them a little space and patted her fiance's arm to let him know she was going to do this herself, though she half expected him to interject if she needed or looked like she needed his help. "So, Leena and Bant, if I recall?" Silara asked with a smug grin, watching them squirm as they realized just who was speaking to them. "In less than an hour I will be the one in charge of the Krath, along with the very man you seemed so keen to beat me in order to anger, and you both will have two options given to you." She continued, letting out a brief sigh as she realized how easy this had became now that [member="Alric Kuhn"] had gotten involved. "And what would that be?" Hissed the voice of the younger woman, Leena, much to the chagrin of the older gentleman who seemed to tower over her even while kneeling beside her - earning a swift elbow to the arm from the man beside her. Scowling, she sighed once again before pausing to ponder on whether she should be so kind as to still give her the chance. "You can either be killed like those who resisted their capture, as I'm sure you've noticed, or you can continue to serve the Krath under us. I'll give you both a second chance, but if you'd rather throw it away.." Silara explained, allowing her voice to trail off. "No, no, we'd be more than happy to continue working with the rest of the group, wouldn't we, Leena?" Bant said nervously, quite unlike what she expected from a man with such a build. A quiet grumble from the girl signified her submission and for the moment she was pleased. "Good. Dear is there anything you needed done?" She added, turning back to face Alric as she asked her question.