Private Lessons in Blood

[Darth Prazutis]

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A foul darkness crept over the densely populated cities of the temperate world below, blotting out the very sun above.

Deep shadows cast long shapes over the city as its streets grew dense with the population of curious, concerned citizens at the sudden spatial phenomenon. The world below grew darker as the clouds above grew heavy and black, drowning them in a twilight beneath and pushing out the defiance of the light. Down through the clouds a comet of purest crimson fell, its tail leaving arcs of crimson lightning illuminating the darkness above, the very air growing heavier. The comet descended with crippling speed crashing straight down into a densely populated square in the central portion of the city below. Its sheer force shattered glass for a dozen city blocks, sending a column of dark energy and showering debris high into the sky above. But the impact on those below? Horrific. It was indescribable horror, pure carnage that reduced living beings to sprays of bloody mist, bodily shrapnel, and flesh transfigured into nothing but a gel mass.​

That was when he emerged.​

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A giant stood in the destructions wake of such presence the very air grew heavier, and the darkness grew longer. It wasn't commanded to his side or channeled no, that would be too simple. His will simply became reality around Him, the darkness came to Him at His mere presence. Before them stood the Dark Lord of the Kainate, the Shadow Hand Darth Prazutis, and a smaller raven-haired form of a female who stood beside Him. But there was no rhyme or reason as to how they had survived the catastrophic explosion, all that remained in the immediate vicinity around them was a colorless void. This void created an abominable wrongness that would never cease, never leave it would persist despite all else, and everything stopped at its borders. The giant held a firm hand on her shoulder. He was clad in a set of reflective, form fitting black plate and robes He stood the epitome of a ruling warlord, a tyrannical planet crushing despot. His lightsaber was clasped to His waist itself a dark instrument radiating fell power. ​

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When He removed His hand from her shoulder the Dark Lord exhaled deeply, and color rushed in to fill the void around them. But even though it remained full the mark left behind would remain, creating a permanent fell feeling in this place. He stepped out from the crater left by their arrival to a chorus of agonized screams, a symphony of grief-stricken wails and fear driven panic. All around Him He exuded a presence of finality, the sheer immensity of Him was equal parts intoxication and asphyxiation. It was like flying for the first time above the clouds and drowning in the crushing depths of the ocean, it overwhelmed everything around Him, the darkness ceaselessly obeying, death clung to Him like a shroud. "You have grown stronger in your time with me. But you have much to learn still." The Dark Lord spoke without looking at her, standing above her while His eyes swept a scrutinizing gaze over everything around Him, drinking in the fear of the crowds paralyzed in fear as hysteria gripped their hearts.​

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"Come. Look upon the unwashed masses, see what they truly are. They live short, fleeting, meaningless lives carving out a pointless existence. In our presence they are nothing but tools. Their worth is entirely predicated on your will, their fates tied to the design you have for them. Today I have chosen their home as the site of your next lesson, I have judged their worth and determined they may prove useful in unlocking your deeper potential. Now look upon them. Look deeper than merely flesh, blood, and bone. Tell me what you see, what you feel around you. Feel everything."​

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Revna ​

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[Revna]

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She knew that her little vacation on Korriban would come to an end, eventually.

The summons had come, and she had ignored them at first. But the device in her spine had made it clear that she didn’t have a choice in the matter; she could feel the powerful will of the Shadow Hand be exerted over her, and she chose not to fight against it again. She made no mention of her new situation to Darth Caedes, and had slipped away from Korriban silently to heed her summoning. Why she was being called back to the Dark Lords after so long, she wasn’t sure. The shadowy unknown of what lay ahead for her, made her exceedingly nervous. Did they know that the King had chosen her to become his queen? Did they wish to try and manipulate her against him, bend her further to their will? Deny her this opportunity? Force her back into a Black Cell? Force her to hunt down the remnants of her late Master’s Order and destroy them all? To perhaps execute her, seeing as her original use to be used against Darth Strosius no longer applied? Or perhaps the Dark Lords of the Kainate had another purpose for her altogether?

She was soon to find out the truth, one way or the other, she mused darkly to herself as she guided the starcraft towards Dromund Kaas. Upon reaching her destination, she steeled herself to face whatever lay beyond the shuttle doors…and when the outside world was revealed to her, Revna Marr was greeted by a sight she hoped to never see again:

Darth Prazutis, the Shadow Hand himself. Waiting for her.

Revna took a deep breath before she stepped out to face the giant Epicanthix, both curious and dreading to know what he had in store for her.

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Exhaustion.

It was all consuming. The Disciple had been exhausted of her Force energies before, but not to this degree. Perhaps the closest she had ever come was when she had unleashed her Force scream, when she felt her Master die. The moment the cold void had been birthed into existence within her. The moment the insatiable hunger had made its presence known. She had spent the last few months, perhaps longer, trying to fight off and ignore that hunger that clawed at the very edges of her consciousness. Had found ways to stop it from driving her mad.

And now that she had been forced to expel everything, all that there was left was that hunger. The need for warmth, for life. For something other than the chill that froze the blood in her veins.

A powerful grip on her shoulder steadied the small Sith woman; beside her, towering feet above her, was Prazutis. Her being utterly drained and exhausted was his doing - and he had then taken her somewhere to teach her yet another lesson.

Now her eyes beheld exactly where he had brought her; a city, on some forsaken planet, somewhere within the Galaxy. Their arrival had been the harbinger of death and destruction, and all around her lay ruin as if a bomb had gone off in the city itself. The scent of dust and debris, along with the sickeningly sweet smell of flesh and blood, greeted her senses. Next came the sound, wails and screams that ripped at the soul, the heart, of a person - if they had a heart at all. Such a thing would no doubt cripple a Jedi, had any been nearby to feel such suffering.

But for a Sith?

The song of suffering was where they thrived.

Darth Prazutis released his hold on her shoulder and stepped beyond her to view the sights around them; she remained where she was in the crater, looking over the destruction caused by their arrival. She was in student mode now, her senses and attention mostly on the Dark Lord beyond her. She still didn’t know why he had brought her here, but she had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that she was soon to learn the truth.

"You have grown stronger in your time with me. But you have much to learn still." the Tyrant said without looking at her, his voice echoing over the ruined cityscape around them. After a few moments of silence, he spoke once more to her, a command to be obeyed:

“Come. Look upon the unwashed masses, see what they truly are. They live short, fleeting, meaningless lives carving out a pointless existence. In our presence they are nothing but tools. Their worth is entirely predicated on your will, their fates tied to the design you have for them. Today I have chosen their home as the site of your next lesson, I have judged their worth and determined they may prove useful in unlocking your deeper potential. Now look upon them. Look deeper than merely flesh, blood, and bone. Tell me what you see, what you feel around you. Feel everything.”

Revna stared at his back for a moment, her eyes glittering. He wanted her to use her senses, when she was already so drained? Was that possible? Sighing softly, she stepped beyond the crater itself, her dark robes moving about her like a whisper, as she moved closer to Prazutis’s position. She didn’t get too close to him, maintaining a healthy and respectful distance from the Dark Lord.

The little woman looked upon everything that surrounded her, before she dipped her head slightly and closed her eyes. It was difficult to tap into the web of the Force, to spread her senses out beyond her, when she hardly had enough energy to put one foot in front of the other. But she was not one to give up so easily; she dug in deep, pushed herself further than she thought she could...until she began to pick up the environment around her, the emotions that filled the empty spaces.

Front and foremost was the rawness of suffering experienced by those in the immediate surroundings; beyond that, rippling out like a tidal wave, was fear - so deep and so tempting. Revna knew very well how powerful a Sith could be when feeding upon the energies of fear. Within, her hunger stirred - grew deeper and darker, for every soul she glimpsed, she saw a wellspring of life, of energy. She was drawn to it, like a moth to a flame. Each little spark promised renewal.

“I see…a city of lost souls, creatures bound to the chains of mundanity. They take and give nothing back, know nothing of suffering. We are like gods to them, and I feel their fear, rippling out like a cold breeze. I feel life, little sparks of…energy. I feel….”

There was a long pause as she tilted her head to one side, wrestling with the truth that was within her, but unable to deny it any longer. Her eyes snapped open, burning with the intent that filled her mind.

“...Hunger.”

Darth Prazutis​

 

[Darth Prazutis]

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"You grasp the surface. You walk the right track. Now push deeper." He swept His gaze across the fleeing crowds and plucked one out of the faceless masses, merely pressing His will on the world. The man swept through the air at blinding speeds, suspended before Him in mere moments, while the Dark Lord hadn't even moved, His blazing orbs met the captives as he struggled, thrashing and screaming. "Silence." A simple order but the sheer impact of His will, His iron dominion shot through the man like lightning, a thunderclap on his psyche and he froze. He raised a single hand then and with a blur of movement drove it straight through the man's abdomen, blood bubbled out from the open hole around His fist as he pulled out a large strand of the mans intestines. "Drown yourself in his fear, choke on his pain. Taste the very flowing blood. Feel every moment as I rip the intestines from his trembling form." It was a simple task. Push deeper, further. But nothing the Dark Lord told her was simple, if you read beneath the surface of what He was trying to say.

"You speak what their place is. Now understand it, we are more. Measure their meager lives in worth, purpose. Remember this. Say what you need to them as you accumulate power, gather strength. Cloak yourself in deception like a shroud, tell them what you need to bind them to you but remember this fact. They exist only as far as you can measure them in accordance to the design, to the fate you intend for them. Exploit their desires, fears to your own ends then discard them when they no longer serve your interests." The Dark Lord paused focusing His attention on the motionless man before Him suffering in silence, tears streaking down his face as it twisted with maddening pain. Blood began to pool on the ground beneath now.

"This is a fact your former master Lord Strosius, and Lord Malum struggle with. They cloak themselves in the lie of morality. Your former master freed many slaves, fashioning himself as a breaker of chains. This is nothing but weakness manifest. They mean nothing. Jedi struggle with their shackles of morality and this makes them weak, predictable. In war they move like insects desperately wasting energy and time on evacuating civilians, suffering and death cripples their minds and makes them easy to outmaneuver, gives so much weakness to exploit. I once shattered a galactic nation by consigning an entire city to oblivion. When faced with its destruction directly, feeling millions die, its monarchs resolve shattered like glass. Why? Weakness. I was willing to take the next step, she was not. Strength alone justifies action. This is something your former allies have yet to learn themselves." He pulled what remained from the man's intestines out with a sickening tear and tossed them aside, the man's body was dropped nearby and left to suffer in what remained of his life.

Back to the lesson.

"Now that you've surrounded yourself in his emotion, in his pain pull. Its right in front of you. Such teaching can only be done through experience. Pull it to the darkness, to the void inside you. Drink of it deep until nothing remains of the well within him. It may struggle, rip it from him as I did physically."

Revna




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[Revna]

The Dark Lord told her she was on the right track, but she needed to push deeper. Revna took a deeper breath to steady herself, watching with impassive eyes as the Sith Lord chose a hapless soul who was simply trying to flee for his life, and summoned the man to his vice-like grip. The man struggled against the hold on him, but a single spoken command carried the weight of Prazutis’s power, enough to freeze his victim in place.

Revna hardly flinched when the Shadow Hand thrust his clenched fist into the man’s abdomen and pulled out a fistful of bloody intestines. Blood began to pour from the devastating wound to splatter on the ground beneath the suspended body. Her lips drew into a thin line; this poor soul would suffer immensely before he would be allowed to die, all to teach her a lesson.

The Dark Lord told her to push deeper, to drown herself within the man’s pain and fear. To taste the blood that flowed, to feel every moment that transpired next. It sounded simple…but she knew better. There was always a hidden meaning behind a Sith master’s lessons, something she had started to understand far more clearly as she had begun to teach her own acolytes.

But the thing that Prazutis was telling her to do would require her to surrender to a far darker aspect of herself, and there was hesitation within her. Fear, even. If she stepped over that edge, what would happen to her? Would she get lost within the swirling, ever hungry void within? Would she come back from it?

Heartbeats ticked by as she weighed her options - or rather, the fact that she didn’t have an option. She would have to do this, or face punishment. And she’d had enough of the Shadow Hand’s torments to last a lifetime.

In the end, Revna did as Prazutis bid her to. She focused on the man in the Dark Lord’s grip, feeling his panic and fear as it poured into the Force in the same manner that his blood poured to the ground below. That essence of the poor bastard's emotions was calling to her, and she allowed her Darkness to feed upon that essence, to return a fraction of her strength back to her.

It was like a drop of water for a dying man in the desert. Unbearably cruel, yet promising relief all at the same time.

Her senses were keen and alert as Prazutis spoke once more, imparting his wisdom and insight…another lesson for her to learn and absorb. It was a harsh and difficult lesson for her to hear, for it went against almost everything she’d been taught by Darth Strosius. Once upon a time, she might have rebuked the Dark Lord or outright refused such teachings…but she knew better than that now.

She was in control of what she chose to learn, and what she chose to let go. All knowledge and insight presented to her was worthy of hearing, but she would decide its value to her in the end. Prazutis, Carnifex, Strosius, or anyone else for that matter, didn’t need to know if she accepted their teachings or not.

Prazutis continued after a brief pause, telling her that her own Master, even her own cousin, struggled with the fact of the lesson he presented to her: that morality was a weakness to cast off. Molten eyes flickered briefly to the Dark Lord as he continued with his speech, and she found that she had her own opinions about what he had to say - but it was something she kept to herself. She had learned long ago that nothing she said here would change a damn thing; best that she accept what was said and move on.

Revna continued to watch passively as the dying man’s insides were finally torn free completely and dropped to the dusty and debris-covered ground like a pile of garbage, and the man’s broken body was dropped down several feet with a sickening thud. Her gaze followed the man’s fall, never leaving his gasping and twitching form, even as she continued to listen to Darth Prazutis talk.

She didn’t want to miss a single thing he had to say - for she was aware that within his words would be the key to the lesson she needed to absorb. Lessons were never given twice.

"Now that you've surrounded yourself in his emotion, in his pain pull. It's right in front of you. Such teaching can only be done through experience. Pull it to the darkness, to the void inside you. Drink of it deep until nothing remains of the well within him. It may struggle, rip it from him as I did physically."

There it was; the very heart, the core…of what the Dark Lord of the Kainate was trying to teach Revna. A coldness draped itself over her as she shifted her burning eyes to his face, her expression flickering with understanding mixed with hate and disgust. He knew about the void within her; knew, of the hunger that ripped at her at all times.

He must have known that she had been ignoring it, pushing it aside, refusing to give in.

Now he was giving her no choice in the matter.

“I…understand what you have said to me.” Revna said simply, softly. “I understand that my will is all that matters. That the purpose of others is what I deem it to be. What I say it is.”

Fear pulsed from the dying man crumpled on the ground between Sith apprentice and Dark Lord. Her attention fell back to the man, who was now watching her with glazed eyes. His life’s spark was flickering, faint, and diminishing with each pulse of his tiring heart.

Revna tilted her head to one side, then to the other. His suffering was persisting, because she was hesitating now. Was death not a mercy? Darth Prazutis sought to rip her morality from her, and yet he gave her a reason to keep it, or at least her own twisted version of it.

She moved quietly then, approaching the fallen form before she crouched before him. She cast one last hard and frigid look at Prazutis, before she reached out a purposefully bare hand and touched the man’s forehead - her eyes closing as she did so.

The effect was instantaneous.

The void drew upon that spark, like light being captured in the vortex of a black hole, siphoned into the heart of oblivion. Warmth spread through her veins, across her skin - bringing just the slightest hint of color back to her ashen and pale flesh. In turn, the man’s skin grew ashen and cracked…his eyes sunk in and turned to dust. Within the space of a heartbeat, the dying man was no more - his essence, his life, everything he was…consumed by the hungry void within Revna.

She opened her eyes, now a touch brighter than they had been before, and rose to her feet as the eviscerated corpse turned to dust at her feet. And just like she knew and feared it would - the hunger within grew more intense, the need for warmth clawing at the edges of her consciousness even further, demanding to be fed and satiated. She wanted to be warm again, because now she was oh so cold.

“Now that you have forced me to feed this curse I carry, will you teach me how to control it?” Revna asked of the Dark Lord. “Because I don’t know how, and the more I feed it, the more the hunger takes over me. Even now, my thoughts are nearly consumed with the need for warmth...”

Darth Prazutis ​

 

[Darth Prazutis]

If there were any evidence that the Dark Lord had been watching, any reaction as she turned the dying man to ash, one couldn't tell by looking upon Him. He didn't even pass a second glance as it all happened, almost as if He knew what the outcome would be. But why would that even be a question? Every breath sent tremors of power through the very stone, rocking it with the purest darkness that dominated everything around them. How could you think that prophecy, the future itself would be out of reach for one such as He. "Hunger. The Sith Lord Darth Nihilus once walked the same path you did. Transfigured by the power of the Mass Shadow Generator it left him with a crippling emptiness he could never fill. Such a path led him to the highest wrungs of power, but it became his undoing. It reduced him to nothing more than a slave to his desires, a dog who was led by the nose to his own demise." The Dark Lord inhaled deeply; His gaze fixed forward on the fleeing masses before them who fought over one another in the crowded streets to flee from them. Then he spoke once more but a single word, but the sheer certainty in his dominion swept over them like floodwater.

"Halt." All at once they stopped dead in their tracks. Some mid fall crashed to the ground, on top of others and remained still. It was sudden, ceaseless paralysis that stopped them dead in their tracks with but a single word. "This is something that cannot be taught in any conventional sense and many are not able to use its power. Once you touch it the desire burns within your flesh for more, the addictive nature of tearing out the lifeblood of another being and consuming it. Remember your place you are master not slave, that hunger is the burning addiction to consume more, you decide when to feast it. Endure. The void will remain, but its hunger will not destroy you, if you do not let it. Remember you are in control over its fate, its helpless to your whims. Sate it when it best suits your needs." Once more as if they were always there, a pair plucked out of the crowd simply appeared before Him, darkness pouring around them as they suddenly apparated on their knees a short distance before Him.

"Attune yourself to everyone, everything around you. Where Sith walk we wield the power to bring terror. Now that you've felt its power, you will become in time more sensitive to the emotions, to the lifeblood of everything wherever you walk. Feel the surge of negative emotion. As Sith you can replenish your own stores of energy from it, the greater the source of emotion the more you can draw in. This is why you must become the master of your own environment, control everything around you and position yourself to where it is the most advantageous to you." The Dark Lord exhaled His gaze turning towards a distant skyscraper towering above. The air grew heavy as the force simply reacted to His will; the darkness clamped down like a vice grip around the structure as crimson lightning arced around it striking it from every direction. The entire building exploded, its supports shattering like splintering wood as its upper floors pancaked on one another, crashing down like the fall of a great giant. It brought forth a chorus of fresh screams cutting across the unfolding pandemonium.

"Your strength returns to you by feeding on that small morsel. To continue you require more. Feel the flicker of life within these two, then slowly pull the life from their bodies. Draw out their demise longer, feel everything as you draw it from them to you. The flow is under your control."

Revna
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[Revna]

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Though he didn’t act like he had paid attention to what she had done, Revna knew better. Prazutis didn’t have to look at her to know what she had done. She didn’t need his attention nor his approval for anything - at least, that was what she always told herself.

Revna observed the Sith Lord as he cast his domineering gaze at the city around them; his aura permeated everything with raw, undeniable power and presence. Though she hated him, deeply and with violent intent, the little Sith woman couldn’t help but stand in awe of the sheer might he carried with him. It was such a strange thing - to be in awe of the thing one hated. Both drawn in and repelled away at the same time.

Darth Prazutis continued on with his lesson for her; he shared a brief history lesson with her, about a long dead Sith Lord named Darth Nihilus…a Sith who’s name often struck fear into the hearts of many. Legend had it that his mask had fallen into the possession of the ancient Sith Lords Darth Sidious and Darth Vader…and not even they had dared to don the mask of the Lord of Hunger.

To hear that she now shared a likeness with that ancient Sith being, sent a chill down her spine. His hunger had given him to power untold, yet it had utterly controlled him. No other Sith since his time, that she was aware of, had contained the same kind of hunger he had, like what she had…and if he hadn’t been able to control…how could she?

A single command from Prazutis halted the fleeing masses, before he continued onward - explaining to her that what she asked him to do, to teach her how to control her hunger…wasn’t something that could be taught in the conventional sense. That many were simply not able to use this power she now had within her grasp; he spoke the warning that, once touched, the hunger was consuming and drove one to seek more - an addiction that could utterly consume one’s very soul.

Prazutis reminded her, strangely enough, that she was the master of this ability…not its slave. Her face hardened upon hearing that, an expression of conviction coming over her.

“- Endure. The void will remain, but its hunger will not destroy you, if you do not let it. Remember you are in control over its fate, it's helpless to your whims. Sate it when it best suits your needs."

Two unfortunate souls were plucked from the masses and brought before the behemoth on their knees, utterly terrified but paralyzed and unable to do anything for themselves. She felt a touch of pity for them, but that was a fleeting emotion. She couldn’t afford to show pity for them, not here, not in front of the Dark Lord.

She was told to attune herself to everyone, to everything around her. That the negative emotions that filled the energy field around them was a source of power for her; this she knew, she knew of the ability to consume the essence of another and empower herself through the Dark Side. She remembered when her own Master had first taught her how to do this, those years back when she’d been just a fresh acolyte.

The woman felt a shift in the atmosphere, a shifting and gathering of great power, and she eyed Darth Prazutis for a moment before she followed his gaze and spied a distant skyscraper. Without lifting a hand or speaking a command, darkness moved and obeyed his will - and crimson streaks of lightning burst from the sky to surround and penetrate the tall building - utterly shattering it in the process. The screams of terror rippled through the air, heard even from a distance, and Revna felt the death of all those within the building and around it as it collapsed. Fear, terror, pain, death…its energy filled the Force, so potent and energizing.

But it still paled in comparison to the life essence she had drawn from the dying man, and her hunger surged through her even more persistently.

"Your strength returns to you by feeding on that small morsel. To continue you require more. Feel the flicker of life within these two, then slowly pull the life from their bodies. Draw out their demise longer, feel everything as you draw it from them to you. The flow is under your control."

Revna froze for a moment, her eyes locked on the two figures - a man and a woman, near humans or humanoids of some sort. His words, his command of her, went against her desire to show them mercy by killing them swiftly. She sighed softly; once again, he was putting her in a place where she would have to violate her own personal morals. Of course he would.

What did it truly matter, really? She was a Sith, afterall. Nothing was beneath her when it came to knowledge and learning and sharpening her powers. If she could sacrifice children, bleed them as an offering to her dark god, then she could allow these two innocent souls to suffer.

They would receive her mercy in the end, anyway. Better she kill them, then they suffer at the hands of the monster who was with her.

Ember eyes half closed as she once more stretched out her senses, sent out tendrils of her darkness to feel the life that pulsed within the two hapless souls. Unconsciously, a pale hand lifted towards them as if she was going to summon an object to her hand. She could feel their energy within the grip of the Force - could she actually call that energy to her? A frown creased her brow; she was so tired, and yet within these two beings there was a reservoir of strength, of energy that she needed.

Need. She poured that into the Force, into the darkness that surrounded herself, around the Dark Lord, around the two people. It wasn’t a call of desperation, but a dark and malevolent command placed upon the spirits within them. Rarely had Revna ever expressed or revealed the true dark depths of what and who she was to anyone, but here Prazutis would get a glimpse of it.

In that moment, she was death itself - merciless and all powerful, all hungry. Her dark will was made manifest for a brief window in time, as life began to seep from the two souls and be drawn into her - though it was a slow trickle. As the void within was fed, the colder the atmosphere grew around her - and the deeper her darkened aura became, little by little. Blackened veins began to appear across the flesh of man first, as fear filled his eyes that slowly began to cloud over then sink in and crack as the flesh of his face sunk in to cling to his skull underneath. Beside him, the woman began to hyperventilate, watching as her companion was slowly drained of his life - and knowing that the same fate awaited her as well.

There would be no escape.

In the end - nothing remained except two desiccated corpses at the feet of Darth Prazutis. And Revna stood opposite to him, a frigid aura radiating from her as her hunger burned in her veins and screamed in her mind for more, more MORE.

She closed her eyes against the maddening thundering within her skull, and clenched her jaw so tight she feared she might crack her teeth. The desire to continue feeding the void, to feel warm again, was filling her mind to the point where it almost drowned out her other thoughts. Though she felt a glimmer of fear within her heart for what was happening to her, Revna was stubborn and refused to give in so easily to the madness.

She would succeed where Nihilus had failed. He hadn't been the Lord of Hunger...he'd been the Slave to Hunger. She refused to be its slave.

The woman opened her eyes, and set them upon the Dark Lord, grim determination upon her face.

“What do you have for me next, Mortarch?”

Darth Prazutis

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[Darth Prazutis]

There it is.

Between one moment and the next Revna became something else entirely, dropping the facade of humanity in favor of becoming something greater. In that moment she showed a glimpse of what He saw within her, the potential of what could be, a living scourge of life itself. She had touched upon power of a different sort and now she would never be able to get it out of her head, that strength would grow each time she fed, it would transfigure the woman she is with who she will become, with the right guidance. "You have cracked the walls, good. The power you use is only a fraction of the potential buried within you. There is so much more if you are willing to sacrifice for it. Harness it, control it, unleash it."​

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The Dark Lord looked upon her face then those molten orbs stared like drills boring through her skull, pressing down the hyper lethality of His monstrous form, like tightened steel coils of pure violence. He rose one of His hands between them now palm facing the sky. For a few moments nothing happened until once more the darkness came to Him. It began like a swirling vortex of blackness manifesting in His palm and then it came to life. It bled a deep crimson as it grew in size and shape, a churning sphere of raw energy, the very Dark Side manifest. Arcs of energy sparked off its ebullient surface of such concentrated destructive power, it was the physical manifestation of annihilation. ​

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"You have learned to draw life, to feast on the energy of others. You have greater stores of energy than most. As you pull and channel the darkness, focus it into a single point, tighten it together, draw everything you can. Sith with great reservoirs of energy are able to create physical manifests of the dark side."​

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All of a sudden, He thrust the hand outwards, a practical demonstration even though He needn't even more to command the darkness. The blast tore from His hand with such destructive force it sundered the duracrete below as it surged forwards. It scythed through a portion of the paralyzed crowds utterly consuming them, breaking down their bodies and blasting them into naught but charred bone and ash before slamming into a nearby building, the very impact buckled the stone and collapsed the frontal wall. It was a horrifying death to so many people paralyzed and left at His mercy, it truly displayed the utter lack of mercy, the incapability of seeing the masses as people. "The raw power of the darkness cannot be underestimated. Once honed it can become a potent weapon for someone with your gifts."​

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Revna

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[Revna]

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He spoke of sacrifice. Of how much more there was, if she was only willing to pay the price for it.

She had already sacrificed much since coming into the possession of the Kainate - some of which they surely knew of, and other bits they did not. But she felt each and every sacrifice she had made keenly, and she knew the bitter truth…that she would make more as she carried on with her life.

Revna returned the Dark Lord’s gaze unflinchingly, even as she felt the weight of his stare press down upon her. Once upon a time, she might have flinched under that lethal gaze, but Revna was no longer the same apprentice that the Shadow Hand had broken and burned. Where others might have fallen and shattered, never to rise again - Revna had overcome and risen beyond her former self, her former limitations.

Power shifted and coiled around Darth Prazutis, and Revna’s burning eyes flickered to watch one of his large hands extend upward, palm directed towards the darkened sky above. The little woman, who looked more akin to a child next to such a giant man, observed as darkness gathered around him and swirled like a vortex in the palm of his hand, coalescing there into a sphere of pure Dark side energy.

"You have learned to draw life, to feast on the energy of others. You have greater stores of energy than most. As you pull and channel the darkness, focus it into a single point, tighten it together, draw everything you can. Sith with great reservoirs of energy are able to create physical manifestations of the dark side." Darth Prazutis said to her as he explained what she was to attempt next.

But first, a demonstration of what pure concentrations of Darkness could do to one’s environment and any living beings caught in its destructive path.

Revna watched on with equal parts awe and disturbance as the gathered energy ripped out and away from the two of them and sundered the duracrete and anything else in its pathway. Anyone living turned to ash and bone in the blink of an eye, their life energies snuffed out in an instant. The cruelty and utter malevolence of the Lord of Death was on full display now, for all to see.

"The raw power of the darkness cannot be underestimated. Once honed it can become a potent weapon for someone with your gifts." he finished saying after the demonstration, and Revna knew it was to be her turn next to attempt to follow his example. This was how she learned best, as he had discovered early on when he had begun to train her for his own purposes.

Revna studied her surroundings for a moment, before she turned and stepped away from Darth Prazutis, putting distance between the two of them once more. She found a suitable place amongst the rubble, facing a group of paralyzed individuals that had been unlucky enough to not find themselves caught in the Dark Lord’s blast of dark energy. Taking a deep breath, the Sith woman brought her two hands together and felt the Force shift and move on her whim as she pulled her Darkened energy into her palms, letting it build steadily until it came into existence as a dark and crackling ball of void like energy, tinged purple instead of red. The cold aura swirled within and around her and she felt the chill of the darkened energy begin to seep into her hand, and where it touched she saw blackened veins begin to slowly spread across her palm.

When she felt that enough energy had been gathered, Revna turned her palm which held the Dark energy towards her prey and released it with a powerful surge of her own violent emotions. The very air around the blast seemed to ripple, before it slammed into living bodies and the partially collapsed building beyond them with the force of a bomb. Like with Prazutis’s blast, her own caused the instant melding of flesh from bone - but for hers it was as if someone splashed concentrated acid against them, before the percussion of the blast pulverized what remained.

She let her eyes fall from the destruction she had wrought before her, to the hand which had been used to unleash the Dark side blast. Her hand was pale, and the blackened veins remained as a reminder of what she had just done. It wasn’t bad for her first attempt, but it certainly had room for improvement. Revna recognized that the more energy she fed on from others, the more powerful and devastating such expulsions of her Darkness could be.

But now she was feeling the hunger once more, as her energy stores were once again drained. She was tempted to simply walk away from the Shadow Hand and start feeding from whoever yet lived within this destroyed part of the city, but she restrained herself. As much as she hated to admit it, Prazutis was the Master here - and she was his student. She would do well to pay attention to him at all times, lest she miss something or incur his wrath.

“Hmm. A useful ability to have on hand, but something I certainly need to work on. Would I be correct in my assumption that the more energy I take from others and into myself, the more powerful this ability would become? Perhaps not just this ability, but others too?”

Darth Prazutis ​

 

[Darth Prazutis]

Once more the woman approved, she not only understood his teachings but excelled in the practical application of them. Even the difficult to grasp abilities for most seemed to come easy for her. It quickly became clear why He chose to spare her the day she was brought to his throne room. It was clear she was destined to be more than a vulnerable piece on the chess board of Darth Strosius. In truth He could see what the man saw in the woman, He could see the future before her pathed in blood. It didn't matter how she was brought underneath their banner; she was being shaped into a capable, powerful Sith who would become a nightmare for all Jedi. Every passing moment the chaos only seemed to grow as the shadow He cast seemed to darken around them, the fresh chorus of screams rang out from the carnage she unleashed. Every life taken would form calluses over her own morality, drawing her closer to the darkness within.

This time the Dark Lord let His gaze fall upon her while she recovered from the sudden exertion of energy, it was clear in her labored breathing. The amount of power such an ability used drew heavily upon one's reservoir, and hers was only moderately built up from the lives she'd taken, it would take a lot more especially for what came next. Revna cut through the agonized screams by showing keen insight in what was unfolding, already she was reading between the lines of everything he was showing her, displaying her intellect. "It draws heavily on your stores of energy to manifest such power as the cost. You are correct Revna. All of these abilities can be tied together if sufficiently trained, the easier they can be wielded and blended. The flow of dark side energy behind all abilities is measured, controlled by the wielder. The greater the flow poured into it, the greater the strength something has. But the more power will make it difficult to control, requiring a firm hand. If you lose control of such power and let it rule you, it may spell the end of you. Draw deep on your own energy, emotions, on those around you but do not lose yourself to them."

The Shadow Hand once more brought His palm up in a practical demonstration of ability, pushing it into the air. As it rose crimson lightning arced off of its surface, dancing up and down the length of His hand. While most wielded a purple color of this ability, His displayed in a deep crimson that revealed itself as the highest form of its power, its most destructive shape. "You will recognize this power, the strength of lightning for you to wield it. You already possess innate talent for it. Observe." As His hand became fully extended above him the smell of ozone began to grow around them. The lightning exploded off of it rising twenty feet into the air where it exploded, spreading out like a spider's web of crackling, burning electricity that shot outward in a hundred different strands. These arcs shot violently against the dead and the dying, against the buildings around them and the paralyzed crowds who suffered beneath them. It struck with fury arcing through their bodies with such force, their skeletal structure became visible as the screams grew into a frenzied roar. "The power of the storm. It is far more difficult to master, to control for many Sith for the innate volatility of lightning. The applications of it extend from a mere instrument of torture to..."

In a flash He intensified the flow of power and many died, burning into charred husks all around them. The flow seemed to double, triple upon itself as it shot like a conduit into the black clouds above. Once it struck it electrified them arcing through them and extending its destructive power across buildings, block after city block as all were drowned beneath its destructive power. The very wind picked up as a hurricane began to take shape, carrying building rubble and glass like a storm of shrapnel. "Death. This is but a mere fraction of what can be done with its power. Through sheer might a vortex can be torn open, entire fleets consumed and even worlds drowned beneath it." All at once the storm vanished at His command, leaving behind the horrific destruction as rubble rained down around them. "For now, you have only touched upon the potential of this power. Feed on these morsels, regain your strength. Then see if you can break past the barriers of your own limitations and achieve greater success. Through tight control the application of lightning in battle can be near limitless."

Revna​

 

[Revna]

​

Prazutis confirmed her assumption, and she dipped her chin under that heavy gaze of his in acceptance of his words, his teachings. He gave her information to ponder upon, to think about, absorb. Despite the exhaustion she felt, the draining of the power and energy she had so recently obtained from the desiccated husks nearby, she was still eager and ready to continue forward with her learning.

Besides, a dark truth had been revealed to her: she had an endless supply of energy here, in the form of terrified mortals that were caught in the violent hold of the Dark Lord. All she had to do was take from them, feed from them, claim their energy as hers - and she felt she could do almost anything.

But she was cautious, and wise. Power and ambition for more power had been the ruin and downfall of many Sith - and she would not let it be her downfall.

“-But the more power will make it difficult to control, requiring a firm hand. If you lose control of such power and let it rule you, it may spell the end of you. Draw deep on your own energy, emotions, on those around you but do not lose yourself to them."

Another critical piece clicked into place within her mind, an understanding of the lessons that Darth Prazutis was trying to teach her even now. Restraint was the key to her survival, her mastery, over her ability to drain the life from others. She already had the foundation to temper her ambition, to keep control over her other abilities, and here she would need to rely on it like never before. The hunger was a wild thing that burned within her like a wildfire, not unlike the deep and fiery passion and emotions that churned through her at every waking moment.

Revna observed the Dark Lord as he prepared to show yet another demonstration for her to attempt next, and what she saw next brought back flashbacks to her to that fateful moment in his throne room, the day of her capture. She felt the oh so familiar crackle of electrical energy as crimson arcs of lightning began to build up around his arm and hand. The red, feathery scars across her upper body and back and shoulders almost itched upon seeing the sight, her body remembering the suffering she had endured as those crimson arcs had wrapped around her body, seared into her flesh.

She was thankful that those red arcs were not aimed at her now.

"You will recognize this power, the strength of lightning for you to wield it. You already possess innate talent for it. Observe."

The power built and continued to build, and she realized that this would be no ordinary showing of Sith lightning. No, this was something different, greater. Fascination overcame her momentary sensation of fearful remembrance, and her eyes watched his every move with eager anticipation.

A crimson bolt erupted from his hand and fired into the sky above them before spreading out like anvil crawlers she often saw with lightning storms. Individual arcs danced between bodies, between the dead and dying and still living - violently enough to reveal their skeletons underneath their flesh.

…had that happened to her, when she’d been struck by his red lightning?

"The power of the storm. It is far more difficult to master, to control for many Sith for the innate volatility of lightning. The applications of it extend from a mere instrument of torture to..." the Dark Lord continued and Revna drank in and reveled in the power that extended and arced all around them. She felt the surge of power that flowed from him and through the lightning he commanded, and in an instant those caught within the web of electrical currents turned into charred husks, killed instantly as smoke rose from their bodies, but the destruction didn’t stop there. Violent winds whipped up around the, picking up debris and glass and dust, a vortex ready to rip the city apart. "...Death. This is but a mere fraction of what can be done with its power. Through sheer might a vortex can be torn open, entire fleets consumed and even worlds drowned beneath it."

In the next instant though, the flow of power ceased, and debris rained down around Revna Marr and Darth Prazutis. All around them looked as if a bomb had gone off, that a war had torn through the area. The lives of those that yet lived had been turned upside down, and nothing would ever be the same for them again.

It was a pity, really. And strangely…Revna felt nothing for them as she gazed out and beyond. They were like faint candle flames, flickering in the breeze, snuffed out when the oxygen had been ripped from their lungs.

The Dark Lord commanded her to feed on the others that were nearby, to regain her depleted energies and see if she too could push past the barrier of her limitations. Finally, she thought almost sourly as she moved passed him to carry out his directives.

She walked alone, a grim spectre of coming doom for many of those around her. With a simple touch, those that were frozen in their various positions were drained, their bodies turning gray and dropping into ash as warmth seeped into her. For a moment, the hunger only intensified - the burning edges sharp like a blade, growing painful, almost unbearable.

And then…she felt nothing.

Revna stopped in her tracks and stilled, trying to understand what had just happened. The edge of her hunger felt…sated, and what was left within its place was a pulse of dark power unlike anything she’d ever felt before.

This is new, she thought once more to herself as she cast her burning eyes around herself, trying to recall just how many lives she’d consumed. Somewhere, behind her, was the Dark Lord - but in the moment he hardly mattered to her. It was just her here, and the raw energy of the Dark side that pulsed within.

It wanted out. And she knew the best way to release it. Truthfully, though, the woman had no idea what would happen next. She had already crossed a threshold with her own power, and was now treading into territory she knew nothing about.

Revna tilted her head back as if to face the sky and her eyes closed as she began to pull the power within her through her body, building it up as the scent of ozone began to curl and taint the air. Directly above her, dark storm clouds gathered and swirled angrily, and still the power continued to build. Revna sank into a memory then, of the first time she ever practiced her Force lightning abilities with Darth Strosius. She remembered His words, and they echoed through her mind even now. She sank further and deeper into the Force, her arms lifting as her palms faced the sky. Around her, flickering up from the ground, were little sparks of electricity - a deep violet purple in color, little leaders that were seeking connection from the sky above. The power only grew stronger, and the atmosphere surrounding her…the buildings, the people, speeder bikes and hovercrafts…everything began to vibrate ever so slightly.

And then, she released the power, the build up energy. All around her formed a dome of violet lightning, arcing outward and racing through everything and everyone like a bomb - incinerating everything it touched. The electrified bubble raced towards Prazutis, as if to consume him too - but Revna cared not. He would protect himself, of that she was certain.

Joy, elation - sang through her as the ground hugging storm raced onward - before giant bolts of lightning erupted from around her and from her to fire into the sky, spreading out in their own web-like formation. Violent peels of thunder shattered glass and crumbled already damaged buildings, and through it all came the sound of laughter, even as the storm and the power faded away….leaving nothing but a wasteland around her.

Revna took a deep breath, inhaled the ozone and ash rich air, before she turned back to face the Dark Lord, a darkly joyous smile on her face. She had found the heart of where her true power came from, where the Dark side was greatest.

But something tinged her joy gray…the hunger had returned, deeper, and fiercer than ever - very nearly pulling her into its madness. She stumbled slightly, feeling weakness flood through her. She had not only expended the energy she had gained, but also from herself. Revna took a moment to steady herself, feeling her legs quivering underneath her.

The raw need to continue feeding, to continue the flow of power, flooded every part of her being. Revna squeezed her eyes shut and gripped her temples and a growl rumbled from her throat. Fear flashed through her, then simmering anger as she realized her battle had only truly begun.

Damn you Prazutis! Damn you for making me feed this monster….why couldn’t you have just left me alone? Came her pained and angry thoughts as she struggled to gain a grip on her own sanity, struggled to wrestle the violent hunger back under her control as it tried to force her to submit to its will.

No…I am a Sith, and I will not be chained to you. You exist to serve me.

Face set into a dark grimace, Revna straightened herself and took a deep breath to center herself, to bring her own will to bear. Each step back towards the Dark Lord was agony, as she was so acutely aware of those who yet lived around her, those who had escaped her touch of death.

She ignored them, and in doing so, she rejected the hungry void’s will for her. Revna came to a halt before the Dark Lord, silent but determined to overcome this challenge that she faced.

"...Do you have anything else for me to learn, my Lord?"

Darth Prazutis ​

 

[Darth Prazutis]

Silence.

It wasn't the absence of sound around them, but something deeper, heavier, a vacuum where lesser wills collapsed beneath the weight of pure dominion. The city around them lay in ruins, bodies were reduced to nothing but brittle husks, streets shattered beyond complete recognition. If there was any evidence the destruction the woman unleashed touched him, it wasn't evident by looking at him, the Dark Lord remained entirely untouched from the very moment she turned around. Acrid smoke and deep ozone curled through the air, mingling with the scent of burning flesh. Everything that had transpired, all of the destruction, the countless lives taken, all of the combined suffering around them was completely irrelevant. The giant stared at her like she was the only thing that mattered here, drinking in the death caused by her outburst of power, her shattering of the ceiling over her. The Dark Lord regarded her with eyes like molten fissures, twin suns consuming all they beheld. His gaze could not be surmised as one of neither approval nor praise but something different, this was pure judgment, an ironclad decree.

Finally, the Dark Lord exhaled, and the world around them seemed to exhale with him as stone seemed to groan, death rattles tearing out from long dead corpses, and shadows deepening as the smothering darkness grew around them in deference to his presence. "No." he said, his voice a single immutable truth. "There is nothing left to teach you here." He stepped forward then, and the very permacrete beneath his heel broke into pieces, a sheer testament to his gargantuan size. The Mortarch's murderous shadow swallowed her whole not as it once did, as a crushing weight designed to break, a reaper whose very presence demanded unmaking of her own, but this appeared as something else entirely. This was a force that had recognized what she had become, what she could yet become, and the lines she had crossed this day. Such lines could never be taken away, she took the first step and committed herself to this future. "You have crossed the threshold, Revna. What lies beyond is for you to seize. If you have the strength to take it." Thunder rumbled off in the distance around them. It was the last remnants of the unleashed storm crackled across the ruined skyline, but none of it compared to the storm standing before her cast by his dominion. The city around them was dead. It might've been overlooked in the moment as they unleashed dark power, but it became evident the wrath unleashed had spread far beyond their immediate surroundings. The people? Their memory forgotten, barely an afterthought. Their lives held meaning only in that they had been sacrificed for her rise in power.

The vile lesson the Dark Lord had brought her to learn was complete.

The Shadow Hand turned, his cloak billowing like a funeral shroud, the very shadows recoiling in his wake. But even as he moved, his final command coiled around her mind like a vice, etching itself into the very fabric of her being. "Control the hunger, or it will consume you." Darkness surged. The air around them grew heavy, oppressive, suffocating. As if it was trying to choke all life from everything within. And then quite suddenly everything changed, with a single thought, reality itself bent to his will and the abyss opened like a great maw and devoured them both. The crater left behind was empty. No trace of the Dark Lord. No trace of the raven-haired woman who had stood before him. Only devastation remained. Only the legend of what had transpired in the wake of the storm would forever remind the people of this distant world, the lives lost would mark this day forever in blood.

The day that darkness came for them.

Revna​