Lets make a Deal....(Ashin)

[Garza]

Darren turned himself in to Mikhail Shorn that way he wouldn't die. He asked for a parley to see the Empress Ashin. He was not to fond of seeing her again after he got his mother from her. He felt nude from not wearing his armor or carry the weapons he trusted. The guards behind him carried lances and would hit the back of his knees every so often. His hands were bound in cuffs with a chain leadin to his neck and ankle cuffs. He was being escorted to the throne room where he would be talking to, in his mind, a betrayer.

People walked around Darren and the guards with questions on their faces, but were turned away when the guards gave them a nasty look. Darren held his head up high when they got to the doors. He flipped his hair to the side as he entered the throne room for the forth time in his life.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Darren Shaw"]

"You were my friend, Darren, but my responsibility to the Empire must always come first." Ashin rose from her throne in one convulsive motion.

"I gave you your mother back, and I warned you that if your revenge involved any part of my empire other than Daxton Bane and his confederates, I would break you. I hear Mikhail Shorn had you kiss his boots. Well, that's neither here nor there.

"I can't let you go, and I won't. If there's one thing we respect here, it's revenge. We know you would never stop -- unless you're a better man, or a weaker man, than I think you are."

 

[Garza]

Darren knew what she was talking about but did not think of her as a friend anymore. His hair had fallen back in his face for the thousand time. he let it hand there slightly hiding his face. There was one problem with what she had said. He was not a weaker man. He was stronger becasue he thought more often about how to overcome his foes through different means of attack and evade, this however was evade.

"Key word is used to be friends Ashin. and I am greatful that you gave me my mother back, but my agenda comes first for me. Onyx is my friend and I was telling him to leave when your.." Darren took a pause and said with disgust. "champions showed up and attacked me." Darren looked her straight in the eyes and said with conviction "I kissed ass to get here yes. I play my angles and you play yours. As for why I am here I want a pardon for my life."

He knew that Ashin may have gotten angry at him even more than she was now because he was demanding a pardon. He didnt care He was not under her rule. but technically he was here scott free to make a deal. He like pissing Ashin off. It was almost comical to see her fume at him and tell him what to do. Darren knew he was being a hardass and a jerk to her right now but she had sent almost a whole platoon of Sith against him. He was not happy ether.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"I'm not accustomed to granting mercy, Darren. It gives me indigestion and makes people question my judgment. If I let you go, I'm weak. If I let myself be swayed by a man who is literally grovelling before me -- feth, Darren, you're disgusting me right now. I worked with you because I saw potential in you, but now I see that your constant oscillation between Light and Dark isn't a reflection of any profound moral conflict, it's just about...indecision.

"And that is profound. That's weakness so deep and dark that it tells me your flaws go all the way to the bone. You're worthless to me.

"Almost. You have one final potential use to me. Before I get to that, of course, there's one way and one way only that you survive the next ten minutes."

A floating holocamera whirred to life beside Ashin's throne.

"You will now record an apology to Daxton Bane."

 

[Garza]

Darren was beside himself. He was to give his most hated person in the galaxy an apology? Thats insult to injury. Darren had come so far and so close he had Daxton just out of his grasp only to give it up? He hated himself for doing all of these things. He had so many what ifs going through his head. He finally came to a conclusion. He was not going to like it though.

"Fine." Darren was going to let him go. Let it all go. He lowered his head for a second. With every breath he took he wanted to kill him for the longest time. Darren nodded his head for the tape to begin. "Daxton Bane. I am Darren Shaw and give you this apology on behalf of my mother that you have tortured and beaten." He nodded for it to end and faced Ashin "Are you happy now Empress?" The disgust from his voice was like a nexu growling. Harsh and to the point.

"What do you want me to do next b*tch? sing like a damned angel?" He muttered under his breath. Knowing that she would hear him. "Whats next on your agenda?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"What do I want you to do? What's next on my agenda? Oh, Darren -- those are two very different questions. What I want you to do is be humbled. Broken. What I want to do is put some of my blood in you and cut you off from the Light Side forever, as I was cut off against my will. What I want to do is drop the floor out from under you, send you down a ysalamir-lined chute, and seal you in a beskar cell. What I want to do, in my heart of hearts, is kill you and bind your soul to my own, take your power and knowledge for myself." The ysalamir, of course, all had a killswitch keyed to a tiny implant in her forearm; the disposal trap could not be used against her.

"But what's next on my agenda may well serve to break you even farther, and that will have to suffice. You were friendly with the traitor Dark Onyx. Bring him to me, alive or dead."

She walked up close to him and brought her left wrist up to her mouth. One alchemically sharpened canine lanced through the vein on her wrist, and she dabbed her fingertip delicately in the welling blood.

"My blood has another property. A simple mark from it won't infect you or cut you off from the Light, though it'll burn a little. But the mark is permanent. This is a Nightsister Blood Trail, Darren. I will always be able to find my blood."

His shirt ripped away, and her fingertip drew the mark of Naga Sadow on his chest, right where she had the same mark as a tattoo -- and where Spencer's Blood Trail mark lay beside it, over her heart. She finished drawing the sign of Sadow, as wisps of smoke rose from skin and hair.

His chains fell away as she turned her back on him and headed back to the throne.

"Find Dark Onyx."

 

[Garza]

Darren winced as his chest burned from the blood of his once friend and ally. The symbol was etched into his skin like fire. it burned him and caused a throbbing in his body from the pain. He was hyper sensitive meaning that this didnt hurt a little this hurt a lot. Pain and anger was the only thing he felt as Ashin sat on her throne.

"Find Dark Onyx and I'm free to go?" He knew that he would never really be free because of the mark she gave him. For now the closest thing he was to free is if he killed his friend. He would not put him through punishments that he had gone through. So he had to kill him. Darren was almost broken from all of what he used to be. He was a fighter for only himself, but now he was weak and Ashin knew it and thats why She gave the order to find him.

He noded his head once in pain still and asked only one question he didnt expect an answer from. "Why do you do this when you know that I will fall anyways?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"Because, frankly, you two have caused enough wasted resources."

She gestured, and his chains fell off.

"Get out of my sight."

 

[Garza]

"I will need my weapons and gear so it doesn't look like I was captured by you, and I need them to get Onyx." Darren said as his chains fell. "The blood wont be hindered for you to find me because it a part of me now. The armor cant hide me from you anymore."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"It's waiting for you outside the door in a pile."

 

[Garza]

Darren didnt acknowledge that she was in the room any more and pushed past the guards to the door. Where he stopped for a split second to say something, but changed his mind. He walked through the doors and put on his armor right outside the doors. Everything was in place as he walked past people to where he knew that his ship was waiting so he could find Onyx for the last time.