Long Nights With Dark Lords

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUNNXecb6nA​

The female stood still, with one leg bent, still bleeding, still in pain. Though the cuts, scrapes, and gashes in her lower body were far from the focus of her attention at this point. Her left shoulder and arm had just felt the mortifying heat of Kaine's crimson saber. It was all she could focus on immediately after her reactionary Force Push. She hardly even looked to see where he had landed. Heavy labored breaths burdened her, it was an effort to remain upright. Her head turned from side to side, looking up at the guards. Most still had their weapons drawn towards the ground, ready to fire if given the order. Prisoners all around lay dead, or beaten to unconsciousness. The alarms still blared in her ears, and the fire ships continued working to extinguish the blaze she had caused from the explosives.

When she returned from the momentary shock of everything, sound, sight, and feeling came back to her in rapid succession, nearly frightening her. That's when she noticed the Sith Lord standing once again, as if some incorporeal being. She heard his words but before she had opportunity to speak a syllable she felt the grip around her neck, an all too familiar feeling, before being lifted slightly from the ground. Her legs kicked wildly as she entered a momentary panicked state. Her left arm remained noticeably limp, likely due to the sheer agony it caused to attempt any sort of movement. Her right hand released hold of her purple lightsaber, and in the next instant the hilt would hit the ground, hushing the blade back to slumber. In a surge of panic the Twi'lek threw her right hand forward, as if to place a grip on her aggressor, though no telekinetic energy would be felt by the Sith. Instead, what he had unleashed upon her earlier would be returned. Sparks of green current radiated from beneath her pink finigertips, skipping in archs across each finger until she released the energy in a flash of brilliant green electricity towards Vornskr.

She held no focus, and the blast would only last momentarily with minimal direction. If she hit him she would likely not know, for in the next few seconds her vision would begin to blur, and all resistance would cease as her eyes fluttered closed.

[member="Darth Vornskr"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wgP2DKSIfg​

​

All of his hate was coalesced into a singularity, focused entirely on [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]'s throat as he sought to crush it utterly. Everything else fell to the wayside. The klaxons, his faithful soldiers gunning down the unarmed prisoners like they were dogs, and the cacophony of moans and shrieks of pain and death. None of that mattered to the Sith Lord, only his hate mattered and what it was directed at. And for a moment, a brief yet profound moment, he did not see a pink Twi'lek clutching wildly at her constricted throat. No, what he saw brought forth a moment of intense clarity, and for a moment his hate abated as his eyes beheld not Seraphina, but instead the tattoo'd body of a Lethan Twi'lek with wild yellow eyes not unlike his own. He faltered, and his grip loosened enough for the Jedi to unleash a rather powerful blast of electric judgement at him, using the power she had absorbed earlier to attack the Sith Lord.

He did nothing to stop it, and instead basked in the pain that followed. The green sparks of electricity washed over his flesh, bouncing across his armor to kiss his skin a smoldering black, and cause his muscles to spasm violently as his nerves were overloaded. Yet he did not scream, but he allowed himself to let out a pitiful moan as he slumped to his knees while the Jedi collapsed from her own suffering. It was when she went limp did the sidelining soldiers finally intervene, quickly rushing to swarm the Jedi and shackle her with powerful bindings while also confiscating her of her weapons. A pair of guardsman wielding lightsaber pikes and energy shields moved to Vornskr's side as he struggled to stand, small discharges of electricity occasionally dancing across his body.

He cast a hard glare at the immobile form of his foe, and spoke with a voice barely louder than a hoarse whisper: "Pump her full of Ixetal Cilona and throw her in one of the larger cells, and sweep the entire district for any co-conspirators."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbcG2TI4GBk​

"Ughhhhhhhh." Her eyes opened to her mouth already voicing the pain and discomfort from which her body was feeling, even during her unconscious state. Everything felt as though it were moving in rapid circles. It made her want to vomit. She had never felt so volatile before in her life. Lifting her hands she heard the clanking of metal chains. It would take a few moments to focus her clouded vision to see that her hands had been bound tightly. She looked to her sides, as if there was some slight glimmer of hope that she had somehow retained her lightsabers. No such luck. Pushing herself back against the wall by using her feet to shuffle herself she rested her head against the cold duracrete wall. Her eyes closed again, but her body felt like it was in full motion. Finally she couldn't hold it any longer and leaned over to the side, vomiting on the floor with a sickened groan. In an effort to escape the mess she'd made she pushed herself further along the wall towards the opposite side, dropping her head between her raised knees.

The knocking of boots came and went every five minutes, enough times in a row to where she could predict exactly when they would pass next. It felt as though the only way to pass the time. The ray shield that lead to the outside world taunted her. The left side of her body continued to remind her of the untended wound that ran the length of her shoulder and arm. Any attempt to adjust or move the muscles were met with an agonizing response from the area, prompting her to remain still as possible. It would take weeks for such an injury to heal without treatment, treatment she was certain not to receive here.

[member="Darth Vornskr"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The cell door suddenly powered down, ushering in the Sith Lord alongside a female Imperial Officer wearing the insignia of the Blackblade Guard across her left breast. In her hands she held a datapad, and apart from the occasional curious glance towards [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"] she mostly had her face buried in whatever data was being transmitted across its screen. The ray shield reactivated behind them, once again cutting the Jedi off from the outside world. Whatever wounds had been inflicted on the Sith's person had been treated and dressed, and he wore a uncharacteristically simple gray tunic and cloak that visibly clung to his muscular frame well. He placed both hands on his hips as his piercing eyes drank in all of Sera's battered byzantine flesh, and a smile slowly split his face with a menacing sneer: "Not quite what you expected, isn't it? The crushing darkness all around you, suffocating your conviction... distancing you from the light."

The woman at his side crinkled her nose in revulsion as the smell of Sera's bile finally assaulted her nose, and although it was not the most unpleasant smell she had encountered in her grisly line of work she still removed a scented handkerchief from her coat pocket and pushed it up against her nose and mouth. Vornskr, however; required no such relief. He had trudged across countless battlefields littered with the smell of decay, blood, sweat, spilled offal, urination, and even defecation. Such odors no longer affected him as they did in his distant youth, and he didn't even spare the fetid puddle a second glance as he continued to address his new captive. "I assume this is not what you intended, to end up like those poor souls you tried so desperately to liberate from their torment. You've cost me a good number of souls, Jedi, but rest assured that in this great big galaxy of ours..."

He made a sudden advance towards her, seeking to cup her chin and cheeks with his right hand and force her to stare up into his hateful orbs. "There will always be more."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The sound of the two sets of boots stepping into her cell caught the attention of the Jedi as she rested her head lightly against her knees. Slowly she propped her head up to see the disfigured face of the Sith Lord and some female officer of some kind. Truthfully she was surprised the woman looked half as decent as she did, given the locale and the company kept here.

She made no sound, no movement, and no gesture as Vornskr spoke. It was a rhetorical question, after all. Spoken solely for the pleasure of one's own voice, to boast the prowess of his victory upon her. To further degrade her, and the Jedi. She wouldn't buy into his showboating. Instead she simply lowered her head back down. Sera had been subjected to similar bouts of torment and torture in the past, she was confident in her convictions and that he would inevitably fail in whatever plans he had hoped to achieve with her.

His harsh grip around her cheeks and chin forced her to grind her teeth with displeasure. Her nose crinkled, lips turning outward as a look of pain mixed with disdain cast over her. He pulled on her chin, forcefully lifting her eyes upwards to stare into the dead ones that the man possessed. She gave him nothing but a look of disgust, spitting directly into his face just as he finished his dribble speech.

"Hope you like the renovations I made, Schutta." The left side of her face made a partial, sassy smile.

[member="Darth Vornskr"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

He pulled back as the glob of [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]'s struck him square in the cheek, a move that was more instinctive than anything else. The Sith Lord growled in annoyance, and without a word he swung the backside of his left hand around to strike the Twi'lek directly across the cheek with enough force to send her back into the wall. "A temporary setback, Jedi. We will rebuild this place, but no one will be able to put you back together once I'm done with you." he threatened angrily, his eyes burning as bright as they had during their fight on the prison floor. He turned away from Sera for a moment, clasping both of his hands behind his back as he inwardly reflected on what he was to do with his prisoner. He suddenly whirled around to face the female officer, "If you would, Dr. Zyn, please administrate Compound XB to our prisoner. That might teach her not to be so disrespectful to her betters."

For the first time since entering the chamber the doctor's face seemed to light up in what could be considered joy, and quickly she stuffed her datapad into the satchel slung around her should and in its place she produced a pack containing a menagerie of hypodermic syringes filled with different colored liquids. She removed one needle filled with a dark blue liquid and held it menacingly before Sera, and in that very same moment the chains anchoring her to the wall suddenly retracted and forcefully yanked her back up against the wall while simultaneously restricting her movements. The good doctor would lower herself onto her haunches as she searched for a vein in Sera's left arm, and once it was found she promptly began injecting whatever Compound XB was into her bloodstream.

Compound XB was nothing more than an experimental drug manufactured by the various pharmacies and research laboratories under the direct supervision of Darth Vornskr and his conclave of cronies, and was made specifically for the cruel application of torturing prisoners. This particular strain of chemical agent was designed to cause unimaginable agony that was cited as causing the sensation of one's blood being set on fire as the agent quickly spread through the body's circulatory system. In some rare cases it caused direct damage to the heart in those with a decreased vitality, but for a Jedi (even one temporarily restricted of the Force) it would only cause intense burning pain.

Nothing too lasting... Yet.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The woman's head twisted with the force of the impact from his backhand slap. A mild yelp pierced her silence, her eyes shutting tightly, head turned towards the side. As he spoke she remained silent, her eyes still closed. The disorientation from the drugs she'd been forced were severely impairing her ability to focus on much of anything. For whatever reason she felt as though a part of her were missing. The world felt and looked differently, though she was unable to place what exactly was going on. It was a strange oddity she'd never experienced before. When the Sith turned away from her, seemingly lost within his own deranged thoughts, Sera attempted to focus her energy on choking the life out of the man, wrapping invisible tendrils tightly around his throat. Much to her surprise and displeasure, nothing happened. Nothing at all. It was if there was some sort of disconnect.

​

The Force, it's gone...​

​

The moment that knowledge registered in her mind, the chains had ripped her back tightly against the wall, impairing any and all movement entirely. Despite her efforts to the contrary, her arms had no mobility, she was at the mercy of two lunatics. Seraphina's eyes followed the woman as she drew closer, a needle filled with some mystery liquid. The two looked at one another, yet the woman seemed to have no regard for the Twi'lek whatsoever, no remorse or pity, but... Joy?

The needle found its' way into her arm with little resistance. Sera's legs and arms would spasm in hopeless protest, trying to escape. She growled in defiance as she watched the woman push the dosage in its' entirety into her system. Her lekku twisted and contorted around her neck. As the needle withdrew from her skin she began to feel what it was like to be burned without fire. Slowly it traveled from the injection site to her fingertips, and up her arm. A slow, creeping wildfire. She screamed in pain as she watched, half expecting her arm to boil. The heat crossed her chest, expanding towards her back and opposite arm. Tears formed in her eyes as she cried in agony. Her head slammed against the wall, her arms once again trying their hardest to break free.

As she blinked the tears that welled began to roll down the sides of her pink cheeks, falling onto her knees as the pain continued spreading throughout her body.

[member="Darth Vornskr"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Darth Vornskr watched with intense focus as the chemical agent spread through the Twi'lek's body, causing her to spasm and cry out in agony as the pain ripped through her like a jagged knife. The doctor seemed more analytical about it than Vornskr did, but that was where their difference laid. Vitra saw torture as a means to experiment and viewed in a purely scientific light, whereas Vornskr saw it an as art form where one could express their creativity on the canvas of another's body and mind. And he had become quite good at his craft if his past works were any indication, although he always found them to be flawed after a time. He bitterly remembered his earlier attempts stealing children from Republic space and attempting to craft them into a host of warriors obedient to his will.

His rituals were sloppy back then, and the children never lived long after their bodies had been warped and their minds tainted. So he abandoned the project idea and started seeking out older specimens, and the war with the Republic had allowed him to reap a fresh crop each subsequent battle since the war's genesis. Most of them had been Jedi padawans and knights who were woefully unfit for a life of war and had been exceedingly easy to detain when separated from the main bulk of the Republic forces. Many of them still lived within the walls of this pyramid, although a good number of them were dead now thanks to [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]'s incursion.

But he had something better than a padawan or knight, he had a master in his clutches now! Jedi masters were notoriously more difficult to capture than their younger, less experienced counterparts, and he had only managed to imprison less than ten over the course of the entire war. And one little pink lamb had just happened to waltz right into the den of wolves, directly into his world of macabre horrors.

He knelt beside the convulsing Jedi while laid a single hand on her left shoulder, and began to rub the pink flesh softly. "You know that this torment can end, don't you? Give yourself to me, and I will deliver you from all of your suffering." His words were as sweet as honey, yet sharp as steel and venomous like a snake.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The body of the Twi'lek shook, the tiniest tremors causing minor spasms throughout her body. To others it would seem as if she were cold, shivering in such a manner. that her teeth chattered now and then, rattling against one another. Cold, however, was quite the opposite of what she was feeling. Seraphina was sweating profusely, her body on fire from the inside. Being severed from the Force was mildly traumatizing, but this took things to an entirely new level of pain. Something unimaginable, inescapable. Restrained and unable to move made things just that much worse. All she wanted was to curl into the fetal position and lay still until the maddening pain subsided, if it ever would.

She felt [member="Darth Vornskr"]'s hand on her shoulder, her eyes moved to try and focus on him. The pain made it difficult. She shifted focus to the doctor, or whatever she was, who had begun jotting down notes of her own observations. The taste of bile lingered in the mouth of the Jedi, and as Vornskr spoke she could almost feel the urge to vomit once more simply by listening to him speak. His words were twisted. Whatever surface offer that was she knew was simply a ploy to either enslave her, or toy with her further. She was not so easily broken. Despite being cut off from the Force and her blood at near volcanic temperatures, she would endure.

Her mind wandered off for a moment, focusing on her friends, family, the Jedi she had called home for the better half of her life. Her brother, still lost among the stars. She'd failed to find him. Her mother and father, were they still safe despite Cambria having fallen to Sith rule? What of Kian? Corvus? Varus? The Padawans she had helped to train, her former master Kana, where had she gone? She looked Kaine in the eye for a moment, as if trying to pierce what little there was left of his soul.

Sera lowered her head back to the ground. "You'll get no satisfaction from me, Sith."

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Oh, that is where you are wrong, Jedi. Your whimpers are most satisfactory." his voice was barely above a whisper, breathy and rapturous. His soulless eyes bore into hers until she hung her head, denying him the look of agony etched in her face, yet he knew how much she suffered all the same. Without the Force to shield her mind all it took was a trivial attempt to pierce the veil and gleam her thoughts, her worries, and her fears... And they were indeed delectable. "Your thoughts betray you, Jedi, your feelings for your friends and family are strong; yet they will be your undoing." He gently brushed the back of his hand against her lekku in a calming, almost reassuring gesture. "Let go of these attachments, Jedi, they burden you... They hold you back! Let go of them, and I will show you how to unlock your potential."

By now the chemicals in her bloodstream would begin to dissipate, and the pain would soon fade away into nothing. But that was just the first taste of the horrors that Vornskr had in store, and each one was more painful and deadly than the last. Many had cracked within these blood-stained walls, even Jedi who professed unwavering conviction in the first few hours faltered in the face of true adversity and suffering. "Or you can continue to wallow in your weakness, and die an ignominious death in this prison. Either way I win, Jedi, and with each passing moment you resist you make yourself more my servant. Your destiny is unavoidable and absolute."

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJSSRdtmKek​

She left her head hanging, eyes fixated on the ground beneath her as he spoke with forked tongue, the serpent he was. There was no hint of belief in her. Perhaps had she been merely a Padawan, a young, unexposed youth, his words may seem to come as a genuine alternative to torture. Sera had been around for far too long to know that his words only meant obedient slavery or worse. That too was no freedom. She knew the type of horrors that she would likely be exposed to by refusing his 'offer' though. She laughed, odd as it may seem, before pulling her head up to meet his once more. "You don't get it, do you? You've already lost, regardless of my state here, Sith." She stared, unfaltering into his pupils of hatred and evil. "You're weak. You've severed me from the Force out of fear. Fear that I will kill you. You've chained me to this wall because you know I will fight to kill you, not because I will run." Her lips shivered, almost like a canine before it bites. "You're afraid."

Sera laughed once more in the face of [member="Darth Vornskr"], a cynical tone to her voice. "You believe that I am afraid to die? You've nothing to bargain with, Sith. Kill me and nothing changes. You've nothing of mine to exchange for my servitude. On the other hand, I will return to the Force, my body allowing my soul to transcend this existence. What does that say for you? The time you spend torturing me is time lost torturing those souls I've already released. Do as you wish. You can't break me. I am the light."

 

[Darth Carnifex]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgx3sp_hTJw​

He laughed, a bitter and hollow sound. "Your ignorance does you a disservice, Jedi. You think death will give you respite? I have seen what lies beyond our existence, and I know that it is not light, nor is it darkness... It's something far more profound." But he was not alone in his travels to the land of the dead, for millions were unjustly dragged into those depths during the Great Disappearance by the cosmic entity Akala. Vornskr himself had been one of the few actually left behind during the whole ordeal, but his demise came quickly enough at the hands of [member="Kiskla Grayson"] who managed to free herself from her bonds and kill the weakened Sith Lord in his own castle. He would never allow such a thing to happen ever again, and thus he had improved the means of containing Force Users in a manner similar to what [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"] found herself subjected to.

And yes, Vornskr had died that day and his spirit was dragged down into the primordial chaos, where he was initially forced to fight an endless swarm of dark souls who writhed with him in their collective suffering. Yet he was destined to suffer much greater torment, for the vengeful spirits of his mother and father had somehow managed to escape the bonds shackling them to their respective torments and had formulated a plot to exact their revenge on their murderous son. Yet even they could not stop him, for despite the weakness of his soul he engorged himself on the hatred and suffering of his surroundings and obliterated his father's soul in one great cataclysmic show of force. His mother, however; was merely stunned by his expulsion of anger, and was helpless when he descended upon her and began to feast on her consciousness to nourish his own.

He later escaped Chaos via the rifts torn through space and time by Akala, and with the aid of his servants he was able to take physical shape once more. The flesh he wore now was the body crafted for him by his dark minions, but already it was falling apart. Such a meager construct was not meant to indefinitely hold that much raw Dark Side energy, and with each passing day he found his strength slipping away, and soon enough he would be nothing more than a feeble husk clinging to life. Yet he had worked tirelessly since then, experimenting with the very fabric of souls in order to concoct a method to return from death and manifest one's self on the physical plane. But for a time his efforts had born no fruit despite his fervent efforts, that was until he returned to his studies of the ancient Sith scripture, and found that there was power in architecture.

And thus he had worked to build this pyramid within which they both resided, basing its design off of the ancient Sith pyramids of Korriban and Ziost. Through those angled slopes he could channel the Dark Side into a single focal point at its apex, and from that crucible he had been able to bend souls to his will! It was why he coveted so many prisoners, all of them were necessary for the ritual of revival. And it was why he was so wrathful when Sera had put all of his work into jeopardy, but the damage had been minimal despite the loss of many prisoners during the confusion. They could be replaced, they could always be replaced, but it was a matter of time and effort.

He turned his attention back to her, "But you will know of that soon enough, little Jedi, and in the end you will call me... Master."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvipPYFebWc​

A loud, echoing laughter erupted from deep within the Twi'lek. The very idea that this madman could consciously believe that Seraphina would ever call him anything of the sort was beyond ridiculous. It would take a few moments of focus to sate her uncontrollable laughter before she was able to provide [member="Darth Vornskr"] with any sort of response in regard to his absurd statement. "You must truly be out of your mind to think you possess even the slightest bit of power to sway me into calling you such a ludicrous term." Her head turned to the left and the right, observing her chained arms against the wall. "How about you go ahead and take these chains off huh?" Poking the bear, that was her specialty. She'd always been the sassy type, even as a Padawan. It often got her in trouble - something she never outgrew. "I'm getting awful tired hanging around here. And I find your company quite boring. Whatever lies beyond this existence has to be more interesting than listening to you talk to yourself all day."

Seraphina half expected him to slap her across the face again. Sith, always so emotional and impulsive. Consumed by nothing by anger. Such a terrible way to waste away through life she thought. If he had first hand account of what lies beyond death, perhaps he should have simply stayed there. The galaxy would be a far brighter place without his filthy existence choking the life out of it. Still, despite her sass, she did want to find a way out of this place. Everything had a weakness, the Sith Lord before her, the cell she was trapped in, everything. All she had to do was find out what it was, and she would exact not revenge, but justice. The ruthless abduction, imprisonment, and slaughter of the innocent was a heinous crime, one she would see thoroughly paid for.

Throughout her time as a Jedi of the Order, they had believed in the capture and trial of Sith who had committed war crimes. It was their way. Seraphina no longer held on to that particular belief. When something is evil to the very core, there can be no redemption in life. For Vornskr, that appeared true in death as well. Still, when you have an evil so corrupt that imprisonment nor a pathway to the light are capable of change, you must simply do what must be done - You exterminate the threat with prejudice. The only thing stopping the Twi'lek from choking the life from the Sith Lord before her was the drugs that were still running through her system. The first time he slipped up, and boy was she patient, she would crush his windpipe so that he could spare no last words, save for the words his eyes spoke as he looked into her emotionless ones, helpless to draw a final breath, or exhale the corrupt one held within his pitiful lungs.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

A somber expression briefly graced his thuggish features. but as quickly as it appeared it was gone; swept away by a look of annoyance and anger. "A pity" he said derisively, his eyes now solely fixated on her's as he let his arm fall to his side to impatiently caress the elegant metal of his lightsaber. "It seems that you require a demonstration of my power, and I had so hoped to save such a display after I had my way with you, but your insolent mouth is starting to annoy me." With one swift roll of his wrist he wrapped his fingers around the curved-hilt of his weapon, pressed the emitter up against the cleft between the Twi'lek's breasts, and with only a hiss of unleashed power to herald the crimson blade's passage through her body and out the metal wall behind her. The Sith Lord twisted his blade, searing the flesh further as he glared at [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"] with nothing but unadulterated hatred burning in his pupils.

The Jedi would be already be dead by the time Vornskr decided to yank his blade out of her eviscerated body, the blade sizzling out of existence as he deactivated the weapon. He turned to Dr. Zyn, who's expression was a mixture of surprise and remorse at the sudden, and violent, death of the Jedi test subject. "Take the body down to the chamber and summon the savants. If we let the soul linger for too long it'll become one with the Force, and I am not done with her yet." That seemed to cheer up the doctor, who quickly flashed a closed-fisted Imperial salute and summoned in two guards to aid her in the transferal of the dead Twi'lek. By that time the Sith Lord had already left the chamber, his anger barely contained even after he had silenced the Jedi's grating words and insults. Several prisoners suffered his immediate wrath as an unseen force wrapped around their throats with such strength that their windpipes were instantly crushed and they were left to writhe in agony as they tried to draw in air through their shattered esophagus.

Even some of his guards were killed by his anger, either tossed over the precipice or having their armors crushed as if seized by a massive hand and squeezed. It was rather uncommon to see their Lord in such a fitful state, but as his body deteriorated so did his patience for jabs and taunts, and it was a remarkable wonder he managed to limit himself back in the chamber before he had driven his blade through Sera's chest. Eventually he would calm himself after having spilled the blood of friend and foe alike, his body drenched in a cold sweat that soaked through his robes causing the fabric to cling to his pallid flesh. His heart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest, and it took more effort than usual to slow its beat and regulate his erratic breathing. And it was in that state that Dr. Zyn found him, quickly informing her Lord that the chamber was ready for his entry before scuttling off after the Sith Lord waved her away with his left hand. He sucked in air through his nostrils and blew it out of his mouth, straightening his posture, and creasing the wrinkles of his tunic before making his way to the ritual chamber.

The chamber itself hearkened back to archaic tales of wicked sorcerers who brooded in subterranean lairs of volcanic rock and magma, directing their foul minions with an accusing finger and a booming voice of authority to cleanse the surface world of the hapless villagers while cursing the ever-heroic knights. The walls were made from a slick obsidian and sloped upwards at roughly forty-five degrees before coming together at a singular point where a large kyber crystal had been suspended in a metal harness with the sharpest point angled down towards a metal slab. The corpse of Jedi Master Seraphina had been shackled to the slab, her arms and legs stretched out by the heavy manacles and chains, and her body had been stripped of all clothing and rubbed down with ceremonial ointments not unlike those Vornskr used in his personal rituals. Symbols had also been inscribed onto her byzantine flesh with blood harvested from a freshly sacrificed supplicant.

Vornskr entered the chamber without any fanfare, quickly tossing aside his black robe for one made of a dark violet material. He took lead position at Sera's head while four cultists gathered around and began chanting in an ancient and forgotten language offensive to the senses. Vornskr quickly fell in line with his servants, waving both of his arms around as dark arcane symbols began to form in the air between the assembled ritualists, the air growing heavy and stagnant with the musty smell of the tomb as energy swelled beyond the perceived barriers of existence as he scoured for her in the realm of the metaphysical. Once discovered he would latch onto her essence, dragging it down towards the material plane before anchoring it into her lifeless body.

And one by one the cultists around Vornskr began to convulse violently before sprawling out onto the ground, all life drained from their bodies and transferred into the Twi'lek's body. The wound inflicted by the Sith Lord began to heal itself as new vitality surged through her veins, and with a mere tough of Vornskr's index finger on her forehead she would awaken from the sleep beyond sleep into the frightening world of existence.

"Welcome back."​

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

There was a certain satisfaction in in the fury Seraphina saw in the eye of [member="Darth Vornskr"]. His displeasure with her snark bred the wide smile on her face. As she hung there chained to that wretched, filthy wall she wore that smile with shameless glee. The final weapon she had to wield against the Sith Lord was his own anger and hate, fueled by her words and actions that day. Though as Kaine drew his weapon, to say that she had not one ounce of fear within her would be dishonest. Perhaps she had been a bit bold in her presumptions of him. The cold bite of the emitter pressed against her chest made her tense, sending a shiver down her spine. Her eyes stared at the hilt of his crimson blade, then shifted to Vornskr. She would speak not a single word. Her eyes pierced his enraged pupils, digging into the blackened soul of the man who was about to murder her. The Jedi's face turned to a scowl, knowing that this monstrosity would continue to walk about the galaxy. Her only regret being unable to say her farewells to those she'd cared most for.

She watched as the world unfolded in slow motion, her eyes following the Sith Lord's fingertip as he slowly depressed the activator switch, igniting the fiery plasma sword within. The snap of the weapon springing to life caught her well before the blade itself. With nowhere to go but forward, the searing heat from the extending saber pierced through skin, bone, and organs. The Twi'lek's body would spasm, though movement was minimal, the rattling of the metallic chains performing their job of maintaining proper hold of the prisoner. The shock of sudden death wrapped its' frigid embrace around Seraphina, dragging her to the netherworld beyond the mortal realm. A quiet gasp poured from within, her final action as a Jedi Master: staring into the eyes of the purest of evils, and the man who had ended her life. Only a second would pass before the head of the woman slumped forward. No further restraint. No mockery of her captor. No sassy retorts. Just quiet, simple death.

All was not over, though it seemed. For what could have been hours later were but mere milliseconds to the Twi'lek. A sudden gasp of air and her eyelids snapped open wide in sheer terror. An echoing scream of agony and surprise as her mind and soul once again returned to the land of the living. Her arms and legs frantically kicked and pulled on the restraints as she lay bare atop the ritual slab. Around her she could see a pair of bodies, though above her would be the truly worst sight of all. The nightmare she'd awoken from was equally as hostile as the one she was now in. His words slithered in her ear like a viper's tongue, a sort of poison coursing through her. She then observed the strange markings that vandalized her body. As if being stripped of life were not enough, she was in fact, stripped bare naked as well. As her realization of what had just transpired came to be, she flailed about with every ounce of her minimal energy and strength.

For a moment, a spark of anger slipped through her lips as she exclaimed,

"Gahhhhhhhh! LET ME GO YOU KARKING WORTHLESS SCHUTTA!"​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Now do you see, Jedi? Now do you see?!" the Sith Lord declared triumphantly, a sneer of smug arrogance clearly plastered across his brutish features as he raised his clenched fists in victory. Indeed he had succeeded in bringing the recently deceased back to life by forcefully sifting through the Cosmic Force, and latching onto [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]'s fading consciousness and anchored it back in the realm of the Living Force. "I have invested so much research into the realms of mysticism to achieve this mastery of death, and it is by my will alone that you still breath. You should feel honored. You should feel blessed that I have graced you with such a chance at life." The shackles pulled back her limbs in a manner similar to the ones she had been previously shackled to in the cell up above, but this time they stretched her limbs painfully in four directions as any movement became either physically impossible or extremely painful.

The Sith Lord placed both of his hands on either side of the Twi'lek's head, his fingers digging into her cheeks and back as he forced her to look up into his horrific visage brimming with unholy gratification. From the darkened corners of the room emerged shadowy servants carrying a menagerie of devices that they quickly began to attach to the Jedi's body. A pair of them clamped an uncomfortable joug around Sera's neck ringed on the inside with small needs attached to vials of Ixetal cilona that would inject the Force-numbing substance directly into her bloodstream at programmed intervals over the course of twenty-four hours before running out. Shock bracers were then slung around her thin wrists and ankles that would deliver a painful shock directly to her nervous system at the press of a button situated on a small activator small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand.

Only after these items were in place did Vornskr release Sera's head, and the shackles holding her down unclasped and allowed her to move. "What say you now, Jedi? You have been witness to my power, and now you know exactly what I am capable of. I suggest you reconsider my earlier offer, or I will torture you to death and bring you back just to kill you again, and again, and again. And I would suggest you stifle that impulsive tongue of yours, or this time I'll just cut it out."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUaJFJl5bgU​

All my life I played the part of a hero and a shining star.
A legend among the lost at sea
But death comes quick with this anchor around my feet.
​

Blessed? Honored? Disgusting!

Her body shivered with tremors as he spoke. His soul was completely and utterly blackened. There was no humanity in him. No compassion. No remorse. Just soulless, vile, hatred. The Twi'lek let out a howled scream of pain as the shackles once again strained her limbs from her body. It was entirely futile to attempt any sort of resistance as it was only met with further pain. His blackened nails dug into the sides of her face, forcing a grimace from her eyes and a twitch of her nose, her lips adding to the expression as they curled back, exposing the whites of her teeth. Her eyes would not well with tears, as much as [member="Darth Vornskr"] would likely enjoy, but instead remained passively defiant. She lay motionless as the collar and bracers were affixed to her neck, wrists, and ankles. Shock bracers. Slave jewelry, as it were called on Ryloth. Her people were uniquely familiar with these devices. The world seemed to favor Twi'lek women as slaves more often than any other species for one reason or another. Vornskr however, simply enjoyed basking in his glory over the Jedi, and likely had little to do whatsoever with her species. He would just as happily enslave his own children if it suited his plans as he would a total stranger.

As the shackles released from her body and gave her something resembling freedom of movement the only movement she made was to cover her breasts with her left hand, stretching across her body and holding onto her right upper arm, while her right hand moved between her legs, covering her crotch. She heard Kaine speak, though chose not to look at him, nor any of his servants in the room. Instead she sat quietly, considering him for a minute.If serving him in some manner or another was going to be the only means of possible escape in the future, she would simply have to accept it for the time being. Being tortured to death, only to return for more was going to get her nowhere, and she quite frankly did not enjoy this ritual session one bit, if one were to ask her opinion. She swallowed the knot in her throat, her lips quivered, and she allowed herself to, for the time being, suppress her pride.

The woman sat up on the slab, still covering herself, and turned her focus to Vornskr. Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper. If he wasn't listening closely he might very well not even hear her.

​

"Fine. I accept. May I please have clothes?"​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The urge to roll his eyes was nearly unbearable, but instead he substituted it with a long glare and a deep frown instead. "Leave it to a Jedi to care about their modesty. If I had any interest in you in that regard you would have already known about it, but I have other ways to sate my appetites." He waved his hand to send some of his servants off to fetch an outfit for the naked Twi'lek, although they would have to travel a good distance to actually acquire something suitable for her. So in the meantime she would have to suffer the unnatural chill that swept through the entire pyramid like a tempest, the shivering cold of the Dark Side of the Force. And despite Vornskr's obvious victory over [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]'s will (for now, at least) he found himself unable to truly engorge himself on his triumph as his mind was distracted, distant, his thoughts turned elsewhere and his focus incoherent.

Perhaps he was truly going absolutely mad from his experiments of the soul, his sanity finally fraying into fragments from his time in the depths of hell, or perhaps it was the last vestiges of his humanity attempting to at last rest control away from the malignancy that had plagued him since his youth. Maybe what the Jedi said so long ago had finally begun to resonate with his subconscious for it was his crippling fear of death and the totality of it all that drove him to commit such atrocities on others to find a cheap way for himself to perpetually exist in an undead limbo. His eyes momentarily fluttered back to the Jedi, the pupils showing only an ounce of concern and something more than unfathomable cruelty for once during their entire ordeal together. But as quick as it came it was gone, snuffed out like a withering candle light and replaced by the darkness that permeated from every fiber of his being.

It was when the uncomfortable silence between them reached its zenith that the servants he dispatched finally returned with their bounty: a set of creme colored clothes for the Twi'lek to wear to cover herself. Perhaps it would be taken as a surprise that they had not picked something made from a material that was blacker than the blackest black times infinity, or perhaps they couldn't reach their Lord's wardrobe in time to find something and had to make due. Either way they placed the clothes next to Sera in a neat folded stack, and waddled off back into the darkness when their presence was no longer required. "You'll be staying in a furbished cell this time around, but know this... Should you attempt to escape, I will throw you into the pit." An ominous name for one of the harshest punishments within the pyramid. The pit in reality was one of many pits of identical design: a twenty-five foot deep sensory deprivation cubical sealed by a durasteel door with a magnetic lock. Many who have been tossed into those pits come out raving mad, their minds broken by the infinite silence.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The air that lingered about in the chamber felt unnatural, just as everything about this place felt unnatural. Severed from the Force, she felt only the cold draft that circulated like an arctic frost as she sat quietly on the slab, her repugnant captor at her side. Seraphina was genuinely surprised by the small gesture of willingness to grant her clothing, even if it came with a certain dig at her modesty. She still had some semblance of dignity left, unwilling to shed it entirely. It wasn't at all that she feared he desired her in some kind of erotic manner, she wasn't even certain he was capable of such pleasures, it was simply to avoid long, uncomfortable stares and glances by the rest of his guards and servants. Her eyes settled on him as he seemed to space out for a moment, lost somewhere in himself. For a moment she wondered what was going on inside the mind of a madman. Was he making plans for what to do with her? Was he considering some past decision and its' impact on the here and now? Was he hungry? Had she not been threatened moments ago to have her tongue cut from her mouth she might have very well asked. Instead, she simply wondered to herself in silence until his minions returned with a rather simple outfit.

Before the servants turned to leave she forced herself a short smile and a nod to them, her voice still as quiet as before. "Thank you."

The Twi'lek mused for a moment, considering that she would likely be spending some time, however unpleasant, with [member="Darth Vornskr"]. To this point, he'd simply referred to her as Jedi, or some volatile substitute for the word. In her current state she hardly felt the term warranted. A Jedi with no connection to the Force, and no lightsaber was hardly a Jedi at all. She was nothing at all different than those who had just brought her clothing. Her hand lifted from her thighs, as if to float the clothing from their folded state just beside her to that hand, a second nature use of telekinesis she had been used to since having been a child. The moment of realization, that she felt nothing, no energy of the Force around her, no sense of light or dark, no ability to manipulate objects, it was as if a part of her had died. Her eyes filled with water as the full understanding of what had been done to her came crashing through.

She rubbed away the tears from her eyes before lifting the clothing by hand, pulling over the shirt and adjusting it as needed, then slid herself off the slab to pull her legs through the pant legs. His threat of her attempting escape was heard, though as much as she wanted to vacate herself from this place, in her current state her body was in no condition to do so. Her arm still very much bothered her. Sera gave the Sith Lord a slow nod to acknowledge his warning. Despite not knowing what the pit was, she had little desire to ask, or learn about it. Her mind wandered back to his addressing her as Jedi. She felt it rather pointless to call her that. Turning herself to look Vornskr in the eye she placed her right hand over the back of the left and spoke once more.

"My name is Seraphina."​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Seraphina, eh?

He faintly recalled hearing that name in some briefing or another, or perhaps he had seen her on the battlefield... Did he fight her once? To his violence-addled mind it was hard to discern between who he had fought and who he had killed, and sometimes they would even mesh together to create whole new personas in his mind. There were a select few who really made their mark upon his mind, such as [member="Thurion Heavenshield"], [member="Gabriel Sionoma"], and [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] were ever clear and present enemies that throbbed in his mind with hate. Still, he would've remembered a bright pink Twi'lek and she did not seem to have a personal grudge against his person, so he suspected that this was their first meeting. "Your name is not important for you will forsake it sooner or later, and from this moment I think I will bequeath you a new name befitting of your new existence."

He pondered for a moment, the index finger of his right hand tapping the tip of his chin in dramatic contemplation before that wicked grin once again spread across his face. "I have a perfect name for you! As a Jedi you were Seraphina, but as my servant you shall henceforth be known as Satyijau'ira!" He declared this new proclamation in the same manner a priest would deliver a religious sermon, with a boastful rapturous voice and hand gestures that accenting each word with purpose! He seemed rather pleased with himself as well, for he had chosen a rather specific word from the High Sith vocabulary that was unknown to the former Jedi.

For Satyijau'ira in High Sith meant Servant.

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]