Lost in the Dark

[Darth Abyss]

Dagobah

The old, stolen transporter lands on the ground surrounded by the impenetrable jungel of Dagobah with the sound of a ship that had seen far better times. A tall, hooded figure emerges from the now open gate, observing the scenery around it. Abyss had heard rumors about a place on this planet, a cave with a deep connection to the dark side. As the young sith apprantice took his first step on the surface, he could already feel the strange, corrupted presence close by, calling him trough the force. The man stepped trough the jungel, cutting vines and small plantes with his lightsaber on his way. It took him only a few minutes to find what he looked for: The entrance to the cave was right in front of him, and he could feel that in it was a power stronge than expected. Without hesitation, his lightsaber still activated, he walks into the cave, just to be greeted by pure darkness ...


[member="Mara Sedaya"] [member="Safiriel Bane"]

 

[NightSister]

Dagobah was a place that had always mildly unsettled Mara. Not in the way Dathomir did, with its eerie red sky and Dark magic. Every minute spent on the swamp planet made her feel further away from human civilization, even humanity. It was a place for hermits and people in hiding and people who had lost their wits, none of which were things that she ever wanted to be.

However, she was a witch now and beneath something as insignificant as unease. She had come to the planet to visit the Dark Side cave and see what it could teach her, and so that was what she would do. Cloaked in her silvery grey witch robe, she gripped the engraved hilt of her lightsaber, ignited its icy blue blade with a familiar snap-hiss and entered the cave. Immediately she saw the beam of crimson light that was another lightsaber - typically a Sith lightsaber. Although Mara had no quarrel with the Sith, the few she had met hadn't seen that as a reason not to fght her, and so she brought her lightsaber up in a defensive stance.

[member="Abyss"] [member="Safiriel Bane"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Abyss hears the sound of the lightsaber being activated behind him. He had bathed in power of the cave, he could feel the power of the darkside flowing trough his veins. In a swift move he turnes around, only recognizing the color of the lightsaber and not even looking at its wielder. The cave had fueld his inner passion, the logical part of his mind was almost no existing. Without any warning he raises his sword, and swings it diagonally from right to left.
[member="Mara Sedaya"]

 

[NightSister]

Just as Mara had predicted, the Sith had seen the blue of her double-blade and decided that she was his enemy. She knew that very few Jedi were permitted to use double-bladed lightsabers, but she supposed that he had either forgotten or ignored that detail - all that was important was that there was now a lightsaber swinging towards her.

Her reflexes acting on impulse, her lightsaber moved to block his and took one hand off the hilt to push a strong wave of Force energy to push him to the back of the cave. It would give him a chance to notice that she was no Jedi and hopefully apologize so she could do what she had come to do. If not then she would have no choice but to finish what he started. One day people would know not to pick fights with Mara Sedaya by instinct, but until that day came she would simply have to show them. And she would.

[member="Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Abyss had almost lost himself in his anger that was amplified by the power of the cave. While this made him stronger it als clouded his mind and the wave of telekinetic energy hits him by surprise. He stumbels back deeper in the cave, ready to slaughter his enemy in a vortex of hate and bloodlust. The red glowing lightsaber was already back in the air when a tought appears in the back of his mind, not much more than a voice in the distance. The force he felt from the woman in front him was not the weak flow of the light, but something entirely different. At first the force that existed within the cave had shrouded his senses, but the revelation that the other person was in fact not a jedi slowly drowned the fire inside him. He lowers his lightsaber without deactivating it and asks with a hint of caution in his voice:

"Who are you?"

[member="Mara Sedaya"]

 

[NightSister]

The man retreated as quickly as he had attacked, lowering his lightsaber as he realised that she was not the Jedi he meant to fight. Mara did not lower her lightsaber - she had always been proud, and after being spontaneously attacked she felt a stubborn desire to be the one with the upper hand. However, she took a small step backwards and relaxed her posture slightly - there was a fine line between pride and arrogance, one that had to be tread very delicately when one was dealing with the Sith.

"I am Mara Sedaya, and I am not your enemy." The blue glow of her lightsaber cast an ethereal radiance upon her. "Unless you decide I am."

[member="Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

He looks at the witch for moment, deciding if she was saying the truth or not. He came to the conclusion that he couldn't say for sure even if he wanted to. It didn't really matter to him either, he came for the power of the cave and not for some unknown woman. After a last second of consideration he deactivates his lightsaber. Even if this would end in a fight, knowing his enemy was always helpful. He slowly sits down on the ground crossing his legs, preparing his body and mind for meditating inside this field of the dark side. Before closing his eyes he says to the woman:

"I am called Abyss ... and I haven't decided yet. But for now I mean no harm."

[member="Mara Sedaya"]

 

[NightSister]

Sighing as the man sat down, Mara's mind raced. Abyss was only part of a name, and it was likely an alias at that. She knew that she would be a fool to trust a man who would not give her his name, but then she had no intention of trusting him anyway. All that she needed was to know he would not disturb her for the time being, and so she switched off her lightsaber and let the cave's darkness surface. It was more black than anything Mara, who had grown up under the bloodred skies of Dathomir, had ever known, but Mara did not come to places as remote and dangerous as Dagobah for experiences that she had already known.

"Very well."

[member="Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

The man had closed his eyes, his main focus shifted away from the woman. Still a part of his mind was watching her trough the force, partly because he knew that she could attack and kill him easily if he wasn't cautious, partly out of curiosity as he had not feelt a presence in the force that resembled hers. After a moment of consideration the young sith opens his mouth to speak:

"You are a witch from Dathomir. A nightsister?"

He was guessing based on his studies about different sects of force users. After a few seconds he speaks again:

"Are you also here to feast on the darkness of this place?"

[member="Mara Sedaya"]

 

[NightSister]

"I am a witch," Mara said simply, not wanting to go into detail about her allegiances with a Sith stranger just yet, "here for the darkness, yes. As are you. A Sith Acolyte, new to Darkness."

Finished with her analysis, Mara closed her eyes and slipped into a semi-meditative trance, keeping herself partly conscious in case the Sith decided that she was his enemy after all but partly letting herself explore the darkness and all the secrets that it held. Having always gone out of her way to never become completely Light or Dark, she had never fully appreciated the beauty in total, utter blackness.

[member="Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

"I might be an acolyte, but I am no stranger to the dark. It was calling me since the day I was born. I finally found the passion to embrace it instead of travelling in the twilight like you seem to do."

The man told her without opening his eyes. He could feel the dark side all around him, allowing the presence of the cave to flow trough his body, creating an burning flame of hate, anger and passion within his mind. As he slipped deeper and deeper into his trance he fell into visions of the future, the past and the presence. Visions of burning citys of war and destruction. Unconsiencly his face forms a small grin as he watched the visions in front of his inner eye.

[member="Mara Sedaya"]

 

[NightSister]

"Twilight is not as bad as you make it sound. There is plenty to find in the Dark Side, but also the Light. There is something to be said for having the liberty to tread freely between the two."

With nothing else to focus on but the presence of Darkness, Mara could feel every shift in the atmosphere acutely. The Darkness of the Sith seemed to latch on to that of the cave easily, and while it troubled her to sense the overwhelming Darkness she knew that she was currently not in danger and that if that changed at any moment she could easily hold her own. All the same her finger hovered over the button on her saberstaff and she remained standing.

[member="Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

"The twilight is nothing more than a grey shadow of both sides. It is only intriguing to those who are to scared to attune to the darkness within them, and those to weak minded for the strict discipline that is needed to follow the light."

After finishing his sentence the sith once again focuses on the power of the cave and starts to quietly recite the code of the sith word for word in the old tounge, a mantra that helped him to dive even further into darkness of the cave. The visions he had changed, becoming even more gruesome and violent, showing himself slaughtering jedi and common soldiers alike, a being of pure passion.

[member="Mara Sedaya"]

 

[NightSister]

"You have already offended me once, Sith." Mara turned to face the man with ice in her words and danger in her eyes. "I would advise against a seond time. I am neither scared nor weak-minded, and I do not disrespect you or your alignment, I have simply chosen a different one. It would be wise of you to return the kindness."

Already beginning to slip out of her meditation, Mara began to feed of the darkness in the cave to try and enhance her power. Sith were dangerous, but so was she, and she was not going to let him insult her. She was not going to let anyone insult her or challenge her strength, ever.

[member="Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

The mans face once again forms a smile, even more horrifying and mad than the one before. He slowly rises to his full height and opens his strange yellow eyes to look at her. He could feel her being drawn to the dark inside the cave.

"Do you really believe that? I know that you can feel the power around you, I can feel you feasting on it ... feasting on the anger that my words did create. The light can never offer the absolut power of the dark, neither can the twilight. Come, I will show you."

Abyss could feel pure passion that was guiding every move he made, as his red blade ignites, lighting the room with a red glow.

[member="Mara Sedaya"]

 

[NightSister]

Immediately Mara switched on both blades of her saberstaff and held it out in a somewhat aggressive stance, meeting his gleaming yellow eyes with her glowing mahogany ones and letting her aura shift to one of danger.

"You see, that's the great thing about neutrality: I can take my power from both Light side and Dark. I may never have the full power of one or the other, but from the twilight I can acquire more power than you ever will. And you, an apprentice of the Dark side, no further up the ranks than I am and perhaps even less, do not want to have that power opposing you."

[member="Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

"I don't fear the light ... or the twilight. The dark side flows trough every molecule in this place, and while you might can use it to augment your abilities, to be faster and stronger, I can use it to tap into my full potential ... unlimited power."

He said to her a hint of madness in his voice. He could feel the dark side within himself, like a fire burning away his flesh and mind until only animalistic rage was left. Guided by the dark side his hands and body move faster than he knew he even could, swinging the saber at the hilt of her sword so he could take away the advantages of her to bladed weapon.

[member="Mara Sedaya"]

 

[NightSister]

Mara's reflexes snapped into action the moment she saw his eyes, clouded with the manic gleam of a Sith, flickered subtly between her lightsaber and his. Her childhood hadn't been all sunshine and rainbows, but it made one very observant, and in a split second she had shifted her blade so that when he swung his saber it met hers, icy blue against blood red. Very discreetly, she pressed a button on the side of the intricately engraved hilt that she had worked for so long on and the saberstaff clicked into two seperate blades. She had spent a long time perfecting the design so that it would only take a simple manouver to switch from a double blade to twin blades. Moving at the speed of lightning, she pushed the upper blade forwards, pushing the red saber backwards with it, and pointed her other blade directly at his chest.

"Maybe you don't fear the light, or the twilight, but you should fear me. Put the lightsaber down now, apologize and let me continue with my meditation, or else I will have no choice but to show you why."

[member="Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

Instead of answering her, the man starts to laugh. A laugh that lacked any happiness or amusement. The laugh of a mad man. His rage was controlling his actions, but he wasn't stupid. A rushed attack against a dual wielding opponent would mean a fast and gruesome death. He raises his blade in a defensive stance while taking a few steps back from her. He knew that he could not allow her to come close if he wanted to win this fight. He balances the blade out in one hand, pointing it at her, while simultaneously slightly moving his feed to mimic the stance of Form 2. Besides a few swings in his room on tbe academy he had not yet trained how to fight in from 2, but he had read every theoretical piece on it he could find. He raises the sword high in the air and swings it down at her, using the full extend of the lightsabers length, more a test of her defensive skills and techniques than a real attack.

[member="Mara Sedaya"]

 

[NightSister]

It amused Mara to see how easily the Sith allowed rage to consume him and wondered to herself what appeal it could possibly hold to have your actions controlled by pure anger. It seemed very childlish to her.

However, rage was a powerful emotion nonetheless and Sith may not have the greatest morals, but Mara knew them to be formidable opponents. His saber swung down, the crimson beam of light swooshing through the air directly beside her. Mara put one saber to restrain his with an iron grip, and put the other horizontally across his throat, her expression full of danger.

[member="Abyss"]