Private LOTS │ What the Morrow Brings

[Aspect of Passion]

Lok, Karthakk System
864ABY

The plains of Lok burned with a great heat - arid, with a barely breathable atmosphere that reeked of sulfur. Its yellow plains seemed endless, the only break in their rolling hills were the breaching mountains and volcanoes that lined the great basins with their rocky crown. Crests that rose from the planet to spew hot magma, igniting sulphur in spurts that spread explosions far and wide - making echos that spread equally as far across the landscape and the sulphur clouds. Amidst it all, hidden deep in the more hospitable regions of the planet, a Queen fallen slept.

Dug into the hill, a well-built hovel surrounded by undead sentries lay quiet. Night had befallen the side of the planet it was hidden on - as the soft patter of acid rain struck the ash-covered roof creating a soothing ambiance. The heat, however, was noticeable even there - coming through the lava streams from one of the nearby volcanoes that fed the sulfur pits and geysers only a few short kilometers away; allowing the hovel to only barely escape the heat itself, though musty as it was.

Morrow, deep in her home, would be asleep - likely contemplating the day's events, her anger, or the trauma she had endured; but it would not last. Distant but coming quick was a guest she would detest - and only in the briefest of moments would she realize he was there before he arrived. One of the undead, created as they were, had sensed a sudden presence - but fleeting and instant as it was, she would jolt awake at the sensation. Something dangerous this way comes, the Force would echo to her.

It was more warning than almost all had gotten - a nod to her planning, her prowess. Even Darth Vulcanus had been surprised by his arrival - but the Worm's coming was inevitable. The air, as hot as it was, would grow cold and still for a moment - driving a chill up her spine as the distant sounds of the sulfur lake, the rain, and even the volcano would cease. Everything seemed to bend the knee to his presence, and amidst blinks, he would appear before her.

Three meters tall, five gold masks, and a thousand whispers would fill her home with a growing intensity that always remained out of sight. She would feel the thousand there, but never see them - only hear their echoes in the force in words she could not understand. A cacophony that threatened to burrow into her mind despite her genetics, but equally ceases as the Emperor's massive cloaked figure glided forward.

His voice was regal, booming, and seemed everywhere at once;

"Darth Morrow.", it offered her with respect.

"Queen of Horror.", a woman offered in a whisper.

"Lady of Death.", a deeper angrier man offered.

"You hide away - from us. From others. From yourself.", the voice offered in its regal nature.

"I've come to free you of this burden.", as though the finality was inevitable.

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

The silence of the planet was welcoming, bringing Morrow into its embrace, coddling her in a time of need after she fled the eradication of sith in the New Imperial Order. Allies the ghostly woman once stood beside turned against the dark siders, slaying each and every one who swore their fealty. Her mind drifted... her apprentices... Morrigan.... Carnifex. A rage built in her as she slept, a quiet mourning holding her chest at the thoughts of those lost, perhaps they survived... though... chances were they didn't.

The hovel she dug out in the planet treated her well, the tremendous heat welcomed to the monstrous woman as though it was her old home... New Amaranthine... She thought back to those who followed her, the piled bodies... the dead child... the escape she had made just before the assault ships descended... The nightmares built, pulling at the last strings holding together what little bit of sanity she still held, only for her to be stirred awake by the sentries; a hand raised only to bring forth a bar of beskar, heating it violently and ripping apart the earthen elements, it split apart it became a handful of sharpened blades behind her held aloft solely by her mastery of the element.

Should the woman have a heartbeat surely it would have paused in anticipation, the sounds around silenced by a terrifying presence that invaded the calm bubble she held for so long. Her eyes widened in fear as the figure appeared before her, Morrow reeling back on the makeshift bed as the blade instinctively raised around her in a wall.

"I am giving you one chance to leave! Should you choose not to I will end your life!" Her words shook with uncertainty. How long had it been since she fought another... how long had it been since her mind wasn't torn to ribbons between anger and self hate...

Aspect of Passion

 

[Aspect of Passion]

Lok, Karthakk System
864ABY

Uncertainty had littered her words, but the Worm's form was unmoved. Much like a statue draped in sith garb, the Five Masks stared at her without emotion - each scrawled with a word of power from the Sith Code in the old tongue. Despite their apathy, she would feel a sudden and massive weight - the gaze of the Emperor laid upon her in all its glory. Void like eyes bore deep into her presence in the Force, and she would feel her control slipping off the abysmal gaze alone.

"On the contrary -", the regal voice offered as a long and black rag draped arm rose from the depths of the robes. It seemed overly thin, jerking as it moved in a way that screamed unnatural.

"- I come for exactly that."

The elongated fingers seemed to dance with their tremors for a second before she would feel The Force simply slip from the room - each of her beskar knives falling to the ground as though in the presence of a ysalamiri. What was once luke warm now grew deathly cold as she would see her breath before her - and yet besides the arm, the Worm Emperor would not so much as move its mask. Amidst it all, the burrowing of the whispers, a thousand and one echo'ing his words;

"You smell of fear, Darth Morrow. For you are not certain you can end my life - though I welcome you to try."

"Try and die.", a child taunted behind her.

The arm slowly slinked back beneath the cloak before he spoke once more - moving in janky and broken patterns as it did so.

"I am the beginning and the end, everything that was and will be. Do not deny me out of fear, Morrow. Embrace me out of hatred; and I will free you of this torment if you only allow me the chance. No more fear, no more sorrow - but a chance to live, to find happiness once more. All you must do is listen, my child.", the masks offered - voices intermingling with voices until a dozen spoke in unison.

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

Her chest caved slightly at the feeling of eyes locking on her form, her eyes unfocused as she looked down, trembling. The control she held over her force powers was minimal at best, her mind shattered from years of torment and betrayal. Morrow felt as everything came to a halt, the freezing temperature around them causing her trembling to increase; the cold was enough to sedate her as it was, though whatever it was the masked figure was exerting forced her weaponry to clatter on the stone.

Her body weakened under the threat of death, the cold creeping in on every muscle, every nerve. She couldn't fight like this... if anything... she would die before lifting a finger. Her form violently fought against the drop, the instability of her form flickering, shifting without her ability to control. She was coming apart, all because this... thing, raised a hand...

Pain... there was so much pain... The cold ripped through her body like wildfire only to be followed by a scream of agony.

"STOP IT! I'LL LISTEN JUST PLEASE STOP!"

The woman fell to her hands as the physicality of those too flickered, almost as though a glitch in the system met with dark tendrils of force, an odd sight to those who had never seen her amalgam of genetic mess. The suffering wracked her whole being, her mind unable to form thoughts of its own.

Aspect of Passion

 

[Aspect of Passion]

As she commanded, so too did it cease. The cold snap that broke the heat of her home seemed to cease in a moment - and where there was a void in the Force where the Worm held his hand, now seemed to fill with its gently dark presence, though it carried with it the dark assurance of an abomination before her as though his mere presence corrupted the Dark Side to something far worse - something foreign to even a Sith Lord.

The lowest of the masks seemed to turn towards her now - empty eye sockets peering over her, studying the pain she was in before she could feel breathe on her skin despite the distance between them. The regal tones followed only a moment later, the whispers she heard fading into the darkness as he did so;

"Pain.", the Worm said flatly.

"Burning and controlling.", a different man offered in a calm position juxtaposed to the situation.

"We offer an apology. Pain detracts from logic, and we mean to keep you in control of your facilities.", the Worm's many voices offered at once.

"Speak to me, why do you hide away, my child?", the single royal voice rose above the others with the slightest hint of tender empathy - though it seemed fleeting.

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

The ghostly woman glanced up, her eyes white and empty of their usually volcanic hue, her hands slowly stabilized under her weight as her control fell back into place. Watching the masked faces Morrow cowered slightly, the thought of death being so close without any effort of the beings part torturing her ever so slightly.

"I ran from those trying to kill me... trying to control me... I wanted a quiet life..." Her voice quivered. "I didn't want to be someone's toy... and I didn't want to be killed by those hunting me..."

Her hands gripped the stone beneath them, it shifting as though it were sand in her grasp. Elements seemed to bend to her will, only being dampened by the prevention of the force entirely.

Aspect of Passion

 

[Aspect of Passion]

Was the Worm to notice her effects on the stone, or the fear in her heart, was to be unknown. None of the masks betrayed an ounce of emotion, stoic and apathetic to her plight despite it; but she would feel its piercing gaze nonetheless. The whispers would begin again - quiet and distant, and in the corner of her vision she would see the shadows play; children and adults, dark entities with no shape, everything always out of view - but enough within to be noticed.

"For all your strength, and you chose fear.", The Worm offered her in disappointment.

"There are more powerful emotions, one's that could have saved you from this torture - from what you feel now.", it offered together.

"Love.", a woman offered her gently, nearly whispering it like a sad opera singer in her ear.

"Pain.", a child offered next.

"Revenge.", a deeper - angrier tone said from a distance.

"For all these things you could have chosen from; but it was fear and doubt that you embodied. We are not surprised.", the Worm offered coldly.

"Controlled, built by an Empire and a Man bent on weakening you - taking from you the very means of your own independence, ambition, and safety. Darth Morrow, I come not to end your life - but to break the chains that bind you.", the voices offered as one of the metal masks suddenly turned to face her - the distant sound of strained metal filling her ears as though a ship were landing a few dozen meters from her home.

"I wish to restore you to greatness. So that you may live without fear, return yourself to greatness, and feel the happiness you deserve."

The hand that once extended to disarm her, now breached the cloak to offer it to help her up from her position - still as jerky as it once was.

"Take our hand, let me show you your future."

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

The voices filled her mind as she sat there, hands in the stone as a sort of comfort, the one absolute in her world of fear were elements around them. Each word passed through her, her own thoughts chiming in on each and every one.

"For all your strength, and you chose fear." A fight crept into her mind, a fight of life and death against the very man who enslaved her, tortured her. Metal flying and rocks hurling across a room with as much strength she could muster, her actions filled with nothing but anger. ​

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"Love." "Pain." Her mind drifted to Kieran... How the very man that had trapped her... The children she had under his forceful hand... How Kieran's neck snapped in her hands without any control, her body obeying only what is was told as tears filled her eyes and she begged for him to stop. ​

​

"Revenge." Anger filled her at these wayward thoughts, all the while Carnifex hid god knows where, safe, unworried of his future. Her teeth grit as her eyes went from a pale while to a molten red, tendrils of dark energy flitting around her as she looked up at the abomination before her.​

​

"Controlled, built by an Empire and a Man bent on weakening you - taking from you the very means of your own independence, ambition, and safety. Darth Morrow, I come not to end your life - but to break the chains that bind you." ​

Seeing his hand outstretch towards her, without a second thought Morrow took it in her own. Perhaps he was right, she was tired of cowering. Tired of hiding from a man who hid himself, a man who was no longer as all powerful as he once was. Moving to stand she looked at the unsettling metal mask, her hand still in his (?) own.

Aspect of Passion

 

[Aspect of Passion]

The hand would feel cold - foreign and almost painful to the touch, but what likely would have hurt would only last a moment. Cold flashed to heat, heat to the Darkness they both knew so well; and Morrow would witness in her mind a series of visions overlapping, constant, faster than she could process at times - but full of an undeniable truth she could feel deep in her stomach.

Of a mountain of corpses, stood atop by Sith lords she recognized and many she did not while the Worm Emperor stood at the stop. Each were climbing for him, anger lining their faces; but the apathetic calmness that seemed ever present on the Worm's masks. Ash would overwhelm them, and then the mind would change to fleets - expanding, then to planets burning. It was hard to say amidst it all who was burning the planets, who was facing their death at the hands of which - but at the end she would see something undenianable.

The corpose form of Carnifex strung up - failing as it was taken away from its coffin. To face the death he had avoided for so long.

When it was gone, she would see him once more, the Worm Emperor in all his height, but his hand would be gone shrouded once more beneath the cloak.

"A new generation awaits you, Darth Morrow. A new home, where you may find the safety you seek. I will insure it.", he voice said with a calmness that betrayed the danger it posed.

Darth Morrow