My Rock [Lady Kyros]

[Thyrian Hearthfire]

Teth
Lady Kyros' hidden bunker

Just a quick stop to pick up some supplies before leaving this place to its fate. He had done what he could to train the Bladeborn - they didn't need him anymore, even though some of them if not all he looked upon as his brothers and sons. But he couldn't remain here with the one thing he cared about missing in his life. There were too many memories hidden in these walls, too many scents reminding him of her. He'd never felt this lost before, and part of him wished to never see her again after what she'd put him through. The girl he'd seen growing up into what she was now had all but disappeared, so why go on pretending she ever gave a damn to begin with?

Because he was hers; his body was hers, his soul was hers. His heart was hers. All these things he never imagined himself possessing had it not been for her - they were all hers. But then why would she leave him like she did? Months spent in solitude and without a word spoken. No food or drink could ever satisfy his cravings, nor did his sleep offer any refuge from the pain he'd felt. Sleeping was not a thing meant for monsters, anyway. Monster don't get to dream of better times.

Such were his conflicting thoughts as he entered the facility. The guards and personnel stationed at the bunker had remained loyal throughout their master's absence, which was admirable. They whispered among themselves as they witnessed the hulking figure of the Ashborn return after months away 'on buisness', as he'd called it when he left. Some even dared to give snide remarks about his whereabouts or mangled appearance, to which he turned and glared at as his eyes became like fire. He was by no means a handsome face, with the punishments of battle he'd been through in his lifetime and the physical abuse he'd allow himself at a daily basis. His hair was unkempt and so was his beard, making for a most rugged appearance. Fashion or good looks was not something he considered for even a moment of his life. If he was fit to fight, it sufficed, and he did possess magnificent physique beneath those black robes of his.

What he did not expect to find while roaming the secret hideout of his master was that of another Force presence nearby.

[member="Lady Kyros"]

 

[Lief]

The skulking figure lingered in the shadows. She had bypassed all of her personnel without detection... Which in a way was very unnerving. Perhaps it was time she took up Force Sensitive guards within her little hide out. The fact that the Ashborn was nowhere to be found struck a sensitive chord within the Sith Lord, but she suppressed it as best she could and decided that perhaps it was for the best. She could sense he was not dead,which was all she needed to know. If the Ashborn was around, he would never have permitted a Force User to enter without former permission... Would he?

Kära had vanished for many years, without a word. The exploration part of her being, taken most likely from her Father, had bid her to venture back across the stars to a land she had found when first beginning the Shadow Order. Aurum had seemed a world of potential, with only faint traces that sentient life had ever lived there; a crashed spacecraft, a hidden temple of sorts. She had also wondered what lay beneath its surface, unmasking beautiful white granite embedded into the mountainsides of volcano's long since made dormant.

Her team had been split part way through, Kära's curiosity piqued by the considerably barren moon which lay within Aurum's orbit. If nothing else, it might have provided space for terra-forming and housing slaves, or criminals... Or both. She had left them there, feeling it time to return. But the girl was not who she had once been.

The mask upon her face had been altered since its first fashioning, her eyes illuminated through the Force to a point of eerie ghostliness. No one had seen her wearing this version of the mask. And no one would recognise her presence... Not even the Ashborn whom had raised her above all else.

So when she felt his presence in her bunker it took all of her willpower to remain in th shadows, watching him without a word. In due time he would know, but until then it was best he remained ignorant to who she was. Ashborn had always been volatile.

 

[Thyrian Hearthfire]

It put him on edge as it grew the farther he went down the corridors. There should not be anyone here except for himself with a Force signature; the Minotaur had left shortly after finding out about their master's abandonment, as did all the others in time. He had remained the most loyal, stayed at his post longing for the day she would return and prove all the others wrong. Yet the weeks went by, and soon a whole month without any word of her return. His body was beaten, his soul shattered, and his heart broken. The latter alone would've made his decision for him when he chose to leave as well. There was nothing for him here by that time, not even hope.

He couldn't shake the eerie notion of someone else being here, someone who shouldn't be here. He finally stopped dead in his tracks, turning towards he shadows. "Show yourself, coward. If you've come here to kill me, now's your chance." Hand went for his lightsaber, keeping a firm hand around the hilt. When no response came he flicked it into activity, letting its crimson light shine across the hallway to where he suspected the intruder to lurk. Silence yet again. It enraged him to no end when cowards would not stand up to a challenge. "SHOW YOURSELF!" he lashed out, eyes becoming fire.

[member="Lady Kyros"]

 

[Lief]

Remaining quiet for the optimum length of time, when the response finally came it was deathly quiet and precise, carried by a breeze that was not even present within the room. "Coward is he who would bargain with his life in the hopes of losing it." Kyros had always despised the way in which Thyrian would so willingly lay down his life, this naive and blatant disregard for his own survival was in truth what kept her re-unleashing the beast which lay within him. With that she slid forth from the shadows, her lithe form hidden beneath the shadowy tendrils of her robes.

The glowering gaze narrowed towards the fiery inferno for just a moment, the way in which the figure moved made her seem as though she were floating rather than walking at all. Kyros seemed a spirit, dead to the world yet incarnate in smoke. She had not moved because he demanded it of her, rather she was in no mood or rush to clean up after the devastation Thyrian could leave in his wake. With a subtle twist of her hand all blast doors which permitted entrance into the area the pair stood descended and locked in place. Kyros had spent a lot of time, effort and money on funding and training the men within this facility. Thyrian was good at snuffing out life.

"Why do you linger in torment, old soul? You have seen and known many lives, yet always you return here..." By this she did not mean Teth itself, but to the one spirit which bound Thyrian to this Galaxy -- and apparently that was not his own, but that of the child he had raised and the woman he had protected. The woman who had shunned his love and in a sense always would. Thyrian was far more efficient when he hurt than when he loved, when the monster within could spread its wings and soar.

[member="Thyrian Ashborn"]

 

[Thyrian Hearthfire]

He snarled at the person's remarks. "It is not cowardly to fight and die for the one you love, stranger", he replied. Suddenly the blast doors shut all around him, sealing the two within the corridor with nowhere to run. Again the ghostly figure taunted him, thinking itself knowing him. Rather than intrigue him, it infuriated him to no end that this being had snuck through security and gotten this far without opposition. Anger had always been his way of reacting to a threat.

"Do not presume to know me, spirit!" he spoke while raising his Sith weapon towards the masked one, haunting blue eyes staring back at him. He was about to go off on an enraged rant, but something caused him to ease his approach a bit. "I choose to linger in torment so that the one I love will not. My life has no value, but hers is what matters most. It is the nature of things." That last line was one he had repeated many times over his lifespan. Perhaps it could be seen as a justification for how life has treated him, but he saw it as a belief of sorts. "Have you never loved another, thief?" he barked across the room.

[member="Lady Kyros"]

 

[Lief]

"What do you know of love?" the voice asked, but there was a hint of sadness within its undertone, "You are a man of ash and brimstone, of fire and hatred; you are a thing of the Darkness, borne of flames." While Kyros was not upset a solemn realisation had struck her in this moment; it had been numerous years since she had been here, since she had faced him... The man within his gaze had been replaced by the boy he truly was, that which had been taken from him. Perhaps Thyrian and Thurion both would have faced an entirely different future had the Sith not gotten involved in their lives...

"I am no thief," she said, pride bristling ever so slightly; once she had stolen from the Republic but she had been a child then, and desperate... For just a moment she was that child again, and a small whisper left her lips. "Ashman..." It was just a breath, barely audible, but the reveal of her inner self had already been presented. At first Kära had found it difficult to speak Thyrian's real name, and thus 'Ashman' was born, later changed to the Ashborn by Thyrian's own naming... Or had another named him that? She wasn't certain.

Without a word the figure of Kära Vi'dreya slipped back from her Ashman and into the shadows once more. She had lingered for too long...

[member="Thyrian Ashborn"]

 

[Thyrian Hearthfire]

The words spoken rang true. This person knew things about him no-one else would know of outside of only a select few, but then she said something only one would ever know about. "Ashman...?" he pondered aloud, as he slowly came to the realisation. His stance slowly corroded into nothing as his weapon deactivated and his eyes turned normal again. They widened as they watched the entity fall back into shadow, and without thinking twice he mirrored her movements, stepping towards her as his anger turned into confusion at the situation. "Snowflake..." he spoke softly, like a warm summer breeze. He stepped further, now only a few feet away. His hand raised itself towards the mask covering her face.

But then his hand began to tremble, and he could not muster the courage to touch her, if it even was she who he thought it was. He looked to his hand, and then to the mask, fire meeting ghostly lights. Thoughts pulled him to the moment when he was truly born, when he struck his master like she was nothing more than an obstacle, a hinderance. It forced him to his knees, metal meeting metal as he struck the floor with his weight. "Why did you have to come back, little one? I was ready to die yet again. Now... now I must remain."

[member="Lady Kyros"]

 

[Lief]

The woman shied back again when he reached out and slunk into the shadows, only her eyes visible. When he dropped to his knees his face became practically level with her own, and beneath the mask Kyros bit her lip while holding back a sigh. "I did not have to come back," she simply said, with a shrug of her shoulders. "It was my duty to do so." She was trying to keep under control, she was trying to remain cool and collected. Part of her had even wanted to deny it, but she knew she could not fool the man before her.

"You should not have ceased training the Bladeborn."

Her hold on the blast doors lifted and without another word she turned to exit the hallway they had found themselves within. She did not wait to see if he followed, she did not expect him to either, instead Kyros merely left him there. It had been too long, and if she didn't hold herself back she could buckle under the heat of the moment. She shivered ever so slightly as she passed under the weight of the blast door.

[member="Thyrian Ashborn"]

 

[Thyrian Hearthfire]

He did not answer her, for he could not find the words. To confess that he had failed her in executing her task for him would be a failure in and of itself, and she would not stand failure. But when she turned away from his presence to exit the room they had been trapped within until now, something ignited action into the Ashborn. She had been gone for too long to merely assume things are now what they once were. Just as she was about to get out of reach, his hand struck out like a bolt of lightning to grab hold of her wrist. For one so lithe a figure as [member="Lady Kyros"] he could easily dislocate it without issue, but that was far from the reason for his touching her. "Master, please..." He dared not look at her, but merely kept a firm hand around her wrist, making it impossible for her to escape.

But then his grasp of her loosened, and rather than keeping her in place anylonger his large fingers began to trail along the delicate features of her thin hand, until eventually his hand entwined itself with hers. Keeping his gaze away from hers, he spoke: "I'm sorry... I just had to make sure it was you; there are times when I look at you and I still can't believe you are real." He paused, unsure of how to continue, or whether to at all. "I've missed you, Kära", he whispered as his gaze rose to look at her. Her - not the mask itself, but the face hiding behind it. If she wished to punish him for his insolence, so be it.