Private Righting the Wrongs

[Darth Strosius]

Revna had been the one pushing the momentum of their little scuffle thus far, surprise both at the duel itself as well as her new tactic and technique had ensured as much. Darth Strosius had given ground but in such a spacious hall He hardly felt as though they had moved at all until His "wings" idly brushed against one of the great doors when they had stretched out in order to not get in the way of the chaotic bladework of His apprentice. Yet in but a few moments it seemed as though the tide had shifted.

She had paused and very nearly let His little tap land unimpeded before a quick movement stopped it, one made far too quickly as it left her flank exposed. A sight that made Him let out a small hum of disapproval. He had taught her far better than that, facing an opponent with multiple weapons bared meant maintaining a wide and shifting front whilst not focusing on one strike alone for too long. As she spoke He decided to show her the error of her ways, flipping His lightsaber around in His hand and punctuating her vitriol with a rather harsh strike from the pommel of His saber which was aimed for her shoulder.

A physical admonishment that wouldn't at all be unfamiliar and one done rather naturally as though this was merely another sparring session. "There is only one sacrilegious imposter here young lady and it's that wretch behind you." Evidently her mind wasn't in its right state but He was confident that He could set it back on course. "I didn't claw my way out of a grave and endure speaking with those..." A hiss of frustration wormed its way out of His lips as He drew both blades back before suddenly pressing forward once more.

", vexing residents of Holy Korriban just to duel you of all people." Somewhat mirroring the pace that she herself had set earlier Darth Strosius went on the offensive, still not aiming to land any real hits but with a speed to His feints and reflexes that was difficult to match. "Now clear your mind and listen to me, I have a method of escape but I can't well perform it with you clinging to this incessant struggle against me!" He spoke low, His words said between hisses of lightsaber blades clashing together so as to aid in masking them from the watchful gaze of the Shadow Hand.

What He wouldn't give to have His mask back, having a lightsaber's blade so close to His face without protection was terribly unnerving. "As much as I would love to flay that Zambrano bastard with my fangs for whatever it is he's done to you, your safety is far more important. We're leaving this tainted world together my dearest Disciple, and we can't do that while you keep up this charade!" Without warning He struck out towards her blade with His sword rather than His lightsaber, clearly intending to knock it from her grasp with the motion.

Darth Prazutis / Darth Carnifex / Revna Marr

 

[Revna Marr]

Darth Strosius // Darth Prazutis // Darth Carnifex​

Revna recognized her glaring mistake when she felt the pommel of his lightsaber smack into her shoulder.

Once upon a time, the gesture would have been painful, used as a corrective means in a training spar - but she didn’t even blink this time. Compared to what she endured on a daily basis, he may as well have just given her a friendly tap on the arm. But it wasn’t the harsh tap that truly grabbed her attention, it was her opponent’s retort that made her lock up internally and allowed him to press his own advantage upon her, hissing his words in clear frustration that was etched upon his pale and youthful face.

Once again, there was a pang of familiarity for Revna - louder this time, and harder to ignore or brush aside.

The woman blocked incoming strikes and blows, now on the defensive herself. Though distracted, she batted away, parried, or blocked what he threw against her. His aggression and speed amplified, and her focus snapped back to the fight at hand as she kept up with the flurry of attacks. He was quick, for sure…but not quite as fast as Darth Carnifex was…and she had learned to meet his pace and on very rare occasions, even outmaneuver him.

"Now clear your mind and listen to me, I have a method of escape but I can't well perform it with you clinging to this incessant struggle against me!" The imposter growled in a low voice when they locked blades once more, allowing them to be face to face once more. Revna scoffed, staring at the man across from her as if he’d grown three more heads, she bared her teeth in an expression of aggravation. She was about to snap back at him when he spoke again…and once more she felt as if she’d been slapped in the face by recognition.

He called her his dearest Disciple.

The world around the two of them seemed to slow, if only for the briefest of moments, and she saw his sudden strike coming in with the sword towards her own saber. If it connected, it was possible that she would be disarmed. Almost without hesitation, the Darkness around her shifted, contorted, and moved. Her fiery eyes flared brightly for a moment, as did the fresh Sith runes that marked her skin, as she wielded the Dark side with a sense of purpose and power beyond what she had ever demonstrated before.

Shadowy tendrils seemed to materialize and wrap themselves around the blade and the hand that held it - freezing its momentum as if locked in invisible ice. The action would hold him in place too - though very briefly. But hopefully it would give Revna just enough time to get her message across: “There is only one who has the privilege of calling me His Disciple, and that man is dead.” she said in a soft but icy toned voice. “Now…I need you to shut up and listen to me.”

Revna adjusted and stepped into his momentarily frozen attack, bracing herself and her saber against the blade to absorb the energy for when the Force freeze was released. It put her into his personal space, almost uncomfortably so - but she needed to be there in order to get her next message across.

“Any escape you have planned for the two of us will fail…and let me tell you why.” she hissed, gritting her teeth as she released him and his attack and grunted against the pushback that came with the energy release. Her feet slid a couple of inches on the stone floor, but she held fast. Hopefully, he wouldn’t stab her with the lightsaber in his other hand - but she had another ability in mind for if he decided to do that. Taking yet another risk, she glanced at the man’s pale and tattooed face and laid bare the dire truth of her circumstances.

“That monster made a device that he attached to my lower back. Through it, he can control me, puppet me. I am basically a slave to his will, and unless that device is removed …I will never be free, and he could take full control of me at any moment. I can’t just walk away.” She locked eyes with him, hoping and praying to Bogan that he would hear her and understand the gravity of the situation. “I can’t remove it myself…it paralyzes me every time I try. I need you to rip it off of me... even if it kills me in the process.” She implored, her chest heaving as her heart began thundering away in her chest. The cat was out of the bag now…and no doubt, Prazutis would now know what she was up to.

She had seconds left…if that…to maintain control of her own free will.

“Please...before it's too late.” she said in a pleading whisper as the angry expression fell away and all that was revealed was a woman desperate to break the chains that bound her to her enemies.

Her fate was now in this man’s hands - either he would set aside whatever charade he was playing to help her…or she would have to kill him and face the consequences of her actions.

Either way, she figured she was as good as dead anyway.

 

[Darth Strosius]

The move to disarm her had been a rather clinical yet reliable one, not unlike similar swift strikes that He had made dozens of times before during her training. Revna had long since become wise to the maneuver of course but typically she was rarely in any position to stop it by the time He put it into action. Yet before the move could make contact, it was halted. Not by a counter maneuver or her blade, rather Darth Strosius Himself suddenly froze in place. A cold sensation gripped His entire form and stilled it in an instant, His golden eyes never even had time to widen in surprise.

From the periphery of His vision He saw the culprits in the form of tendrils of shade which had wrapped around His wrist and bound His body wholesale as a result. Something that would have made Him scowl if He had the ability to do so at the moment. Just as He would have rolled His eyes at Revna's cold rebuttal and issued one of His own in return were He able. Instead all that He could do was watch as she stepped closer and put herself in the perfect spot to prevent His strike whenever He could manage to put it back into motion again.

Which surprisingly wound up being sooner than expected, life and momentum returning to His form just as quickly as it had been paused. His strike was blocked as was expected but she didn't immediately follow with a counter of any kind. Nor did He. The unmasked man listened, His expression focused and confused before twisting into an outraged horror at what she revealed. No wonder she was so brazen and spurned into action, she was on a tethered lifeline with a Zambrano holding the plug.

Her time on Korriban made all the more sense now, she had never been rid of the cage that the Kainate filth had dragged her into. So in a manner of speaking He had been correct in His initial assessment, albeit with Caedes being far less involved than He had assumed. This device must have been a failsafe of sorts just for this occasion. A method of making any victory He could have had over the Zambranos hollow and void, a notion which made His mouth curl into a grimace at the mere thought of it.

The look in her eyes, the desperation in her voice, the fatigue in her features, His blood chilled and then lit into a broil of rage. His gaze snapped to Prazutis, His head having to twist at an angle that shouldn't have been all that possible without serious injury given the sheer speed of the movement, and were it any other circumstance He'd have clearly leapt at the Shadow Hand with reckless abandon. But with the device in mind it wouldn't be as simple as that. Even if He could manage to tear apart His hated foe He had little doubt that Revna would perish far faster than Prazutis.

His lips pulled back into a snarl as disgust and frustration wrote an ugly expression across His pale features, His lightsaber extinguishing and being all but shoved back into His robes as He moved to grab hold of Revna's shoulder with His newly freed hand. His wings closed around the pair of them as He pulled her closer, were it any other situation it might appear like a hug of some kind. However the sword in His other hand which He now poised against her back soured such an image.

His golden eyes flicked to her face, His gaze softening as His grip on the weapon quivered. His mouth opened but no words escaped for a moment, His eyes darting as though in search of something to say before He finally let out a shuttered breath and offered her a miniscule and strained smile. "I'll see you on the side, nuyak dukra." He sincerely hoped that He wasn't lying. For all of their sakes.

He gritted His fangs and slammed His eyes shut before the glistening edges of them could run loose down His cheeks, the grip on His sword's handle tightening as it dove forward into her back. Darth Strosius poured every ounce of focus into sensing the device that she spoke of, tracing its outline and wincing at its depth even as His blade carved into the skin that surrounded the edge of its barely protruding surface. It was no scalpel and this was no mere surface boil but He was persistent and His bladework was precise.

Just as He had shut His eyes He all but blotted the sounds of carving flesh and spilled blood from His ears, forcing them to ring with the pressure of His own blood pumping through His body as He set all His attention on cleaving the device from its home in her spine. There was no clean way to sever the device from its prisoner, it was simply attached too well as though it was another piece of her body. A piece that He was forced to carve away at until finally the offensive thing clattered to the ground behind her in a wet clang.

Darth Prazutis / Darth Carnifex / Revna Marr

 

[Revna Marr]

Darth Strosius // Darth Carnifex // Darth Prazutis​

For several, painful heartbeats after she released him from her Force hold - Revna thought for sure her foe would brush aside her plea to take out whatever revenge he wanted against the Shadow Hand. She felt her body tense, prepared to do something she didn’t want to do - just in case he decided to go his own route instead of helping her.

Much to her relief, however, the man disengaged his lightsaber - a snarl of frustration contorting his face as he seemed to make his choice in the matter. Seeming to realize that every moment now counted, he grabbed her by the shoulders as she too disengaged the lightsaber that had been gripped so tightly in her hand, and drew her closer as his “wings” seemed to wrap around them both in what looked like an embrace. She didn’t resist the motion, even going so far as to grip the heavy robes over his body with her hands as if they were a lifeline. She could feel the blade at her back, and she caught his eyes with her own when he glanced at her.

That expression of frustrated anger that had been featuring so prominently upon his face, was softened now. He seemed like he wanted to say something, and struggled to at first. Then he said he’d see her on the other side…and she was still staring at him like she’d seen a ghost when the Sith words of my daughter pierced into her mind.

She was still staring at him in growing shock, disbelief even… when he squeezed his eyes shut and the blade in his hand began to slice through the clothes she wore and the skin on her back. At first, all she felt was the cold edge of the blade as it began to cut through the first layers of skin…but then the pain truly hit, a combination of the sharpness of the cut as well as the electrifying and crippling pain induced by the spinal cage. Revna clenched her teeth together, refusing to utter a single cry of pain - instead she tucked her head right against his chest like a young frightened child, and gripped tighter the cloth in her hands until her knuckles were ghost white, the saber hilt that had been in her hand finally dropping and clattering on the ground as it fell away from her.

As the agony mounted, Revna retreated into the depths of her mind - an escape for until the job was completed, and she either woke up alive, or slipped into the shadows. It was in this moment that she went over everything that had transpired since the stranger’s arrival, and a ghostly frown etched itself upon her pale brow.

She couldn’t escape the familiarity that surrounded this man; the venom in his voice, the way he fought, the words he used when speaking to her, the name he had used when announcing his presence…She had never seen her Master’s face up close, as He had always been wearing His mask that had no doubt distorted his voice, and had hidden His features. So the stranger was unfamiliar in that regard…and it had been enough for her to reject the dawning revelation and truth that was coming over her. But even as the blade carved deeper, severed muscle and tendon from bone and even began to grind against the bones themselves, Revna began to entertain a daring thought - a wish and a desire she had buried so deep: What if…He was alive? What if …He was actually here with me?

…Could it be?? Truly?

The first wave of numbness flashed across her back and hips and legs, and she felt her knees buckle ever so slightly, though she fought to remain standing for as long as she could. She could smell the iron tang of her blood in the air, and she could already feel the strange tingling throughout her entire body that came with onset of bodily shock. She did her best to block out the sensation of blade on bone, and for one strange moment she found herself to be incredibly thankful that Carnifex had made her so resilient towards pain.

Otherwise, what she was enduring right now would have overwhelmed her and likely caused her to die.

The pain, as incredible as it was, soon gave way to an all too familiar numbness as it washed over her midsection and wrapped her legs in a sensation she never wanted to feel again. She had felt this before, when Prazutis had used the Force to crush her spine on that cruel, fateful day when he had stolen her autonomy from her. The day that insidious spinal cage had found a home in her back, and had been with her ever since.

She barely registered the sound of it clattering to the stone floor, and barely noticed that she had collapsed into the growing pool of lifeblood that was spreading underneath her. What she did notice, however, was that pale and youthful face…something that brought another wave of familiarity but also confusion.

She couldn’t deny the truth any longer, and she couldn’t be ignorant any further. This was no stranger. This man wasn’t an imposter, wasn’t some fanatical Wonosan who wanted to fill the shoes of the High Priest. He’d referred to her as His apprentice…His Disciple…

“...Master? Is it really you?”

Revna blinked once, then twice as she tried to wrap her mind around the truth - even as the numbness and weakness began to wrap her up in a fuzzy haze and her vision blurred. She was fading rapidly, far quicker than she imagined she would. She realized with a cold sense of finality that the device had been connected to far more than just her spine. Judging by the rapid loss of blood that was happening, it had been interwoven with vessels and arteries, maybe even vital organs.

She thought she would have more time.

Revna fought to keep what remained of her consciousness as she locked eyes with Darth Strosius in those moments immediately after He’d cut the horrid thing from her back. A cold chill was wrapping itself tighter around her as she felt life slipping further and further away. Still, she clung to it as a sense of urgency washed over her once more.

I need to tell Him…I can’t leave until He knows.

“...No…not my Master.” she whispered as a hot tear dripped down her cheek, followed by another. “...Jaarvek.” Revna said, as a ghost of a sorrowful smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “I meant to tell you…sooner.”

Her grip on the front of his robes loosened, as her hands released him as another wave of weakness washed over her, threatening to pull her under the dark waves.

“...I’m sorry…”