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…”

 

[Darth Strosius]

It had felt like ages, cutting out that wretched thing that had been burrowed so deep into His Disciple's spine, but in reality it had taken minutes. A handful of grueling minutes. Sounds and mental images that He would never be able to fully rid from His mind and especially not from His slumbering recollections from this point forward. More unforgettable sins that would haunt Him. Nothing new but this one was exceptionally disturbing, for the first time in many years He felt nauseous.

Not since the corpse crowned himself emperor had He felt such raw disgust wrack His body, sheer willpower alone contained a heave that threatened to escape as the realization fully nestled into His mind the moment that the accursed implant hit the ground. Darth Strosius's eyes shot open as time seemed to resume its normal pace once more, widening in horror at the pool of blood that Revna now stood in. Not at all an unfamiliar sight but one that nonetheless summoned a dread deep within Him that made His wings and hands quiver at the mere sight of it.

His gaze snapped back to her face, having to tilt His head slightly given how she had pressed her head into His chest, as she spoke and for a few moments His jaw simply hung open before He finally managed to regain some measure of composure. "Y-Yes, Revna I'm here. It's me!" The keyword of course being 'some' measure. She had started slipping down before He realized it and His sword was dropped just in time to catch her before anything more than her knees could sink to the bloodstained ground.

Darth Strosius looked hysterical, His unmasked visage offered a clear window into the turmoil and panic running rampant in His mind as His eyes scanned over Revna's body and down to the wound in her back. One which was still bleeding profusely even with a hand pressed over it. His fangs clenched together as she muttered about Him not being her master, again, but before He could offer any correction she bestowed upon Him a much more honorable and far less earned title.

Jaarvek.

His throat tightened before any reflexive rebuttal could dismiss her bittersweet remark, a half-bitten sob escaping Him in what was meant to be a sigh as she smiled up at Him. "Shhh, no apologies on your behalf my child. I am the one who has wronged you." Darth Strosius slid to the floor Himself, keeping Revna propped up in His arms as arcs of lightning began leaping from His hands to her injured form. "Conserve your strength Revna, I-I just need a few moments to heal your wounds."

For a moment their surroundings were forgotten as He figuratively plunged His hands into the well of the Dark Side that saturated Dromund Kaas, His wings flaring with a renewed pale glow as His form surged with power. Power that He could not hope to contain of course, not in a form such as His even were it not fractured as it was now. Rather He directed the surge into His healing efforts, muttering silent prayers as He focused His being to mend the wounds that He had carved.

The throne room, the Shadow Hand, the overwhelming fortress beyond, all faded into obscurity for a few precious moments as Darth Strosius stared down at His daughter in His arms. She was growing limper and colder by the second and that simple fact only bolstered His efforts and heightened the frantic flurry of emotions that were written across His pale features. The mask hadn't simple cracked, it had been discarded entirely just so that Revna could witness the desperation of Alisteri Haxim.

Darth Prazutis / Darth Carnifex / Revna Marr

 

[Revna Marr]

Darth Strosius // Darth Carnifex // Darth Prazutis​

Revna felt a pang of sorrow pierce through her chest as her new anointed Father choked out a half sob as He tried shushing her for her attempt at apologizing to Him. Her faint smile turned into a frown as He told her that He had been the one to wrong her, and she wanted to argue with Him on it…but she simply couldn’t find the energy to do so in the moment. She blinked somewhat slowly at Him, watching the panic fill His face as the ache spread through her chest further.

She wanted to tell him that she’d be okay…but she knew that was a lie. She’d seen enough wounded and dying people in her life to know that her situation was grim. If she didn’t receive medical aid immediately…she wasn’t making it out of the throne room alive.

Revna closed her eyes as she felt them both sink to the floor, practically half cradled in Strosius’s arms as He told her to conserve her energy, and He would just need a few moments to heal her wounds. A heartbeat later, she felt the warmth of life seep into her body - but something else felt it too, and an icy cold dread fell over the young woman. Her eyes snapped open as the Hunger within roared to life and siphoned whatever healing efforts Darth Strosius was doing, into the Void that existed within her. In the blink of an eye…where there had been warmth and life…was now just a cold echo of nothingness.

And yet, she continued to bleed out, her blood soaking His robes, spilling out onto the floor of the throne room.

For one terrible moment, all Revna could do was stare at the desperate and panicked face of the man trying to save her life…and realizing with dread that His efforts would amount to nothing…not while the Void screamed to be fed. All of His efforts, His energy…would just be siphoned to feed the Hunger.

Revna’s mind swirled as she tried to think of something, anything, that could help them both…but she was losing her grip on reality and fast. Weakness continued to drape itself over her and the cold numbness was crawling up her arms now. Soon she lost the strength to hold her own head up, and it rested almost limply against his chest. Her eyes were growing heavy…and she suddenly felt so tired, and all she could think about was closing her eyes to get a few moments of rest. But some inner thought told her that once she surrendered to that foggy and peaceful sleep…there would be no coming back. No waking up to fight another day.

But despite the near overwhelming exhaustion, and the driving need to rest…Revna clung to what was left of sensation as her mind and her spirit began to war against the undeniable presence of death as it closed in around her.

She had so much to live for, to fight for.

She couldn’t go out like this. Revna refused to go down without a fight, and for the first time in her life, she rejected the fate that the Force seemed to have for her. She would make her own fate, her own destiny, in this moment.

It took all her will, her strength, to refocus her attention on the man she called Father. She was barely hanging to life, her will alone sustaining her in that moment. It was a struggle, but Bogan dammit she had an idea to share with the hysterical man and she was going to do it, even if it sapped the rest of her energy. As much as she hated to admit it, Prazutis had given her the very tool she needed to make it through this ordeal alive - and she hoped that her Master would be willing to do things her way.

“There…is a void…in me. It feeds on…Force and life.” she whispered to Darth Strosius, her voice barely legible as she continued to stare into His face, the sight of Him becoming more blurry as the seconds ticked by. “It will…take…from you. But…it gives me…power…the more it feeds. I can…use it, to fight…back.”

Darkness welled up around her, and Revna felt herself slip into the abyss, disconnected from the present moment. She fought to hold on to what remained of her awareness, and hoped and prayed that Alisteri would understand what needed to be done.

It was the only thing left that could save her life.

But she had faith in Him, as she always did.

 

[Darth Prazutis]

The throne room was utterly still in the aftermath of the fight. Silence drowned out the space between the assembled group as no words were spoken, no breath heard, not even motion. Only the subtle sound of blood, still pattering in slow, wet rhythm against blackstone, settling in a slow marching tide across the floor, the overwhelming scent of burned air and raw nerve wafting through the air. The Dark Lord didn't move. Where others might have rushed forward, shouted commands, or ignited their blade in reactive fury, he simply observed. The giant was like the void given form, living darkness shrouding his body like a burial shroud concealing him like a shadow along the wall. The Shadow Hand's eyes were like ancient stars fixed not just on the present, but on all the tangled threads beneath it. Right from the very moment Revna collapsed into Strosius' arms, he had known the game was reaching its final strokes. He hadn't moved when the blade entered her back. He had not interfered when the truth, a truth buried under ten thousand lies, spilled out in gasps of blood and breath. He simply watched. Because this was the entire point of this gathering.

What were they willing to sacrifice? That was the true altar here and sacrifice they had. Strosius had thrown away his vengeance for her. The Sith shed his blade, his pride, and even his mask for her life. Not out of strategy, but sheer desperation. That wild, trembling thing that broke even the most disciplined Sith when love and death clawed too close. It was not the act of a warlord, a Lord of the Sith. It was the act of a father. How ironic, Prazutis mused darkly, that the wrath filled priest would offer himself not in conquest…but in surrender, and Revna? The little shadow who once served so obediently. She had chosen pain. Chosen rebellion. She chose to do whatever it took to free herself from the chains binding her. A slow, terrible smile touched the Shadow Hand's lips. His voice, when it came, was like grating iron.

"You both understand now. To seize what you desire, you must give what you cannot bear to lose. Love. Flesh. Pride. Purpose. That is the lesson. And… you have passed." The darkness behind the throne stirred then. The shadows across the throne room were a living thing that shuddered and moved with every word He spoke. The very foundations of the throne room rumbled faintly as if answering their master's indomitable will. Darth Prazutis finally descended from his dais slowly, purposefully. Not with urgency but with the weight of inevitability. Each step echoed like a funeral bell, reverberating down to the marrow. The obsidian plate glowed with the flare of crimson runes and forbidden magicks, the armor whispering in ancient tongues as he approached the bloodstained scene. He stopped before them Revna limp, fading in her father's arms. Strosius raw and unmasked. The air around them still shivered from the remnants of dark healing. The thing inside her still fed. The Shadow Hand looked down upon them not with wrath, nor satisfaction, but a terrible, devouring calm that drowned all things.

"Revna Marr. You chose agony over obedience. You chose to suffer for your freedom. To give everything to pay the price for freedom. That is worthy of the Kainate." He raised one gauntlet clad hand, and a searing crimson light glowed in his palm. A mass of swirling red energy, inscribed with slithering Sith runes, pulsed in sync with her weakening breath. A binding sigil, connected to the spinal cage…now dormant. "The cage is broken. The mark removed. You are no longer bound to me…unless you choose to be." Then His gaze turned to Strosius. There was no visible hatred in His stare. No mockery. Only a cold, dark recognition from one monster to another. Something behind those eyes seemed to pierce through him then. "You came here to kill me. You had your moment. You had your hate. But you gave it all away. For her. There is no greater price you could have paid." He stepped back, leaving the choice unspoken. "Now rise…or die together." The test was done...and for the first time in the cold Citadel of the Sith, freedom was in their hands.

Darth Carnifex | Revna Marr | Darth Strosius​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

He watched with solemn stillness as the duel began and then progressed, His unflinching gaze drinking in every action, every swing of the blade. In truth, this was more Prazutis' test than His, but nonetheless He watched it unfold. Every movement, every hesitation, falter, breath, the way their mutual confusion warred across the topography of their body language, was meticulously mapped and studied. Like a predator stalking prey, He lurked within the shadowed alcove above.

Only when it ended, did the Dark Lord move. He rose, the glacial momentum in such simple actions bringing Him to the edge of the alcove, boots just barely cresting over the precipice. Crossing both arms over His chest, the Dark Lord descended down to the floor below. Fluidly did He reach the floor, movements so quiet that had His presence been concealed further He would have gone unnoticed. However, the time for such obfuscation had passed.

He came to them with the full weight of His power, pressing down like gravity upon their every sense. He stood opposite of the Shadow Hand, with the towering doorway at His back rather than the throne. Revna and Strosius were caught between them, ensnared by the carefully planned trap of the Dark Lords.

In contrast to the Shadow Hand, the Eternal Father initially said nothing. His silence conveyed more than words ever could, as did His withering, apathetic gaze. But, when the time did come for the Eternal Father to speak, His words cut through all other sound; their absence keenly felt as each syllable permeated their comprehension.

"Is this all you have?"

Revna Marr | Darth Strosius | Darth Prazutis ​

 

[Darth Strosius]

Desperation fueled the power that He drew upon to heal Revna as He clutched her in His arms, a desperation which grew all the more potent by the moment when His efforts didn't seem to bear any results. She was still fading, still collapsed in His arms and seemingly growing all the more unconscious while His robes were becoming ever more soaked through with her blood. Wide golden eyes twitched and trembled as He wracked His mind and attempted to direct the flow of power towards the grievous wound itself, a thousand muted thoughts peppering His mind yet only one was heard.

Why wasn't it working?!

Even when barely restored to life and with a broken body He was able to heal Himself with this same ability and now He theoretically had all of Dromund Kaas to help aid His efforts. Yet she wasn't healing, the wound wasn't closing. She was still dying. His mouth felt dry. Correction, it felt as though He'd never had a drop of liquid in His long life at all. Were His jaw any weaker it would have surely broken from how tightly it was clenched, fangs grinding together as He grimaced and let out a frustrated hiss.

Darth Strosius hadn't dragged Himself out of that palace's basement, hadn't drawn His wayward followers back beneath His banner, hadn't trekked through this Force-forsaken fortress just to watch Revna die in His arms. It wasn't possible. It didn't make any sense. This should have been working, the healing technique should have been doing something. Anything to stop the coldness that seemed to be creeping into her skin with each passing moment.

When she looked back up at Him the coil of dread in His core pulled taut, panic and shame painted His pale visage as His stomach plummeted and for once the ever-present Sangnir thirst seemed all but forgotten in the moment. She spoke, more like strained really, and to His surprise they weren't calls for action or aid like He had been dreading. Rather it was to inform of something...difficult indeed. A void in the Force was not a concept that He was totally unaware of but one that He was woefully unfamiliar with.

Were He in a better state of mind then He would ponder on the irony of His daughter gaining some draining core within herself to mirror His own Sangnir condition, but such coherence was unheard of at the moment. He had the answer to His question but not a solution to His problem. He could pour all the strength that He could summon into her and yet it would only feed the metaphysical wound rather than mending the very physical and present one. It wasn't as though He could simply just rush her to a bacta tank or medical droid even if such methods would have been quick enough to save her life. They were stuck in this damnable fortress.

This fortress. His fortress. Prazutis.

His golden gaze slowly trailed from the pitiful sight in His arms towards the looming figure at the other end of the throneroom which had the gall to grin at the suffering before him. Prazutis spoke but the words just barely slipped in between the blood pounding in His ears as He stared at the Zambrano, for one His eyes devoid of the hatred that they typically held. His expression was almost unreadable, clinically still and unblinking as He mused on what had to be done.

Each echoing step made by Prazutis served to punctuate a thought cropping up in His mind. Darth Strosius was unsure if His power alone would be enough to somehow bypass or otherwise placate the void within Revna so that His healing could be effective. But Prazutis and His power together? For as heretical and shameful as the Zambrano dynasty was, even He could not deny there was a certain potence to their connection to the Force. One that He could only dream of wielding. One which could very well prove the deciding factor between Revna's survival or demise. One which had just stopped to stand before them and look down at them as though unafraid of the consequences.

Darth Strosius wasn't certain if He could best Prazutis, He wasn't confident that Revna could cling to life long enough for Him to manage it, but He was confident and assured of one notion above all else. Prazutis could feed the void much better than He could, and no matter what it took He was going to ensure that the Zambrano did just that. The two monsters stared at one another, not leering but with something far colder and more calculating. The shared gaze of two predators measuring one another to decide which should blink first.

He knew what He had to do. He didn't know if He had the strength to do it. But that didn't matter. One of His hands subtly slipped from cradling His daughter to instead slowly move towards His belt where His clipped lightsaber waited patiently. His sword and her own fallen blade trembled as His intent gripped them both by the hilt, pulling them from the dark floor into the air as His fingers slowly wrapped themselves around the hilt at His hip. The choice had been made, He intended to rise and bleed Prazutis for all that he was worth so that Revna could live. Was it really a choice at all?

In an instant the intent to wield three blades was paused before His fingers had even fully grasped His lightsaber, silenced and frozen as the looming presence of one Zambrano was joined by another. Darth Strosius's head snapped back to cast a glance at Carnifex as he seemed to suddenly emerge behind them, His golden eyes narrowing into the familiar hate-filled glare that He treated the Zambranos with beneath His mask. The game was rigged from the start it seemed. He had never gone toe to toe with Prazutis alone and thus He was unsure of success, but He had faced the pair of them and He knew the outcome all to well. There wasn't a chance at all. His gaze fell back to Revna, a silent apology written in His remorseful gaze.

An apology that He wasn't strong enough to stand against the odds that now threatened to crush them. Fighting wasn't an option, but there was another. His fingers left His lightsaber and delved into His robes, pulling a simple metal rod that was just barely smaller than the hilt He had just let go of. Carnifex's remark made Him tense but He otherwise didn't respond, flicking the top of the rod open with a simple movement of His thumb. Finally, with His thumb pressing onto the button hidden beneath the cap, He spoke. "Neither of you are worth my time."

-

Far away from Dromund Kaas and the impenetrable fortress, distant from the looming threats and His dying heart, an identical device pulsed with a blinking light. In spite of all His assertion and boasts beforehand, Darth Malum of House Marr had been summoned just as they had agreed upon. A precaution that He hadn't hoped to use in order to spare at least one more soul from His failure, but one that He now couldn't afford to keep tucked away and forgotten.

Darth Prazutis / Darth Carnifex / Revna Marr

 

[Revna Marr]

Tags: Darth Strosius // Darth Carnifex // Darth Prazutis​

Revna clawed at the edges of consciousness, fighting to keep a hold of it long enough to make sure that Darth Strosius understood what she had been trying to tell Him. Unfortunately for her, there was not much she could do and the waves of darkness swallowed her vision and stole her other senses from her.

But there was something else about this darkness, something both foreign and familiar to her - she’d felt it before, but it was not something she had experienced since that point in time. It was a creeping coldness, numbness - a disconnect from herself, and her surroundings. She felt herself falling…somehow…and with it came the sensation of panic. She tried to force herself out of it but she continued to fall, deeper and deeper into that darkness - and it both seemed to welcome her a gentle embrace as well as wrap around her with ravenous intention.

Somehow, Revna heard voices - echoing from beyond her, voices she recognized yet somehow were beginning to feel…foreign. She heard her name being called…words spoken to her, over her…and it took far longer for her to understand who it was that was speaking.

Darth Prazutis.

Beyond the fog of disconnect, she heard someone else too - and once again, it felt like an eternity passed before she recognized the voice belonging to that of Darth Carnifex.

…Is this all that you have?...

Something about his words…stirred her. They felt wrong, but she couldn’t remember why that was the case - not immediately, anyway. The darkness tugged further upon her mind, her heart, her spirit…tried to pull her deeper. But now she was aware of something else. If she went any deeper…then she would lose herself in the disconnection, the numbness. She tried to understand just what this was, what was happening to her - and then it all clicked.

This was Death.

For a hellish moment that felt like an eternity - Revna Marr was torn. Beyond that veil, the yawning darkness seemed to promise peace. An end to the struggles, the constant war, the pain, the suffering, the loss. She could escape the ever present Hunger that constantly threatened to consume her every waking moment. She could slip away, wash her hands of everything, and go her own path. It would be so…easy.

But if she let herself go, then she was losing everything she had fought so hard for.

In a flash, faces and memories danced before her eyes, and she allowed the sweetness of them all to fill her. Several faces stood out to her though: her apprentices Varin and Lysander, her lover Caedes, her mother figure and mentor Srina…her newly anointed father figure - and their expressions of the past morphed into expressions of sorrow, of anger, of judgment…towards her, for leaving them behind. She sucked in a breath that didn’t exist in that moment, and once more the words of Darth Carnifex echoed through her mind.

Is this all that you have?

Was she really going to allow herself to die, so soon? To give up without a fight? There was still so much left to be done, to be accomplished. Anger, her anger, bubbled up through the darkness. No, I will not be consumed like this. I am MORE than this. I refuse…

The darkness of death responded to her rebellion, tried to pull her down, now against her will - as if to say that this was her Fate, her destiny…to die here. Revna pushed back, pulled herself together and did what she did best against those who would shackle and chain her against her will.

She defied.

Through her sheer will, Revna brought herself back from the edge of death; sensation returned to her, starting with her hearing, then her sense of touch, and smell. She clung to these things as if they were a lifeline, for they were for her at that moment. She still felt weakened and drained, and to her dismay it seemed as though her Father hadn’t fed the Void yet, or hadn’t had the chance to.

Time was running out, but there was little Revna could do at the moment. She needed to stabilize herself, otherwise she didn’t know if she could hold off death a second time - and it would come for her again, and soon.

The young Sith cracked her eyes open, their fiery hue now dulled and dark, too dark. She gazed upon the exposed and rather youthful face of her Master through blurred vision - though it was something she didn’t have time to ponder or marvel upon at the moment. What truly caught her attention, however, was the exposed skin of his face. It dawned on her that there was something she could do - something that made her stomach turn, but just might give her the boost she needed. She considered her options, hesitated only for a moment, before she made her choice.

Weakly, Revna began to lift one of her hands, one that was far too pale from loss of blood. The movement, no doubt, would catch the eye of Strosius, but she pushed herself onward - summoning all the strength she could in that moment.

Her touch against the side of His face was feather-light. From any other observance, it would almost look endearing, the last seemingly loving touch before one truly passed on. But the act was far more insidious than that, for the moment He would register the light touch of her fingers, He would also feel the very essence of His life energy begin to drain. It would be siphoned, leeched - as reddish black wisps of energy formed between fingers and skin, and the area would immediately begin to turn ashen gray, and black veins would begin to spread out like a web. Vitality as well as Force energy seeped from Strosius and into Revna through that brief contact, and she gasped as if taking her first breath in her life.

The reaction was almost instantaneous. Though it wasn’t nearly enough energy to fully mend herself - it was enough to boost her own strength to focus that healing to the worst of the bleeding - stemming its flow and mostly mending ruptured arteries and veins. It was imperfect, and she still bled.

But it would buy them both some time, which is something they desperately needed but were in dire short supply of.

“I’m sorry. I needed that...” Revna murmured apologetically to Strosius, before she slipped back under the waves of unconsciousness.

Whatever was going to happen next, would be up to her Master, her Father…to figure out. Either they both would make it out of the domain of Darth Prazutis…or they would fall together.

Note for those who care: I had permission from Darth Strosius for Revna to use her drain ability on him for this scene ​