Private Satanized

[Katarine Ryiah]

"There is something inside me"
​

The Northstar broke through the upper atmosphere in a wash of fire and turbulence. Katarine barely noticed.

She sat rigid in the pilot's seat, one leg bouncing restlessly beneath the console while her fingers drummed an uneven rhythm against the armrest. Sleep had become something of a distant memory. Dark circles shadowed the skin beneath her green eyes, and the woman staring back at her from the faint reflection in the viewport looked exhausted in a way no amount of rest could have fixed.

She had resisted this for too long. Longer than she should have.

Kat leaned forward and dragged both hands over her face before letting them fall into her lap.

"Stupid," she muttered to herself. She didn't want to be here. Every part of her that still felt remotely rational wanted to turn the Northstar around, punch the engines, and disappear back into the stars. She wanted Ellion. She wanted the strange, impossible comfort of having him near again after centuries of believing him gone. She wanted to crawl into his arms, shut out the rest of the galaxy, and pretend that somehow finding him had fixed everything that had gone wrong with her.

But Ellion couldn't fix this. That realization had become painfully clear over the last several days.

The cravings were getting worse. So were the mood swings.

Anger came without warning, burning through her so violently that sometimes she hardly recognized herself. Then came guilt. Despair. Irritation. Hunger. Moments of almost euphoric affection followed by the sudden urge to put her fist through a bulkhead because someone had breathed too loudly.

Beneath all of it was the thirst. That terrible, gnawing emptiness inside her that never truly went away anymore.

Her jaw tightened.

The Northstar descended through heavy clouds, and the world below slowly emerged from the darkness.

Then she felt Him.

Kat froze. The restless movement of her leg stopped instantly.

It wasn't a sound. It wasn't a voice. Nothing so simple.

It was a presence. Darkness stretched beneath her like something alive, vast and ancient and hideously familiar. Her fingers curled slowly around the edge of the pilot's chair as the sensation crawled over her skin.

Carnifex.

He was down there. Waiting. Her stomach twisted with equal measures of resentment and relief. That alone made her hate herself a little.

The ship continued its descent, but Katarine no longer bothered pretending there was still a decision to make. She had made it the moment she'd set the coordinates. Just like he knew she would. Just like he had warned her.

Her eyes remained fixed upon the structure growing larger through the viewport.

The Black Pyramid.

The closer she came, the stronger his presence became, until she could almost imagine it wrapping around the ship itself.

Kat swallowed.

There was no possibility that her arrival had gone unnoticed. The devil knew she was coming. Of course he knew.

For one fleeting moment her hand hovered over the controls, tempted to pull back on the yoke and run.

Her fingers trembled.

Then another wave of hunger twisted through her, sharp enough that she sucked in a breath through clenched teeth.

Kat shut her eyes.

"Damn you."

Whether she meant Carnifex, herself, or whatever had been done to her, even she wasn't entirely certain.

When her eyes opened again, the hesitation was gone. The Northstar descended toward the Black Pyramid.

Somewhere far below, Katarine knew the darkness was already expecting her.

Darth Carnifex

​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The darkness of Jutrand welcomed Katarine like a great yawning maw, enticing her to be subsumed by the claustrophobic undulations of its titanic throat. Dark clouds blanketed the sky for endless miles in every direction, industrial sectors the size of cities spewing forth malignant bile that fell back down as an acidic deluge. Jutrand was a world consumed by its own industry, a world where all that had once been natural and beautiful was greedily devoured and regurgitated in thick sheets of permacrete and durasteel.

It was the beating heart of the Sith Empire, cold and indifferent. Warships rose from cavernous drydocks, rising through the air like monstrous cetaceans. Jutrand resembled Coruscant in many ways, a grotesque mockery of the glittering center of the galaxy. Some would say that Jutrand is a reflection of Coruscant's true nature, the world as it is when the thin veneer of the surface levels is peeled back. The Empire makes no pretensions and does not hide what it is, it was cruelly honest.

Thus so was Jutrand and all of its horrors. The rising spire of Adamantinarx the Black Pyramid was perhaps the most emblematic of Jutrand's darkness, a monolith and edifice to all the Sith's sins. Its dark silhouette grew larger and larger the nearer the Northstar drew, a mountain of blackened metal. Patrol skiffs shadowed the Northstar's journey, guiding the ship to a landing platform near the upper levels of the Pyramid. They peeled away after the Northstar landed, disappearing back into the endless cityscape beyond the Pyramid's margins.

A particle shield had been drawn over the walkway extending from the landing platform, deflecting the acid rain falling down from above. Already a small procession had assembled, two lines of Koshûtaral Sentinels with a stern looking officer standing at their head. There were very few words exchanged, the officer was exceptionally taciturn even among a solemn and austere people like the Kainates.

The inside of the Pyramid was as dark and foreboding as its exterior, harsh red light illuminating each corridor just enough to cast it into a state of dismal gloom. Guards stood at station or patrolled in tight bands everywhere, and there was a darker presence that wound through the walls and floors, watching Katarine's every move like a hungry predator. But nothing compared to the audience chamber, the stark grandeur of it. Rising ceilings, impressive wall tapestries, and statues which looked warily down upon her as she entered.

At the far end was a raised dais, a bench placed upon it. Seated there was Darth Carnifex, Eternal Father and Butcher King, Creator and Destroyer in equal measure. He bade Katarine to stand before Him, to bask in His dark majesty.

"You have at last returned," His voice boomed, velvet draped over steel. "How long did you resist, Katarine?"

Katarine Ryiah ​