Private The Bloody Garden

[Westenra Mina]

At: Gargolyn IV

Wearing: Gladiator Armor

Armed With: Five Rings

The suffering of Lynda, Demon of Jedha, would not abate, would not end. Could not end.

Not even after victory at Tython could she let up. She was driven, day and not, to find them. To thirst upon their energy in revenge for her slain pets and all those dead children she had been forced to pull out of the rubble.

Her databases had perfect recall, and it was torture. Constant, relentless.

Lynda had wanted to be a hero once. She almost was, at one point. Before the dark times.

Before Laertia...

Lynda would always regret inducting Laertia into House Li-Ves. For giving her the spring board she needed to start House Io, to drag her own House down with bloody act after bloody act. To unleash so much death and destruction for seeing a woman who needed a family and taking her in...

It had been horribly naive in retrospect but there it was.

Lynda had wasted any chance to become a hero in the Alliance's eyes after her actions at Epoch, which had endangered the Chancellor. It had only cemented further as she could not be dissuaded from killing them in the messiest goriest manner she could manage. She was of little use save as a blunt instrument now, not as a symbol. Not after her ceaseless slaughter of Maw and Final Dawn anywhere she could find them.

It was what had brought her here, to this Garden World.

A few things had gone wrong however.

For one, her Corellian freighter had been shot down by some unexpected turbolaser from the ground. The crash had been spectacular.

Lynda lurched out of the burning wreckage of the vehicle, mutilated and severely weakened, already starving for energy. Her food--a captured Maw SIth--had died in the crash.

Lynda began dragging her broken body away from the wreck. Her eyes were bloodshot, her body leaking glowing red blood from various cuts. The Alliance had been trying to establish listening posts on this world, so it wasn't beyond reason to assume at least some had caught her crash.

The mutilated Android decided to go searching for signs of civilization, deciding to do what Obi-Wan would have and reach the high ground to have any hope of spotting anyone.

The smells of the jungle stirred primal or what passed for primal feelings in her as she staggered through the jungle trees. She felt more at home here than she did somewhere civilized.

But she wasn't all that concerned if the Alliance happened to be near her or not.

She was more interested in finding out if Maw were actually here. If they were, their deaths would be brutal...


Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

A garden paradise.

If it wasn't for the rumors of a Maw presence, Iris might've enjoyed being here. The life here was so bright and simple. Emotion shifted the colors to a complex, overwhelming variety. Animal life, less so. Plant life, even less. She could see here, in the grassy field she walked through. It's why she'd been assigned to look for the Maw. They contrasted this peaceful section of life to such a degree she should be able to find them with ease. Dark spots were virtually nonexistent. Or were supposed to be, anyway.

And sure enough, she saw it.

The Padawan's gaze narrowed as she focused on the darkness close by. People. Three? Four. She ran, sprinting through the grass as she unclipped her one saber. They needed to be dealt with, quick and quiet.

Westenra Mina

 

[Westenra Mina]

She had been stalking them for fifteen minutes through the bushes.

Definitely Maw, alright. She felt her thrist for their suffering grow deep. She then smelled someone else. Someone not Maw. It didn't matter.

She watched them setting up camp. Listening posts. Well armed, but still little more than pirates. She would leave one of them alive to learn if there were others.

Unfortunately, she had been so dead set on killing them that it had cost her her situational awareness.

As soon as she moved from the bushes to engage them she stepped on a sonic mine.

The sonic wave that escaped from it completely distorted the flesh on her body, and she let out a shriak of agony as sparks erupted from her flesh as her system completely overheated, parts of her catching fire, the Maw whirled around and began opening fire, blasting her apart a little further as she went into shut, down, a lumpy half melted and sagging mess of burnt, reddened flesh holding a sword, almost unrecognizable as humanoid.

And she was still getting blasted apart by The Maw...


Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

Danger. Pain.

Their colors stained the way ahead. Iris's brow knitted together as she ran through the grass. Blaster fire filled her ears next. Someone was being shot? She didn't hesitate as she burst from the underbrush, her saber igniting in a flash of blue. Whoever they were shooting, they weren't dying. The colors wouldn't still be there if they could. They couldn't die, but they could still feel.

The colors never lied.

With the Maw's focus on their prey, Iris took advantage. No hesitation as she weaved through the group, her blade's lethal edge making short work of the glorified bandits. In the blink of an eye they went from blasting apart something else to falling apart. Only when the last fell did Iris finally get a look at what they'd been shooting. And grimaced. The Padawan clipped her saber on her waist as she stepped over. Crouched beside the still molten body.

"It's okay."

They weren't going to die. Iris could see that much. But the pain- She took a breath before reaching out in the colors. Blending the darker shades of pain and hurt with comfort. Safety. Until the body cooled, this was the most she could do. That, and hope someone who could live through this could heal on their own some how.

Westenra Mina

 

[Westenra Mina]

Lynda was inert as she was dragged back to the camp, and remained so. What Iris Arani had done had only temprarily relieved her physical suffering. But she couldn't do anything about the psychological suffering.

Lynda was trapped in those days, those days of being buried alive. Trapped in that moment of discovering her pets murdered and impaled. It had been months yet still she relived it.

She was horribly maimed. The mine and then the blaster fire had ripped open her body. Yet she was not dead.

But her healing ability had been completely overtaxed...

Unless someone was dumb enough to get close to her...

The blasted up Android suddenly hacked out coughing fits, blinded by two kinds of pain, not even able to scream...

and her flesh was barely moving, not even healing...

 

[Iris Arani]

Iris stayed closed. Kept on pushing that pain away as best she could. Pry the molten body from the pain she still felt. It was all she could think to do. Domxite on her shoulder beeped after a second though. Warning as one of the marauders seemed to move. They surged forward, knife poised to strike the Padawan as she turned to go and defend herself.

Westenra Mina

 

[Westenra Mina]

The Agonized Android was in such terrible pain. Pain beyond what Iris could ever fix beyond temporarily.

But somehow...somehow....

It all faded seeing the Mawite with the knife move. Not quite as dead as Iris Arani thought.

That was ok. SHE WAS GONNA FIX THAT!

(Cutaway of J Jonah Jameson laughing uncontrollably)

With an absolutely *insane sounding, ear splitting metallic shriek that could make your blood turn to Ice, the sudden surge of murderous hatred in her body was as dark as that of any Sith as she leapt for him with the last of her hate-strength.

He screamed as black, metallic fangs sank into his neck and she consumed his mental energy, drinking all his memories, her flesh horrifically kick-started into moving again everywhere in her molten body as she consumed every last scrap of mind energy until the Brain just shut the hell down in her victim.

She ripped away from him, howling in rage and triumph and agony, endless agony. Her pets were still dead. Those children she had pulled from the rubble on Coruscant were still dead and she couldn't bring them back and SHE WANTED TO KILL EVERY MAWITE THAT DARED TO DRAW BREATH.*

Her flesh knitted itself back together, slowly and disgustingly in her Obsidian skeleton, her armor in tatters, but starting to fix itself. The artificial vampire fixed bloodshot eyes in the Padawan, damaged skin dripping, falling off the Obsidian ribcage and hitting the ground, where it combusted in red flames from total failure. Her blood, running off and down what damaged skin had actually survived, was glowing red in color.

Blood shot eyes with a pinpoint of pink light at the center fixed on Iris' face. She retracted her fangs back into her upper jaw.

"Are you here for the same reason as I?" the inhuman, almost undead looking monstrosity before her asked, blood and damaged "meat" sliding off its exposed and damaged skull.

"Are you here to purge it of the Mawite Filth? If so...you shall not find me harsh company. If not...stay out of my way." she finished, before trying to move..

...and fell to her knees, still too heavily damaged...

 

[Iris Arani]

Danger. But not for her.

Iris froze up for just a moment. A moment too long, at least for the Mawite. She could only watch as what was a person seemed to.. Feed? What was she supposed to do? Part of her wanted to try and spare the marauder. No one deserved that kind of fate. And yet, it was far too late for it to matter.

In the end, she could do nothing. Except frown. The colors, the vengeance and anger, they were near gone around the woman. Or what was left of the woman. There was no doubt now. She was a cyborg. And familiar, at that.

"Are you Io?"

Westenra Mina

 

[Westenra Mina]

The Android looked up with it's damaged, slowly repairing face, damaged flesh still sliding off the skull and bursting to red flame as it hit the dirt.

"No." she answered in a broken voice. "I'm something else..."

The flesh grew a little more.

"They..." she started hesitantly, flinched at the images of dead children smashed by rubble across a mind on fire.

"What Io makes..." she said bitterly. "It was derived from me, however..."

Why was she telling Iris Arani this? Was she suicidal? Lynda wasn't sure, anymore.

The HRD spread damaged, mangled arms out to its side.

"It was a long time ago. In what seems like a Galaxy far, far away..."

(Star Wars theme plays for a few seconds)

 

[Iris Arani]

"Derived from you..?" There was a look of concern. Then, nothing. Iris clenched her ruined hand, scarred by one of the Io in what felt like a lifetime ago now. She took a seat, just watching as the woman continued to heal on her own. That was good, at least.

"I'm listening. .. We shouldn't linger long, though."

Westenra Mina

 

[Westenra Mina]

The Android struggled to move but she was clearly very weak still and the effort was clearly laborious. But she pulled herself up and started to walk.

"Yes..." Lynda snapped. "You're looking at the fool who gave Laertia her springboard. I..."

The Android looked at the unconscious mawite who's memories she had eaten.

"I met her when the Sith invaded Atrisia. She was nothing but a wandering Warrior. I sensed potential. I adopted her as a Sister."

Lynda struggled forward, hearing more warriors in the distance.

"We need to leave this area. They're coming..." she said to Iris Arani .

"Do you have a fallback position?"