The mark of Kaine?

[Sasha Santhe]

6 Years Ago

[member="Darth Vornskr"] was annoying. Sasha Santhe, Age 16, was beautiful and knew it. She also knew that Kaine wanted her. At least in her own head. It was the only explanation for his insufferable attitude. He was a child pulling at a girls hair. Clearly this was the only explanation. She was afterall superior to him despite her inferior status as a knight. Master didn’t mean everything. What did Kaine have? Not a profitable company thats for sure, nor did he have Sasha’s keen intellect.. Sasha snorted to herself. “Your girl, she’ll do yes?” Sasha said. “I don’t want anything but your best.”

In age Sasha’s arrogance would be tempered. But as a teenager she was insufferable. “I presume you have a demonstration in mind.” Kaine had slapped her once, but she was an apprentice then. Her eyes narrowed awaiting the mans reply. “You bring in a half dozen slaves and we watch as she slaughters them all. That’s your style right?”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

His eyes narrowed in annoyance, and already he could feel the pressure of a headache building behind his brooding eyes, his mouth curling down into a sneer of disapproval. The Sith Lord was garbed in a flowing zeyd-cloth robe covered by black armorplast plating that visibly protected his chest, shoulders, and forearms while plating also covered his groin, thighs, and shins beneath his flowing robe. He crossed his arms as he gave [member="Sasha Santhe"] another contemptuous look, "Trust me, Lady Santhe, this child of Panatha is the most capable female warrior of my Empire. I conscripted a hundred of the finest females of my species, and through grueling challenge after grueling challenge she is the only survivor, and thus has been deemed worthy." The woman they were speaking about stood stoic and proud in the opposite chamber, a thick shield of transparisteel the only thing separating them.

The woman in question was garbed in the traditional armor of her people, a form-fitting suit of leather shrouded by armorweave and decorated with various trinkets and baubles of the Epicanthix culture. In her hands she wielded the ancient weapon of the Epicanthix warrior, a spear made of the finest metal and slick with the poison of the vipers native to the jungles of Panatha. While her outward appearance was still and emotionless, the Emperor could notice the absent thrumming of the woman's thumb against the handle of her weapon, betraying the anxiousness the woman had buried beneath her rough, yet beautiful, exterior. She was willing to serve her Emperor in all things, but her pride did not dissuade anxiety and excitement from fostering in her heart. Still, she had passed the trials and had come out victorious, and Kaine was confident that she would garner the respect of Lady Santhe.

"I have trials in mind, yes, but nothing so crass. We are ready when you are, Lady Santhe."

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Exactly as Sasha had predicted [member="Darth Vornskr"] was every bit himself. Sasha wondered what it would feel like when he was dead and gone and smiled a little smile to herself. Little did she know he would be dead but not gone. Still he had his uses and the specimen before her seemed acceptable. She was a pretty woman and prime example of Kaine’s own species. Sasha shuddered to think what despicable palace harem he’d dragged her from. Still none of that mattered, not in the least.

“I am ready for your demonstration whenever you are ready to show me.” She moved her arm in a circular pattern before bringing it into her stomach and performing a mock bow. “I cannot wait to see how she performs.”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Very well, let us begin."

A deep rumble suddenly took hold of the ground beneath them, the massive turning of gears and the raising of platforms heralded the beginning of the challenge, and the floor before the Epicanthix warrioress opened like a gaping maw. Two cages emerged from the gap within the floor, each one holding a single occupant dressed in the typical earth-hued robes of the Jedi, albeit tattered and stained with dry blood. Each of them looked rather bewildered, but relatively in prime shape and still had their wits about them. Before them sat sword sharpened blades of black durasteel, and as the cages came to a stop the sides tumbled away and the shackles restraining them to the floor clattered loudly as they unlocked and fell from their wrists and ankles. The Epicanthix woman spun her spear around several times before pointing the sharpened tip at them, beckoning them forth with her free hand.

The two Padawans looked at each other, and slowly picked up the weapons laid before them. They knew in an instant what they were being forced to do, fight against their lone opponent and perhaps be granted freedom, or be cut down and impaled by her spear. With no other choice but to fight, they assumed their stances of battle, and without further goading the Epicanthix sprung into action. True to his word, she was a exceptional warrior, spinning and moving like a wild feline, her form sleek, yet muscular, and utterly silent as the grave as she descended upon them. To put it bluntly the two Jedi were doomed from the start, they were unexperienced, and while they could be a challenge for any run-of-the-mill vagabond, they were no match for Kaine's champion. Eventually she grew tired of toying with them, and with swift motions she cut them one of them to ribbons with only the tip of her spear, while leaving the other alive to eventually succumb to the poison coated upon her weapon.

Kaine watched the spectacle in silence, but when it was finally over he turned to [member="Sasha Santhe"] with a dark grin plastered across his features. "What do you think?"

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Of course Sasha couldn’t be too impressed, it just wouldn’t do. Instead she huffed a bit, smiled a polite but disingenuous smile and said, “She is acceptable.” Truth be told she only had to be acceptable. Anyone who was too exceptional would most likely rebel, that was the way of the sith. Of course this was the point of her little project anyways. Cybernetics. The smile remained on her face. “They were padawans, unskilled and untrained.”

And then her eyes narrowed as she looked at [member="Darth Vornskr"], “Beating a child doesn’t make you superior, doesn’t make you strong. Although you do like to show your authority that way don't you? Slapping a sixteen year old girl. How important and powerful that must have made you feel.” One day she would drink to this mans death. “Is that how you measure power? If so its no wonder you came up with such an engenius test of skill….”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Sith Lord's thin-drawn lips pulled back to reveal his teeth, his sneer transforming into a wicked snarl as his ears were assaulted by the young woman's tirade, and he figured he had enough of her smart mouth. With a simple gesture with his right hand, he commanded the Dark Side to flow through him like a conduit, manifesting it's untold power to be used to enact retribution against the upstart teen. The literal wall of telekinetic energy erupted from Kaine's being, slamming into Sasha's side with enough force to send her hurtling across the chamber to slam against the hard durasteel wall. "Miserable little gnat, do not presume to speak to me in such a manner. I am a Lord of the Sith, and you are a child, and I will be treated with respect. I had thought my earlier message would've been clear enough for you to mind your tongue, but you obviously need more discipline."

He scoffed darkly as he let the flames of his sudden Dark Side use subside to a small simmer, but now the air was greasy and polluted from his hate-fueled strike. "You disappoint me."

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

 

[Sasha Santhe]

[member="Darth Vornskr"], ever the bully to little girls. Sasha sneared back at him, a reply forming on her lips, “The only thing you’ve taught me old man is that little dogs bark the loudest,” she said under her breath.

Pain wracked her body. With the force she shunted her nerves and remained impassive. Show no pain, no fear in the face of animals. Kaine was an animal. Sasha would show him Discipline. She stood up as if nothing had happened and wiped the dust off of her clothing. “Your offering is sufficient. I do hope in the future we can be a bit more amicable. Our long term arrangements are mutually beneficial after all.”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

He laughed darkly, "We shall see, Lady Santhe. We shall see indeed..." The Sith Lord gathered what things he brought with him, and then looked back at the slightly disheveled form of [member="Sasha Santhe"], and laughed again. "May my champion serve you well in your endeavors, Sasha, maybe she can teach you a thing or two about dignity and strength." And with that, Kaine turned away with a flurry of his cloak and proceeded to depart from Sasha's company, leaving her alone with only the champion to stand silent and stoic in the adjacent chamber, her body caked with blood and her eyes burning with passion and ferocity.

This would be the last time Sasha would see Kaine alive.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

6 years later….

Unfortunately it wasn’t the last time Sasha Santhe and [member="Darth Vornskr"] would interact. In the deep core in space around an uncharted star the two stood. There was legion before them, troopers assembled. Sasha had modified them with cybernetics to assure loyalty. Volunteers and others scraped up from the streets. They didn’t matter, the prize was their leaders. Clad in articulate black armor. “Your prime clone was everything you promised,” Sasha said with a smile. She had cooled to the man, ghost. This didn’t stop her from having a bit of a laugh. When she invited him to the facility through her sayance there was a sign waiting in the chair that would have nominally been his with the words “Respawn lol” written on it.

“Let me ask you,” Sasha said to the aspiration next to her, “how does it feel to be dead?”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Different."

The floating apparition that hovered before [member="Sasha Santhe"] responded to her question with a flat tone of voice that hinted of disinterest in the topic at hand, but still he found it necessary to respond to her questions. It wasn't every day that you were conducting covert business with someone who had been to the realm beyond death and came back to speak of it, not that he did much of that anyways. The Netherworld was a hellish place, for him anyways, and he'd rather not speak of what had transpired in the land of the dead. For this meeting the specter assumed the form of who he was before he met his untimely end at the hands of [member="Kiskla Grayson"], but his appearance was strained and hazy, the concentration it took to keep his visual manifestation was quite taxing on his spirit, moreso to travel to anywhere else other than his sanctuary in the Temple of the Sith on Coruscant.

Until he finally transferred his spirit into a body, he was forced to stay on Coruscant except in specific circumstance, and this was one of them. "Show me what you have accomplished since we last met."