The Past

[Cedric Dorn]

Cedric sat upon a broken throne.

It was not his own, it was not the throne that belonged to him. It was a broken relic, an ancient piece of the past. It was a part of this world, though perhaps this world had forgotten it. It didn't matter, it suited him well, and for the time being it was a place that he could sit and rest, a place that allowed him for once, to simply do nothing. It stopped the stirring hatred within him, halted the path of war and destruction that he was always upon.

It allowed the Sith Lord to simply...relax.

That seemed like an impossibility for him. It seemed like it was something that he could never due, yet the ancient Sith Throne gave him some reprieve from the darkside that consumed him.

Perhaps that alone was worth the agony of his life. Perhaps that alone made this quest worthwhile, the brief moments of respite. Cedric knew within the darkest reaches of this thoughts, within the depths of his mind, that when he reclaimed Thule, when he held his families fortress, he would have this feeling, and he would have it with him always in this halls.

His homeworld, his home, it would give him the reprieve he sought.

It would end his pain.

His eyes shifted slightly, his gaze averting from the ground and heading towards the darkness of the cave before him, the small hollow of light blocking out a silhouette that moved towards him. Cedric frowned, or the muscles of his face twitched in equal to a frown. His guttural tone echoed through the halls. "Cousin?"

It was more a greeting than a question.

 

[Kiber Dorn]

He questioned why he was here.

Was it for answers? Was it for questions? Was it to help?

The carefully folded flimsiplast sat in his pocket, weighing him down as if it were a block of solid lead. In the world of logic, what sat in his pocket was simply a picture, taken from a small cottage in the middle of nowhere, Dantooine. However, weight came with the picture's subject. A young, blonde and meek looking creature that was none other than Cedric's own flesh and blood and by extension, Kiber's.

He was already regretting it, being here. What would his cousin do when confronted with that small piece of family humanity? How would he even react? Would there be a glimmer of humanity? Or would it be with rage? Honestly, Kiber couldn't have pictured the man reacting in any other way.

Mementos and trinkets aside, he was not alone. Keeping close to his gangly legs padded a small kath hound pup. Flea. Another memento of Dantooine. In a fitting testimony towards his life Anja had picked out the strongest horned hound out of the pack, and he had been granted the runt. A good reflection of character if any.

The man was mildly concerned that Cedric would eat the poor thing right then and there. Was likely to happen given that Kiber was starting to get attached to the little bugger.

“Hey,” he responded back rather awkwardly, voice lacking some of that usual swagger and mirth. Too much had transpired on Dantooine. The cottage, the farmer, the kath hounds. How was he supposed to start?

What did you do to me?

After being shot in the chest by a farmer that had mistaken him for a monster there had been a moment, a shift in consciousness within him and one that resulted in death. As a spice dealer Kiber had always accepted that he sold second hand death for profit, there was something he could hide behind in that, but he had never killed anyone directly, well, not until that shift.

“How...how are you?”

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]

 

[Cedric Dorn]

[member="Kiber Dorn"]

Cedric didn't answer.

His eyes fell to the creature at Kiber's side, though there was no word or action from him towards the small Kath Hound. Perhaps it was because he believed it progress. Sith often held pets. Naga Sadow had tamed and crated terentateks, perhaps this meant that Kiber was finally doing something instead of simply sitting on his hands. The Sith Lord twisted slightly, shifting upon his throne as his cousin moved closer and closer.

A grunt escaped him as Kiber spoke, annoyance already floating through him.

Pleasantries?

Did he think they were a normal family? Did he think them about to have Sunday Dinner? Cedric let his hand curl into a tight fist, the muscles over his knuckles contracting as he pressed his fingers into his palm. Rage pulled through him, but the Sith Lord managed to keep his calm. His cousin needed to be guided slowly, made to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Why are you here?" He cut through whatever else Kiber was going to say, there was no need to talk about their feelings.

Cedric was close now, so very close. Thule was within his grasp. He had his army, he had his lieutenants, he even had the backing of a government. Thule would be his within a matter of days.

 

[Kiber Dorn]

Flea was evidently a braver creature than his owner.

Where Kiber stopped and stood the kath hound pup took further steps forward, cautious paws daring to venture just that bit closer to the grotesque man upon his dilapidated throne. Of course, not too close, creatures had a tendency to be that inch more aware than their sentient counterparts, but still the small beast stood as tall as he could, showing pride beyond size.

Was he supposed to follow suit?

Any chance of conversation was batted aside quickly, leaving an uncomfortable silence in the air, as the man furrowed his invisible eyebrows upon his blackened face.

“We...I went to Dantooine,” he began, almost wincing internally as the kath hound before him might have made that fact too obvious to bear repeating.

I lost control, I killed a man. What did you do to me?

“Found a small house in the middle of nowhere,” Kiber continued, probably drawing Cedric's ire by not getting to the point quickly enough. Most definitely drawing Cedric's ire by not getting to the point quickly enough. He folded his arms across his midsection slowly, as if that might have offered any kind of protection against such wrath.

“It...it was your mum's house, Cedric. Think Evelynn lived there too.”

The photo felt like it was burning within his pocket, but he would wait for a reaction before taking it out. Even though the Force had clearly guided them there he wasn't quite sure how his cousin would feel.

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]

 

[Cedric Dorn]

[member="Kiber Dorn"]

The white knuckles grip on his throne suddenly pressed further. The stone beneath his grip suddenly began to crack and the earth began to shake. A powerful wave of the darkside burst from Cedric, a wall of hot anger that seemed to flow through the cavern and consume things all around him. His eyes burned a bright yellow, and he looked down at his Cousin.

"You." His voice was accusatory, burning with hatred. "You, do not speak of them."

It was as if Kiber had taken Karin and Evelynn's names and insulted them already. The very mention of them set Cedric into a white hot hatred, a burning rage that would see any other being already obliterated and torn apart. Kiber was lucky that he was family, or else he would have ended up like the creatures that stalked the halls surrounding the chamber. Thoughtless, emotionless, driven only by the will of Cedric Dorn.

Yet Kiber was family, and that afforded him his life.

For now.

 

[Kiber Dorn]

Oh dear.

Little Flea's bravery melted in the face of dark rage, the pup scurrying behind Kiber's legs in the direct face of wrath, he himself winced as the cavern trembled under the force of Cedric's rage but at the very least he did not take any steps backwards.

“Sorry...I uh...”

...didn't realise.

He was mildly frightened at this point. If he took the picture out was it like saying, 'oh I raided your mum and sister's house, it was great!'. Was he just supposed to walk away from the situation right now, with all limbs still intact?

No, no.

“I picked up a few things,” he said slowly, taking a cautious step forward. Flea stayed behind, watching the scene with a fearful curiosity.

"For you."

More steps were taken forward, as he half expected Cedric to strike him down where he stood for sheer audacity. It wasn't audacity, however. It was concern, he wanted to strike and strike a flame of humanity within the man, if he could even be called that any more. He was more akin to a monster in a child's story than anything else. There was a real pity in seeing a man so handsome become...that. A waste, even.

When he got close enough he pulled out the folded flimsiplast from his pocket, offering it gingerly to his cousin.

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]

 

[Cedric Dorn]

[member="Kiber Dorn"]

There was many things he could have done in that moment. He could have eviscerated his cousin. He could have torn him apart, burned him, disintegrated him, tortured him. He could have trapped Kiber within his own mind and forced him to live a day over and over again. He could have dismantled his cousin at his very core, torn him apart into a thousand tiny pieces and left him there for his little creature to eat.

Yet he didn't.

Was it a sign of humanity? Was it a sign of Mercy?

Was one small part of Cedric still human? Was one small part of him still longing to be alive again, to be connected to his family. If one thing was true, Cedric had always preached the merits of family, of the Dorns being the greatest in the galaxy and of his cousins failure to meet up to that expectation. His eyes fell to the flimsy, his gaze boring into the photo of the little sister who had not even realized that he was alive.

He breathed. It was a heavy ragged breath, but he did not move. The throne beneath his grip cracked further, the stone beginning to crumble beneath his grasp. What little vegetation remained in the room began to wither and die. Cedric seemed focused, directed, his attention forced onto the photo before him.

 

[Kiber Dorn]

How could he react?

He didn't know if Cedric was mad or if he was actually feeling something beyond rage for the first time in an eternity.

For once there was no witty quip to be made by Kiber. Perhaps some emotional progression? Knowing that it wasn't appropriate to enter some meaningless dialogue into the midst of an actual moment. Or maybe it was self preservation, as if the slightest move of a muscle might have caused his cousin to explode. Fury held no logic, how was he to know?

There was a nudge at the back of his leg, Flea, the runt of the pack trying to find shelter amongst his owner's gangly legs. Nature taking the brunt of Cedric's wrath as any dilapidated plant-life withered further. Poor little bugger.

“Didn't know if you'd...uh...want it,” he mumbled quietly, feverishly rubbing his fingers together, “there's some other things…necklace...diary...”

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]

 

[Cedric Dorn]

[member="Kiber Dorn"]

Oh there was rage, but Cedric wasn't entirely sure at what. Was it at his cousin? No. He wanted to kill Kiber, but that was a constant, he wanted to kill everyone in fact, but it was a slow burning urge that most of the time he could simply ignore. The anger made it harder, but he knew that it was not Kiber he felt rage towards, he knew that it wasn't his useless relative. It was something else, something that seemed to bite and gnaw at him, chew on his remaining flesh.

The muscles in his face twitched.

His grip tightened again on the stone, the rough cracks along the throne beginning to spiderweb and crack, chunks beginning to fall off the side of the well polished stone. The Sith Lord began to shake, rage flowing through him as the Darkside began to crest around them. The air became thing, breathing became difficult.

"Why?" It was a single word, but it seemed to echo in the room.

It was seemingly less of a question, and more of a demand. A demand for knowledge, for motive. Why had he gone there? To reach Cedric? Or to plunder his home?

 

[Kiber Dorn]

He should have left Flea on the ship, the presence of the Dark Side was becoming suffocating for him, and he was not nearly as in touch with the Force as the kath hound must have been.

Felt quite bad for his scabby throne too.

Why?

Were the situation not so terse he might have snorted with Kiber believing that he had a much firmer grasp upon philosophy of the Force than his cousin did, probably a lot firmer grasp upon sanity too given how prone his relative was to destroying all plant-life in his skinless vicinity with rage.

“Wasn't looking for it on purpose, man,” he said, very slowly and with great amounts of caution, still knotting his fingers together very nervously.

“You don't just….find your relatives' secluded cottage...for no reason, y'know,” Kiber continued, gently making his way to the point, “it's fate, cuz, it's the Force. I was guided there….and I think it was so I could pass that info onto you...”

Hopefully that was solid enough reasoning, although it was very likely that Cedric still thought he had sought out his mother's house to deliberately disgrace it.

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]

 

[Cedric Dorn]

[member="Kiber Dorn"]

What a farce.

Cedric had never believed in the guiding principles of the force, or rather he had never believed that it had done anything for him. Perhaps it was because it was fate that had destroyed his family, that it had been fate that tore him apart, it didn't matter. All he knew was that the answer was unacceptable, that it was a stab in the side, a blade to the gut. He scowled, or rather his face twitched and his muscles moved to draw his clacking teeth further together.

"Who was with you?" Had Kiber gone alone?

It didn't seem likely.

His cousin was useless, lacking initiative, drive. Why visit Dantooine alone? Why go there? There had to be something more, there had to be a motive other than the force.

Of course logical Cedric shouldn't have known, he shouldn't have even asked, but there was something, something he was searching for. He did not want to kill Kiber. Perhaps it was because of the picture in his hands, perhaps it was the last vestige of care for his family. So he was searching, searching for someone to blame, for someone to kill.

 

[Kiber Dorn]

That's where it became awkward.

He hadn't been alone. His Master, Anja Aj'Rou had been with him, they had gone there together for training but had instead had found the cottage and of course, not having his same dread for family affairs was more than keen to go rummaging through their things.

“Anja Aj'Rou, we went for training,” he said quietly, hand suddenly stopping their nervous knotting in a moment that had somehow become ever more tense.

She raided the house.

Also my head.

Took some Sith lore.

Hopefully Cedric hadn't been practising his telepathy skills in his time spent sitting around looking angry and ominous and killing flora with his presence. Otherwise there might have been some volcanic eruptions upon the horizon. The shivering Flea snuffled the back of his leg and Kiber could only look down at his new companion with sympathy in his eyes.

I know, buddy.

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]

 

[Cedric Dorn]

[member="Kiber Dorn"]

The throne cracked and broke. The stone finally gave way, and the armrest where Cedirc had rested shattered into a thousand pieces. The stone went flying, exploding as his hand finally crushed the last bits. Rage poured from him in an almost palpable form. His eyes burned with hatred, his body seemed to sear with it.

The air began to constrict the lungs.

"She dies." It was a statement of fact.

From day one it had been clear that Cedric had never liked the Host Lord. This was partly because he considered the woman to be a false image of what a leader should be, an partly because he resented having to go to her in order to recapture Thule. It was a testament of Ego, and truthfully he had searched for a reason to kill the woman for some time now, especially due to her influence on Cedric's cousin. Of course the violation of his family home was more than the perfect opportunity.

It was perfect really, though it would take time.

Cedric was consumed by Rage, but he was not fool, and the hatred that now poured from him would be well used by the end.

 

[Kiber Dorn]

The kath hound yelped as Kiber flinched from his cousin's reaction, the man's oppressive power coming down upon his head (and lungs).

Cedric was this walking public service announcement warning the dangers of the Dark Side, leaving the man constantly wary about his moral choices taken in his day-to-day life, as if he were living in a bloody video game. It wasn't attractive, the notion of power wasn't worth this cost, at least not while he was sane, while he had spirit.

That's a bit much, no?

Although jumping in to stand up for the Host Lord's life wasn't in the cards for Kiber in that moment, and he imagined that if the roles were reversed with Anja wanting to end Cedric he would have kept schtum much the same.

“Hey, I'm more...concerned with other stuff,” Kiber blurted out, equipping the sudden conversation switch, “I killed a guy, y'know, like….killed a guy.”

Pretty small fry stuff for Cedric Dorn.

“I wasn't me.”

What did you do?

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]

 

[Cedric Dorn]

[member="Kiber Dorn"]

Death? He was worried about death? Not even his own, the death of others?

Cedric didn't understand. He had thought that Kiber was over this, he had thought that the man would have the presence of mind to understand that he was greater than most better than most. His face twitched again, and the rage slowly subsided, though it simmered. The anger was forgotten, replaced by solid confusion at the words of his cousin. His back stiffened and slowly he rose from the throne.

"You truly are weak." Cedric said with no small amount of judgment in his voice.

His eyes wandered over towards the Kath Hound that stood behind Kiber.

"I gave you a gift." He said, his tone a roiling rasp. "I gave you power, the strength to do what you normally could not, and you waste it. Is this her doing?"

He returned to the subject of the Host Lord, the bad influence in Kiber's life. Cedric slowly began to walk down the stairs, moving towards his cousin.

 

[Kiber Dorn]

Oh jeeze, he wasn't entirely comfortable with the notion of Cedric getting up and actually coming over, he preferred leaving the man-monster there to destroy his own throne with his psyche crippling rage.

At least he was willing to blame Anja rather than Kiber, his question giving him the perfect coward's way out. However he did not take it.

“No,” Kiber replied quietly, “when it all...happened...she was pretty impressed.” Apparently he was the only one not so invested in murder. Sure, the farmer had blasted him right in the chest, but he was startled with a finger on the trigger and Kiber did look pretty frightening.

Flea lay down behind the scrawny man's legs, trying to make himself as small as he possibly could as the monster approached.

“I don't think power and strength comes from murder, Cedric, that's not her….that's me...”

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]

 

[Cedric Dorn]

[member="Kiber Dorn"]

"Strength doesn't come from murder." Cedric had never really considered killing to be part of what made someone strong, rather, it was simply something that needed to be done in order to ascend to true strength. Not as a step in it of itself, but as a way to reach that next step. It was really quite simple that way, even straightforward. Cedric had thought that Kiber would understand that, he had thought that his Cousin would get it, but apparently not.

His palm suddenly raised.

A yelp shuddered through the room, and the small pup behind Kiber lifted from the ground and floated high into the air.

"It requires strength." His hand snapped out and grasped the nape of the Kath Hounds neck, grasping it tightly. "Cousin."

Cedric accented the words with a snap of his wrist. Another yelp rang out, and suddenly the darkside of the force exploded from Cedric's palm. In an instant an aura of red and black smoke began to appear around the Kath hound. It's skin began to glow, its eyes grew dark, its fur grew to spikes and its teeth became gnarled and sharp. Cedric dropped the Kath Hound, and suddenly the creature began to grow.

The Hound shifted and changed, twisted upon itself.

 

[Kiber Dorn]

Kiber had always considered himself a less-than-savoury man, but in that moment the realisation came that he was more of a black sheep in his family than he had first thought. Sith Lords, villains and monsters.

Sure he had dealt spice, he had ended lives with methods that were different but he shied away from dwelling upon such things. He wasn't so sure that his conscience could take it, because he definitely had one. It was only in spending time with Anja or Cedric that such a thing really shone through, he could live up to his own expectations of failure by simply not being bad enough.

Then Flea yelped.

“Hey!”

That wasn't fair, that wasn't right. He saw a lot of himself in that little runt of a kath hound, so that frightened yowl hurt a little further beneath the skin. Smaller, always being picked on, laughed at, sneered at, people always trying to improve you. Kiber vowed to love the creature for what he was and here Cedric was, twisting it, breaking it, ruining it.

"Kark off!"

Too late to prevent the process the gangly man rushed forward, moving to shove his cousin.

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]

 

[Cedric Dorn]

[member="Kiber Dorn"]

It was too late by then, though at least Kiber got in a good hit. Cedric was tall, his shoulders were broad and his body seemed massive compared to most folks, but the fact that he had no skin rather detracted from his defensive abilities. Kiber struck him square in the chest, and agony tore through the Sith Lord almost immediately.

Cedric and Kiber went barreling backwards, falling as the Sith Lord grasped for empty air.

He clattered to the ground, striking hard and letting out a hoarse gasp as the wind was knocked from his lungs. The Sith Roared, and suddenly a burst of the force ripped form him. It was a wave of black and awe, pure unadulterated power unleashed in a thoughtless rampage. It would reach out and crack and tear, bite and burn, break rock and throw away anything that was not held to the ground.

Cedric raged, roaring as his teeth parted and his lip-less maw sounded.

 

[Kiber Dorn]

It was getting to the point of enough.

A man could only bend so much before he would break, and Kiber was almost there. Every morning he woke up under a backdrop of pain and anxiety, every time he looked into the mirror he was greeted with that black visage, more reminders of Cedric, of Anja.

When was the last time he laughed, or smiled? He couldn't even remember the last time he cracked a joke, as if his own personality was being slowly drained out. What would be left?

“It's my life, Cedric!”

He found himself on top of his cousin, hands balled into fists and ready to smash themselves into his cousin's face but the skinless freak wouldn't be letting that happen so easily. Kiber was essentially blasted from off of his cousin, being flung across the cave alongside the rest of the debris.

Pain made itself aware, but then again, it always did these days.

Scrambling to his feet Kiber didn't follow a suit of logic to stop this moment of rage, rather he continued it, adding his own bottled up rage into the mixture. With the Force he began to fling whatever debris he could straight back at Cedric's head, like a petulant child having a tantrum.

“IT'S MY LIFE!”

---

[member="Cedric Dorn"]