Azrael Asylum
Shortly before the Battle of Coruscant...
Evacuating an asylum full of villainous Force Users is a supremely complicated task. Special protocols had to be followed to ensure none of the inmates could use the opportunity to escape.
Darth Miasma was fitted with Force-nullifying restraints before she even left her cell, great heavy shackles that weighed on her slight frame, dragging her arms toward the ground and making it hard for her to walk upright. Her wings were pinned to her back, to prevent her from taking flight in transit, and her mouth was covered by a mask to keep her from biting anyone. She was escorted out by armed guards carrying ysalalmiri cages on their backs, into the broad daylight of Coruscant, where a transport awaited on a landing pad.
Ahead of her, another prisoner was being ushered up the loading ramp. At the top, Miasma glimpsed the faint oscillating glow of force cages.
So we'll be herded into our stalls like cattle, she thought.
So much for the enlightened Galactic Alliance.
It was her turn to board. She lurched forward, lugging her chains with every lumbering step. She wasn't sure where they would take her; probably to another facility on a planet not facing an imminent invasion. Perhaps security would be more lax. Or maybe it would be even more strict than here...
Behind her, an unmistakable sound ripped through the dull hum of starship engines and the background noise of Coruscant. Blaster fire. She turned, slowly, every movement a labor, and saw one of the guards lying dead on the ground. Another guard was holding the smoking gun, already turning it on another of his comrades as the betrayal was realized.
In the chaos that followed, Miasma didn't hesitate. She lunged for the dead guard, fumbling for his keys as more bodies fell around her. Someone kicked her away, freedom slipping from her grasp.
Realizing the danger, the pilot of the transport began to lift off. The traitorous guard, realizing his quarry was aboard, began firing on the vessel. There was an explosion; the ship banked right, one of its thrusters destroyed, and crashed into the landing pad. Miasma was still trying to crawl back to the corpse when everything went sideways,
literally, as the pad began to tilt to one side. The corpses slid limply past her as she clawed desperately at the tarmac, grasping for something, anything that might keep her from flying off. But it was no use. She was slipping... and then she was falling, through the air, through Coruscant, plummeting into the unknown...
Somewhere in the depths of Coruscant
Present day
When next she awoke, she was lying on a table. The room was dark save for the flickering surgical light directly above her. It reeked of blood and antiseptic and... something else. A scent that brought back memories half forgotten during her long incarceration.
Sith alchemy.
"Ah, you're awake," a voice said. "How are you feeling?"
She whipped her head around, spying the silhouette of a male figure in the darkness to her right. He stepped into the light. Though it had been twenty years since she first met
Silas Fogg, he hadn't aged a day - courtesy of Sith alchemy. One of many abilities some would consider to be
unnatural.
"You were dead, you know," Silas continued when she did not answer. "I brought you back to life."
"
I've been dead before," she replied. "
Three... No, four times now." At this rate she'd live more lives than a loth-cat before anyone did her in for good. "
It's nothing special to me anymore."
His smirk was laced with contempt. "Still, a little gratitude wouldn't hurt." Reaching to one side, he held up the remnants of her restraints. "These were a pain to remove, but you should be feeling much better without them."
She stretched and sat up, testing her newly freed limbs and wings. Then, she used the Force to seize hold of Silas, lifting him off his feet. "
You're about the last person I would've expected to come to my rescue," she growled. "
So, tell me. What's in it for you?"
Silas grunted and strained against her hold, but could not escape her grasp. "A lot happened while you were out," he said. "Your eldest daughter ran off and joined the Jedi, while your eldest son joined the Sith."
"
Eloise... Marcus..." she murmured. "
Where are they now?"
"I don't know about her. But Marcus, I took him as my apprentice. He excelled in alchemy, but fell behind in all other fields. Much like you did, as I recall--!" Silas yelped as her grip tightened to a painful degree. "I did what I could, but it wasn't enough. There was a training exercise, an arena where they pitted the acolytes against each other in combat. He didn't even survive the first round..."
Miasma's eyes went wide, green irises already turning a sickly, toxic shade as the Dark Side returned to her. But no matter how hard she concentrated, searching the universe entire, she could not feel Marcus. All that power, and her son was still dead.
"
Who?" she whispered. "
Who did it? Who killed my son?"
Silas, sensing that there was no chance of survival for a failure such as him, decided to let her have the name. "Qyssiyana."
There was a sickening crunch as she snapped his neck. Before his body hit the floor, she was already bounding for the exit, spreading her wings and taking flight. Darth Miasma had but one goal: to make Qyssiyana pay for what she had done!