Private Understudy to an Abomination

[The Amalgam]

The Amalgam smiled as she watched Darth Vindel take in the misery and hatred and pain and made himself more beautiful in the Dark Side through it.

"And you shall, Apprentice, you shall indeed watch your enemies crumble..." the Witch said, clearly fascinated by Vindel's growing beauty. But he would need so much more than being a pretty face in The Dark Side.

The Amalgam let him burn a little more mentally, partly because it was helping him immensely, and also because it allowed her to savor his pain. It was rather like cooking a side of bacon properly (In which case Holy Crap did that analogy fit Vindel.).

She then ceased the flames as quickly as they had been conjured.

"Its an excellent spell for tormenting the weaklings of the galaxy. Whenever you have need, you must speak the words of power that I spoke to conjure the flames. Your new to it so it will be weak, but once you practice enough, you will even be able to control the flames. Now, meditate on what you have experienced...we arrive at Mimban in a few hours, and you will not be allowed to use your lightsaber, because I want you out of your comfort zone. Besides...if you cannot be fearsome and brutal and cunning and deadly without such a weweapon...do you really deserve such a weapon?" she asked rhetorically before leaving him to his own devices.

Five hours later...

The Corrupted Flesh exited hyperspace close to Mimban, its stealth drive engaged as it descended through the atmosphere. It found a clearing of grass amidst the vast jungle and settled in. It was night time. During a thunderstorm.

She wanted Vindel's stress levels to maximum. She had permitted him to take only the pistol she had provided him and two spare stripper clips of 45. Ammo. She had permitted no other items, no communication devices. He was to go in even without his cloak. He was permitted to procure weapons he discovered for his use. It was very unlikely he would find any but Mimban had surprised her before. Sometimes you find tombs that hadn't been there a moment ago in the brush. Sometimes the tombs were open. She regarded these phenomena as among the most dangerous she had ever encountered, for she had been fool enough once to actually go inside a tomb that came out of nowhere in a Mimban Jungle. She would never make such a horrific mistake again after what had been waiting for her inside. She had advised Vindel on this danger primarily. Such a phenomenon was rare but when it happened, his safest bet would be to back away quietly as possible about a hundred meters upon spotting a tomb entrance that came from out of nowhere and stare at it, and not take his eyes off it for a full two minutes. Blink once and only once. If the tomb entrance has (or even if he thinks it has.) moved toward him, he was to immediately run the other way as fast as he could and not stop until he found a large body of water to dive under or until he literally could not run anymore. The threat inside was both beyond his current abilities and was too horrific to describe. Even she, a Master of The Dark Side, had barely survived the mind shattering horror that had been waiting for her within, and she had nearly expended everything she had to escape. But that was the only threat she warned him about. The rest he would have to discover on his own, but given what had been inside, it would have been just downright inconsiderate, never mind the whole evil-sith-code thing, not to give warning of that particular danger to a newfound apprentice as a freebie.

The Temple that was his destination was fifteen kilometers ahead, through dense jungle and threats. There may be Light Siders patrolling, the Unholy Spirit had not informed her one way or the other.

As the hatch opened, The Amalgam pulled out her own pistol, a modified Sith Assassin Pistol, and stood at the entrance, waiting for Vindel to exit. Once out there, only a magically silenced pistol and the Dark Side would be his tools.

"Before you go, Apprentice, I have one last useful tidbit to show you before you take your stroll through the woods." she said to him in a merry tone. She stared at a nearby piece of log, flesh shuddering everywhere as the piece of wood burned, smoked, and finally caught fire.

"Deadly Sight. Won't get you out of a really serious jam but should buy you a few moments of breathing room...or distraction if used creatively..." she uttered, flesh returning to normal. "Food for thought. May the Dark Side provide you wisdom, Apprentice. I will meet you at the temple. There the true slaughter can start."

With that, The Amalgam used the Force to render her body invisible as she sprinted into the brush silently, eager to observe at a distance and see how he faired.

 

[Darth Vindel]

Vinded stood in front of the dense jungle of Mimban. He watched his master sprint through the woods faster than he could see, nevermind the literal invisibility. Vindel looked at the pistol his master had provided him with, and then back at the jungle. He hid his blaster in its hold, and began to slowly walk into the jungle.

The wander was annoying, moreso than the days of travel that he spent to find his master. At least when he was wandering Chandaar, it was just a vast plain. Here, there were logs, vines, bugs, and trees. Vindel would constantly have to jump over logs, sometimes seeing broken branches and unnatural formations in a pathway, reminding him that he was not alone out here. Whenever a bug annoyed him, he simply lifted his finger and zapped it with minimal effort. He felt naked as vines fell from trees, and brushed against his bare arms. He missed his cloak, the darkness from which he hid was all that kept him from insanity. As he thought about it, he heard a quiet speaking. He hid behind a broken log, and peeked from its corner. A single light side user, from what he sensed, a padawan. This young man was weak enough to even sense the dark wanderer's presence. Vindel thought of an idea, one which his master would definitely approve of. He lessened the power that kept him together, letting cuts and scars to appear more than usual, and then stumbled out from behind the log. The padawan noticed, and walked to him.

The young jedi helped Vindel up, and asked what had happened.

"Sith, there are Sith in these jungles. A ship landed not too far from here, they damn near killed me, take me to your master, young Jedi."

The teenage padawan was more ignorant than the Jedi would usually go by. He was clearly untrained. As he began to set Vindel down, he pulled out his com. Vindel noticed, and saw that there were many jedi among the jungle's deep brush.

Vindel looked at the young jedi, and barely nudged him in the force, so he could feel as that there was a danger nearby. The young padawan stood up quickly, and ignited his lightsaber, the bright green glow surrounding the leaves that encircled the two. He assumed a Form 2, yet it was clumsy. The jedi had a second lightsaber attached to his belt. He had not ignited it, probably for strategic purposes. A mistake worth taking the advantage of. Vindel reached out, and pulled the lightsaber to his hand. A second green glow, and the sound of a lightsaber, caught the attention of the young jedi. He turned to Vindel, and stood in shock, and fear. Vindel raised his blade to assume a Form V, and stared down the young Jedi.

"Young fool, didn't your master teach you never to trust a Sith?"

With that line, he swung down at the young jedi, locking blades with him, continuing the battle. Swing after swing, the two were in heated combat, and the sound of lightsabers clashing could be heard from throughout the surrounding trees. Vindel caught blades with the padawan just where he wanted, and swung his blade in a circular motion. The blade of the youngling was out of balance, and Vindel cut him at the wrist. Before the young jedi could scream in horror, he was choking on the force. Vindel pulled the youngling to him, and attempted the same ritual his master taught him.

"Unholy spirit, pour fourth my hatred!"

The flames of hell unleashed a purple fire from the mouth of the Sith. The young jedi stood quiet, too taken from the unholy magic that took over his mind. He fell into the depression that not many could escape. Once Vindel was satisfied, he let the young jedi go, leaving one lightsaber behind.

As he left the open clearing, he walked in satisfaction, with a grin on his face, as he heard the young jedi ignite his lightsaber, and felt his presence in the force fade away.

As Vindel wandered through the forest, he eventually came across another clearing. He decided to take a rest to regain his energy from the previous fight. However, he felt another presence, as two jedi wandered into the same clearing. He realized that his master was not exaggerating when she said that this jungle was infested with jedi. As the noticed him, he could sense how powerful they were, one was a knight, and the other was her apprentice. They ignited their lightsabers, with the knight having a double blade, and the apprentice, a crossguard. Vindel ignited the stolen blade, and walked towards the jedi with his eyes closed. He knew that they could sense his power, and his dark energy, as they were more mature and trained than the padawan he faced before. Before he could walk past them, the knight held one of her blades against Vindel's throat.

She asked him who he was, and who the blade belonged to, Vindel only smiled and looked her dead in the eye. As she stood in horror of his hideous face, he blasted a powerful force storm at the ground, from underneath their blades. The storm was large enough to attract to the jedi from underneath their weapons, shocking the apprentice to her knees, and the knight stepped back to block it. As Vindel continued the storm against the knight, he used his other hand to strike down the padawan. Enraged, the knight charged at Vindel, and they engaged in a powerful lightsaber duel. This was more intriguing than the last, as Vindel even tried the same maneuver to knock the blade from her hand, to no avail. They continuted to duel in the clearing, before they locked blades, close to each other. Vindel spoke the words of the curse, and the knight was soon engulfed in the purple flame, this time it was more powerful, as he now knew how to control it more efficiently, not to the level of his master, but enough to make it work against the knight. As she fell to her knees, still holding her double hilt, Vindel could sense that she was worthless except as a slave, and decided to let her live on a single condition, which he would ask his master on later. He gave her directions, and she slowly walked to the destination, with no will or self desire left in her mind. She had been broken.

Vindel collected the Jedi's double blade, as well as the padawan's crossguard.

He continued in the forest, and saw the temple his master spoke of above the treetops. He could sense a dark power, and walked to it.

His master was waiting for him, and Vindel presented the lightsabers to her. He spoke to her about the knight.

"Master, one of the Jedi I encountered was broken by the curse you taught me. It's not powerful enough as yours, yet I can control it. The Jedi Knight who owned this double blade is still alive, with nothing on her mind, dead except as a ragdoll to be given orders. I only left her alive so that I may ask you if I could have her as a pet slave, to do my daily tasks, and unimportant deeds."

He stood as his master decided what to do next.

 

[The Amalgam]

The Jedi of Lightpalm Academy had made a terrible choice in coming here. A choice that would cost them their lives and their minds.

The Amalgam crept through the jungle, not worried at all about her relatively weak laser pistol. After all, when you were as good a shot as she was, one was all you need.

She had resorted to hiding her presence with the Dark as she approached fresh victims, these three knights attempting to purify a shrine erected hundreds of years ago. It depicted a jagged crescent. They had been meditating, trying to pollute it with the light. Her flesh shuddered everywhere in displeasure for a split second at its presence. She had moved through the rain soaked jungle for an hour. Her body hungered to commit evil. It was time.

She emerged from the brush, presence still hidden and drew her pistol.

Like her apprentices, her weapons were a labor of love. A sleek, white, short barreled pistol, barely bigger than a hold-out blaster. But this model was based off the ancient tech of the Sith Assassins, who often used it in torture. As did she. This time though, she would be using it more creatively.

Stepping onto the cult's sacred gravel she snapped off a shot at the head of the Jedi Master, a Twi'Lek man who slumped over dead, horrifying the other two knights beside him, who quickly stood up and drew double bladed lightsabers.

The Amalgam simply smiled, and beckoned with a finger.

They both rushed forward as she allowed her rotting presence in the Force to at last be felt. They attacked out of sheer horror at the dark nexus within, and The Amalgam resorted to a combination of martial arts and her pistol to block or evade their fast slices and stabs, flipping, twirling, leaping, interfering with the movements of their arms and legs via her own, getting through their guard and whipping them across the cheek with her pistol, her intense corruption so potent that while Dark Siders such as Darth Vindel were tempted and corrupted by drawing from her wisdom, Lightsiders had their connection to the Light actively disrupted, interfered with constantly.

She finally shot the first in the thigh when she hopped over his slice attempt at her knees, ducking the thrust and grabbing the arm holding the saber, forcing him to drive the blade into the back of his friend, who had been driven to his knees.

The knight stared in shock. The Amalgam stepped back, letting his shock turn to anger, then hatred. He tried to attack her furiously, only to be brought to his knees as she stared into his eyes, using the dark to burn them out of his skull.

As he screamed, trying to lash out at her in hatred, The Amalgam stepped back, letting the corrupt shrine do the rest. She was starting to see his soul become less ugly.

Deciding that had been a fun enough warm up, she quickly made her way to the temple again, only to be given pause as multiple Jedi Knights came out of the jungle.

The Amalgam's flesh wriggled disgustingly everywhere for a few seconds in anticipation.

She backed away into the shrine grounds as they surrounded her.

All at once they used Force Light.

The Witch howled as her flesh shuddered everywhere and didn't stop, starting to rapidly turn a mody, sickly yellow as she began leaking white blood from the eyes and mouth, her petite, curvy figure rapidly becoming emaciated and bony, forced to throw out her corruption and focus it to the max to interrupt their attempt. Her face caught fire, than the rest of her. The writhing emaciated thing burned violently, muscles bunching up in odd places and bursting white blood as it burned, making unnaturally tinny, pig like shrieks. Eventually, the flames grew too intense and The Amalgam keeled over, burning flesh bubbling and wriggling everywhere before going still sagging, cooked through the suit, and melted, nearly unrecognizable.

The frightened Jedi Knights ceased the Light, all severely weakened by the effort. They wouldn't have another burst like that again.

The symbol on the shrine glowed, shining magical moonlight upon The Amalgam's corpse, which had not broken down like it normally would have upon such a death, began to twitch, purple arcs of electricity running over it.

The Knights began to scream as the power of the shrine lashed out, violently tearing the life energy from them while they were too exhausted to resist, transferring it to the evil spirit still inhabiting the corpse, which glowed with purple energy.

The process was slow and painful for the knights, but eventually the Witch and even her armor were restored to full condition, the only one unaffected was the knight currently in the process of falling to the Dark Side.

The flesh of the Beast writhed under her suit for a full minute before resettling to her near impossibly beautiful appearance.

"Fools. Someone should have warned them no servant of the Unholy Spirit can be slain by a lightsider inside one of its shrines without the shrine consuming the Lightsider to ressurect the Witch. Which brings us to you." The Amalgam chirped happily at the blinded Jedi.

She knealt down beside him. He was silent, boiling with fury because of his helplessness towards her.

"All those Jedi, yet the Light could not save them." she chuckled, turning him over to face her.

"I can feel your curiousity grow. When you are ready to embrace it, come join me. Or stay here and die. Or go and act on your knew rage. Either way, keep the Darkness in your heart and you shall always be beautiful to me, no matter who you are or what you look like. Like you are now."

The Amalgam left him and resumed her journey to the temple. She smirked as she felt the remaining Jedi inside retreat deepervinto its recesses at the approaching presence of her and Vindel, leaving only a few perimeter guards.

Thirty minutes later.

The Amalgam smirked as she finished shooting the last of the Jedi who dared to guard the perimeter in the head, her fists having broken most of their bones beforehand.

She smirked as she felt Vindel approach the steps and went to meet him, hands on her hips as he knelt and presented his prize, explaining his success as well as his request.

"Well done, my Beautiful Apprentice. You have pleased me greatly and have taken to one of the gifts of The Unholy Spirit with great alacrity. By all means, keep your slave. But a word of caution: a mindless slave will never be as useful to you as a mindful one. You also must remember, that as a member of this cult it is your duty to offer enlightenment to Force Adepts when possible. You have done well, and it is your right to keep your slave, but whenever you see a chance to actually turn a Force Adept...take it. You strengthen The Bogan with every mind turned as opposed to pulverized. It is a skill you absolutely must master if you ever wish to run your own academy: the insight to understand what is required to tip the scale in the soul of someone. You have taken the important first step though: You have destroyed a mind. Next comes learning how to destroy a mind's perception of itself to get them to see the truth. Now as to this temple..." The Amalgam turned, bidding him to rise as they stared at the faded white pyramid surrounded by four decorative pillars.

"These Jedi defile this place with their presence. We must move quickly. They are attempting to purify the nexus within this place. If they succeed, both you and I will be greatly weakened, making us much more vulnerable. Our first bid should be the library...they will attempt to destroy whatever they find inside. There is no sense in hiding...they know we are coming for them, and they will send every available means to stop us. They've locked the front door. Silly Jedi..."

The Amalgam strode up to the stone, traced something on the smooth stones next to it and the stones jutted out and slid upward, revealing a large, ornate silver key hanging on a hook that she retrieved, inserting it into the ornate lock mechanism...

(Zelda Unlocking Theme Plays)

The stone door slid open and the Amalgam silently gestured for Vindel to follow her down into the stone steps below...

Fifteen minutes later.

The interior was composed almost completely of faded white stones splashed with ancient blood, support pillars strategically placed in what was turning out to be a mostly underground tunnel. Much to her displeasure the Jedi were not massing to oppose them...it seems they actually had a brain. They were going to try and burn out the time and delay her as opposed to outright fight her. They knew she could not allow the Bogan's sacred knowledge to be destroyed.

No enemies so far, she finally reached the Library entrance peered inside, saw Jedi gathering books off the shelves, throwing them to piles carelessly.

The Amalgam snarled in rage, Force Choking the nearest two before shooting them in the head with her silent laser pistol, a thin beam lancing through brains. More Jedi drew sabers and rushed their position but The Amalgam was not having it.

With a shriek of fury her hands stretched out, flesh wriggling as she discharged heavy lightning bolts that broke the blades of those attempting to block them, frying some dead on the spot, knocking others out. The Amalgam strode foward murderously, brutally disarming and shooting every Jedi through sheer hand to hand skill, slipping between Stava and K'tara at will, punching or kicking in throats or shooting them after dodging their blades at point blank ranges before lethally retaliating with a shot to the skull.

Soon, every Jedi in the room was dead, either killed by her or Vindel, though she by far had whittled them down the most, and without a lightsaber at that. There was a reason for that: Even now she was teaching, letting Vindel observe how she did not rely on one style but blended them, chaotic and unpredictable like The Bogan itself.

"We were lucky. They were mere seconds from setting fire to this place. We must move quickly. Here. Arrange what bodies are present into a pentagram at the center of the library, its not to far off. I don't have time to explain." She said, digging through the pile before finding the one she wanted, a red, leather bound one, with no titles.

She then got back to Vindel.

"We have to interrupt the ritual they are attempting. We can do it from here but I can't channel the ritual as I currently am. So I am leaving it to one more qualified. Welcome to your first intro to rituals..."

The Amalgam's flesh shuddered, her face and hair wriggling and deforming and melting like the rest of her body before solidifying into that of an elderly woman's face with golden hair and tanned skin, her body now much much thinner but more visibly muscular.

The old woman, still in the Amalgam's skintight armor took a bow and introduced herself, going over a placing a hand on his shoulder. Vindel had to wrap his head around the fact that he wasn't just the student of the woman mostly in control of the body, but all those inside her as well.

"Greetings, Apprentice." The Woman said silkenly, in a weathered but feminine voice an octave below The Amalgam's dark rasp. "I am known as The Collection. I devised many of the rituals our cult uses to this day. It is a great pleasure to get a chance to instruct such an eager mind. From what I see, you will make a fine avatar of the Bogan. Now please, my Apprentice, take a seat opposite of me on either side of The Pentagram.

Jedi burst in through the front door, but The Collection gave a shrill hiss of loathing and her eyes went sulphur, many of the Jedi collapsing as she poisoned their bodies lethally, flesh wriggling on her face only slightly as her eyes fluttered, the evil minds inside her whispering fragments of dark secrets into Vindel's subconscious, trying to make him want to know more and more, and to love the Bogan as they did.

She turned back to him with anoutright matronly smile as she took a cross legged position at the center of the pentagram of corpses.

"Open youself to the Dark. We must channel its will through the whole building, young one."

When Vindel did so, that is when the old, yet highly muscular woman would start to chant, vile, unholy things too dangerous to even write down...