We Will Roam

[Jairus Starvald]

“Mmhm.” the Sith Lord replied non-committally. Mostly because he was far too busy sorting through the memories he had received from the Selabites. See… the world was different for a mentalist, it was difficult to explain, but whereas [member="Adekos"] saw electrical signals, mechanisms and other contraptions wherever he looked? Carach saw thoughts spread out before him, those of past and present - and the most obvious memories came from those that had just recently expired.

Especially when he had been the one doing the killing.

Sometimes mere milliseconds could extend themselves into minutes and even hours. It all depended on the circumstance, it all depended on just how much his thoughts aligned and it all depended on plain luck.

“It’s here?”

“You cannot claim it.”

“Have faith, brother.”

“You are no brother of mine. It will take you for its own, you cannot unleash it into the world.”

“Have faith.”

“You do no-”

“Enough. Your mind is mine, go to sleep.”

Carach brushed past Adekos, wandering into the Vault and what he witnessed there… it was pure beauty personified. To his left was a table with a half-opened box - roughly the size as the one that had been discarded back at the Stealth-X - but the Sith Lord did not care for the Darzu Holocron. His interests laid in a very different object. He opened the second pair of doors that gave him entrance to a long hallway, enclaves with objects of various interest were decorating the hallway.

But he needed to go deeper into the facility, farther into the reaches to the song that was being spun even now.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_6x3EW3FC0[/youtube]​

[member="Darth Carach"]

There might have been other artifacts located there, but Adekos ignored them. Whatever they were (if they were even present) paled in comparison to the wealth of knowledge the Darzu Holocron held. After years of tireless search and endless frustration, the Holocron of Belia Darzu was mere steps away. For a moment the fact that he was in an overwhelming amount of pain was forgotten. There was just the action of putting one foot in front of the other, again and again, until the treasure he sought at last was within arm's reach. Despite his efforts, Adekos had long ago resigned the fact that he would never glimpse Darzu's fabled holocron. The Jedi countermeasures were insurmountable. Short of kidnapping the Grandmaster (which would only trigger some ludicrous fail-safe, he suspected), discerning its location would have been impossible. Yet here he was.

Adekos considered pinching himself to make sure this wasn't some kind of elaborate hallucination- that at any moment he would wake up in soiled robes on the barren surface of Metalorn, being told that the Republic were withdrawing from the system after a protracted battle but that he had humiliated himself fighting Je'gan. Or, even worse, he could wake up in the medical bay of the Dreadstar, still nursing a wounded ego after being bested by the most pretentious, overrated, insipid Hunter-Killer Droid to ever be activated in the known galaxy. Gingerly calling upon the Force, Adekos levitated the Darzu Holocron from off its pedestal and into the palm of his right hand. It moved slowly through the air, his fingers closing around it when it finally landed. It was real. So was the internal bleeding he probably had after getting slammed into the walls of this place some several hundred times, which meant he was going to have to pick up the pace and get back to the surface.

Already the possibilities were endless. First he would need to plumb the depths of the Darzu Holocron for further instruction in Mechu Deru. Then he could move onto the nature of the Technovirus, Technobeasts, Metanecron, that sort of thing. These would require some degree of skill in Sith Alchemy, but this holocron no doubt contained the basics at least. There were other resources he could access if not. Now with this holocron in hand, he could begin plotting to construct one of his own. His apprentices had failed to make something notable of themselves thus far. Tempting as it was, Adekos would not live forever. It seemed more likely he would die before someone with his same ideological temperament and enthusiasm for technology crossed paths with him.

The throbbing pain in his rib cage reminded Adekos that he should leave sooner rather than later.

Without even bothering to explore the rest of the facility or assess any other contents (electronic or otherwise), Adekos turned on a heel and made his way back to the exit. He made no move to inform Carach of this, as his colleague was likely busy with other things. Adekos would have to spend some time cutting through the wall panel that was still embedded in the elevator doors before he could call it down regardless. Plenty of time for Carach to catch up after he finished... Whatever he was doing.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Even the thick inches of quality-grade Force Nullification resin could completely dampen out its siren call. It must have slowly driven the Selabites crazy - the constant whispers in the background of their mind, crawling against their mental wards and trying to seduce them into just letting it go back into the world.

Carach was a little bit tempted to give it up to the Galaxy, to witness it annihilate life itself on an universal-scale, but he contained himself.

Barely.

Many alcoves were passed, other hallways linked up to this one and stretched into the distance: all a reminder on just how much the Selabites had secured and protected over the eras, but it kept tugging on him softly. Reminding him that it was just there, he just had to walk a few more steps.

And there it was.

The Sith Lord opened the last door, this one was reinforced metal of some kind, a bunker door that would close and lock itself out if a global lockdown had been reinforced. But the Selabites had been so confident that they would be able to destroy the threat, they had grown arrogant in their own power and just assumed that a bunch of upstart Sith Lords wouldn’t be able to defeat them just like that. (Then again, with the beating he had just taken… even Carach had believed in their hype a little bit.)

But every step he took was a step that brought him closer to his goal. And every step he took was a step where he pulled the souls of the dead Sith Lords closer to him, surrounding his signature and very being with their presence, with their maelstrom of agonizing power - perhaps even [member="Adekos"] would be able to feel the build-up of power all the way from the entrance of the bunker.

Like the beginning of a forest fire… it started with a single, shimmering ember in the dark, before it spread itself like wildfyre. Before long it was a whole firestorm bursting through the wilds and incinerating everything it came into contact with.

And there it was.

A crooked staff. About a meter in its length and the surface of its material seemed to shift in color - from deep ebony to bright crimson and back, swirling and inviting you to a realm beyond this one.

“Have you come to set me freeeeee?”

Carach did not reply, but almost in an instant he found himself before the staff, his hand reached out inadvertently and out of his own control. He halted the movement, barely again, before touching the staff from his own accord.

“Pooooowerful… you will do. Would you like to destroy something today?”

It was then that the Sith Lord smiled.

“Mmhmhmm, what is it that you are trying to do, little pup? I have witnessed the desolation of a whole culture, transcended the bounds of reality itself and used reality as my little plaything. What can you do to me, little pup?”

And it was then that the full wrath and power of thousands of Sith Lords was unleashed, balled together and guided by the singular will of Darth Carach, aiming it at the psyche of the staff.

With the aid of the Sith Lords of old he broke the staff’s will and bound it to himself.

Carach gripped the staff - now with that old confidence - pulling it out of its containment field and just like that he vanished. Before rematerializing a few meters or so behind Adekos again.

“Back. Did I miss anything interesting?”

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

The last chunk of wall panel fell away at the insistence of Adekos' lightsaber. Just as the blade retracted into its hilt, Carach literally blinked into existence behind him. Predictably, Adekos flinched, and smashed the button to call the elevator down with a little more gusto than expected of a man with one too many broken bones to count. Between disintegration and now teleporting, Adekos was starting to wonder just how well he knew his colleague... And then he saw the staff he was holding. It exuded a particular malevolence that he hadn't been familiar with until arriving in this facility. He had originally assumed it was the Selkath and then forgotten it completely when confronted with the Darzu Holocron.

Now Carach was holding it. "No." Adekos answered. "But apparently I did."

Whether it was a shortage of patience or blood was beyond anyone's perceptions, but Adekos certainly didn't feel like like interrogating Carach over his latest "bauble of the month." The elevator chimed its usual cheery tone to signal its arrival. The doors slid open and Adekos limped inside, depressing the up button as quickly as he could. The Selkath might have sent out a distress signal when they hadn't been looking at him. Perhaps doing so was not allowed for the Order of the Selab, but since Adekos had no way of confirming it, he was not taking any chances.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

“Quite.” the Sith Lord agreed and stepped into the elevator with him. As the elevator started its journey to the surface of the world a portion of the wall inside the atrium collapsed, perhaps it was a representation on how much they wrecked wherever the pair decided to go.

“You realize we cannot go back the way we came with how karked our equipment is?”

Both their helmets were wrecked beyond belief- Oh, that’s right. It was almost as if the staff was vibrating in his hand, trying to remind him of its presence and what it could actually do.

“Luckily, I can transport us straight to the shuttle without risking radiation poisoning or sunburns.”

Underneath that sun? Even the briefest walk would literally burn their skin to a crisp and that wasn’t something that Carach was eager to experience. Of course they would need to send in droids later - firstly to recover all the other artifacts and holocrons that the Selab Order had stashed here, but also to handle the suggestion [member="Adekos"] put forward.

He wasn’t gonna go around pouring concrete and leveling the mountain by himself. Though the surface of the staff did seem to get a little bit warmer at the thought of that level of destruction.

Creepy thing. Even under his control.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Darth Carach"]

Adekos stared at Carach, only breaking off his gaze once the elevator ground to a halt and the doors slid open. The modified environmental shield he was equipped with, the one modified to protect him from radiation poisoning, would be more than adequate to protect him during the walk back. And even if it wasn't, Adekos would call for his own shuttle and wait. "If you would like to bandy about monstrous, galaxy-shattering artifacts like toys and use them for such whimsical activities as avoiding a thirty-minute walk or a commlink call, be my guest." As a matter of principle, Adekos did not trust relics like the Darkstaff. They were too powerful for their own good and no amount of training or mental discipline would make them 'safe' to use.

There was a reason the Soulsaber was not constantly hung around his waist. He had seen what prolonged use did to the likes of Shorn, turning him into a chaotic lunatic with no vision past the bridge of his nose. Then there was how it made a perfectly reasonable Jedi like Hion the Herglic transform into the ruthless Darth Orcus. The Gauntlet of Kressh had displayed no negative side affects thus far, but that was only after Adekos had spent a fortnight poking, prodding, testing at it... He had to be sure that Jacen Cavill's psychosis and egotism were just a result of his own damnable personality rather than a side affect of the gauntlet.

Ultimately Adekos decided that the gauntlet's affects were more psychological than anything tangible or tied into the Force. Some artifacts just worked like that- no immediately tangible downsides. This did not make it any less prudent to use them sparingly. One could never be sure what would happen and that went doubly so for something as terrible as the Darkstaff. It was supposed to have been destroyed. A Ghostling chucked it into a Black Hole. The fact that it was here being held by the Order of the Selab should have made anyone of sound mind and body worried. But now Carach wanted to use it for public transportation?

"That staff would no sooner turn everyone in a ten mile radius inside-out than it would teleport us less than a mile." Adekos dryly intoned. "Keep it to yourself, please."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

“Alright.” Carach replied with a shrug. It was well within the rights of [member="Adekos"] to be cautious when it came to the Darkstaff or any other rare Darkside artifact, perhaps the Sith Lord himself should be more cautious as well, but at this point in time everything hurted.

Everything.

“I will meet you back on the Lucrehulk then.”

And with not so much as a sound the Sith disappeared from sight… before reappearing in the hangar of the Machinator - Gerion’s flagship that was hanging silently in the cold void of outer space. Around him the droids halted their business and almost stared at the appearance of a Sith Lord out of nothing, the scanners ID'd him as a recent guest though and so they decided to ignore him for now, instead going back to work.

Carach shrugged, before looking at the staff.

“You know. The look might have been edgy a few ages ago, but um… can you cut back on the emo-hardcore-metal a bit?”

The staff hummed in incredulity as a response.

“Oh come on. You are telling me you can make the fabric of reality your shutta. You can time warp around and transport yourself across dimensions… but you can’t change the way you look?”

For a moment the staff was silent, before the Sith Lord almost had the sense that it sighed in defeat.

“What would you prefer then?”

“Something more… elegant.”

The Darkstaff pondered on that for a while, before seeing an image floating around in Carach’s head which it decided to use as a reference point. It started to vibrate, pulsate faster and faster until it suddenly shifted in appearance.

It was a cane now.

“Better?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Never mention this to anyone.”

Carach simply nodded, before walking out of the hangar in search for the medbay.