Private Witch Hunt

[Taeli Raaf]

Continuation of Traitors Gate

Yavin IV
Allyson Locke
​

Lightning erupted across Allyson's frame, smoke and steam billowing up from the wet clothing that acted as a lovely conductor for the Force Lightning unleashed on her. Allyson's free hand gripped her collar, keeping them close even as the lightning coursed through her... and back into Taeli. She drank in the pain it caused her, fueling her own power, knowing that Allyson couldn't hold on for much longer from the assault even now.

She didn't enjoy this, causing the younger Corellian pain. The girl's rough statement that she would kill her barely registered, even as she felt through the Force the rising dark urges. For just a moment, the eyes showed a touch of amber. Perhaps Allyson really would give in to her species' dark inclinations. Anger was taking control of her, not the other way around. But even as she saw it, the girl, even being electrocuted, centered herself and pulled back from the brink just enough to not give into her rage and anger...

And then the surprise headbutt. Pain blossomed white hot and she staggered, seeing spots. The Force Lightning died away immediately as blood once more gushed from her nose, tears welling up involuntarily. With a hand gripped her collar, she didn't move far back in her stagger, their lightsabers still locked in a collage of red and blues in the hissing rain. But now, as she took control of her pain, she was no longer even remotely amused.

She didn't even think, didn't even consider another Force technique at that moment, instead falling back onto instinct that her adopted mother had drilled into her constantly. She lowered her center of gravity by shifting her legs and then, with surge of Force born power and speed, she rushed forward to tackle Allyson right into her chest and to the quickly muddying ground, lightsabers falling away to hiss and spark, a gauntleted hand towards the girl's own face.

 

[Allyson Locke]

//: Yavin IV //:
//: Taeli Raaf //:

​

Allyson was surprised that the headbutt made contact, the crushing blow of Taeli’s head cracked, and she felt her own brain bounce around in her skull. The lightning stopped, and the Corellian felt the burning sensation linger for just a moment after. There was no chance to recover from her assault, but Taeli was quick on her feet. Their bodies collided, and she groaned as the air was knocked from her lungs.

Landing back into the mud, Allyson tried to push Taeli off of her. Taeli was fighting like someone else. There was an almost animalistic quality to her actions. Before Allyson could worm her way from the tackle, a metal gauntlet crashed into her face. Her head snapped to the side by the sheer force of the blow. She cursed, feeling her face already starting to swell from the punch.

The world around her began to fade in and out. The anger rose again in every fiber of her being. It reached out, wanting to grasp something to make her stronger. Anything that would make her strong enough to erase Taeli Raaf from this galaxy. A guttural growl surged from the Corellian as she pulled herself from the mud. Allyson reached up, her body moving fast utilizing the Force. Fingers wanting to wrap around the delicate throat of the Sith Lord, she wanted to feel it, feel Taeli take her last breath by her hand.

She grinned, “How does it karkin feel to fall off that high horse of yours?” Allyson spoke through gritted teeth; she never hated so much in her life as much as she hated Taeli Raaf.

Her free hand reached to grab the gauntlet to try and prevent it from punching her face again. She tried to feel for anything mechanical in the gauntlet that would give her an advantage through mechu-deru.

“I hate you Taeli Raaf!”​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Yavin IV
Allyson Locke
​

There was a crude deep down satisfaction, likely a primal delight in dealing with a threat to one's life, to hitting something hard enough for it to react. Seeing Allyson's head snap back and to the side, into the mud, from her punch certainly elicited that from her. Straddling her still from the tackle, her fist was already going for another punch. She still didn't want to do anything to permanently harm the younger Corellian woman, but...

Allyson lurched out of the mud, a hand coming up to wrap around her throat while a free hand grappled with the one she had been using to punch the woman. She could feel the anger rising in her again, feel Allyson reaching for those baser instincts that were the hallmark of the darkness lurking within everyone. It was hard to breath as Allyson squeezed, growling out her rhetorical question and how much she hated her. She could feel her probing for something she could manipulate with her premier power; her mechu-deru talents.

But as much as everyone would likely assume any armor or weapon of hers would be decked out in technology and alchemy, to represent the mindset and reputation of Darth Arcanix, the gauntlet was simply that. A few pieces of shaped metal to protect her. If she had chosen her Medhir armor, then Taeli had no doubt that the nanites would quickly have a new master.

She struggled to break Allyson's hold on her throat, her free hand punching for anything in reach, but Allyson's strength was born of something more familiar to her. She wouldn't break her grip on her throat, and her vision was starting to fade around the edges as the oxygen in her lungs was starting to run out. If Allyson went all the way and strangled her, there was little doubt in her mind that it would accelerate a slippery path for the Jedi Shadow. And yet, in her anger, she thought she caught a glimpse of something else in those emotions.

"No... you don't... hate me..." Taeli managed to gasp out.

Allyson wouldn't listen now, wouldn't understand, so it became a simple shift in her mindset. It was a matter of life and death now, and she would not die. She wouldn't kill Allyson either, she wasn't at that point, but it was now a matter of disabling her ability to kill her. She could just teleport away or use her sorcery... but she settled on another technique.

Taeli's free hand, the one she had been using to try and pry the hand strangling her with, would wrap around her wrist and there would be a quick pulse of Force energy. Her studies of anatomy in the course of her many experiments had helped her understand shatterpoint much better than Connor had ever shown her. She knew the structure of dozens of species, including humans, and how their bones were formed. The pulse would be directed at a specific point into each bone in the hand holding her throat, its intent... to shatter each and every single bone in the hand and fingers.

 

[Allyson Locke]

//: Yavin IV //:
//: Taeli Raaf //:

​

Her grip continued to tighten as she could feel it. The rapid pulse of Taeli’s heart pattered rhythmically against her fingertips. It continued to get faster, panic settling in. A lifeform’s primal instincts were to survive, no matter the cost, and Allyson fed into hers - holding Taeli as tightly as she could. The woman’s arm struck her, and Allyson groaned with each blow, but her focus was on the killing strike she was attempting. So close, just a little longer, and everything would be over.

Something shifted; Allyson sensed it the moment Taeli gripped her wrist. Had the Sith figured something out, a way to stop her attacker despite everything being weighed against her.

A cold searing pain surged through her arm, starting from her fingertips and ending at her shoulder. Every alarm echoed in the Corellian’s mind as her hand went limp. Grip, hold, move. The mantra echoed in her mind as she whined at the pain. Her hand, useless in its state, and the pain continued, only burning more and more. An unadulterated cry of pain echoed as she tried to pull back her hand, her arm struggling against Taeli’s grip.

“What the kark did you do?!” The hand that had been gripping the gauntlet began to glow. A small construct began to form, created from Force Light. Holding the solid cylindrical object, she moved to stab Taeli where ever she could. Allyson didn’t care anymore; her instincts screamed for her to survive - no matter what the cost. She had to endure.

“I do! I hate you, I hate you so much.” Her arm continued to try and pull away from Taeli’s hold. “Everything that has happened, it's because of you! You! You and HIM!” She screamed, tears flowy freely from her face. Everything that lead up to this point, the people hurt because of the Spy, they all had a common factor. Allyson and her attachment to Kaine Zambrano and Taeli Raaf.​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Yavin IV
Allyson Locke
​

Perhaps it was because of the lack of oxygen causing her to miscalculate her shatterpoint, or maybe it was her own powers deciding for the Sith Lady that survival dictated that she shatter more than the bones in Allyson's hand. Whatever it was, Taeli felt regret at how strong and potent that attack had been, but that was buried deeply underneath the sweetness that was being able to breathe again. She took a ragged breath as the hand gripping her throat went limp, the younger Corellian trying to pull back from the grip she still held on her arm, unconsciously holding her in place still.

"Shatterpoint," she uttered weakly, ever the teacher that she couldn't even stop the explanation that used her first full breath in moments.

That lack of focus cost her.

Allyson's other hand glowed with the power of the Light, forming something with Force Light Taeli had never seen done before. It was almost like a dagger and then it had plunged towards her, piercing through a weak spot in her arm into her lower abdomen. Pain immediately shot through, and of course, the light. She took in Allyson's words, her cries of blame and hate, and she knew... A second stab near the first point of contact, and Taeli felt her connection to the dark weaken and disappear. Luckily for her, she was not an ordinary Sith.

Breathing hurt, and the pain from the second stab had caused her to let go of Allyson's arm in an instinctive recoil, to block the third strike towards her with her forearm. The light dagger pierced through her arm, but at least it wasn't a third chest wound. Allowing the Force to flow through her, a weak laugh bubbled up as she launched a Force Push at Allyson to shove the girl off her and away several feet. Neither of them was in much good condition, Taeli's good hand going to apply pressure to her new wounds. Blood trickled from beneath her fingers even as she continued to allow the light to flow through her, focusing on healing her wounds enough that she could sit up. She was sure her use of the Light was not something Allyson probably thought her capable of.

"No..." she said quietly, her hand glowing with a soft blue light. "I'm not the cause of everything that has happened to you."

She struggled to her feet again, rain running along her armor to mix with the blood.

"Blame Kaine for what he did to you, blame me for what happened to Loske. We both deserve that, even if Loske was an accident. But none of it was because of you, or the connections you have with them," she continued gently. "You can't keep blaming yourself for what might happen to your friends in a war and their missions, a war that has been fought for millennia where only the faces change."