You have done it now, woman (Matsu)

[Arage Bao]

Confederation Space​

Unknown Regions​

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]​

It was always a sad day when your student failed you, especially when you had such high hopes for her. Matsu Xiangu had disappointed me, from the moment her paths crossed with this Force Radical Extremist, the way how she easily turned into his pawn, gave out her secrets as if it was candy and when the time had come to cut him loose… well. We all know how that turned out. To this day I do not know if she knew of my awareness, or simply did not consider the ramifications of her actions. Perhaps a small part of me recognized her behavior, saw just a smallish portion of myself in it when I was younger and so much more stupid. When I found her in that shack on Skye I spared her the lectures, she wasn’t conscious anyway though that wouldn’t have stopped me if I wanted to get to her.

Took me a few favors from Cordell to get ‘im to lend me some of his men, all outside appearances outside you don’t walk in with a squad of your own men on someone else’s turf. A lesson I had learned when I was just a kid in a gang on Coruscant, old lessons stick I suppose. We got her out of there and the locals got their minds scrambled, nobody had to know what had transpired that day. She got a new arm, courtesy of Santhe Corporation, we take care of our own and now she was slowly healing on my personal Station in my own corner of the Fringe.

I had known what she was up to, can’t hide secrets from me even if you want to. Didn’t try to stop her though, I ain’t that guy. If you want to pull some stupid poodoo, it’s on your own head, didn’t mean I wasn’t pissed off. Not at Krius, guy was useful, without even knowing it he was pulling exactly the strings I wanted him to pull. But Matsu should have known better, which brought me back to my disappointment. All my instincts told me to cut her loose, break her mind right now and just turn her into a sleeper agent. I’d at least get a single use from her that way, might have been the smart option. But I ain’t known for my intelligence, or maybe nostalgia is getting to me again. Either way, I decided to give her a second chance, the last one she would get.

Probably would disappoint me again, but maybe she’d surprise me. My footsteps heralded my arrival to the medical bay, no one was present at this point. I made sure that nobody would witness this, I ain’t inherently cruel or atleast I’d like to think so. Never made her suffer, never tried to make her go against her… eh… alright she doesn’t really have principles. But you catch my drift. Point is, I ain’t a Sith Lord perse, but my plans were important. My goals even more so, if this girl can’t keep her own secrets in line. If this girl only needed one bat form the eyelashes to start feeling all flowers and butterflies in her stomach? How could I trust her?

Important question, let’s see how she does.

I spoke a single word, didn’t matter if she was asleep or not, because the word would penetrate her very soul right this instant. No time to play around, the Force radiated from me and I could almost sense the amber flowing in the irises of my eyes.

“Matsu.”

Didn’t need more, execution is in the details. The curious pronunciation of her name, the ease and familiarity in which I promptly slipped through her defenses and said her true name inside of her mind. In this moment I wasn’t Jared Ovmar, I wasn’t that guy with the pretty lazy grin which made your heart melt. In this moment I was the guy with the big fekking hammer, who would with it descend upon her if this conversation wouldn’t go the way it had to go.

At this point I didn't even consider the option that I was just concerned with my apprentice, with the girl which I had come to learn pretty well in the time we had spent together. I was just angry, don't blame me!

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Very little of her time since parting with her arm had been spent conscious, and those moments where she had some semblance of cognizance were filled with fleeting snatches of thought. There was rage, shame, pain – and also: ‘Jared is going to kill me.’ It seemed a funny thought to be having really when death seemed so imminent. What would she have to fear from her Master, one might ask, if she were to pass right then and there?

A man who’d spoken with Bane would have no trouble finding her in the Netherworld, she was sure. She had plenty to fear.

But when she heard her name, an echo in her skull in tones that brooked no amusement, she felt…nothing. She opened her eyes and looked down first at what used to be flesh, and then had become an empty space, and was now machinery and wires and mechanisms she could hear whirring loud enough to wake the dead. Or at least that was how it seemed to her. Perfect, maybe it would resurrect her when Jared was done with her. She flexed the hand, listening to the soft whirr as the thing worked…yes, the Fringe certainly took care of its own.

And then she let her eyes drift to Jared.

How to explain to him what she’d been doing? Her journey with Krius had spanned several months. It had been a whirlwind and she knew, she knew it had been something she stepped in to too quickly. It had been naïve. How she hated that she’d allowed herself to be so weak. The very idea made bile rise in her throat, made her wish she could close her eyes and pretend for another hour or so that it had not been her. It had been some other stupid girl.

She hadn’t thought Jared would have been keeping that many tabs on her, but she supposed she could just add that notch to the “stupid” belt. The fact that she was alive and clearly off Skye was proof of that. But what was the extent of his knowledge? How far did those tabs go? She wondered if he thought her relationship with Krius had been a betrayal. She had promised Jared much in that bar a few weeks ago, and it was a promise she had never once intended to rescind. She had found Krius and gone to Skye for the express purpose of lightly breaking something that had suddenly been revealed as folly – as outside of her world view. But would Jared see it that way?

There were many reasons for him to be angry with her, but she hated the thought of him viewing it as betrayal.

“Spare me the lecture, please,” she said, her voice cracking with disuse.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Specks of obsidian and blood entered the miasma of color that was my iris. How did I know this? Well… I didn’t really, it’s not like I stand in front of the mirror all day long practicing the different effects my supposed emotions have on the color of my eyes. That would just be really, really, reaaaally weird and no, I ain’t that weird. Not yet, anyways. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t really important how I knew that my eyes were shifting colors without looking into a mirror, just take it as one of those mysteries in life you won’t even find out. Ain’t really that interesting anyway, just take my word for it.

But yeah, specks of obsidian, blood and amber twirling throughout my irises creating a whirlwind of different colors, sensations and all that crap. I ain’t in touch with my emotions anymore, courtesy of death and then sudden resurrection. Everything always has some kind of price, this was mine. There was an echo though, always was. It was the echo which kept me going at times, the surreal sense of knowing what I would have done if I was still me. That echo now stirred again, couldn’t really place it that well. Seemed to be… anger? Maybe? Could have been amusement for all I knew, returning to the point was that my eyes reacted to the echo.

I spoke, there was amusement in the words that followed. My memories were still very much intact, hell I still carried the memories of Shorn with me. Not an active process of course, such a thing would destroy me. But they were there, deeply buried in the kinks and turns of my mind. So I had a faint sense that I would be more amused about this, than anything else.

“Your… mentor hasn’t improved your manners, has he, kid.”

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

And there it was, that slight curl around ‘mentor’ as if the word itself left a sour taste in her Master’s mouth. That was the sound she’d been fearing. Jared Ovmar hardly seemed like the type of man to be jealous of something so trivial as her gathering knowledge from a source other than him, and she was sure whatever vestige of anger he was feeling was for another reason entirely – but she needed him to know that what she said to him in that bar on the day she met him did not come lightly. Loyalty was a quality she possessed, but hard-won. If she said she would kill for him, do what she could to protect him, move mountains for him…there was no greater promise from her. She meant it.

But the way she looked now, ruined and tired, made what happened on Skye seem something entirely different though didn’t it?

True, she’d tried to learn from Krius Syonis. The few months meeting up with him to travel the Galaxy, to explore worlds she hadn’t traveled to on her own, had been a whirlwind and intense in its beginnings. She hadn't known Jared then, meeting him just before her decision to end the companionship with Krius - really, meeting him had been the final push in that direction. But that trip to Skye – and how to explain this to her Master, the true Master – had been to stop what she’d come to learn was not the path she meant to follow. Krius’ views of the galaxy clashed entirely with her own and that last trip with him had been to tell him so. She wouldn’t pretend it wasn’t devastating to tell him that things had changed but they had, and Matsu wouldn’t be content doing something just to make others happy. She hadn’t wanted him to change, hadn’t asked anything of him – she just wanted to explain herself and then dedicate herself to her power, to the Fringe and a part of space she was coming to call her own, and Jared. To settle on something that felt right.

And all those desires landed her where she found herself, down an arm and at the brunt of her Master’s irritation. (Well at least her dedication had the proof of that price – who would question her loyalty now, losing an arm for what she wanted and still here to help?) Though it seemed to have morphed in to something like…amusement?

That was either good for her, or very bad.

“It wasn’t something we discussed much, no,” she murmured back, turning her head to watch Jared and moving her new cybernetic arm to rest over her stomach. Its weight was strange.

Looking at him now she was reminded of that day meeting him, how easily he’d dived in. What Krius had done to her made her eager to never know such a thing again – she’d been foolish to let him see so many of her secrets. But no one would enter her head without her permission again, no one would touch ground she considered hers and hers alone. To shield her own mind and break in to others was now an obsession, one she’d nearly died to follow. But she dropped any walls she might have erected then to let Jared in then because this was important. He needed to understand.

“It’s all there in my head if you want to look, Master.”
As if he couldn’t just reach in and take it anyway.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Chair cracked under the pressure of my back, could almost feel the pain and shame radiating from her. Seemed she had a lot to process in the coming days, months and probably years, betrayal is always a bitter pill to swallow. Knew that better than anyone else probably, so I understood how she felt. Was about to say something, but then she offered me her mind.

Did she understand the gravity of her offer? Was she expecting me to find things that would convince me that it wasn’t her fault? Or was she perhaps hoping she’d be able to outplay me at my own game? I sighed, being paranoid was a good thing most of the times, but now… it made me wary. Sometimes, you gotta close your eyes and just let go of the fight. I knew I cared about ‘er, probably shouldn’t, but I did. Felt it somewhere where my soul once was, felt the concern. Sometimes… you gotta trust yourself. So I did.

I closed my eyes, let the Force flow through me. Feel the fabric of reality shift around me, accommodating the sudden tide that blazed through the surroundings. Unlimited Power, Palpatine liked to call it, I had seen him there. In the Netherworld, half-crazed and fallen from grace through the trials of eternal blue flames, he kept whispering those words. “Unlimited Power.” As if to convince himself, that the path he had set for himself and the final destination had been worth it all.

With my eyes closed and the river flowing through me, I could still sense the whispers, beckoning me back to that place. Shrugged it off of course, this wasn’t the time nor the place for such thoughts. I touched her with my mind, and in that single defining moment a realization came to me. We were destined to be together.

Not in that silly way couples ‘were destined to be together’, this was something else. I had been wary of showing certain parts of myself to her, but now as I touched her I felt… complete. We fit together, like a key and a lock, like two sides of a single coin. Like… well there are other analogues that come to mind, but they ain’t entirely appropriate, you know what I am getting at.

As I touched her, I didn’t take though. Didn’t try to pull at her memories, part of me wanted to, sure. Wanted to sift through everything she had, and find out exactly what she felt and experienced. But it was a childish, petty part of me, and I ignored it. Instead, I showed her me. Not a part of me, but the entirety.

This wasn’t the burning forest fire, or the raging whirlwind of emotions and memories Shorn had felt when I had invaded his mind and linked myself to him. It was different, more graceful as I showed her who and what I was about. My concern for her, my… love, my respect for her accomplishments. I showed it all, and held nothing back.

I led her through my life of high points and low points, showed her the moments of despair and the moments of triumph that decorated the path of my life.

I showed her truth.

Once I was a man of passion, unrestrained passion. Now I was different, and yet the core of my being remained. Shorn was unstoppable, and I was unmovable. Like an ancient oak, firmly rooted into the living dirt of nature itself. In this comprehension, I was at peace with myself and accepted who I had been, who I had become and who I would have to be still.

My voice spoke in her mind, rippling through her and provoking shivers up and down her spine.

“A Master lives not to protect and restrain a Student from Harm or new Experiences, instead… a Master exists to provoke new thoughts, challenge his student in new Ways and to… pick up those who are broken through their attempts at Victory. You swore me an oath, and now I will swear mine. I will always be there, whether you are an apprentice, my Knight or a Master in your own right. I will always pick you back up, my oath on this.”

A lazy grin had surfaced on my face, tugging at the end of my lips and reminding me of the good times. Blue eyes opened themselves again, for just a single moment they were no longer cold, no longer inhumane pits of deceit and destruction. Instead they hinted to pathways to his own broken soul, but only for a moment and with a blink it was gone again. Almost as if it had never been there to begin with.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

The intrusion had, of course, been expected and as she felt Jared’s presence in the world within her skull she did not flinch. She waited for a rending, for the proverbial upending of her thoughts, a mess of all the things she’d seen and done in snippets thrown carelessly to the floor in his search for whatever it was he would need to know that she had not meant to disappoint him. Because in the end that was one of the things that hurt the most, wasn’t it? Not only was she ashamed that she had been betrayed so thoroughly and had not turned her back when she’d seen the potential for it, but she had disappointed the man who’d taken her under his wing.

If she were being truthful, she loved him.

And no, not in the silly couples ‘destiny’ way. But in the way that thinking of someone brought a moment of fresh air, a breath – a moment of peace in the middle of a storm.

She gasped when it was not a taking but a giving (though it was an exclamation she was too far away to realize even happened, somewhere deep inside her head), watching as he unfolded thoughts and feelings in front of her. It was a stoicism that had at first eluded her about him in the early days at his side, but the weeks had revealed a man who seemed not to feel things much below the very surface. The images of thousand-year trees kept flashing through her mind, an immovability that came with Jared in spades. And she understood. Suddenly the bits and pieces that she knew of him, an impressive picture that came only with the dedication of being an apprentice afforded her, came together in to a whole. She wondered how many knew him this way. But he had to know he was safe – he would not show her this otherwise. She would take his secrets down to the Netherworld with her, locked behind teeth and tongue.

And why shouldn’t she? Back on the hard mattress of the medical unit (and wasn’t it strange how things came full circle, once again in the sway of his power, somewhere far away though her body stayed present?) tears sprang in to her eyes. She had never been one to cry, and they fell without much fuss down the sides of her face as she watched the vision he finished laying out. It was a healing, a gift whether or not he had intended it. She admired him beyond measure and to know that he had broken…

She could rise.

As he showed her himself, the things he hadn’t spoken of yet falling in to place, she pushed back, weaving snippets of herself she recognized in moments of his that explained where she’d come from and things she’d never spoken of. She wanted him to understand.

I will always pick you back up, my oath on this.​

She expected it to be more difficult to accept such a promise when Krius had said much the same. But this…this was different. This was truth. She felt it in her bones, seeping in to the marrow, almost painful in its revelation. More healing – another moment to realize not everything had fallen away with her arm.

When his voice trailed off in her mind she opened her eyes, surprised to find the moisture on her skin and reaching up to swipe it away. And when she turned her head to look at him again she caught, just for a moment so brief it could almost be considered imagination, the ghost of what he’d just shown her.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

And I you, [member="Jared Ovmar"].​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

A rush in my mind came when she answered my giving with one of her own, this was how it was supposed to be between a Master and a Student. In this defining moment I realized something that might have been fairly obvious in the past, but had become increasingly more muddy as time progressed. I wasn’t a Sith Lord, oh I was pretty nasty when time demanded for it, but I wasn’t that guy who ate babies for his pleasure. Wasn’t the guy who tortured just for fun. This was exactly the things I had been teaching to Matsu, but let’s be honest here. It’s not the Sith way, restrainment is the last thing they would teach a student.

It seemed fair to tell her though. I mean, as I said, I ain’t suddenly a Saint after this experience. Too much had happened, I had done too much to clean these hands. But it seemed fair for her to know, though perhaps… she already knew.

I nodded at the thanks, it hadn’t been necessary and that too was something she probably knew. But it was appreciated anyway.

“You know, I am not…” pinched my nose bridge, wasn’t really sure how to say stuff like this. “I ain’t a Sith Lord, Matsu. I don’t eat babies under the cloak of the night. My particular brand of.. punishment is something else. I have seen what’s inside of you, and I liked what I saw. Enjoyed it at some level, perhaps. But the question stays, do you want to be loyal to one such as I? I don’t force my students to learn my lessons, if this doesn’t fit your particular brand of destruction. I would… understand.”

Then I shrugged. Plans were in motion, I needed to know if she did this from her heart truly. Needed to hear the words.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Matsu turned her head away for a moment to think once he fronted his question. It wasn’t because the answer came with any difficulty – she had decided those few short weeks ago that Jared was the only Master she would ever know. Perhaps she would seek a few tips from the adept of other crafts, but at the end of the day it would always and only be Jared. Lying there now, recalling that sardonic little smile he wore when she first looked over, she realized he had to know what he meant to her.

The fact that he was not a Sith Lord in the traditional sense of the title mattered very little to her in the grand scheme of things – in fact, it made him all the more appealing as her guide.

She was a study in dichotomies, in some ways epitomizing how the Galaxy knew Sith while directly opposing it in others. She was selfish in the extreme, caring for others only in so far as they could help her meet her own ends. But there were the select few who managed to win her loyalty and for them she would do just about anything. She was capable of drawing on fury, on unchecked rage. But she’d learned that although anger was the path that helped her shape the Force with the most precision, there was a quieter and more insidious form that she might come to prefer. The list was endless. But there had not been a moment since learning of the Force and many of its most common forms that Matsu had been unsure of what she was. She subscribed to the idea that the Sith felt what the Jedi were too scared or too unwilling to allow themselves – passion. And that she had in infinite supply.

In her mind, Jared was a Sith Lord, and the kind that she respected – and that was important as his apprentice, wasn’t it? There was dozens of Lords who could lay various degrees of waste to planets because they were bored, eat the bodies they felled, wear spooky clothes and yell ‘boo’ at everybody who came near their cave. In a lot of ways that was the Sith of old. Power for its own sake. In a Galaxy as large as theirs, variation was natural. Matsu was shaped from the mold, but somewhere along the way she sunk her fingers in to the wax and tore until she was something resembling the original but only vaguely. And in Jared she imagined the same. In his own way he was equally as imposing, but in the wolfish, quiet way that for the girl he’d taken as Apprentice was worlds more powerful than most other Lords she’d been in the presence of.

When she'd begun her journey she had been purely animal, acting on instinct and behaving without thought. She had already begun her transformation before the final meeting with Krius, but it seemed to settle in her now. Her new arm would be a reminder of what it was to be wild - what could happen.

The man who felt no need for such pointless theatrics as ‘eating babies under the cloak of night’ was exactly the Master she sought.
She turned her head back to him.

“In some ways my…brand of destruction differs from yours.” She had picked up telekinesis like a natural, the physics of the Galaxy around her seeming to come as a sixth sense. (And she had had to stop herself there, stop the vision of the ground blasting in torrents away from her as she, without thought, pushed Krius off as he tried to drown her. Stop, stop – keep this moment of quiet with her Master one moment longer.) But Jared knew what she wanted – he’d seen it clear as day in that first meeting. “But I found you for a reason. I’ve seen what you do. But do you know what I like the most? Although they know to fear you, I doubt there are many who could describe the breadth of what you could do to them without lifting a finger.” She paused, unused to so many words at once. So many thoughts in her head and yet there so often they remained. “Which would frighten me more? Knowing that you could throw asteroids at me? Or letting my mind wander, imagine horrors of my own – just what IS this man’s punishment? The unknown is more frightening. At least to me.”

She blinked, running her new metal claws along the inside of her natural arm, getting used to their deadly edges. “Besides, I’d imagine eating babies requires quite a few toothpicks. I don’t have the room in my purse.” And then she smiled.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

That earned her an amused smirk which was followed by a quick nod and then… something like a thoughtful look. Truthfully, I didn’t know if she was ready for this yet, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I wasn’t sure if -I- was ready for this. What I was about to do… would have repercussions of some kind, it could change things, all of the things and even though I am the man that I am.. it made me anxious such a possible change. But sometimes a man’s gotta do, what a man’s gotta do. Even if he ain’t liking it, especially when he doesn’t like it at all. I carefully raised myself from my seat and approached her bed, my eyes crossed hers and the message in them were obvious. No questions for now, all would make itself clear in the end. Was this melodramatic? Oh yeah. Did I enjoy every single second of it, once I shook myself from my anxiety? Most definitely.

Carefully I climbed the bed and as a consequences on top of her, my eyebrows quirked in dare. A dare for her to ask what I was doing, then I continued the motion. One hand slipping around her still living arm, brushing it softly before hand curled into hand, placing it next to her head. My other hand gently placed her iron replacement next to her, and then I closed the gap that had been between us. Pressed against each other, I went for a kiss and as our lips were interlocked I gave her a quick wink.

The kiss prolonged itself into eternity, and in those moments of everlasting… well it really depends on if you find me attractive. Could be agony or could be bliss, but I digress. During the kiss, Matsu would feel her body go numb, starting at her toes and slowly working up through her whole body. Her breaths would come labored, difficult until it seemed almost as if her lungs had given up their struggle. Her vision would go total black and yet the only feeling she would still retain were those lips, still interlinked with each other.

Then she would blink… maybe once or twice, and for her the world would turn upside down in a figural meaning. A realm of eternal darkness stretched before her, with deep pits of fire blinking in and out of existence on the horizon. Again a blink and suddenly before her appeared something else, a court of sorts, a Tribunal looming in front of her. Only a single, shadowy member sat behind the large, long table right in the middle of it. In the background she would hear crows, tittering to each other in mid-flight. A voice boomed and made the scenery shake, yet the words were not as stereotypical as the surroundings.

“Like it? Made it specifically for you, my dear.”

A laugh rang through the realm and suddenly light bloomed around Matsu, who suddenly had two organic arms again. No scars marred her body, if she would have had the time to check, clothed in a non-distinct robe.

“The Galaxy is in chaos, Matsu. Tell me… what did our dear Krius tell you about his vision for the world.”

And so the game would start, with a question which made it all look like a test. A final one of sorts, but for what purpose? Only the Lord of the Fringe truly knew.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She’d lost something of herself along the way with Krius and in that moment, as Jared lifted from his chair and closed the short few steps between himself and her, she thought she found it again. It was a slice of challenge, a propensity to find confidence and power in others a call to her own. Krius had shown her what meekness wrought and left her with a permanent reminder. But the command in Jared's eyes to remain just as silent as he was made the power in her rise to his.

He was her Master and she would do as he commanded – but it was never a surrender.

Even with his eyebrows quirked in a dare, a provocation equally as silent as his instruction, she didn’t give in, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips – though as his fingers wound in hers she might really have wanted to. It was strange, at first, to feel his weight above her and control of a different sort but it wasn’t hard to kiss him back once the initial surprise wore off. She was almost lost for a moment, thinking if this was his method of teaching she certainly had made a fortuitous and pleasant decision when her ribcage suddenly felt heavier. Her eyes snapped open in their embrace, trying to see if he’d shifted and was perhaps putting pressure on her but he hadn’t moved. Breathing was coming harder and harder, as if her lungs were turning to stone. She had no energy with which to panic – feth him, he’d lulled her in to complacency! By that point a pervading numbness had reached her chest, swallowing her whole. Stupid, stupid! She’d learned nothing – escaped death once only to turn around and hand what she’d wrestled to Jared.

A particular brand of punishment, indeed.

She closed her eyes, trying to catch another breath, and when she opened them again her lungs filled. Fire first, then shadow, and a crow called to her.

Although the figure at the table did not move, she watched it carefully, less out of wariness than wonder as Jared’s voice pressed in to her ears from all around her.

Like it?

She was about to answer when the light crept from above her, spider-like and promising, only to reveal the arm she had been sure she’d never see again, not even in illusion. There was no shock – the loss had been too recent for her to really comprehend what it truly was to be without it – but still, the pale length of skin nearly brought a fresh wave of tears as she bent it at the elbow, memorizing the phantom sensation. A crow, silent unlike its brothers, swept down on a whisper of air and perched itself on her fingers. It turned its head to inspect her and Matsu could swear there was a knowing smile in the red of its eyes.

“He believes both the Jedi and the Sith are equally misguided. None of the beliefs we have should exist as they blind us to what we could be if we governed ourselves as individuals. Even you, Master, are wrong in his world view. You’re holding me back from what I could discover about myself, the Goddess I could become. And those without the Force well – useless, and a threat to those with it, as they use the tools at their disposal to kill us and anything they fear is more powerful.”

Reciting it all made her feel sick, like she was back on his ship listening yet again to one of his moments of reflection, of collection of his thoughts like he was some prophet who’s vision was about to save them all.

She knew she didn’t have to bother mentioning it was a view she did not share – she’d nearly died for that.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

The hulking form of combined shadows took a breath behind the Tribunal and in response the planes around them shuddered for just a single moment, a manifestation of his will forced upon the Shadows beyond true life itself. Transcending the physical world in some way, and yet there was simple danger being in this realm, beyond the obvious and the glaring. The Shadows Beyond… time moved differently here, a single second here could mean hours in the real world. A day here could mean an age in the physical plane, so when I say time is of the essence I don’t mean that jokingly. My apprentice didn’t know this fact though, and neither would she for some time to come, until I thought her ready to impart in her the wisdom of reaching these planes.

Why were we here, you might ask me. Why not just use a simple mind alteration slash illusions to accomplish the same thing? It’s a good question, the fact of the matter was that my goal here wasn’t to show her more of my power, we already knew what I could and could not accomplish. So this wasn’t a demonstration, fact was that Stations could be bugged and Mind Shows could be viewed with proper knowledge. This though… entering the Void was an art that few people possessed these days, it was.. safer ironically. At least in the form of not showing your enemies what your plans were.

As I listened to Matsu retelling the vision of her former Mentor I could practically see the tension from her phantom self, the sheer… disgust pronounced only the a slight turn of her lip and the angle of her shoulders which suggested depreciation in the highest form. When I realized with whom she was associating herself with.. well… it wasn’t an understatement to say that I had done my homework, and Krius was a special snowflake in every sense of the word. One part self-proclaimed Prophet, two-part Mad man, and every part an entity of dominating charisma.

In that regard it wasn’t totally surprising that Matsu had fallen for him and his ideas, it was what the man did. Like a light bulb attracting moths, though Matsu was more akin to a deadly parasitic wasp then a harmless moth. But I digress, the fact of the matter was that she had learned her lesson, this much was clear and so I spoke yet again.

My voice dimmed, or seemed to dim at any rate. More whispers coming from every angle and every direction, forgive me but I can’t help myself. Sometimes adding just a tad bit drama… well it was beyond my control, just the way of the proverbial beast.

“Mmmm, yes. Krius has always been… special. He brings up a good point, and yet fails to come to the correct outcome, misguided… but useful in some ways. The Jedi… the Sith… the ones who tread between them and the ones who belong to none of them. Each and one of them has truth and yet their flaws are all the same, they refuse to simply listen and accept that their truth is just part of a… hmm. Bigger truth? Always keep your mind open for all the possibilities at hand, my dear Matsu. Never close yourself off from other philosophies and ideas, just because you consider your current one to be True. You will end up like your former Mentor and that… would be disappointing.”

The shadowy form waved his hand and the scene changed, they were somewhere different and yet somewhere the same. Bathed in light both of them were, but their surroundings were still cloaked in darkness, perhaps it was a metaphor to what I was trying to teach her. Enlightenment in the heart of a Galaxy filled with ignorance and worst of all hubris to a fault.

“We are already the dominant force of the Galaxy, Matsu. Look around us.” and as I spoke these words, scenes appeared from out of the penumbra. Scenes of Valor, Deceit and Simpleness. Acts, more like slideshows of the Galaxy’s high and low points. There one could see the Fringe’s standoff on O’reen against the Republic, Druckenwell’s untimely demise, caught in the middle of the Protectorate and the Confederacy. Older scenes of Roche and the different nations that fought there. The Mandalorians and the Empire. The Crusade against the Horde. More and more scenes whirled around them and in everyone of them a User of the Force was at the center, until finally only one of them surrounded and enlightened their plane. The first meeting of Matsu and me, where we struck a covenant of sorts and I spoke with one of my smiles decorating my lips.

“The Fringe Confederation’s upper Echelon are all Force Masters in their own right. The Protectorate’s… Protectors are both Force Masters, the Elite of the Confederacy are all users of the Force. Same for the One Sith as well as the Black Suns. The Mandalore’s two most trusted hands are both Masters of the Force as well. The Crusade has Masters disguised as Gods… and until recently the Republic was tucked here and there by the wiles of the Order of Jedi.”

My hand extended itself towards her, while finishing.

“We are the rulers of the Galaxy. Some have taken the Power, others have schemed their way into it, and some have been elected by the general populace. Roads differentiate, but the outcome is the same. Krius’ goal has already been met and raised, so… misguided. Fact is that men like him do one thing for us, they take away the spotlights. Take away the focus and allow us to work in peace, useful. And yet… he has hurt someone that clearly wasn’t his to… touch… curious, he has to be punished for it, of course. Question is, do you want my help for that? Or are you satisfied with attempting the act yourself?”

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

In most ways her Master knew her intimately. How could he not? He’d plumbed the depths of her mind a time or two and Matsu knew well how easy it was to pull the core of a person from the road map of their brain laid bare. And she’d held nothing back from her – Matsu meant goddess of the sea, and he’d pulled her from the depths, from her lair beneath the sea with her monsters, cradled on the half-moon of teeth six times her size.

Imagine, if you will, for just a moment – a ship, hovering alone above the sea. Everything is quiet. Where once the sea roiled and devoured itself its waves now lie quiet, peaceful. There is nothing to see for miles, the consequence of flying so low above the middle of a body so large and remote. It’s beautiful, near silent, and a moment’s breath of fresh air from a Galaxy crowded and noisy with the life of other beings. Alone. But beneath the surface, packed so tightly they brush against one another, horrifying creatures glide through the darkness. Beneath the waterline beasts so large the ship hovering oblivious above could not fill the space of the eyesockets in their skulls stalked with the hum only ever heard underwater. Wall-eyed and dead, square-jawed and vicious – there are so many they threaten to breach the surface with their bulk, their thrashing violence. And in the middle of it all – always – is Matsu, serene, a changeless expression as she presses herself in the crook between two serrated teeth of a horrific sea creature swimming past. Alone beneath the surface with her monsters and her silence. Perfect.

But despite giving her a way to surface and return, surface and return and the loyalty he’d won because of it – there was something Jared couldn’t understand about what had happened on Skye.

She had never been the doe-eyed supplicant, and despite what happened to her in the end she had ruled just as equally in those months of exploration.

The time she’d been with Krius had not been about the world the mad-man had imagined. He had never been shy about the future he’d envisioned but Matsu had always been too involved in her own world to acknowledge the fact that Krius was so far afield of her own life that it had been too late. She craved adventure, seeing the Galaxy, finding the worst things imaginable to witness (see, hear, taste, smell, NeVer FoRGet) for herself. And Krius had offered that, companionship, knowledge…a view of the world other than the one she knew. They had shared an intimacy that she had never known before and while she wouldn’t call it naivety she had certainly been swept off her feet.

But so had he.

She imagined that wherever he was now, he would deny that until the bitter end. Of course there had been a less than human aspect to his affection, she realized that now. He had seen her as a tool, something to be molded. But there was never a shadow of a doubt in her mind that despite that she’d come to mean something more to him than just that. (She could hear him now, spitting on her name, denying it all.) Somewhere along the line the way she’d opened up and laid all her passion bare had changed things.

She was not weak – she had power.
The revelation there, beyond shadows…changed everything.

As Jared spoke she moved towards the table where the figure sat. She moved the hand the crow perched on towards her shoulder, letting the bird move there and dig its claws lightly in to her pale skin. She pulled back the chair across from her Master’s shadowy counterpart and lowered herself gently down in to it. She crossed her legs delicately, resting her arms along the length of the chair’s and tilting her head to watch the hooded figure with the slow-blinking, reptilian expression she was so fond of. Every word he’d said had been true, though she still stood by her conviction that those without the Force had their uses. Certainly not the kind of power and clout those with it did, but she was unwilling to write them off simply for lacking something she had by chance. But when he spoke of Krius’ punishment...she had just woken up and been swept in to this place – she’d had little time to think of revenge but for the tortured moments on Skye as she died. But she knew the answer anyway. She did not know what her Master wanted to hear, but the truth would suffice for her.

Her face was stone, the crow at her shoulder tilting its head in an eerie twist as if to hear her better.

“I appreciate the offer Master. But when Krius Syonis and I meet again, I will kill him myself. Like he left me.”

Said with all the fanfare of a woman announcing she’d like to go for a stroll.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Her words pleased me, which came as a surprise to me, because I had been expected to feel disappointed for some reason. Yet that feeling did not surface and I found myself softly nodding to her words and agreeing with the sentiment. This was something she had to do on her own, still… I couldn’t help but add a few words of… well I didn’t really want to call it wisdom, but something I wanted to press onto her. It was a thing that not everyone could grasp, and not everyone could or wanted to understand, but it was the key to success in this world. At least from my perspective, which admittedly wasn’t beyond being flawed in one way or another, yet I spoke to teach her in my own visage.

“Through Passion… I Gain Strength. Words that have an interesting discussion behind it, but fundamentally are useless to the men and women who try to live a life behind some old dogma. When you meet him, Matsu, meet him not through Passion. Don’t get carried away in an act of vengeance, strike fast and strike hard.”

I waggled my hand, while continuing.

“Most make the mistake of… relishing. Vengeance is a dish best served cold, my dear.”

For a while I studied her, with a wary smile on my lips, and waited for her reply.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

[SIZE=12pt] In the end, it was always about freedom.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] Matsu had left home to find a life free from the in-and-out of a merchant’s day. There was nothing wrong with it, but to the little viper-girl that life would always be chains. She had joined the Confederacy because it promised freedom and perhaps it still did but there all she had found was a mold and a hand pressed to her back to push her in to it. (And how her blood still boils at the thought of her ‘Master’ then, how he’d suggested that there would be competition between her and his other Apprentices. Some sick game – a player moving pieces he thought he owned.) Krius had seemed like freedom of a different kind, someone to share the Galaxy with and free herself from the dogma of the same ‘Master’ she was already growing tired of. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] What she liked about Jared, one of the main reasons they worked as well as they did, was that he did not try to make her anything she wasn’t. It was something she only truly came to realize in the last hour as he opened his head and showed her more than she ever thought she’d get. He respected her decisions, the power she held – and it was obvious she respected his. Though he gave his advice, and explained it so she was more likely to take it to heart, she never felt that – barring a stupid mistake – he would do anything more than sigh at her. She could explore herself and she’d grown more in her time as an apprentice under him than she could have under any other Master imaginable.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] Freedom. He gave her freedom.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] She smiled softly when he warned not to let passion blind her. It was advice that as of two days ago she would have scoffed at…amazing how one could change so quickly given the right pressure. She had Krius in the palm of her hand – she’d blasted outwards with a power she hadn’t even known she had in her fury, in her passion. But she’d been so blinded by rage that he’d snuck in to her head. She would never make that mistake again. She let out a quiet laugh, a sad one, looking down at the pristine example of a left arm the strange realm gave her and reaching across with the right to drag her fingers along its skin. “Victory tastes sweetest in the absence of more haunting memories, Master,” she answered, looking back up at the figure across from her. “I won’t make the same mistake twice.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] There would be time to relish when Krius was an unrecognizable pile of flesh.[/SIZE]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

And with that the lesson was over, there wasn’t more I could give her for now. Until she had faced her target, until she had stabbed Krius in the heart and felt the pleasure of his life fading away, as the lights died in his eyes… I couldn’t do anything else. She was ready, it was a simple fact that brought joy to me, long journey coming to the second phase finally. What a ride… what a ride it had been, and yet there was something she had to do.

Something she had to do before she herself would feel herself ready, a task to complete and a journey to make. Without me, on her own, only using her own skills to accomplish it. Then she could truly be called my Knight, and I told her this without ado.

“You are ready for your trial, Matsu.”

Around us the world beyond shadows faded away, back into the room where it all had begun. With me laying on top of her, still giving her a kiss. I disentangled myself, but didn’t move away, instead I gave her a grin.

“Not this trial though. You have to… bring me something. Something which worth transcends credits or power, something… that will cost you and yet repay you in fold. I won’t tell you what it is, once your journey is complete… you will know it, I am sure of it.”

Then I quirked an eyebrow.

“What do you want to do now?”

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

[SIZE=12pt] It was strange to hear him say the words – that her trial was upon her. It felt at once that she’d been at his side forever and for only a moment. But regardless of the next step in her journey, in the end it wouldn’t change what was between them. She’d still be at his side, still help him – he would always be able to count on her. Being Knighted just meant she’d proved her commitment to herself. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] As the world around them shifted, as if she’d waved her hand through smoke and it had broken in to curled sections and disappeared, she found that she’d been kissing him that whole time. Perhaps one lost track of time in the strange, shadowy place – or maybe she’d actually been kissing him for a full twenty minutes, who knew. That would be impressive, admittedly.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] She nodded as he spoke of something she needed to gain – as it happened, she had something in the works already she thought would fit the bill. Maybe that was the Force working in mysterious ways like some people said. She would find out, it seemed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] A smile snuck on to her face when he asked what she wanted to do next, letting her eyes flick down to the way he hadn’t budged an inch from on top of her. For the moment her arm was forgotten and she wanted to prolong that illusion as long as possible. She reached up with her natural hand, hooking her fingers lightly in the collar of his shirt. “I have a few ideas.”[/SIZE]

She caught his lips again.

[SIZE=12pt][member="Jared Ovmar"][/SIZE]​