And in a lightning fast movment his hand came forth to latch onto her face, then using that as an ancor, he pulled himself close to her, fingers once more drawing her blood he looked down at her threateningly...

"Then my dark rose... We must find a way to gain entry to that place... If you can not drop the shield itself... Then rend the very fabrics of space and time... I know not the details of this shield... if you must reach through another deminsion, and create a portal to this place, do it... Forge a new realm! that shield may be pressent here... But there is at least one demisnion that will allow us passage... Do whatever it takes... I care not, but we must have access to contents of that shield..."

he paused a moment to consider something then looked at the shield. "shadow's... The flame..."

he turned back to her then. "Through the shadow realms we may go to anywhere that a shadow is cast upon the universe... I am not sure... But perhaps we can use this to gain entrance... The flame that resides within that valley, emmit energies that are different then most things... Let us enter the shadow realms, where space matters not... And then you shall attempt to forge a bound between that darkness, and the shadows which the flame casts..."

he trailed off for a moment and then yanked her into the shadowy realms, meanwhile sharring a segment of his dark power with her, to augment her strengths...

--------------------

...until at length they both came to a halt, their feet touching upon hard and cold rock, their eyes growing accustomed to the non-light which surrounded them, non-light which was futilely trying to be softened by the glow of something ahead of them, something just around a curve, something which flickered and danced in the darkness, and beckoned to ShaRhylla like the promise of pleasure in pain.

She now yanked herself viciously from Entaris's grasp, utterly ignoring him as her feet hastened her onward toward that glow. And rounding a curve in the echoing canyon through which she had run, she came upon a sight which made her cry out in wicked delight.

There in an urn atop a stone flickered the Eternal Flame of the Dark Lords of the Sith. The true Dark Lords; those Dark Sith who had turned from their brethren, to reach out and subjugate a galaxy, to bend it to their wills... those very dark lords whose images were engraved along the walls of the canyon in immense bas relief, whose brilliant multi-colored eyes now seemed to flash into life in recognition of the One who would surpass them all in strength and power, One coming now amidst them, not as had the others, but following their own dark and delightful paradigms set down in letters of blood and torture and carnage millennia ago.

She didn't hesitate a bit, but moved with steady and dark determination until she had come to a halt in front of that Flame. There she paused for only a moment, turning to stare at Entaris as he came up to her side from the shadows, stopping beside her. His hand clamped down on her face once again, the nails rending her flesh, digging in, drawing blood, holding and twitching to keep the wound open. She merely shuddered, closed her eyes, and reached out toward his own face with one hand to thus mimic his act.

Then she threw back her head and gave rein to the flood of something that exploded within her. Even as it burst out of her with the fiery heat of a supernova, she reached out her free hand and thrust it directly into the Flame. There she held it steady, ignoring the charring and burning, allowing the link between that Flame and that something within her own essence to flow and mingle freely together, to enhance each other, to reach out now and flood entirely through her body and overspill it via her deeply piercing claws into the essence of Entaris.

Held together in a fiery baptism, they stood still, wallowing in the dark and the strength and the fire of more power than the universe had ever dreamt could exist.

For up until this moment... it hadn't.

[ 11-24-2002 01:10 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

--------------------

As it subsided within him, his powers regaining there control over the upwelling darkness...

He then turned and regarded the place, keeping his great power under control with a mere mental command...

"Ah My dark rose... They have tried to keep us from this place... And now, this place shall be kept from them forever!"

he then grabbed shaRhylla, pulling her into him he sunk his teeth into her throat with a cruel intent, feeding upon the dark energies that flowed in her viens...

he pulled back for but a moment, speaking to her darkly. "let your darkness well... Assist me in taking this place from the mortal lands... And into the very fabrics of the dark and demonic plains our spirits now belong... Assist me in taking this place to the shadowy realms, so no others save ourselves might use this valley..."

His teeth then sunk into her throat once more and almost laughed in delight as he felt hers enter his own "life" blood...

Slowly a shadow erupted from there beings, covering the land and filling an area just shy of the protective shield placed around the valley... And in the next moment... they were torn from reality, and placed in the shadowy delights of utter darkness...

Beneath the protective shield emplaced by aelvedaar, there was no longer anything of vallue... Simply scortched and torn earth...

Deep within the shadowy realms of entaris and ShaRhylla's home, entaris sat upon a fiery alter, nursing hungrily upon his queens bleeding neck, whilst the flame which augmented there hatred came forth to bathe them in the utter purity of its dark heat...

--------------------

He leaned into her again, taking her lips in a tight lock... Meanwhile his tongue crept outward to lick the blood from her fangs...

he could feel his blackened heart beating within his chest... he smiled at the feeling... For he knew what this meant...

For he was a being of complete and utter evil... he WAS evil... And as such, he had no capabilities for love... All save the deep implaced love of evil...

And now... Now his dark rose was as he was... She was no longer a dark being... No longer a creature of torture... no longer a mere instrumant of the darkside... She was evil... She was the one substance which his heart indeed did LOVE... The one substance, for she indeed now was simply a substance as was he, that he existed to serve... and in comparison, she existed only to serve him...

he pulled away suddenly, taking her clawed hand and placing it upon her chest, were her own black, and tainted heart beat as feverishly as did his, he nodded slowly to her as her eyes seemed to go wide.

he leaned forward then, whispering in her ear. "This is indeed true love... The one love you can feel... that will not injure you... you serve only me ShaRhylla... I am your lord... Your master, I am your heart, and your very last breath... And as my evil queen... You are all those things for me..."
His teeth then sunk themselves upon her ear, causing a ripple of pain to cascade through her...

he then pulled upward, and quite suddenly stripped her dark gown from her body, then went to strip away his robes...

And then he took her clawed hand, and forced it into his chest, untill his very lifeforce could end with but another twitch of her wrist... he then did the same to her with his own hand...

Feelign her warm blood cover his hand he screamed a horrid sound which promised death...

His hand then slowly withdrew itself, smearing her blood accross her entire body.

he almost choked and passed out from the sevear ach that filled his chest as her hand remained pressed firmly into his body...

Quite suddenly he slumped forward and fell upon her, there blood intermigling through the beating of there hearts, each bound to the other through the ultimate show of utter evil...

as his body raced towards unconciousness he managed a faint whisper to her ears... Sensing that she to would soon lose her own conciousness... "And now... niether of us may escape the other... My... Dark rose... My... One love."

He then passed from what most sentiants would term "livign" though in this place being such as he and ShaRhylla could not die... Not with evil briming about them... There wounds would heal soon enough... Though they would feel the glorious pain of this union for all eternity... Entaris dark spirit could have laughed had it not been tied to the limits of a mortal body... For while he was almost positive sharhylla would join in this union with complete... Eagerness... He knew, that even should she wish to stay away... She had no choice in the matter... She had chosen long ago... though at that time she had not realized she would give up so much... Her "life" her "soul" even her capability for "love" for anythign save the darkness that was entaris... She was bound... She could not escape...

--------------------

...and did absolutely nothing as far as trying to run from it in terror, or even in laughing delight. For this was the penultimate, the end, the grand finale which would take her from what she was and what she hated, and in one invincible, fell swoop would transport her into that which she hated, and in that hatred, loved.

Mere mortals could never, ever come close in understanding this. They could feel perhaps a whispered chill left in its wake as, passing through in haunting nightmares, it gibbered and danced just beyond the edge of recognition, leaving nothing but a frisson to creep up and down a back, a gasp inhaled and held, and an ever yet deeper and slavering yearning to join in with it even as it moved back into the realms of dreams and delights beyond eternity.

But ShaRhylla was not purely mortal any more... how could she be? How could one hold on to one's mortal flesh and soul, when that flesh was nearly rent in entirety from the supportive internal structure? How when the soul was erupting in fear, seeking to protect its entirety, indeed its very essence before the miasmic onslaught which would crush it into dust-- indeed, how could she have dared to consider herself mortal when that which made her thus was fleeing in terror for its very existence... and was prevented from doing so as the once vibrant, if headstrong, daughter of Graysith and Ankrist Roan suddenly threw back her head in absolute acceptance of the oncoming rush within her, and took her very soul and threw it into its gaping maw.

Her hand tightened reflexively about the heart in her greedy grasp, her claws sinking into its tissues, seeking the very thing which made it beat, seeking to shred that thing even as her fingers now began to shred the tissue they were holding. Her own heart swelled, seeming to reach out in dismay as Entaris pulled back his own hand from its grasp about it, suddenly dropping down upon her as though his very body would devour her alive.

Or would have, that is, if she truly was alive.

For somehow in that moment, in that dark and joyous giving of her soul and heart and life's blood and last remaining bit of mortality, ShaRhylla passed beyond the frailities of the flesh entirely, leapt lightyears beyond anything anyone could even begin to consider as being mortal, and entered into the very embodiment of that which literally held her heart in its hand. And in that gloriously dark union, something within her, something inherent, and very powerful, and vibrant and alive, curled up into a little ball and tried to roll away.

She would have none of that; now a dark tendril of herself reached within to where the All sought to depart from her, and grasping it tightly refused it egress. It was not that she really had any particular need for this quaint power any longer; indeed, she was beyond anything so obviously devisive as that. What need had evil for such a thing, when its essence would be kept eternally young and alive and youthful, if such a state could be considered thus, by the continuous proclamation of its kith and kin throughout the universe? For indeed, as long as such existed, as long as there was but a dark thought, a grasping desire, a heated argument... she and Entaris would...

Persevere.

It was just that... it was part and parcel of who she had been, and thus must be forced to be part and parcel of that which she now was.

All this rushed through ShaRhylla's being in a mere momentary flash as, now groaning with the exquisite torture of having another's blood being forced deeply within her very heart, she gave forth one final and great effort...

...and with a sudden outcry, one born of despair and anguish and delight and sadistic glee, she literally ripped Entaris's heart from his chest, pushing him from her where he rolled off the side of the blood-bathed altar to fall to the darkness below...

...and with another animalistic howl thrust that feebly beating heart into her own exposed chest.

"Now we are one, my Dark Heart," she sighed as with her last conscious awareness she raised her arm and began licking her liberally blood-splashed hand and wrist and claws.

But she died before she could lick herself clean, and in that dying, found new and glorious and unending life....

--------------------

Quite suddenly the shadows swirled about there bodies, as there spirits watched almost helplessly, though they indeed hoped to see what would come next...

The shadows tour from those forms all semblance of flesh and mortality... and then in another moment, built it anew... creating shining new vessels awaiting to be filled... those newly reborn forms reached out to the darkness that was Entaris and Sharhylla, brought them back to the realm of the living once again... Though they were simply visitors in this realm... Visitors with dark intent....

Entaris stood now, dark robes giving him a royal appearance... He cast his brillent gaze upon his queen... she stood beside him, her dark gown renewed upon her body, looking even more splended then before...

Entaris looked at his body for a moment, examining it... His strength seemed fermilair... Yet... he was in mortal form... or perhaps no longer was he simply a dark spirit or an evil essence within a mortal body... His body was now forged of evil... His spirit was that of utter hatred... He no longer faced the punny restrictions in the usage of his great power, as he had with the "revived" body of wicked...

Though deep down he sensed he held now the weaknesses of both mortals, and his dark spirit... He knew too that those weaknesses were no longer relevant...

His dark and hateful gaze strayed down to twin lumps of... something, which lay on the dark floor...at his silent command they rose upward landing in his hand... he sneered at them and showed them to his dark queen. "Allass... Our hearts are no more... They are outside of us... yet within us all at once..."

With a slight flinch of his dark energies, the two hearts became as one... melded with pure evil, as had his and her essences merged... he then tossed the heart into the eternal flame, which fed upon them, and at the same time preserved them... So those which they belonged to might survive forever...

He then approuched ShaRhylla, smiling at her in silent satisfaction...

He reached down, once more taking her claws in his hand, slicing his arm and allowing blood to flow upward in greeting to her hungry gaze...
"i bleed only beneath your touch, My dark love...And your blood... Is for me alone..."

with that he struck forth once more, latching himself upon her neck, and drawing a large welling of her blood into his being, before pulling away and kissing her...

"How does your new form feel... Can you be pleased?"

He then pressed his lips against hers, brushing against her fangs, and allowing blood to trickle down her lips, he pulled slightly away. "as always... Your pleasure... is all that matters in this universe... Together... We will enjoy what mortal men can give us... For while we can be destroyed... We are at the same time eternal... We have an eternity to explore... to create... To destroy..."

--------------------

"I exist for you, my Dark Heart; to bring you pleasure and pain at your will, and to take it from you in turn. Together by the grace of all that is dark and unholy in existence, we shall live, and in that living, live purely for each other."

She then fell silent, clutching him, letting him have whatever way he desired with her even as beneath his dark touch she felt a great blast of incoming strength and vigor.

Somewhere in the universe, someone had just killed purely for the pleasure of it....

She smiled, revealing her fangs which she now pressed lightly against the base of her Dark Heart's throat. Slowly then, millimeter by exquisite millimeter, she pushed them into the firm flesh there, taking her time, relishing the blood which began oozing up at the viciously languid onslaught, and bit by bit let that portion of her body enter into Entaris's and then remain there, that he should glory in the feel of her physical being within his own.

--------------------

He sighed slowly as her fangs became fully embeded in his neck, and he felt her tongue guiding the blood into her mouth...

His eyes closed slowly as he relished the simple pain that flowed through him... Sharign it with her along a link born between there twin essences...

Slowly he then pulled away, allowing the fangs to depart in a torturos manor, rebirthing the pleasure of there entrance...

He then looked at her and smiled, before he did the same to her... Testing out his own newly acquired fangs, which had been given him in his glorious rebirth...

as his fangs became fully embeded, he began nibbling, rather then drinking, allowing her to shudder with the rending of her flesh, enjoying it from both perspectives as he felt her feeding him, as a lover might feed there betrothed, snacking on every other morsel...

Finaly he pulled away, feeling her body completly in his supportive grasp, as though she might fall to the ground without the pain he had given her...

His fangs fully withdrawn, he licked away the blood from her smooth skin and pulled back to look at her.

"Ah my dark rose... Where shall we go... Choose a being that we might enjoy..."

--------------------

Someone... someone he knew... Life was failing...

His lips curled themselves into a mocking show of utter amusment...

"and so the one... Who would so daftly challange me... Is brought down by all that i am... She has at last... Been destroyed... Death has taken her..."

He paused slowly, considering this...

His head swayed slowly... She was not dead yet... But her life was in between plains... She indeed would die soon... Oh so very soon...

He turned now, and on silent command a shimmering image of the one wicked had loved apeared before him, as if unsure where she was... or even WHAT she was...

He approuched her, giving silent nod to his dark rose as if to say "I will take care of this..."

Standing before her he sneared. "You challanged me... I told you... I can not be defeated...Wicked may have saved you once... But he will not save you again"

His hand motioned within the darkness once more, and a shimmering image of darth wicked appeared, chained in demonic energies, with another wave of entaris' dark hand the image vanished...

"You will die... And then... Then you will eternaly feel the pain... Oh... I can give you a window, by which you can see for all of time the pain your death has caused your loved ones..."

He then paused for a moment, the age old strugle between death and torture again taking place within his mind... "or will you die... Perhaps i will preserve a slight bit of your life... Just a small tendril, so forever your loved ones will grieve... Oh... The pain of death can be overcome in time... But the torture, of knowing that you are just beyond reach... that will stay with them forever..."

He smiled darkly and approuched her, placing a hand upon her almost transparant shoulder, yet somehow finding solidity for his hand to rest upon, other then the thinness of air. "Or perhaps you would like to... Return to the living completly? would you like to again see the light of day... Jharmeen Jhin'dar...It can be yours... Indeed... It can... I would give it freely... with no strings attached what-so-ever... All he must do... Is give me reason to... That is all... I am not without reason... Heartless i may be, yes... But I do feel... As the one known as wicked once loved you SOOOOO much... That a deal could be made..."

He smiled at her teasingly... For deep down... He knew she wanted life... And he intended to make sure that those pitiful fools she considered friends, would not be able to guide her back to it...

For he knew the truth... Death was not something as others see it... death is simply losing ones way, and ending up in the wrong place, doors locked behind... But unfortunatly... She had not of yet reached that place... Love... Pitiful

--------------------

She stood, shaking uncontrollably, her jaw working, her eyes widened nearly to the point of not seeing, and for a moment simply seemed to ignore what the dark being was saying to her. Indeed, not so much seemed to ignore, but could not understand.

What had happened to her? Where was she? What was this dark place?

She raised her hands up jerkily before herself, turning them over and scrutinizing them as if they were alien things which had somehow become attached to her body. They still looked like her hands; indeed, now grasping herself about her own shoulders she discovered the questionable joy that they still felt like her hands. That she still felt like herself.

Still? Why such a modifier? Why should she think that at all...?

Now her eyes were drawn by a slight movement. They widened when she saw who came up to her. Watched as one who was somehow so familiar and dear... yet somehow nothing less than evil incarnate came up to taunt her, to tease her, to pop into existence yet another image of himself, an image somehow inherently strong for its obvious weakness... an image replaced as the Dark One now approached to croon in her ear promises of eternal death... eternal pain and anguish....

She gasped, jerking back involuntarily as he came close to her. This was intolerable; she had once before been in these realms, that she instinctively felt. If she had left them once, she could clearly do so again. The majesty of what she held within her would respond, would take her... take her back...

Take her back where?

This was a puzzle. How could she go back, where was she to go back to, what was this one saying? He could give her back her...

Her LIFE?

Another gasp directed her hand to her forehead, where That which she had become accustomed to for nearly three years...

Simply was not there.

And with that knowledge there flashed sudden understanding... sudden and horrific meaning was put to the words Entaris was whispering so seductively to her.

He would give her life... no strings attached whatsoever....

Life? This then-- was death?

Now a long wail burst from her lips, and she sank to her knees, understanding and an aching sense of enormous loss slashing into her.

Recinis, oh my love! How can I bear it; how can I go on... in whatever manner this is... knowing the anguish you must be feeling? And Jharu? My son; oh my dearest little boy, what will you do? How can I bear this...

LIFE. It was offerred here, freely, even as she wailed and moaned in denial and pain, this dark creature was offerring it to her. Free and clear, completely gratis. All she had to do was provide the reason....

Her hands now drew together almost in supplication, and she held them out to Entaris. Still on her knees, she raised those hands up to him, opened her mouth, beginning to swear the one reason she truly felt would prompt him into keeping his end of the bargain...

...when something small and quiet drew her eye. It was the Mark, the Blood-tattoo, the Sigil of Q'utaro traced upon her wrist as she vowed her troth with Recinis. It flared up, a brilliant golden color, throbbing gently with all the flames of all the essences of everything that was alive and glorious.

And in that flaring stopped the very words in her mouth from coming forth.

She knew what this Dark One wanted, what would persuade him. And she would not dishonor the lineage into which she had become bound by seeking that persuasion.

The more you reach out for something, the further and further it shall remain beyond your grasp. Even if that something was life itself; to return to it at his design would only make that new life a scoffing effigy of what it was, what it should be, but would never be again.

Not if it was gained in this manner.

With that sudden knowledge came a true warrior's strength. Ignoring now the pull she was feeling in her heart -- who else could that be but her dear Recinis, calling to her? She could feel his unseen presence so very clearly; if she concentrated hard enough she could almost hear his words -- she rose shakily to her feet to face Entaris with the only weapons she had remaining to her.

Her dignity... and her love for her husband and her son.

"I will not dishonor them so," she whispered, tears falling from her eyes as the words fell from her lips. "I shall not be the vessel allowing you to toy with them as you now toy with me. If this is indeed death, then so be it.

"But I will not dishonor the name of my husband and my son by begging for life, if the giving of it comes from one such as you."

And with those words she suddenly became what she really was, not as how she had seen herself. Her form became transparent, ghostly and shimmering, seeming to spread itself out upon the wind as that very essence of herself now sought final union with the essence of all that was in the Universe, that very Force which made all that was exist.

[ 12-02-2002 12:00 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

The black and noisome thing which held me engulfed in its icy folds parted, spitting me from itself before it fluttered in a dark and somehow forboding manner and disappeared. At least I think it disappeared; it really was a difficult thing to discern. Difficult to distinguish shadow from shadow, darkness from night; everything here was so dark, so dark....

Where in Hell's Seven Circles was I?

I shivered as those words struck a chord deep within my gut, somehow verifying themselves by the very place I was now rolling and bouncing within, my body impacting against... something which wasn't quite solid ground, yet was firmly supportive, my laboring lungs gulping great heaving gasps of something which wasn't quite air.

I came to a shuddery halt against... something; I really didn't look too closely, didn't want to look too closely at what had stopped my progress in this strange and malefic place. But stop me it did, giving me a brief moment to blink, and to look around and see what I might see. I rose to my feet.

And froze.

There not more than three meters from me was a crouching... Thing. But a very familiar-looking Thing; I shuddered, icy perspiration springing up all over my body in horrified recognition of it.

I had seen that Thing before... dear gods, I thought I was rid of it. Thought it had been happy just rending little Darra from my arms....

It crouched there, a blot upon the darkness, it's blood red eyes glowing hellishly, it's long and pointed tail lashing in a manner that was somehow... promising. Great gobbets of drool dripped from its gibbering lips, and its long claws opened and closed spasmodically, as though it just couldn't wait to sink them into my throat.

I took a little reflexive step backwards... and whirled, ready to run who the hell knew where, just anywhere that wasn't here with that awful Thing...

...but was brought to an involuntary halt by the image of another one crouched there directly ahead of me. I blinked and gasped, stopping my headlong flight by the greatest of efforts, and now turned off in another direction, hoping that maybe those two would attack each other and tear each other apart... but no. For there in front of me was yet another, and off to his side, a fourth. A modicum of sense slammed home in me then, enough to force me to send a sweeping glance all about me...

...only to discover I was ringed in by a veritable horde of hellspawn. Thousands of them. At least it seemed that way, maybe there were more.

They all crouched in one indomitable group, like one great and evil body composed of demonic individual cells all working together, and remained slavering there, their tails lashing, their eyes glowing like pinpricks of blood.

There wasn't a thing I could do, not a thing. Chilled, I sank to my knees, then flopped onto my haunches. Drawing my feet up against me, I wrapped my arms around my legs and placed my cheek against them, and in this attitude just sat there shivering, waiting for death to strike.

--------------------

Someone had come unto them....

Her blood-smeared lips widened in a death's grin, and she arched her back langorously, now reaching up to Entaris with both hands, to wipe their palms across his own reddened lips, to then wipe her own blood upon herself, and across his face. She shuddered with the never-ending and exquisite torture she felt, had been feeling since being rebirthed in death, and would evermore feel, and that being of that one particular moment when she had hovered on the very precipice, aching with her torso rent asunder, Entaris's once mortal heart stuffed in its gaping cavity by her own hand, just hovering there with the choice of following him into glorious eternal vileness of her own will or being pulled mercilessly along into wonderful unity....

She shuddered again, now pulling herself back a few degrees from that eternal torture. Then she twined her hands gracefully about Entaris's head, pulling it down to hers, letting him take her lips between his sharp fangs and continue feeding upon her in that manner. She choked as her own blood ran past the words she was trying to say to him, flowing down her throat in a growing cascade.

"There is someone here with us, Dark Heart," she whispered wetly, coughing a little as a bit of flesh flowed down with her blood. She moaned, and pressed herself more tightly to Entaris, knowing that he already knew, knowing that she had to tell him that she did as well, knowing that she was helpless not to serve him in any manner, loving him for the pain this placed upon her.

"Someone yet alive...."

[ 12-10-2002 04:57 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

--------------------

With a sigh of pleasure and pain all mingled together he pulled away from her darkness, with a deep breath the shadows swarmed about them, restoring tattered clothing, removing bloodied wounds, giving them each a royal appearance...

with another nod they were transported through the distanceless place of the shadowy realms, standing before the being who darred enter without giving the proper entrance few... Life...

He gazed down at the unconcious form of flac that had suddenly been pulled into the realm as well...

he took a deep breath before speaking "The living are not welcom here... Our subjects do not like tresspassers..."

[ 12-10-2002 11:57 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Entaris ]

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Aww, Flac. Dear gods, not you too....

--and into the face of sheer nightmare. There hanging on the arm of her companion was that hellion who had blasted Sorben on Kamino, and the arm she hung upon belonged to none other than an old nemesis...

Darth Wicked himself.

I blinked the tears from my eyes, and rose defiantly to my feet. Hell's Seven Circles, if I was going to die, I wasn't going to die like a coward. A fool maybe, but not a coward.

I drew myself up to my formidably short height, crossed my arms, and tossed my head.

"Now I know I'm in hell," I snorted, fighting against the encroachment of sheer terror. "I have to be, if you're here as well. No one else would take you."

With that I fell silent, my lips trembling, ice coursing through my veins as I stood off against impending death I just knew was about to come leaping at either myself or the quiet form still laying at my feet.

--------------------

after some time of simply staring blankly at galen, as though staring straight through her, his lips parted to release a slight laugh.

"you are not in hell my dear... Hell is to pleasant a word to describe this place..."

He sighed, his hand now begining to trace little lines of blood in ShaRhylla's backside, and he nodded blankly at galen "You expect death? but... Why would i release you? why would i give you freedom? No no... Rather... You will be broken... Ah yes... You and your companion here... "

slowly his hand extended, pointing at flac, causing him to rise into the air, and be set upon his feet, to lean against galen...

he then waved his hand and they went flying backwards beneath a painful ventilation of dark energies, which threatened to tear them both to pieces, yet did not...

as galen looked up from her place on the ground entaris smiled as he noted her somewhat... Confused, look... For now she was within a cage... A cage simmilar to one he had once tried to free her...

She would see only black walls... Feel only black and depthless walls... Her and her companion would rot away together, for as long as entaris, and his queen so desired... They could view the two... easily, but those two could not see without...
it was perhaps not uncomfortably small... But entaris' sense of torture was not what others held... No... he knew they would crack, even with the great liberties bestowed upon them... the human mind was such a frail thing...

He laughed to himself before finaly ending his trepidation, and allowing his fingers to sink into the back of his dark rose, allowing blood to flow from her, he smeared it upon her backside, and then drew the hand away to lick it clean...

at that particular moment he was ready to share with his dark love once more... But he saw opertunity to share in another manor, he drew away from her turnign to the box, rising a finger to point at it, he smiled as both forms shuddered under a barage of dark pain being sent directly into there minds...

He turned his vision to ShaRhylla and smiled "for you my dark rose... I hope you enjoy this..."

--------------------

Not again. Not this place again....

I cringed inwardly, my hands scrabbling outward, flailing more in reflexive motion against the sudden onslaught of blinding pain which came from nowhere to rip through my very mind than against the unyielding darkness I found all around me when that pain finally backed off enough to allow my eyes to open.

I shuddered, beginning to curl up instinctively up into a fetal position... when my hand brushed something. That gave me pause; my other hand scrabbled through the inky darkness, deeper than if I were buried alive in the very bowels of the earth--

Do not go there; don't even THINK it, Galen....

--and finally recognized by touch what it had struck against.

It was the still unconscious form of Flac.

A thrill of determination washed through me then, forcing my rising terror to abate.

You piece of slime! I screeched silently, now getting to my knees and placing a supportive arm around Flac's shoulders. He flopped against me limply, like a rag doll, which only made me rage the more.

You don't even have the courage to face us, to face ME. You have to go mimicking what you CAN'T PRODUCE ON YOUR OWN, by your OWN intellect... BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T ANY.

BUT I DO. I know what you're trying to do by putting me back here, buddy; well, guess WHAT?

It isn't going to work. You made two mistakes.

You didn't leave me alone in here.

And you made me mad.

For all I knew I would linger in this personal hell for the rest of what I was rapidly coming to believe would be a rather short life, but I did know something else.

I might fear that death... but that didn't mean I had to meet it like a coward. Not this time.

Swallowing in pain for having gotten Flac involved in all this, I tightened my grip around him, hugging him to me, pressing his head against me and then just sitting there in silence, staring off defiantly into that Dark Night.

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One might have said that the ice of Hoth was the coldest thing anyone could ever feel; well then, they'd never quite felt this. Terrin didn't know if he was dying or not, but dying sure as hell couldn't feel alot worse. The chill seemed to pass straight through his Sith clothing down through his skin and even into his very bones; he shivered reflexively, his body striving to gain any sort of warmth he possibly could.

To no avail.

His insides were beginning to numb, his senses seeking anything to grasp so that he could know where he was. Black dots began to form in his line of sight as oxygen became difficult to find. He could feel himself starting to drift away...

No. He wouldn't fall unconscious til he knew what was going on. Til he knew what had happened to everyone else. He refused...

At length his body was telling him that he was falling unimpeded by anything, perhaps even unimpeded by air itself. Terrin shoved all thoughts of that to the back of his mind...which, surprisingly still seemed to somehow be functioning...and suddenly he simply...stopped falling.

He scrambled to his feet and blinked, trying to clear the fog in front of them and ascertain just where the hell he was. The goose pimples returned to cover his skin, and he suddenly realized something.

Red. Red eyes. He was surrounded by red eyes, like something he prayed he'd never see again in his life, and was seeing just a little too much of lately...

His blue eyes began to adjust to the lighting--rather, the lack thereof, and at length images began to become clear. He could make out the form of the young Sith. He was standing there, something akin to utter fury shining in his eyes as he stared off towards something. And somewhere in the center of the horde of demons which he stood...

Something black and foreboding. Something that encased two forms, one of those rather limp, and the other...

Oh dear gods, no...

Again Terrin's eyes jerked to Jharu, then finally fell into the line of sight the boy had been mantaining. And in that line of sight...

Two figures, performing acts unfathomable, let alone unspeakable, to one another. And one of those two seemed rather familiar...

A flash of another day in time. Memory registered. And something else registered along with that.

Terrin jerked his hand up, only then realizing he was no longer holding his blaster. He balled that now-empty fist, then his blue gaze shifted to that dark something that encased those two familiar forms once more and finally back to the two others still engaged in completely sadistic acts.

Balling both fists at his side, heedless to the risk he might be placing himself in, Terrin shifted so that he was standing directly in front of that black something encasing what had to be Galen and Flac and glared in the direction of the...

...pleasure-seekers. Keenly aware of the blood-red eyes still boring in him from every angle, Terrin began to calculate just what, if anything, he could do...

[ 12-11-2002 04:18 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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Recognition?

One slender hand rose in front of her, fingers curled into hooks as she stared into his furious green-shot violet eyes; then she forced herself to relax her stance and melded limply against Entaris's form once again.

"Why, we are becoming ever so popular, my Dark Heart," she breathed, the smile plastered to her lips fairly dripping with evil promise. "Here has come one to visit us...." She paused again, cocking her head to one side before continuing silkily on with,

"My brother."

A great laugh burst from her when she saw Jharu's responsive flare to her words. She quieted then, and went so far as to take a step towards him.

"But you are my brother, aren't you?" she went on, stopping in front of him and raking her gaze up and down his frame. "Have you tired of life, then?"

Before Jharu could respond, another flicker of movement caught her eye... and her eyes grew impossibly darker as she watched the shivering form of Captain Terrin Danner tumble into their midst. He had barely gotten to his feet when she flung a hand out to him, using the All inherent within her to raise him from his feet and keep him dangling in mid-air... or at least dangling above something that was not quite ground, suspended within something that was not quite air.

"This one most certainly has, mere mortal that he is!" she announced in a glacial snarl, something black and oily beginning to swim in the depths of her eyes. Utterly ignoring Jharu now, she turned back to Entaris.

"And so, my Dark Heart. You have bestowed upon others your exquisite torments for my sake; now I do so for you.

"Enjoy, my sweet."

With that she reached deeply into Terrin's mind, ripping into all the memories of anyone he had ever known, every place he had ever been, and altering them to where any thought of goodness or justice or love regarding any of them would bring forth nothing but sheer terror and anguish, trepidation and mistrust. Indeed she found this task quite an easy one to accomplish, for deep within his soul that which she sought most of all to coax into life within him was already there: deeply rooted mistrust of others.

She let him fall from her dark grasp with a laugh, where he was immediately ringed by slavering demons, just itching to sink their claws into his flesh. "Oh, this shall be amusing, shall it not my Dark Heart?" she purred, returning to Entaris's side and encouraging him to continue with the acts he had been performing upon her before they were so rudely interrupted. She shivered in masochistic pleasure, leaning her head against his strong body.

"Do what you will with my brother; I do believe I would be finding him tiresome at any rate. So little defense; already I feel the hate and anger growing within him."

She fell into silence then, and not by choice. Indeed, for with what Entaris was reflexively responding to her she couldn't utter a single word if she wanted to.

[ 12-11-2002 05:35 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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How could such a demonic being exist? how could she so easily cause pain?
At that moment in time he desired only to destroy them both... but as his hatred rose higher and higher something suddenly screamed at him.

Jharu! calm yourself! to desire that path, is to become as they... Find peace within yourself... Hatred breeds hatred.

He stopped then, as though the thought was a slap to the face, causing him to stare outward in dissbelief that it had happened...

but as it sunk it, he understood... hatred was not the answer, desiring them to be destroyed, was not the answer... Rather, he must seek the END to the pain, he must seek the LIFE of those he cared for and desired to protect...

but how could he protect them? he was just a boy... he was alone...

No jharu... Look within yourself... Look to that which you possess... You have everything you need.

Again he paused... Where was it comeing from?

He had everything he needed? what did he have?
As the thought registered he noted the pressing feeling of the object strapped to his side... he remembered that strange...something which had arrissen to help him when he was in need... Was that what he had? was that enough?

No, I have... I have love... All that my mother has given... All that my father has displayed... has not my father told me that love is the greatest strength one can possess?

He took a deep breath, casting his glance to his aunt...
Eyes turning slowly, he viewed the destracted couple, who were delighting in eachother.... Pain... They believe they are untouchable... They dont care... I could wait for all of time, and they would still believe no matter what, when they decided to, they could destroy me...
His thoughts rang hollowly through his mind and he shuddered slightly...

Walking slowly his form traversed through the strange non-distance that this area provided, to the area where galen sat
His hand reached out to them, but stopped as he realized what it was that was holding them in… It was as though a cage, a small portion of this area seemed pinched off from the rest...

I have to help her... She's my aunt... I may not know her well... BUT SHE'S MY AUNT!

His eyes narrowed slightly, and he concentraited on that disire to help...

He again felt that strange something that lived deep within his being, rising up as the thought continued to scream at him HELP HER! And at the same moment, he unconciously reached for his sword, his hand griping the handle tightly he pulled... The blade gave only a moments hesitation, before slidding free from his scabbard with amazing ease, Jharu felt it reach to him, felt a strange pressence greet him... Felt it reach to the other feeling he felt, likewise taking hold of his screaming desire.

YOU HAVE TO HELP HER!

He was barely aware of his actions from that point on, reacting purly on emotion he was vaguely aware of a fierce scream coming forth from his body as the blade arced downard, connecting with the strange "cage"

The two forces seemed to battle eachother for a moment, before the blade slipped through it causing a haze to come forth as the desire of those who claimed control were tested, and broken...

He felt his arms continue through with there movement, and suddenly he felt once more alone, as the blade clicked into place within its scabbard.

He blinked to himself, looking down at the somewhat startled gaze of his aunt...

His gaze shifted, and he took view of his uncle, whom he had previously been unaware of, the man was sittign on the ground, somewhat dazed, as if he was unsure what had happened...

He... Can i help him? I have to try!

He ran over to his side then, "uncle terrin ar-" his words were suddenly cut short as he felt a racking pain shoot through his body...

He felt himself lifted into the air, and bashed against a wall that was not there, felt the lickign desire of the strange lightning wrapping itself around his body... heard a dark laughter erupting from somewhere as he fell unconcious...

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Laughing to himself to looked to ShaRhylla "Your brother proves to be less of a challange then i would have expected... Are you sure he shares your blood? such weakness..."

he then looked to terrin, shivering as the man's thoughts attempted in vien to unscramble themselves, to once more allow him to be who he was, rather then what his dark rose had made him... To no avail...

he then turned his ever hateful eyes upon Galen, snearing demonicly he spoke to her. "And now... You are free... At the cost of the younge ones life what shall you do?"

He smiled to himself... For she would not know jharu was simply unconcious... And indeed, entaris was in no hurry to finish the job just yet... the boy had fire within him... Just waiting to be freed, fire that could give them pleasure for some time...

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Graysith's voice rang out stridently as she stepped forth from the hole she had rent between dimensions, her eyes hot and flashing, the Glyph igniting her way. Unafraid she came out from the portal and moved to stand between Entaris and the somewhat confused Galen.

She raised the sword in her hand and stood there, loose and ready, swallowing back the pain which was beginning to rise within her as she recognized the flame-haired young woman clinging so seductively to the form of the man she had once vowed to love forever. Abruptly she shook her head, chasing those thoughts away, and her brow lowered.

The Glyph flared ominously.

"You will let them go... NOW," she seethed.

[ 12-11-2002 09:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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Finaly entaris straightened himself, standing tall once more. "if you want them so much... Then take them... It was not I that brought them here... And it is not I that will remove them..."

he then gestered towards the limp form of jharu. "take him if you wish... Little good he will do you... Dead"

he sneered wickedly...

then before another eyelash could be batted, entaris made a swish of his hand, causing the unconcious form of flac to fly into his hands, his fingers clasping about the mans neck, removing any chance of breathing he laughed. "on second thought... You may all go now"

With another swish of his hand the shadows simply rid themselves of the introders, spitting them all into the temple of S'slan from wence the greater extent of the party came...

Without waiting a second for graysith, or the others to return to find thier companion, entaris stepped through the darkness, and into a small cabin, dropping flac upon the floor he gazed at roan. "Greetings Lord of sith... I have a slight favor to ask of you."
his lips curled into a teasing smile, as roan turned to view him, as he gave him a look of which mirriored surprise, yet gave out the idea that with entaris, he could not be surprised of the mans comming...

Entaris turned his head slowly as ShaRhylla stepped out of the shadows beside him...

[ 12-11-2002 10:37 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Entaris ]

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[ 12-11-2002 09:55 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Entaris ]

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[ 12-11-2002 10:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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Once again Jharmeen Jhin'Dar Q'utaro stepped forth into the inky surroundings of the Darker Realms, that terrible place where neither life nor death existed, but instead gave way before the strange unity of pure evil and great joy. She tensed automatically, raising the Claw in readiness, her other hand straying to the dragon-clawed hilt of the Tooth. Seconds not born of Time ticked past, in which nothing untoward occurred.

No maniacal laughter came crashing into her ears, no demons came slavering to lash and rip and tear. The utter timelessness of the place was absolutely unmarred; an almost palpable blackness stretched away from her in all directions, a never-ending shadow which at the moment was unhindered by any darker ones.

Graysith slowly relaxed, straightening, and slipped the half-drawn Tooth back into its gleaming sheath. She cast a quick look down, her eyes drawn to the sly-stone boldly emplaced in the center of that sheath.

May it grant me the cunning I need as I traverse this hideous realm, she thought to herself as she stepped out. I shall be needing every ounce of such, every lesson taught to me by Lord Aelvedaar, every drop of strength I possess if I am to return victorious to the side of my love after freeing the soul of my other love from his endless torment.

Then she moved out, loose and ready, reaching out with her senses to seek the signature of the One from whose side she had once sworn never to stray. Subjugated it now was, trapped beneath an onslaught of evil too immense for even His darkness to rejoice in; during her most recent -- if brief -- visit here, she had clearly recognized its presence battling vainly within the body taken over by its new Dark Master. And had been haunted by His cries ever since.

Recinis, my love, she thought out as she now quickened her pace. You are my Lord and my life... but He once was, and thus always shall be held in a special spot in my heart. Indeed love grew within me because of Him, love which I then was able to give to you.... You must understand my actions in this matter, my Lord. He cannot be allowed a moment of torment more. I will not allow it.

Instinctively keeping her thoughts and her heart full of love and devotion, somehow realizing that in the end that alone might be the sole protection against the purity of evil this place consisted of, she quickened her pace, still casting around with her talents, seeking that familiar blip of a signature, ready for anything.

Except what she suddenly came upon.

She blinked in something approaching startlement... but not surprise... as she came to a literal contradiction existing beneath her feet. For the weird and unending plane of something not quite ground upon which she had been traveling suddenly took substantial and familiar form, solidifying literally out of nowhere into solid and sand-bestrewn rock. She came to a halt on the lip of what she immediately sensed to be a cliff, now sensing out to verify the presence of what she had been taunted by during her prior visit.

It was there. "Below" her. The Valley of the Dark Lords. Incredibly, it had somehow been yanked from reality and brought here.

She paused on that sheer precipice, catching her lip between her teeth and chewing upon it thoughtfully. Then she made up her mind, and carefully began seeking footholds to descend into the canyon below.

This opportunity might not be presented later. At the moment this canyon was here... and strangely unprotected. Obviously the powers which had transported it here thought that simply by being here it was inaccessible to mortal beings, and needed no further safeguard. But safeguards could be an easy addition to beings with the powers to move reality into non-reality; even she had not the strength to undertake a feat of this magnitude, and she highly doubted her Sire could accomplish this either.

The rancor has dropped a choice morsel from its claws. Time for the hungered one to snatch it up and run.

A rising fear of being suddenly discovered gave her feet wings, and the surety of a cliffspringer. She moved quickly and gracefully down the steep side, finding easy purchase for hands and feet amidst the rock there. Time had no meaning here; it seemed that no sooner had she begun her unexpected climb than she found herself standing upon the great fossil ripples of the canyon floor, being scrutinized by the chromatic eyes of the great stone Dark Lords carved upon its walls.

She ignored them completely, as well as ignored the sudden feeling that something other than eyes of stone was upon her. Now she hurried forward, following the familiar curves of this place which she had visited twice before, and soon came upon a particular bend in the canyon. There upon its walls there flickered a golden light, the only light to find illumination of this place not quite of Hell. Moving quickly now, she rounded the bend, and came to a stop before the source of that light.

There it was, flaming in glorious eternity within its urn: the Eternal Flame of the Dark Lords. She paused only long enough to consider its power for but a moment; then she dropped the protective shields she had raised against the evil inherent to this place and let that power flow within her. She gasped, part of her recoiling in utter horror for the way its strength had escalated; from somewhere down-canyon a great rumble of dark laughter seemed to suddenly emanate from the rock itself.

But another part of her threw back its head and screamed in wild joy to feel the wave upon wave of darkness now pounding against her being. The Glyph on her forehead shot immediately into the realms of gamma, lending a brilliant and almost pure white lash of light to the ruddy glow of the flame. The great power of this place literally electrified her, bringing a sole spot of life to its otherwise nonlife, and sent her hair flaming about her head in a fiery nimbus of its own.

She screamed again, letting that power into her being, to meet once again with that placed within her by her Sire, yet using that same power of her own to yet keep her balanced upon a distinctively felt yet completely unseen and quite precarious edge of... something. Something some would call defeat, others victory. To her it was the delineation between who and what she was... and who and what she easily could become if she let her grip upon herself fail for a single second.

Keeping tight rein on herself, she stared directly into the Flame, and commanded it to reveal that which she knew it could. And so, there in the dancing fires of it, she suddenly saw something... the interior of a ship, one easily recognized as being Sith, now occupied by three figures she recognized and one she had seen but once.

She frowned, wavering; the dark powers of the Flame were being augmented second by second by the sheer evil of this place; it was getting more and more difficult to keep herself separated from it. Although time had no meaning here, no bearing, she knew it was short. Strategies flashed with lightning speed before her, all immediately discarded. She had not the strength to stand up to the three of them alone....

So she did the only thing she could do. Reaching out with all her talents, with all the power she had at her disposal, she crossed the life/non-life barrier, and created a link with the only mind from which she in turn could hide herself.

The cyberbiotic "brain" of the ship itself.

Carefully implanting the Link in a tiny subsystem, wrapping it in its own cybernetic code that the ship itself would not recognize her touch of alienness inside, she then carefully backed out altogether, turned, and fled back the way she had come.

Soon the Flame was behind and beneath, and she stood once more on the precipice of the cliff. From there she let a tendril of herself seek out, testing the link she had just established.

It was solidly, blessedly, there.

Nodding in satisfaction, fatigued by the inner battle with the Darkness of this place, she opened another portal in the All, to return to her husband and her son and the others; indeed, to return to Life itself.

((OOC: Follow Graysith back into A Time Not Far Away in "CSWU" forums, thank you))

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