Time had passed.

But which each ticking of that cosmic clock, the black thing passing for a heart within the chest of Ankrist Roan grew larger and larger, not by causes most sentients would assume, but with the continued influx of evil. Pure and simple.

Though Sith sorcery was now denied him, he was not fazed in the slightest. He had not been trained in the School of Magickal Arts, as had so many others who wished to augment the inherent abilities his race were blessed with, some to rise to the top as fiery magma rises through the cold of the country rock about it, to one after another take their position as the Dark Lord of that clan.

No, his training was not that of the mystic and the mysterious. He was a warrior, and was -- or rather until recently, had been --Dark Lord of the clan of Warriors of the Sith. His mind wrapped itself more about the concepts of stealth and logic, and had his entire life, being born with a natural flare in this regard. And thus he had risen to appropriate the position of Dark Lord of the Warriors, even though it had not been his birthright... and the fact that he the stronger was having to now bow before who he deemed to be the weaker, however momentarily, infuriated him beyond comprehensibility.

But now that fury was channelling into a new direction: satisfaction. Arrogant in his own strength he might be; he was not stupid, nor overly-confident in his own abilities. Thus, though what magicks he had learned through his life had been flung from him at his own sacrifice, he had still kept an insidious eye on things through his command of the All. It had been no strenuous feat to watch as his daughter grew in blackness under the "tender" auspices of the being he had sent to befuddle Graysith; indeed, watching her erupt into her full and wonderfully black potential with Entaris had sent chills of pride and approval coursing up and down his spine. He grinned now, fangs exposed, as he peeped through the tiny portal he had opened to where they were hiding, there in the Temple Entaris had built, yet doing things with and to each other to strengthen the blackness in them both.

Or perhaps to strengthen that within ShaRhylla; Entaris being himself the embodiment of that evil, Roan finally acquiesced to himself.

No matter. The Plan is proceeding in such wonderful accordance. That even yet deeper level of darkness Entaris is seeking to bring into my daughter's being is soon to come...

...and soon, indeed, shall a new Triad be born.

But not one to bother itself with anything as insignificant as the Sith....

He smiled, watching the pair in the secret dark of the Temple, shivering in gaining what vicarious delights that he could. And when he deemed the moment was right, when his daughter was hovering on the very brink of a hell from which the Dark One Himself would shrink...

He called to her, and through her, to them both.

She shivered, a hand going up to a blood-smeared mouth. Then, her uncanny eyes widening, she rolled from where Entaris was laying and prowled to a far corner of the dark chamber surrounding them. A demonic imp gibbered and drooled there, casting his own bloodied eyes pleadingly in her direction; she kicked him with a snort, then turned to her Dark Heart.

"My father is calling to me," she whispered, her voice like oiled silk. "He is calling to both of us."

Now baring her reddened fangs she hissed, then returned to where Entaris remained supine on his back. His dark form blended imperceptibly with that of the cold and stained altar upon which he was laying. ShaRhylla didn't say anything else, but just stood there beside him, looking him straight in the eye, her own eyes dark and unfathomable in their intent, one clawed hand now reaching down to run a sharp fingertip along the strong planes of his cheek, and thereupon tracing yet another thin red line.

He simply smiled a demonic little smile. before turning about and nodding, as if to himself.

"Roan... He is a dark serpent, to call upon the shades of evil in such a manor..."

He quietly rose a hand, to toy upon his chin lightly, tapping gently.

"I, as the Lord of evil, and you as my queen, ShaRhylla... Must note, that there is no reason to answer that call..."

A small flashed spread through his mind... An oath made in blood, he sneared at the thought. for even the pact of blood meant little to him... All that mattered was the purest of evil hearts...

he mussed over these things for a moment, nodding again. "then let us answer his call, my Dark Rose... I feel somewhat tied to him, though i can not in the slightest understand why..."

At length she withdrew her sharp canines from his lips, blackness swelling within her in response to the pleasurable feeling she obtained as they slid from the moist flesh, finally finding freedom that her tongue could dart in to lap up the last drop. Then she pulled away from him, her thorns now hidden beneath the beauty of her soft petals, and let her dark soul pour into his eyes from her own.

"We are more than He can ever be, my Dark Heart," she whispered as one hand reached out to run along the slickness of his pulled-back hair. "Perhaps this strange tie you feel with him is nothing other than what it is you feel with me, his daughter and heir."

With that her hand flashed to quickly yank the binding with which he held back his mane of thick black hair. It cascaded down and around his face, providing a natural shadowy curtain for her to hide within. Another snarl of pleasure rolled from her lips as, now entwining both hands in that luxurious hair, she yanked his head to one side and with a quick slice split the flesh of his throat to actually expose his jugular to the view of her greedy eyes. No mere mortal could have withstood that wound; her eyes darkened with perverse joy as once again she was reminded of who it was she was dancing with of late.

And it was her preference to dance in darkness with him, and not beneath the feeble rays of insipid moonlight....

I have won roan... No longer does your daughter hold but a fraction of the balance you claim to be so important...

he stopped to consider for a moment, before correcting his previous assessment

For "he" Had not won... They had one...

While entaris held not a bit of loyalty towards any being, and cared not for sharing credit of any situation, ShaRhylla was different, she was no mere being which he had assosiated with... She was a part of his evil being, and he was a part of hers...

Quite suddenly her turned the tables upon her, while she sat comfortably, pleasing herself, and him, with different tortures of delight, causing pain and pleasure to him beyond belief, drinking from his blood... Suddenly all that changed, she was no longer upon him, instead she now lay, down, staring up at him, her fangs gleaming, practicly begging for him to kill her... But how could he kill her? while she was already dead?

And when she felt herself on the shuddering brink of death itself...

...for, oh yes My Dark Heart, I can die, so easily can I die but only at your will and beneath your touch and with every recognition of the privilege it bestows upon me, for only toward you will I recognize this dark and wonderful honor...

...it was only then that she threw back her head, letting it fall beyond the edge of the dark and gore-stained altar, that her throat was even more exposed to his every wish and desire, and letting a great outburst of pure and impious malevolence erupt from her in the form of something more gasp than laugh, she managed to raise a hand, to summon forth her powers...

...and to heal him of the torment she had caused him, and then herself that she had even more to give to the One whose dark desires flowed through her veins, binding her to him and he to her in a unity born of something more base than hell itself.

"We shall likewise partake of my Father in this manner," she whispered in a voice of oiled and blackened silk, now reaching up to take Entaris face between them and press her lips to his in a wanton and wild kiss, her hands greedily roving across his body, fingering what robes he yet wore even as she let the words she now spoke pass directly through her own lips and into his, as though to travel down his throat and that way into the black thing in his chest that passed for a heart.

"Only he will NOT be allowed to see it's finality, for he shall be dead, and in that slow and terribly dying, shall have rent the very fabric of all that is with his cries for mercy.

"We shall bring him to his knees...."

Then she fell silent, letting her lips slide from his, along his jaw and down his throat, there at the base to deliver a light and teasing nip before letting her head fall back altogether that he might continue pleasing himself through her, and through that add to his dark energies and bring them both to impossibly greater strength.

She was not stupid. Her father would not die easily, and to that end they needed to be at their very best.

His form then turned down upon ShaRhylla, taunting, and teasing her with slow movements, and promises of pain beyond imagination...

Finaly he allowed there lips to meet, and in that kiss, he teasingly played his tongue accross her fangs, allowing blood to flow into her hungry mouth.

Meanwhile his hands roved her backside, slicing and tearing flesh in a madened frenzy of blood lust...

A small demonic essence rose within him, wrapping about them both in a shroud of utter evil... Evil so intense, that any being that might attempt to spy upon them, would be so overwhelmed, that were they the average sencient, they would kill themselves in an onslaught of insanity... Roan would not be contacting them again soon...

As that shroud expanded and continued to hide them, entaris pulled away from his queen for a moment, looking down at her he smiled with a blood filled mouth...

As he looked down at her, sitting comfortably atop her form, so she would not be able to change there distance in the slightiest, he rose a finger for her examination...

Then with a slow decent, that finger was placed upon her abdomin...

Closing his eyes he sent a ripple of dark energy to flow through his being and into hers, starting at the abdomin and fluxiuating up her spine, and into the very center of her nervious system, so she might feel a pleasure in dark pain like never before...

That finger slowly pressed against her more greatly, and slipped into a palm, more dark energy came through her... Untill finaly he ended and came down upon her once again, laughing as he whispered... "Now my dear, your very cells have been transformed to the perfection that is evil... You are almost ready... For there will be two demons brought to life by our hands... Two, that shall wreak havoc like never before... A legacy none will forget... A legacy that even our great darkness can not match... By our fusing, these creatures of dark will and intent, will do what even we can not... And by our strengths, they shall serve us..."

Yet even as this exquisite torment sent her to the fine edge of insanity, that darker strength inside her, that which had drawn Entaris to her and that which recognized him as being a part of her even before this event had started to be put into motion, that dark part threw back its head and let out a shrieking laugh of acceptance and wild delight, one filled with so very, very much dark promise. Her groping fingers came down as claws upon Entaris's back, rending his robes, digging into the humanity he had possessed but seeking that immortal darkness within. And when those claws finally reached that darker part that was her true Dark Heart, and therein found kith and kinship which transcended unity, her laugh ceased and she grew serious.

She pulled her claws from his flesh to then place her hands alongside Entaris's face, her turquoise eyes falling into and pinning his.

"I find this pleasing, my Dark Heart. While I would feel the death throes of my father beneath my hand, this can yet be arranged. And there is no greater anguish than betrayal; let us create that which will be set loose upon this pathetic galaxy in a storm of innocent seduction and dark desire, that not only my father, but myriad others will be in this manner brought unto us."

She paused, her claws sinking into the strong face of the body of Darth Wicked, but a body now encompassing the greatest evil yet to be unleashed upon the pitiful lives of sentient beings everywhere. For it truly was evil she held in her hands, evil which had now not only joined with her but finalized a resurrection of its own... evil which had made the yin to its yang, the female to its male, its sultry counterpart that in this manner the fruits of its own essence could be created.

Knowing she was now no more ShaRhylla than a rancor was a jedi, she let loose one last sighing breath.

"Let us begin, my Dark Heart," her voice came out like quiet thunder to crack the night. Then she pulled his face down to hers in a deep and passionate kiss, willing him to begin the first steps in the darkest plan yet to be ever laid upon the universe.

And as he was flooded by that darkness from all sides, he felt what passed as her heart, pounding wildly in a pleasurable sort of pain...

And for one time, and one time only, he fell in synch with that beating... For once in his existance, entaris now found himself in a need to GIVE life, rather then simply take it away, as had been his creed for so long... And through this, the only reason he survived the torment brought forth by the pitiful emotions such as love, was the knowledge that that "love" would bring to this galexy the greatest threat ever imagined... A threat that could ONLY be imagined by beings such as Entaris and ShaRhylla...

A hand rose extended slowly, dark energies rippling from extended fingers, into that being he had come to know as his equal...

That energy bathed ShaRhylla, filling her very soul untill her form might have collapsed due to utter corruption of heart.

Finaly two black and depthless orbs arose from her being, as though her soul was discarding small pieces of its utter darkness...

Then using the powers at his command ShaRhylla was lifted into the air, and placed lightly upon her feet...
And with a mere afterthought they both faded into the realm of depthless shadows, standing before a strange pool, which was filled with yowling demonic creatures of all sorts...

He smiled at companion and nodded, his hand extending again, and quite suddenly dark lightning came forth in waves, destroying all the lives of the pathetic demons held within that small pool, causing the pool to fill with thick, rich blood...

His gaze then turned to the twin orbs of darkness which hovered obediantly beside him, and he smiled...

He needed not true life, true children, for this procedure, he simply needed the very start of it, the rest would take place from his own dark ritual...

For a being with no love cares not for the well being of his children, those children in his eyes were mere pawns of his dark will... For while they may come to surpass even him in dark will, he was all evil in this universe, and for that, they were his...

with a brief nodd those orbs were sent plunging into the depths of blood created from the death many demon servants...

Then he turned to sharhylla, drawing forth twin crystals from his robes. "Now my dear, Look upon the souls of your daughters... For within these crystals lies souls, and all the strength, of two of the most powerful dark jedi ever known... It was these two, my dear, that Brought forth the desire to destroy the sith... There knowledge of the force ascended them beyond simple jedi, they truly became demons in heart... As our children now will inheret... Though, The dark jedi truly gained the greatest of there powers after slaying the sith, and imprissoning all there powers, Our children have the blood of the sith within them, a gift from you" he smiled darkly "and so, they may draw infanetly from the powers the dark jedi desired to master..."

His head tilted back slowly to unleash a cackle beyond imagination. "These souls have waited for a long time, my dear Dark rose... Within these shadows, they awaited us, to set them free again, so they might do the bidding of true evil once more... And us, as the true sources of evil in all the universe, have complete control of them... It is thus that i had to assure myself that you had not even a speck of light within your being, or they would have slain you in but an instant... And truly my dark rose, You are to perfect a being to allow that to happen" as he spoke he licked his lips of a bit of her blood which yet remained...

Turning his attention now to the crystals he extended his hands to ShaRhylla. "now, focus all your dark energies into these crystals, they will shatter beneath both of our touches, and then the energies within will find the innocents of mortal flesh to posses and live within..."

Again his attention changed to the pool of blood "there dark spirits will use the death of all those pathetic demons, to forge new bodies, and be reborn at there strongest moment, with new concious, and fresh blood lust..."

His eyes turned to pin ShaRhylla's "i leave it to you to begin the task as... There mother, it is only right."

For unless these children were destroyed by the one thing they were frail before, they would indeed live on as something not quite immortal yet neither mortal in the truest sense of the word. Sith magicks entwining with dark intent assured that; Rhylla threw back her head and in the following split-second of Motherhood she tossed the crystals up into the blackness all around them.

"I call forth my young, the fruits of my soul, and the children of the Dark Heart which beats in both our breasts!" she cried out, pointing her arms like katana of thunder and aiming her outspread fingers directly upon the soaring twin crystals. Dark energies in the form of wild lightning, blue and violet and searing white, flew forth from her fingertips, striking the crystals and shattering them into glittering shards.

Those shards fell into the pool of blood, and sank from view.

All was quiet.

Momentarily.

ShaRhylla turned her gaze back to Entaris now, slowly lowering her arms, and stepping back until she was pressed tightly against him. One hand raised up and lightly ran along his jawline as they then stood quietly, hearts pounding and sending hot blood rushing, waiting for the birth of the foulness they had created together.

Her body seemed to levitate as such for a moment, her great command of the force lifting her, and setting her lightly upon the "stone" of her soroundings...

Blood dripped from her very pours as she exited that pool, the strength liquides which had brought her to be hoping to stay within, dispite the excise, though with a flex of her mental composier, that wettening blood flew from her spattering against walls that should not be there...

She looked at her "parants" for a moment, with her glacial eyes, focusing intently upon them, as though they were some morsal she wished to devour...

Finaly her eyes came down upon the pool of blood. A strange sigh which seemed to mirror happiness, and pleasure, escapped her lips as she spoke "mmmmmmm.... Sister... Do drag yourself from that pit, and greet our... Parants..."

As they were. For from over a horizon blacker than the very heart which spawned them, there came the steadily thumping beat of many feet, accompanied by a wild and wanton marching song. Then they came, housands upon thousands of them, their scorpion tails curled up over their backs, their eyes bloodied and full of death's delights: the demonic hordes from whose throng a particular one named Maladius had once been summoned. But these were not coming in reply to command; nay. They came in dark respect, to pay homage to their Warrior General, the only one of this place with the power to lead them into the places Men term real that they might create havoc and slay and destroy. And so they came, their gibbering song pounding in rhythm to their marching feet and beating hearts, more and more of them, coming forth like the spawn of Hell that they were...

...to come to a ranked and stiffened halt in a great mass about the Pool of Blood. And there, they fell into complete silence, waiting.

For a long moment more all was as silent as death... and then something seemed to heave in the depths of the Pool. All at once it was as if a volcano had erupted from its bowels, one shooting forth a mighty stream of hot blood while flames leapt into being all around to coagulate it, stiffening it to support her lithe weight as she sprang forth from those ruby depths and burst into full-bodied existence above them.

Her eyes were wide and turquoise, yet a sheen of blood seemed to dance and shimmer in their depths. Dressed in magickal armor and furs of a Warrior Queen, she was bare-legged and bare-armed, no helm upon her raven tresses. Metallic wristlets of black and glistening metal, studded with ruby droplet of the blood from which she sprang bound her wrists, matched by the artfully designed breast collar and hip-armor she wore low beneath her navel. A coiling serpent of Wisdom wrapped about her right arm, a sword forged from the souls of the damned rose over her head as she came forth from the bloodbath of her birthing ground and settled to a halt beside her sister.

She cocked her head a bit to one side, considering her. Then something akin to a smile curled across her sensuous lips. Utterly ignoring her parents, she flung an arm about Allaria's shoulders, sinking her claws into her sister's flesh in a baptism of blood which would serve to unite them together as one forever.

"My sister," she breathed in a rich alto voice, before falling into silence, now to finally cast her gaze about her, taking in her multitude of demons in one sweeping glance, then letting that red-sheened look brush past her mother to halt in the eyes of he who had also brought her to life.

she laughed a seemingly light-hearted laugh before her own claws, now painted a decievingly warm rose red, slash down upon her sisters arm, returning the simbolic gesture that they were bound as one...

Slowly her gaze fell upon her parrants once more, now truly assessing them...

He smile seemed to turn a bit odd as she surpressed the urge to laugh...

These were her parrants? She held more darkness within her pinky then both of them combined could match... But then, looks could be decieving, and they seemed to hold a bit of strength to them...

She shrugged to herself and took a step down from the little stone perch she was standing on...

Her eyes explored the ranks of her sisters dark legions and she again only barely surpressed a little giggle... "I sense chaos among your ranks, my dearest sister, perhaps your warriors need a bit more training... " Then she turned to her sister, and added in a seductive manor "but then, not all beings can match the strength you hold, of which, i truly admire you." She grinned a bit... For indeed, her sister was the only being worth while in this universe, as far as she was concerned.

With that he turned and simply laughed at them. "And IllaAnda, Do not challange me with your glare... Perhaps you are stronger then I, perhaps not... I hold many things about myself that you could not imagin... Someday, You will have your chance... I promise you that..."

With that he simply exited the shadow realm, returning to sit comfortably upon the Throne of darkness, allowing his energies to rise once more... For indeed, he had expended much in the forging of these demons... He had indeed expended entirly to much... For even his evil was not unlimited... Deep down, he knew his daughters could not be controlled entirly by himself... But he knew to, They were fresh in this universe, he held a slight advantage... And after all, He was indeed, the source of all evil...

In a blinding motion her hand sprung forth, dark energy bolts screaching outwards in madened frenzy to grasp on of the demonic minions of her sister, that demon was lifted into the air, lightning encircling its body, before it was slammed against the wall, and all darkness was forced to come forth, causing it to explode into a fiery torrent of gore...

With a deep sigh she turned a smile upon her sister. "Now my sister... Where is it we shall go? I Truly wish to crush this universe... It is displeasing to know that we are the only two beings that hold but an ounce of power..."

She sighed and sat down upon a shadowy throne which had come forth at her bidding. Sitting there she turned her gaze down to her nials, and just contented herselfin there examination... How wonderful it was to be alive... And on top of that, to hold power within a single finger,to destroy all life...

She smiled sweetly at her sister once more. "yes, we must go...We may settle things with..." she said the next part a bit more darkly then she had spoken before, "them Later..." her smile brightened again and she laughed to herself...

"Somewhere with a high population, so we might truly have fun... Lets see...where in this dreaded place may we find out about the universe... Where indeed... Have you any idea's?"

But this... this she couldn't stand.

Her hands fisted at her side, almost in mimickry of her sister. Her jaw worked silently, choking down a battle cry, her eyes widening and heating and filling with blood as she watched the needless death of one of her minions. Stiff legged, she stalked to where Allaria was seated upon her shadow throne, and for a moment that stretched into infinity simply stared down upon her, her sword-hand tightening imperceptibly, every muscle in her lean and lithe fighting body tensing.

Then, a lightning flash; her sword-bearing hand swept up in front of her in a great, smooth arc, the mystical metal of the blade glinting a deep ruby red to match the fire erupting in her eyes. Then that sweeping movement reversed itself as, taking a quick step forward to get within reach, she back-handed Allaria, knocking her off the throne to land in an untidy heap upon the coldness at her feet.

She glared down at her, her chest heaving.

"You will NOT destroy my subjects again! Is that clear, Allaria?"

"Very well, My sister, No more shall I kill your subjects, But this is only under the circumstance, that i have something ELSE to kill in its place... You would strike me? Your own sister? What care you for one soldier? A warrior you claim to be, is it not the knowledge of a warrior, that one life matters not in the sceme of things..."

She rose a hand slowly to point at IllaAnda, dark lightning rippling accross her fingers, "you are not the only one who has strengths, my sister"

With a sigh the energy vanished, but she was indeed on her guard "i will not strike back at you, It is pointless for us to fight... Come now, look at it, If one of us kills the other, then what do we have?"

And as she stood, a small patch of "earth" beneath her feet was simply scorched by her somewhat controlled rage... "Now... I ask to come to a mutual agreement... Do not test me... And i, my dear sister, Will in turn, Not test you?"

"Why, my dearest sister," she purred like a cat, now approaching where Allaria sat and coiling herself up at her feet. Laying her head on her sister's lap, she let one hand idly run up and down her leg, all the while the other maintained its grip on her sword.

"Let us go anywhere you desire; there is a place crying out from the soul of the dark one in my veins; it is a birthplace of his, I believe... a place called 'Tatooine.'"

Now she let her eyes grow foggy, seeing inward and from there to see out.

"It is a dusty desert of a place, but there are cantinas and places where those who would evade death would hide. Perhaps we could bring it back into play for them?

"Unless this is too dreary a place; what do you think, my Sister?"

Then she rose, smiling "Yes, this place will be perfect... Thank you for your brillence..."

She then kneeled beside her sister and looked pleadingly into those torquoize eyes, before begining to stroke in return her sisters leg, and speaking soothingly "im truly sorry about your minion.. I pomise i wont let my temper get away with me again... can you forgive me?"

"Why, of course I forgive you, Allaria," she purred in turn, pulling away now and resting that hilt upon her sister's shoulder. "I will never be able to remain angry with you long.

"Let us go out of this place now," she changed the subject, rising to her feet and drawing Allaria up with her. She pointed her sword then, and with the one mystic power at her command rent an opening in this dimension, creating a pathway into the universe occupied by men and beast and alien. As if from a very great distance there came the yowl of sand skirling upon itself, and a furnace blast of heat rushed out to encompass them.

IllaAnda only laughed.

"Come, Allaria," she said, sheathing her sword and taking great purposeful strides forward, her hair flying about her like a black thundercloud. "It is this way."

his lips rose into a sneering smile, for in his reverie he had observed his... Daughters...

Indeed, there dark spirits were strong... But they were fools to act towards him as they had...

But then, Could they know that there simple existance brought him more power... For with every dark though, his spirit strengthened... And due to this, he was the one who pulled his foolish daughters strings...

His mind then traveled down another path as the demonic gears of his mind turned and turned... His power had lessoned some time ago... Evil had lost a source...

There was but one reasoning for this... The eternal flame... While not many knew of this extrodenary thing, which augmented dark energies... Entaris' very being was intwined with it in every aspect... And for some reason, its powers no longer fueled his demonic whims...

He stood and looked over at ShaRhylla, sizing her up briefly...

She would not know... For her joining of the evil's of the universe had been completed after the flame had been blocked... She knew not what she was being deprived of...

"Now my dark rose... We must go with haste to a place where darkness wells... So you might learn of the true power you are now intitled to... You see, not even our daughters, as evil as they are, Can sap the strengths of the universes darkness, They are pure evil yes... But there evil is there own... Mine powers, and now yours as well, grow with the darkness in the universe... And there is a source of darkness in the universe which has been cut of from us... We must go to the eternal flame, and learn of this treachery..."

With no further explanation he took hold of his queen and dragged her through the swirling portals of darkness which existed in all shadows, and took her as close to the place he knew so well as he could, to which he gazed at a depthless black field...

"This is her doing..."

he turned to ShaRhylla and growled in protest, reaching out to take hold of her throat, causing pinpricks of blood to rise from the soft skin beneath his touch... "your mother has done this to us... It must be rectified..."

Utter blackness lay before them, coiling about itself as though sneering at the pair of them as they stood there before it. Her lips curled in disgust as she innately recognized the chronotic shield for what it was, as well as felt the responding uprush of strength within her very essence which was suddenly rising as though reacting in instinctive challenge to it.

"The task shall be finished as you desire, my Dark Heart," she crooned, now raising her hands and throwing back her head. A wild and wanton cry erupted from the black void of her soul, and she reached out with every ounce of power she possessed, to take hold of that mysterious non-ness and rend it into tiny shards...

...only it remained steadfast before her.

Her eyes flew open in shock; then they darkened to oily caverns in her face as she now let a growl of outrage escape her. Her fangs champed into her own lips, sinking deeply and causing great gouts of blood to erupt as, beyond anger, she tried once more to fell the shield they believed to be erected by her mother.

To no avail.

Had she any remnant of mortality left within her she would have cowered in abject fear at this point, having to turn to Entaris with her failure. But she was way beyond the frailities of mortal flesh; the void that had once held a soul let out a resounding and anticipatory cry, for she knew what he would do to her in response to her next words.

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..."

...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.

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...

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."

...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.

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?"

"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....

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.

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...

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.

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.

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...."

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..."

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."

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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?"

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.

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...

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.

They stood in the Valley in the Dark Realms, the dancing light of the Eternal Flame beckoning to them, shining in their eyes and illuminating their faces, bringing it's own brand of darkness to pale before that of the dimension in which it had been plunged. The comparative strengths of this place and the one without did not concern the Trio; they knew that the Flame was all that was needed, that this would be allowed to them by the ally of their father, and that what they would do was a command they could no more avoid from carrying out than they could avoid accepting the Sith blood which ran hot in their veins.

One female turned her head, her turquoise eyes blazing, her great and curling ram's horns cupping her face, twined about by the flaming locks of her thick and luxurious hair.

"We must wait," she whispered, now tossing her head back, savoring the warmth of the magickal fires upon the otherwise chill of her flesh, keenly aware of the brilliant ambiance of the eyes of the graven Sith Lords who lined the walls of the canyon in which they stood.

The other female tilted her head to her, half-lidding her own turquoise eyes, her horns curling gracefully away from the sides of her head like an impala's. A smile spread her moist and sensuously wide lips, allowing fangs to peep out upon them from within.

"We know what to say; he has taught us well," she retorted lightly, half a lip crooking upward now when she saw her sister's returning smile. "Our brother will ascertain our success; we must not overstay our welcome by the misuse of the time granted to us."

Both sets of matching eyes turned now to the shadowy distances behind them, where the screams of demons ricochetted off the stone walls, followed by the distinct swoosh of blade cutting air, then the sickening slurp as it cut flesh. There, standing tall and gleaming with vitality and vigor, his muscles oiled by the outskirts of the light coming from the Flame, their Brother stood, his head back with laughter, his own long and thick hair waving freely from his head, the shadow of his double set of goat's horns dancing against the walls of the canyon even as he swung his sword aloft and struck yet another demon in its tracks. It fell in two hideously writhing parts, screaming and bubbling insanely.

The Brother turned his brilliant violet eyes to the Twain, and raised aloft his Blade-- the Blade of a Warrior, indeed, it was very one wielded by their father once upon a world so distant and so very long ago. It gleamed in rune-enscribed, silvery assurance of the victory they would create from this night and in this place; he held it high in tribute to that victory, then turned to face yet another onrush of slavering demons of the Darker Realms.

One Sister held her hands out to the other.

"I know the words," she repeated in a soft whisper, taking up a slim hand in her own. For a quick eternity turquoise eyes met their mirror image...

Then the Two turned to the Flame, lifted their arms, hands clasped, and threw back their heads against the immensity of eternity now facing them.

Mystical words in Ancient High Sith echoed softly off the stones, and behind them the images of the Dark Lords seemed to groan.

It had finally begun.