I awoke to a quiet beeping that came from within the ship. I saw ShaRhylla stir from her prone position next to me, and rose slowly as to avoid waking her. I moved to the controls of the ship, and silenced the alarms. It appeared that we had arrived on the outskirts of the hoth asteroid belt.

The ship had been lazily drifting side to side to avoid the small bits of rock that moved to close, but otherwise had been still. According to the records, we had lagged here almost half an hour before I had finally awoken.

I took control of the ship and guided it gently through the field, the ship making small adjustments to prevent minor impacts until finally we came to the large asteroid that I knew held my origonal home. I focused for a moment, and spied the magical barrier that hid the entrance, and gently guided the ship through the false rock and into the small docking bay.

Her eyes came to a stop on the hovering form of Rykounagin, who presented her with a gentle smile. Her bi-colored eyes cleared then as memory returned along with the words the young man was now telling her.

"Here?" she returned, momentary confusion once again clouding her eyes.

"Where is 'here'? Have we finally come to the asteroid to which you are taking me?"

I held my hand down to help her get up from the place where she sat. "This is the Dies Irae, and here I hope you might find similar comforts as to those in your own home." This was an honest statement. A small section of the station was made for the cults guests, lords of station and the like. However the rest was cold and metalic, made to hone and focus the assassins in their training.

"I have slept enough," she said, a touch of her former hauteur peeping through her demeanor. Then she softened, gazed up at Rykounagin.

I walked with her to the blast door, and removed the glove from one hand, pressing my hand against the door itself, and speaking to it. "Malcina Cobridos."

The sound of locks snapping into small holes came, and the blast door slid open to reveal a smooth metal coridor through the asteroid. "Come."

I led her down the cooridor, and commenced with the tour. I showed her to where we would be staying, the more comfortable guest quarters, designed to simulate a sith lords chambers, the walls covered in trophies of kills, the floors covered in soft furs.

Once I had shown her the basic facilities in which we would stay, I led her towards the assassin quarters, bare steel rooms with only hard linen covered pillows upon durasteel beds, the walls covered in Archaic inscriptions in ancient sith.

I realized, now that we were here, I had no plan. The origonal intent of course, had been that they were to hide from Graysith and her kind. But what then? They could not "lay low" forever, and knowing my love's mother, they would find us eventually.

What then?

I sighed inwardly, awaiting a response from my love in regards to what we were to do now.

"Truly, this is a most tedious place," she commented, now turning toward Rykounagin. "But one I will no doubt grow accustomed to, eventually."

A delicate rumble emanating from her mid-section lent weight to Rykounagin's final query to her; now her glance grew a touch sly, emboldened, and she lifted her head to run her gaze down her nose. The look wasn't intentionally meant to be a supercilious one, she wasn't trying to purposely show herself better than the young man, but rather was one springing from a formerly restrained glee at her own prowess.

She had a secret, and she wanted to share it with him.

"Yes, some food would be nice..."

The words fell from her lips as swiftly as the arm she then raised. A bizarre shimmer ensued, a shimmer as if the very stuff that existence was made of was being plucked, the bits then molding into something else.

The shimmer strengthened, taking on an eerie greeny-golden hue... and from nowhere a single apple fell to the durasteel upon which they stood. It rolled to a halt midway between them where it lay in an almost accusatory silence.

ShaRhylla blinked, flustered, but before Rykounagin could do anything she retrieved the apple and cupped it in her hands. Holding it out to him as though it was the fine banquet she had attempted to produce, she let a whisper of a smile ghost her lips, which then pursed in something akin to disgust with herself.

I smiled as she took the slices, and walked to the synthesizer. "It's capable of making a great deal of just about any food, though I'm sorry to say it is not as good of quality as something that was... say... home made would be." I shrugged.

"Thank you, Rykounagin," she said simply as she took the apple slices and popped them daintily in her mouth. Chewing, she wondered to herself why she was feeling as if treading on glass; she had powers enough to be fearless of practically everything this old universe could toss her way. But for some reason she was holding back from Rykounagin her former mein of hauteur in spite of all that had already gone between them.

She blinked, cocked her head a touch and fixed him with her eerie bi-colored eyes.

ShaRhylla's eyes filled with immediate fire. She stared blankly at the food Rykounagin had dialed up, her hands clenched into unconscious fists at her sides. For a long moment she simply glowered; then with a little grunt allowed her demeanor to return to something closer to normal.

"Mother would have us rule our people, she and that weakling fool Darra, and I. This of course would never work, for from what I understand of the incessant teachings of those nasty instructors she insisted upon continually plaguing me with, the Triad must be both Dark Lords and their ladies. But three.

"Now--"

She paused, reaching out for a leg of something roasted which lay upon a tray dripping with succulent juices. Putting it to her lips, she tore off a great hunk, letting the juice drip freely down her chin.

"That doesn't mean I intend to follow such ancient silliness as Triads and such; Father, I believe, had something a bit more... singular in mind for the Sith, although what it exactly was I really couldn't say."

ShaRhylla paused in chewing, stared intently at Rykounagin over the meat she held in her hand, and waited to see to where it was he might run upon the steed she had given free rein in his direction.

I picked up a small glass of a faint purple liquid, which swirled of its own free will, and took a small sip. "She sent her pet witch to trail me, and suffice to say, her pet played with fire..." I smiled now, downing the small glass as though it were a shot.

Letting her eyes cool to twin burning embers, she snarled another great chunk of meat from the bone in her hand, chewing and growling into middle space. Then her gaze softened, grew almost vacant, as if she was seeing something that he not only was not, but that he could never, ever hope to see at all.

"Do not underestimate Mother, she is stronger than you think," she stated, lost in memories both new and old, all of them riding upon the more recent one of her own failure to create the fine cuisine she had tried to make just moments earlier. Then she swallowed and sighed.

"What would you do, Rykounagin?" she asked him then, point-blank.

I began to pick my words carefully now, as it treaded dangerously. "We need something that will stop her from acting rashly upon us..." There was the slightest hint in my voice of my intent, but not nearly enough to allow her to discern. "But we have nothing here... nothing that protects us... the fact that she is not here at this moment actually worries me... but perhaps it is a good thing."

"Perhaps you are right," she said as she sat her now empty plate down on the counter next to him. "Perhaps it would be best to not worry about such things as how we are to hide not only our intentions, but our very selves from Mother at all."

Indeed, there is need of this, isn't there Rykounagin?

Abruptly the darkness left her visage, and she lithely hopped up on the counter next to him.

"Relax," she repeated, scooching back just the tiniest bit. One hand left the counter; she waved it about herself.

"Just whatever did you do to relax in such a dreary place as this?"

Blinking, she let the drapery fall back into place and continued to pace about the room. Although to a casual glance it would seem she was merely curious, there was yet an aspect of a trapped animal about her being as she moved almost restlessly about.

At length she came to a halt before an armoire, one made of rich greelwood and inlaid with unmistakable Sith glyphs and designs. An intriguing object lay atop it; without a lick of hesitation she snatched it up, turning it this way and that before her gaze.

"What is this?" she asked Rykounagin, turning about as the words left her lips to hold the object out so he might see it.

Knowing a question regarding the wisdom of leaving it in the guest quarters was comming, I beat her to the chase. "It is no shame of the cult, that one might see their workings and know of what they have done. It is a measure of pride that they can show their employers how lethally effective they are- or were, rather."

It felt odd to speak of them disjointedly, as though I was not one of their line. Well, of course I was not! I was the son of Roan, and that was what my role in this universe was.

"The device is not only a form of "advertisement" but of knowledge and skills. Merely letting your mind wander gives you a very small sliver of what the assassins were. Oh, and this..." I gently took it from her. "Is also special in another way."

I shifted several of the sections until the cylinder had thinned and lengthened to nine inches, now only a fourth of the origonal width remaining, a small black obsidian needle protruding from the end. "It was also the origonal device used to inscribe the flesh of the cult. It gave me these...." I ran my fingertips over my face.

"It is the history and essence that exists of the assassins... the memories of their elders... the marking of their children. All held in one small thing." I closed the needle, and went to the armoire, setting it back gently.

"Knowing now what it is, and what it means to those who were but the pawns of my people, used against my people, how can you think I would hold it as thus?"

Now she turned to Rykounagin, looking up to stare him fully in the face.

"How can you bear it that you came of this strange lineage of toys?" she asked him, cocking her head a bit to one side in genuine interest.

"How can you stand to have ever been one whose mere role in life was to be used by others, all for their benefit and will and to no real end of your own?"

It was true, in its entirety. I had no reason to lie for something like this, for it was a simple truth. "We are the ultimate middle men of the greater good. Death is an inevitability that we deal in, and have learned to make come all the sooner for those whose inevitability could not come soon enough. Perhaps it is wrong of us to see death as a good profession, but it is how we were born, and raised. To be a pawn is not a bad thing, if the pawn is the one put in place to checkmate the emperor."

I made the small reference to the game of Regicide without difficulty, as I had been paraphrasing a speech I had one listened to from the same reliquary I had spoken of previously.

...only to snap back into the harsh reality of an austere base secreted within the heart of one of a billion asteroids.

"I was used too, you know," she said at length, her voice a mere whisper, but a whisper bearing an undercurrent of solid rock.

"I shall be used no longer, not by anybody for anything. From henceforward all I do shall be for my end, by my will... or for the sake of those who I might care about.

"But not at the mere desire of another, no longer! I will be a puppet no more."

"No one can control you, I'll make sure of that, my lady." I bowed slightly before her, hoping this would sate her need for an affirmation of her statement. "No one can control you anymore, because you have three things in your hands."

I rose from my small bow, and continued to smile, pulling my three fingers down as I spoke. "You are the Dark Lady of the sith, despite your mother's attempt to hold that position. Second, you have your father and thus, control of the darker realms..."

Here I sat, bald-faced lying to the one I said I loved, manipulating her, spinning lie after lie around her simply so I could achieve another's ends. Was it not her own heart poured out before me that she had said that she would never be used again?

Even I, one who rarely had ever felt a sense of moral duty, felt wrong at what I was doing. "I'm sorry..." I murmured, lowering my hand. "But I lied. I cannot be by your side forever, not now, not tomorrow, and likely? Not ever."

I sighed. "I was here on your fathers bidding. I loved you, but it wasn't true love as I wish it could have been. I was here to love you because he told me to, because it was my duty. Even in taking you here, I lied to you, because he demanded of me that I aid him in siring him a grandchild... to what end I do not know. But what I do know? Is that what I have done is terribly, terribly wrong."

I moved to the door. "I can't stay by your side fairly in that knowledge, so I'm going to do you one last service. I'm going to give you that seat which you desire, which you deserve. I'm going to make you the ruler of the sith, the last lady and lord."

I bowed quickly. "I must go now... and I do not think we shall ever see each other again. It is an unlikeliness in any event. Goodbye my ShaRhylla..."

I turned and left the room, walking at a swift gait to the dockingbay. I keyed the sigil and borded the craft, taking the controls, and within a few moments, I had left the bay and departed out into the void.

"It's time to do what I said I'd do two years ago." I spoke to myself as I keyed the sigils to the astrogation computer, and within a moment, hyperspace had taken the ship.

"Lady Graysith... it's time I fulfilled a promise to myself and to my love... it's time you stopped being the wicked thing you are..."

I closed my eyes, sitting back in my seat. "And became the cadaver you should always have been."

(((OOC: Rykounagin speeds off to: The Saving of a Soul in The Sith Temple, Jedi Praxium. Thankyou)))

In those few marching seconds ShaRhylla's demeanor slid from shocked confusion to sheer and shaking rage. She didn't know who to be the most furious with: Rykounagin, for playing her for the fool as he had; her dearly beloved father, for manipulating her like so much putty in his great, clawed hands...

Or herself. For believing in either of them.

Well, no more! she seethed, the sudden returning ability to move yanking her from her statue-like stillness and sending her fleeting out from the chambers in pursuit of her once beloved. To no avail; she had only traveled a pitiable few meters down the metal-encased corridor when a heavy thrumm that was more felt than heard told her the truth about where Rykounagin was.

Leaving me. As they always have left me!

She came to a jerked halt in the middle of the corridor, her claws digging into her palms so tightly did she fist her hands. Droplets of violet blood sprinkled the floor at her sides, some managing to land on the toes of her soft leather boots. She paid this no heed whatsoever, her eyes seeing only spiralling darkness in front of her.

He shall pay... they both shall pay for this atrocity! she fumed, now letting memories of her time with Entaris rise to the fore, filling her with bloodlust and a lustier blood-hunger for revenge. She licked her lips, thinking of all she had learned from Entaris, knowing of the delights which lay ahead.

First it shall be Daddy dearest. And then that pitiful fool of a once love shall see the one he dares refer to as Father has been destroyed by my hand, and will shake in his tiny boots knowing that he shall be next...

Snarling grimly to herself, she raised her hand to create a portal... but stopped.

She wasn't quite certain where she was. Neither did she have a strong sense of where K'eel Doba lay. And to top it all off, she hadn't had much practice in the art of side-slipping space as her Mother was so wont to do.

Throwing her head back like a wild animal, the halfling let out a yowl of comingled rage and frustration.

Alpha-Quarto sat hunched in his command seat, scowling at the navigation boards in front of him.

Damn the slippery little--

Grunting as he quickly truncated that unprofessional thought, he straightened up, then quickly keyed his screens to zoom out into overview. There before him lay a particular corner of the universe in all its particular splendor, a splendor marred as an occasional dark mass came drifting slowly in, across, and then finally out of his field of view.

Asteroids! he scowled further. It had to be asteroids...

Now the grunt segued into a little sigh as, ever aware of his role as squadron commander, he began searching for a trajectory that he and his wingmen could follow. His fingers danced a silent tarantelle across the various and sundry dials in front of him as he brought system after system online, reaching out into the starlit void, searching his immediate area...

Infrared. Ion flux detector. Magnetic field indicator. And radio pickup, just for the complete hell of it.

Nothing. His scowl deepened then as with a silent snarl he continued his search, now bringing up everything the Empire had on this particular little asteroid field: average of both the field itself and the known bodies of which it was comprised, their orbital periods and distances from the weak little yellow star they circled about, the compositions of the asteroids as estimated by spectral analysis. Everything he could think of, all was inputted into his navcomp in the hopes that a good guesstimate as to the possible trajectory of his prey could be computed.

A pregnant pause followed, one that seemed to stretch into howling infinity before his computer let forth a little burp and spit out some figures.

Trace indications of excessive ion radiation. Hmmm...

Now the scowl softened into a look of grim determination as, keying in the coordinates the computer so nicely provided him with he then contacted his little squad to give them the same.

"Lead ship Stealth to Blackwing. Data indicates the presence of an asteroid which is larger than 500 km across its greatest length, showing an associated ion flux cloud hanging about it. Please accept the coordinates of this object, raise shields, prime weapons, and follow me.

"Alpha Quarto, out."

It didn't take the little squadron long before they found themselves slavering about a seemingly unoccupied asteroid, one which to all appearances was simply going about its own business in its little corner of space...

Alpha-Quarto was not one to be fooled by immediate appearances. With no further ado, he dove down through the ion flux cloud, following a thin trail where the particles were a bit denser than their surroundings, and soon landed on the asteroid itself.

Moments later he was joined by his squad, all who stepped forth, ever alert for danger, eyes everywhere, radio opened, weapons cocked and aching to be used.

Alpha Quarto squinted, keyed down the contrast in his helmet's visor, and stared harder at a rock face which didn't look quite as natural as it should have. Grinning to himself, he indicated the strange wall with the tip of his blaster rifle.

"That way," he said curtly, and stepped out, his men hot and in perfect formation on his heels.

Redness flooded her vision, and the darkest of thoughts emblazoned themselves across her mind.

How dare he leave me here, how dare he! she fumed to herself as she paced onward, no real thought as to where she was going, just giving into the primal need to move, to take some sort of action, even though that action was a far cry from the one she was fairly aching to perform.

Which was to rip Rykounagin's lungs out his throat and feed them to him.

In tiny pieces.

So on she went, snarling and growling to herself, storming along like a flame-winged tornado, round and about and through...

...until suddenly, in the distance, a strange beeping noise brought her to a halt. She half crouched, tilting her head to one side, a feral gleam still dancing in her eyes as she tried to discern what the odd little noise could be. She had never heard anything like it in her life: it was a tiny, tinny little blinking sort of noise, the kind that a computer might make as though when politely coughing to gain the attention of it's slow-witted human counterparts...

Still crouching, she hastened off, hounding the sound now, trailing it, and finally finding it's source: deep in the heart of the asteroid she came to a chamber, one filled with equipment and consoles and screens and dials and buttons.

One of them was blinking am insistent red, and was sending forth that even more insistent beep.

She had no idea it was a proximity sensor, warning of the approach of strangers who had inadvertently tripped one of the myriad guard-wire boobytraps that were laid out checkerboard about the asteroid's surface. She only knew that it was something different from the ordinary.

Shayla leaned back, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "Hmmm," she then murmered aloud, her eyes defocusing a little. "Perhaps our knowledge of Rykounagin's whereabouts may be a stepping stone to approach her and decrease any immediate reaction? She needs to know--if she doesn't somehow already know--that she is being used by him. She also needs to know that she is still entitled to take part in ruling the Sith; she seems to want that. Letting her know that you also intend to further her training to in turn make her a more powerful leader may decrease any hostility she might have.

The scale tipped terribly close to the negative end, but at length she decided that Shayla's words held true merit. Now she nodded, then rolled her head so as to cut a look Shayla's way.

"Sensible enough, my sister; but-- exactly how are we going to sway her to our side? While the assassin has undoubtedly left her, as judging from the look on her face that we saw as well as the fact that he is no longer there, there may be other variables at play that we are unaware of. And who knows what poison he has put into her mind in what few moments of commonality they might have shared; honestly, while I have faced the wrath of such as Darth Desolist and his henchman Gravin Dark, have faced the Master in his most evil permutation...

"...I am at a loss when it comes to a simple confrontation with my own child!"

Even as she spoke the words, something dark and oily flitted, gleaming, across her eyes; so quickly as to appear as but a hint of a shadow.

Quickly she suppressed the dark gleam, but could not quite rid herself of an even darker thought now racing through her mind:

She WILL obey me, or--

She will. She is only a child...

...as well as time for one to determine the worth of your honesty for themselves. ShaRhylla is headstrong, and dismissing that and forcing her to do something probably won't help us. But if there was some way to direct her to realizing that our side is best, on her own terms...

...that would create a powerful union. After all, ShaRhylla is accustomed to being used, by her Father and then by Rykounagin. If we could lead her to somehow understand this...

...and give her some control over her destiny with us...

Breathing steadily so as not to fog up his faceplate, the squadron commander peered more closely at the rock face...

...and then smiled. For upon more intent scrutiny, the thin, unnatural lines of what could only be a door or hatch was revealed; a bit more casting about led him to a control panel, hidden deep within the recesses of a small crevice in the rock.

His smile thinned to a determined line as with no further ado he aimed his blaster at the panel and let fly. Sparks shot silently out from the little hole, lighting a portion of the rock which quite suddenly had segued into a door.

A door that was now sliding open, revealing another one perhaps twenty feet beyond.

"Follow me," Alpha-Quarto commanded tersely as he nodded toward the airlock. Then, blaster gripped and ready, he stepped from the asteroid proper into the opening to the Cult Assassins' secret base. He was quickly followed by his men; when all were accounted for he located an inner panel and in moments had the outer hatchway closed.

"True enough words," she said smoothly, the tone of her voice carrying a slight tinge of sadness upon their backs.

"But how to convince her that she would be a part of a new Triumvirate, one composed of Dark Ladies only, not merely those of the Sith but of--"

Again she paused, turning away once more to think, searching for a word, a title, anything to get across the union that she had in mind. The little fact that the Sith themselves would probably protest, and loudly, at being led not only sans any Dark Lords but by a threesome who weren't even full-blooded Sith didn't deter her in the least.

They did have the All at their command, after all; and it hadn't failed her yet.

After all, she mused to herself, letting her eyes grow distant, eyes now sparkling to see a wondrous new Empire stretching out before them.

There are so few who have truly known the Larger Picture, the Greater Good; once this is shown to them they will see how pitiable their little Sith magicks really are, and will welcome the New Triad with open arms...

The blackness, now hidden from Shayla's curious eyes, gave itself in to full expression, now filling Graysith's eyes with the color of space at its very deepest and most remote.

...almost.

"She's been used by her Father, and betrayed by her consort," Shayla then analyzed. "What more could a lady expect from any male counterpart, than to be ultimately betrayed, used...

...and then forgotten."

Pausing at this, Shayla's eyes darkened and grew vague. "She needs to be drawn to the superior wisdom of placing a Triad of females in the lead of the Sith. After all, if we are wise enough to guide and direct children in their youth, we are more than capable of guiding and directing a civilization to greatness. ShaRhylla should be made very aware of the fact that, when all is said and done, her Mother is the one who has prepared her to be strong and successful without the lead of a male. After all, why should we take the bit of those who are guided by hormones and control alone?"

"You may have provided the missing link that we needed so badly, my dear sister," she purred, lolling her head back to affix Shayla with her brilliant gaze.

"Our only remaining worry is that ShaRhylla would strike out against us before we have a chance to convince her of this; recall if you will her actions on Kamino, which was when she was only just--"

She paused a moment, searching for a word.

"Reborn," she finally finished, now turning her head to stare directly in front of herself, once again wriggling into the incredibly supportive and wonderfully comfortable material of the sith fighter's navigator's seat.

"I would contact her in this manner... if only I could. But you see, my dear, I do not know the communication frequency for the receiver which blinks before her."

Giving Shayla a fond look, she went on.

"The idea has merit, however; there is a way I can contact my child. Which I shall attempt to do so this very moment."

With that she settled quietly in her seat, her eyes growing dark and unfocused, the Glyph upon her forehead roaring into resplendent life as reaching out via the Link she held with Sharhylla the Chosen Daughter of the Sith called out into the night.

"ShaRhylla, my child. It is your mother who speaks to you. I am aware of your plight and am coming to your aid. I shall be with you shortly; remember, my child, a mother's love never strays."

That accomplished she slumped in her seat, the Glyph darkening as she shuddered with the strain of reaching out through hyperspace along such a mental connection. After sitting quietly thus for several minutes she had regained enough strength to raise her head and speak.

"I made contact with her, Shayla, and have announced our imminent arrival. But I could not maintain the Link long enough to receive her reply.

"You are right, Shayla. If that is an indicator light, it would indeed mean there is someone else on the asteroid with ShaRhylla. Someone that perhaps she knows nothing about."

Leaning forward, she smiled in apology a brief moment before reaching out in front of her Adept and touching a peculiar looking glyph on the navboards. Impossibly, the ship thrust itself forward even faster, warping the already highly warped strangeness of which hyperspace consisted.

Then turning to the computer, she requested an ETA, one with which the ship promptly obliged her.

"Two hours, Shayla," she said, the note of worry deepening her voice.

After all, Shayla hadn't had the opportunity to mother her own child past the womb...

...but he'd experienced enough times of danger even while in the womb that Shayla knew the feeling all too well. Had never forgotten it, in fact.

"I agree, and I believe I can open a Portal to where she is now..."

Now without bothering with any apology, she usurped the navboard completely, adding in a set of instructions that the ship continue on course to then come to an geosynchronous orbit wherever it detected their life signatures to be. That accomplished, she rose quickly to her feet, took hold of Shayla's hand, and took in a deep breath.

The interior of the little fighter flared ultraviolet as her Glyph ravened once more to brilliant incandescence, a brilliance she saw even through her closed lids, even though her head was flung back, even though as the thought went out and the opening ripped into being she was taking her first steps toward it, Shayla en tow...

...only to come to an abrupt halt directly in front of some heavily armored, and even more heavily armed, Imperials.

Instead, he operated on sheer instinct. After the two women appeared, or so it seemed, out of thin air and he had sent the flame-headed one to lala-land, the tip of his blaster found a new target.

Right between the eyes of the blond.

... Imperials? Why, and how, in all the Fates, were they here?

Stretching out then Shayla reached into Graysith's mind via the link they shared, and channeled her healing strength into her, seeking to bring her back to conciousness with more than just merely the Force, for she needed her Sister to be able to think and react now to this immediate threat, and not the more extended period of time in which it would require the Force to bring her back.

Nope, he didn't like it one bit.

"Back away from your friend there!' he barked, moving his blaster the tiniest fraction in the direction where he wanted Shayla to move.

"And while you're at it, you mind telling us who the hell you are, and where the hell you came from...

How dare they attack unarmed people, how dare they call the shots.

She was a Sith adept and the Chosen Daughter's Second. This was all unacceptable. She was not going to leave Graysith simply lying there, injured, to fill these men in.

No way.

In a fit of nothing more than pure anger, Shayla stretched out, and each of the blasters now trained on her simply...

...exploded in their bearer's hands.

Knowing the men were at least momentarily distracted, Shayla turned her concentration back on Graysith.

My sister, she thought out through her link with her, We are in imminent danger, as is your daughter. The Imperials are here...

...but we will find ShaRhylla regardless of them.

Knowing the effort it would require her to use All abilities she was only beginning to learn of before she was cut from them more than a year before would expend a great amount of energy, Shayla decided on practicality.

But the one who lay on the floor first...

"I'd be more concerned about your friend there," he spat as he shook his head again, wincing at the stab of pain the motion created all across his singed face. Then he let his training take over once more, and in a flash was on his feet.

Behind him came an answering scrabble as his men did likewise, each man coming to a half crouch, ready to be employed as however Alpha-Quarto saw fit.

For the moment, however, he chose to merely watch and wait, to let Shayla make the next move. The unexpectedness of her attack and the strange mode in which that attack was made was not lost on him; slitting his eyes, he merely nodded once again in the direction of the red-headed one, who still lay on the floor apparently unconscious.

Only now her exposed flesh bore the marks of flash-burning, and was peppered here and there with bits of shrapnel.

Alpha-Quarto filed this information away, now knowing something about the woman he had ordered mere moments before. Not only did that woman have some kind of weapon which was unknown to him, but she did seem to flare out quickly and efficiently, like a rancor in a single sweeping attack. This told him much, warned him as to how he should proceed next.

And whispered uncomfortably into his inner ear that perhaps this blond woman could be more than just a little mad.

So he chose to stand in front of his man, crouching slightly, hands out to the side, refusing to answer her rather imperious statement.

...she didn't necessarily have the best control of that which she intended yet. And, all things considered, she was still learning, and hadn't been a student in the All for some time due to obvious reasons.

That didn't deter her resolve regardless, nor did it lessen her alarm as to the extent of the new injuries her action had inflicted on Graysith.

No. No, no, no! she thought silently, stretching out further for the strength within herself to deal with the situation, to help Graysith...

...and to correct her error in harming the one dearest to her any further than she already had been.

...or was far deeper than he or any of his men could actually perceive. Squinting a little, he peered more closely, and then let his jaw drop a bit in utter amazement. For the red-headed woman's injuries seemed to be lightening, growing less intense, fading, healing...

Alpha-Quarto snapped his mouth shut for a moment as with his chin he toggled a switch in his helmet, opening up a channel to his men.

"Keep on your toes, I think we have some kind of Force user here," he cautioned in a whisper scarcely louder than the sigh of a spring zephyr.

"But I've never heard of any Jedi doing what this one has just done..."

Falling silent again, he returned to his scrutiny of the situation, keeping the communication open between himself and his men in case he had to tell them of something once more.

As she felt Graysith returning to her, Shayla sent an unspoken communication her way once more, via their shared link.

The discreet, if rather abrupt, insertion of an obviously computerized voice into the otherwise near-absolute quiet of the command chamber Caused the halfling to jerk instinctively, yanked her focus from the bleeping red light she had been staring upon, if not actually seeing at the moment. But her momentary drift from reality was firmly cemented when beside the proximity light there now lit up, obligingly enough, a green monitor. Upon the inset screen a red "X" now blinked, attached to a round cirular area in the middle by a cross-hatching of lines.

Even ShaRhylla could figure out that the screen was displaying the position of possible danger in relationship with the most important room in the warren of corridors and chambers that honeycombed the asteroid base: the command center.

Which, she suddenly smiled with realization, was just where she was.

Now her lip curled into a feral smile, and she let her hunting instincts rise to the fore: those innate predatory inklings she had been born with, so deliciously honed durning her horrific stay in the Darker Realms. Her eyes slitted and darkened, her fingers curled ever so slightly into primordial hunting talons, and her pearly fangs peeped every so promisingly from her lips.

It is probably him, coming back; just like him and his arrogance to come with blasters alive, undoubtedly meant to declare his return in some grand and glorious manner.

Well... it will certainly be to his detriment!

Thinking nothing, operating on simple and pure fury and hatred for her onetime spouse, she whirled and loped to the hatch. It sensed her coming, opened to spit her into the corridor beyond. She turned to the right, ready to follow the map she had by now emblazoned upon her mind's eye... when she stopped.

I shall HURT him before I kill him! she yowled viciously to herself, then making a quick about-face and retracing her steps back to the opulent guest chambers where Rykounagin had led her, seeming years ago.

It was right where she had left it: the repository of all the Assassin Cult's knowledge. With a snarl of eager glee, she snatched it up, and shot back out into the corridor, disappearing around the first turn before the door to the suite had even closed all the way...

It did not take her long to burst in upon room 213, where she skidded to a shocked halt. Who was there but some figures in white-suited armor, a young blond woman she vaguely remembered from somewhere...

And her mother, who was at the very best unconscious upon the floor.

And at the least...

Much to her total surprise and self-disgust, she found her predatory smile to be wavering at the sight. But it returned with a vengeance as one of the figures in white jerked a heretofore hidden hand-blaster in her direction...

That he didn't shoot was an act of great restraint on his part... and was more than likely what kept him alive at the moment.

Instead, for indeed the shot he had fired at the redhead was more of an instinctive rather than logically thought out one--

For how often to people simply pop into being in front of you anyway, literally out of thin air?

--he widened his stance a bit for stability, and turned it a little sideways so as to present less of a target of himself.

"Hold it right there, miss!" he commanded in a stern voice, blinking now with the effort to keep every bit of his focus glued to ShaRhylla even though his peripheral vision was waving red flags all over his psyche that the downed redhead was beginning to stir.

Pursing his lips into a thin line, he stilled those warning signs, secure in the knowledge that his men still had that particular pair under strong serveillance, as it were. And so he merely remained quiet, alert to the slightest motion, the slightest twitch from the young woman in front of him that might indicate what level of threat she would turn out to be, if any.

And thus he, his men, the blond woman, and so far the younger--

And was that HORNED?!?

--redhead remained frozen in a strange and somehow surreal tableau.

...but taken totally by suprise as none other than ShaRhylla skidded with what was at first a dark, determined look. Shayla's eyes widened.

ShaRhylla... Shayla thought, still somewhat surprised by her sudden arrival in the room.

"Nobody move," Alpha-Quarto said calmly, his eyes never leaving ShaRhylla. His head dipped in her direction, the movement seeming to be one that was strangely genteel, save for the fact that he wasn't trying to keep her calm. The motion came when he toggled a switch inside the neckrim of his helmet, this time opening a connection back to his mother ship.

Quickly, the words sharp and concise, he related what he and his men had found; after a few moments had passed, he once more dipped his head.

This time it was to acknowledge an incoming communique from his commanding officer.

"Very well, ladies," he said, keeping his voice steady and stern without allowing a lick of warmth to enter into it.

"If you would please come with us, there is someone who would like to...

"Meet you."

Her eyes cut to ShaRhylla, widened in momentary surprise to see her standing silent as well; then slid sideways to take in Shayla's profile as the young woman calmly confronted the Imperials.

Her face hidden beneath her tendrils, Graysith allowed herself to smile. Then she cut a look once more to Shayla, nodded. Shot her gaze back to her daughter, and when she had made eye contact simply pursed her lips and dipped her head but once.

How dare they demand! This was much more than enough...

Stretching out then with her abilities, Shayla errected the All shield she had already been capable of errecting in the past...

...and dug more deeply, the anger boiling within her.

They needed to get out...

...and now...

Three seconds later, Alpha Quarto waved his hand in disgust, signalling his men to cease fire. Before them, the odd blanketing nothingness only shimmered, as if laughing at them.

But then again, perhaps that shimmer was the wave upon wave of electromagnetic force which encapsulated it, raced about its surface, and then finally dissipated in a final dwindling glare.

Alpha-Quarto and his men stood motionless, defeated by the oddness of the situation. Then, the snikk amplified by that overwhelming silence, Alpha-Quarto once more toggled a switch, once more sent communique to his mother ship.

"Relentless, we have a situation here...

"Blackwing, this is Lt. General Tarnus. Belay any aggression against the anomaly; search the premises and gather all computer data you can find regarding it. I am sending a Star Galleon with a full complement of men to back-up and take control of this apparent base you have found. ETA, twenty standard cycles.

"Once again, I say you are to take no aggressive action at this time against the anomaly; observe and report anything unusual happening if such circumstances should arise.

"This is Lt. General Tarnus, out."

ShaRhylla still stood near the doorway where she had come in from the corridor, her eyes wide with surprise and mounting distrust, a strange object grasped in her hand. Graysith had to smile to herself for the image projected by her halfling daughter: strong in turn, silent, suspicious yes, but neither was she being overly aggressive.

Good, she thought to herself as she slowly raised one hand toward ShaRhylla.

She may have learned something...

Now she let her inner smile break softly upon her face.

"Daughter, I know what it is that you have done in Phrinnchatka, as well as do I know what... a certain Cult Assassin--"

She spit the title from her lips as if it was nothing more than dirt to her; indeed, associating herself now as she did totally and unequivocably with the Sith, such a personage was nothing more to her than a tool to be used by the royalty.

"--has done to you. I forgive you your unthinking transgressions, my child; can you accept me in turn now, or do you yet cling futilely to that which you certainly must see you will never have?

"There is other love, truer love, to be found amongst those of your own race, ShaRhylla, and of the greatest importance of all there is the undying love of a mother.

"Come with us, daughter; come and accept not merely the destiny you tried to wrench away on your own... but one more glorious than you can ever imagine."

Something black and oily briefly flickered through her eyes, but her smile held. A pregnant silence ensued, one in which there was no movement other than the brief shadows of antagonzing emotions that now flitted transparently across ShaRhylla's face.

Indeed she is yet young, the Chosen Daughter thought to herself.

I shall allow her a means to save her dignity.

"What is that strange thing that you grasp, my young one, as if it is worth more than all the precious metals and jewels in the galaxy?"

Alpha-Quarto closed the connection with a little flip of his chin, holstering his blaster as he now motioned to two of his men.

"You two, remain here and watch this-- this-- thing. I expect an immediate report should anything unusual happen in regard to it; keep your weapon at hand, but don't waste any more ammo on it. It seems impervious to blaster fire.

"But--"

He paused a moment, reflecting at the ease with which he had downed the first redhead.

"If any one of those three peeps out so much as a toe, stun them. General Tarnus doesn't want them harmed... at least not too much."

With a final snarl of disgust at the humming sphere of weirdness, he then turned away and motioned to his men. Barking orders, he set two of them about the task of infiltrating the base, seeking computer terminals that they might upload to their fighters whatever information they might find.

But how she had come to find her here, in a place Rykounagin swore would be the last one anyone would look for...

A thunderstorm began to form upon her brow.

Slitting her eyes slightly, she remained where she was, her eyes still cutting between the two other women as she started to quickly ponder to herself just what in all the universe she should do.

Of course she didn't believe her mother, not in the least. At least that's what she told herself; from somewhere deep within herself a tiny voice began struggling to be heard, tried to remind her that her mother had never done anything detrimental to her, that perhaps her mind wasn't quite as clear on the subject as it should be and that perhaps she was viewing the Dark Lady through an even darker miasma fomented by Entaris, and Rykounagin...

Not to mention her father.

That thought managed to wriggle through her shocked surprise, worming through her rising ire and directing it in another direction.

Father...

It was enough, for the moment, to at least listen to the women before her...

...if only for the reason that both her ex-spouse and once-beloved father hated them.

For the enemy of my enemy is at least an uneasy friend...

Forcing herself to loosen, she rose upright, staring at the object in her hand for a brief moment before holding it out to them as if it was some kind of peace offerring.

"I was told it held all the knowledge of the Cult Assassins," she said simply, and said no more.

"Thank you, ShaRhylla," she said simply, nodding to her before turning off at an angle and with a wave of one hand ripping open the Portal back to their ship. It shimmered and wavered, showing them the impossibility of the inside of a Sith ship yet travelling through hyperspace; with a graceful motion, Graysith indicated the rip in the fabric of space and time.

"It is time that you both return to K'eel Doba," she said, waving toward the Portal once more while her other hand busied itself with tucking the repository beneath her cloak.

"I shall be joining you shortly, but there is at first something which must be attended to. Shayla--"

Now she turned to the young woman, stared her full in the face.

"When you and ShaRhylla have returned to the ship, it is my desire that you drop the shield you have placed about us. Do not worry, my dear; there is nothing that the Imperials can do that will harm me, and this way I know that you and my daughter are safely away from them.

In fact, far from it.

However, she stepped through the Portal and seated herself at the navboard once more...

...and with a darkening look, gave a sigh and let the sield drop as Graysith had requested. Numb and concerned regarding what might then take place, she kept her mind open to her link with Graysith, paused to impossibly reorient the Sith fighter while it was still in hyperspace and reset her course for K'eel Doba.

Shayla and ShaRhylla had no sooner disappeared through the Portal when the All shield hiding them from the Imperials' eyes did as well. A slight twist of one slender wrist was all it took for the Chosen Daughter to relinquish her hold on the Portal she had opened, letting it too slide into oblivion mere nanoseconds after the shield had dropped.

She heard rather than saw the remaining fighter pilots train their hand blasters upon her; smiling to herself, she nodded, satisfied with something as she remained steadfast in place, her back to the pair, unmoving save for slow and easy breathing. Only after the seconds had ticked off into unbearably tense minutes did she turn round to face them, a smile still planted upon her lips.

The fighters seemed to jump at her movement, then tensed, hunkering, twin blasters aimed in unison upon her heart.

"Just you stay right there, Miss!" the taller of the pair commanded as he nodded his head, this time opening up a communication with Alpha-Quarto.

Graysith laughed, easily deciphering what to some might be an enigmatic motion of his head.

Shayla paused, and something in the depths of her eyes darkened til their color was that of a sea before a storm. "We will be...

... taking care of him in due time..."

Throughout Shayla's discourse the halfling remained stone silent, digesting each word as it was spoken, as if it was a choice morsel to either savor before swallowing or merely gulp down whole. But with each word her eyes grew darker and darker, finally slitting as the pupils enlarged, ready to take on the prey every instinct wsa telling her she had.

She shivered with the sheer ecstasy of it before finally getting something of a grip on herself. Moving round the seat a bit so that she was now even with Shayla, she remained standing, one hand gripping the upholstered seatback, the other hanging slightly curled by her side.

"What are you going to do to him?" she asked rather abruptly. "To Rykounagin, I mean.

"What would you do?"

She trailed a moment at that, her eyes only growing darker. "And I'd love to watch every moment of it."

Her lips curled even more, exposing a delicate fang.

"I would and can bring him to the point of Death, but would not allow him release. I will tear out his own heart, Grand Betrayer that it is, and feed it to mother's tu'kata, all the while keeping him alive to suffer in that knowledge.

"I will bit by bit impale him with a thousand tiny blades, each one taking out a bit of his flesh... and yet will force him to remain alive.

"I will force his horrible eyes from his head, and make him eat them. I will remove both his hands, and keep the nerve endings raw.

"I will sink him into the very stone of the Underworld, and leave him to the demons..."

She came to an abrupt halt with that, cocking her head a little to one side as she forced herself to regain a semblance of normalcy.

She trailed, and her eyes defocuseed a bit. "I do believe we should inquire to the Revealer just what it is that brought Lord Phalomir to Rykounagin, as well as if the young fool remains in the predicament he was when we last requested his whereabouts."

"If he is somewhere in a tattered ship, as you say, then he must have some kind of life support, right? He must be on a planet or somewhere with air."

Plopping down in the seat next to Shayla now, ShaRhylla turned to her, toying with a tendril of her hair.

"Yes, let us discover his whereabouts, so we can go there and quickly put him out of my misery!"

"At last, we are almost there,"Shayla said aloud, reaching for the reversion sigil as the countdown continued. When it timed out, she punched the sigil, and hyperdriven stars sequed into a planet, in closer proximity to the fighter than a normal ship would be able to withstand.

Several more hours crawled by, hours the two Imperials passed by alternately standing guard over the apparently entranced woman, or in playing a quick hand of cards. Or rather, in playing one quick hand after the other.

"Sabaac!" the younger of the pair cried out in triumph as he reached out yet again to scoop in his winning cards. "That's thirty-three thousand, eight hundred and sixty-seven credits you owe me now."

He grinned in the face of the elder's obvious chagrin, and cackled a little as the other rose to his feet to make another obligatory check on the quiet Graysith. Coming to a halt beside her, he merely stood in silence, staring down at her tumbling locks of flame. Something about that hair made him just itch to reach out and touch it...

His hand was beginning to move, seemingly of its own volition, when a squawk in his radio receiver commanded his attention. Jerking his hand away and his entire body to a stiff attention, he listened to the short message in its entirety, then nodded his head in a definite manner.

"Yessir!" he replied, moving his chin to truncate the connection. Returning to where his companion sat grinning from ear to ear, he looked down and frowned.

"Back-up's here..." he began, when a slight noise behind him made him whirl about, hand blaster ready and finger a mere millimeter from letting incomparable energies fly...

"I am ready to go with your troops," she announced to the astounded trooper, who couldn't quite figure out how in all the known universe she knew what the comm he'd just received had been about. Not to mention exactly how she had known ther was one to begin with, for in her meditative state her back had been to them, and once again her face to the floor.

Her smile broadened in the face of his obvious discomfiture; now extending her hands out to either side of herself, she went on, her voice rich and low and musical.

"I am quite harmless, I can assure you that. But I do have rather acute hearing."

Nothing followed; neither she nor either of the troopers said anything further to each other, and their demeanor toward her didn't diminish one whit. Thus they presented themselves as a strange, frozen tableau to the fresh troops who now entered the chamber, some of them coming to align themselves in a closed square about the Dark Lady of the Sith while others went to relieve her two guards.

Only after the command center had been entirely overrun by Imperial troopers, scientists and computer experts did the order come through that the squad take Jharmeen back to the blockade.

For a very special meeting with Lt. General Sorben Tarnus...

((OOC: Follow Graysith as she goes under Imperial guard back into the thread Z-Prime in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, thank you.))