Someone was there...

Shayla suddenly gripped the hands she didn't know were around her own. Another sob wracked her small frame. She focused on the words rolling into her ears, trying for the life of her to clear the fuzz and understand them.

"I...I am trying..." she sobbed. "Can't..."

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Then, inspiration came to Lo-Ban...

He got behind her, and sat... so that her back was almost touching his chest...

"I am going to relax you now, think cool thoughts... what do you like to do for fun, Shayla... ok, this is gonna calm you down... breath in and out slowly Shayla, just relax... I am here for you..."

He then started to give her what he does best in the bedroom, a shoulder massage...

so tense... Lo-Ban thought to himself, struggling with the emotions that were pouring from Shayla, but managing them well...

[ 10-08-2002 12:18 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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But who?

Shayla's mind was starting to slowly shut down. It couldn't take any more of this despair, couldn't take any more of this pain...

...and she so very, very much wanted to relax...

Remember what defeated this before, Shayla! a little voice niggled inside of her. It was the good emotions within you that stopped this...

...and it's right in front of you Shayla. People here care, THEY CARE. YOU CARE. So long as you give in, so long as you don't care, OF COURSE EVERYONE IS GONNA FAIL...

Shayla focused on this thought, still dettached from her surroundings but finally starting to come about to herself.

You CANNOT let this defeat you...

for THAT would be to truly fail.

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At length she opened her eyes, to see his so very close, studying her. Around her the non-space cushioned them in seductive and ebon softness, the sole capitulation to anything that was not evil and corrupt. Yet through this softness hard and slicing agony ripped at her; she shivered with unbearable joy, knowing it was something not merely perpetrated against her but taken unto her very self by nothing less than her own willingness to do so.

And in the taking making her more than complete.

She smiled up at him, a predator's smile, one which fully showed her gleaming fangs. Her eyes, so similar in color to his, glistened with a certain kind of knowledge which, although others would oh so eagerly be presented with, none but he and she would ever truly understand... or come to glory in and cherish.

And so, filled with the beautifully unbearable contrast of tooth-gritting torment and utterly evil delight, rejoicing in her newfound unity, she stretched her arms out to Entaris once more, licking her lips to allow her words to oil through them even as from a place so very far away she received yet into her black heart another joyous ripple of soul-ripping despair:

"It begins, my Master....

"Send me now to continue your will, for indeed am I your true consort and Queen."

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This usually drives them crazy, not make them sane again...

He almost laughed at that, almost...

He felt that her tension was now gone, or as gone as his back rub could make so...

He then slowly, and gently grabbed Shayla, and turned her to face him...

He held her so, gently running his right hand soothingly up and down her back, waiting for her to come back... to him...

[ 10-08-2002 01:00 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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And she was starting to become entirely too exhausted to fight it on her own...

She let out a soft sob, shuddering. She cared. Really she did. But alone, she simply couldn't succeed in fighting this thing that had such a grip upon her...

Her muscles slackened even more, and she was ever-aware that the something in her brain was starting to take hold of her again. So she simply gave in to it, her brief attempt to fight it flying as dust in the wind as she began to feel the despair rise in her again.

It would defeat her. So she might as well let it defeat her now, while she was no harm to the others who had not yet been destroyed by him...

[ 10-08-2002 01:24 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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He quickly took her closer, and gave her a quick peck on the lips...

Nothing...

He then gave her a more passionate kiss... he felt goosebumps form on his skin... his eyes were as wide as ever, peering into Shayla's greenish blue pair... as if saying...

Take my love... I offer it to you... together, we will defeat the evil...

[ 10-08-2002 01:29 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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Someone... or something... has done something to Shayla; that darkness within her, that despair, it is not natural.

My daugher has been spirited away from beneath the most powerful defensive measure ever designed.

Loves once strong and secure now war with each other, and in the end surely neither will win the battle.

What in the name of all the Fates was happening in Phrinnchatka?

She shivered now, letting a tendril of her mind go with the departing Erik, that if necessary she could be there with him to assist her Adept in regaining her sanity once more, berating herself all along for the way that she had appeared to be so remiss regarding that young woman. Yet even now she forced herself to hang back, thus to determine if Shayla had the strength to fight her way back without her assistance, to battle against what she knew was a repetition of what had stricken her in the Valley of Lords.

My dearest Adept, harsh though this may seem... the inner strength must come from you, or whatever it is that has taken your mind will indeed consume you. We will not be able to rely on you then, for how can we depend on a fountain of strength that runs so continuously dry, needing the refreshing flow of an outside source to refill it?

That thought was nearly as painful to her as the one that seemed to have taken up permanent residency in her heart: her absolute dearth of ideas as to what had happened to her daughter.

At least she's not dead, for you do not sense her body, a grim little voice rose up to try and reassure her. She is merely...

Gone.

Now she turned once more to her Lord, seeking his strength to join with hers, seeking his battle-wisdom, for indeed on a level she was not quite fully conscious of, the assurety that war was coming existed as a living and breathing thing within her.

[ 10-08-2002 01:48 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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Love. The ultimate emotion of the light, the one strongest thing anyone could give, ever.

Shayla didn't really consciously know what she was doing. But she so desperately wanted this all to stop, and she so suddenly saw a light at the end of that tunnel. Reaching out both in mind and suddenly and very surprisingly in heart, she returned that kiss, her own spirit suddenly singing, the despair so slowly beginning to wash away. Only when she began to start coming to herself again did she realize just who had been there, offering her his support...

...and his love. His LOVE, Shayla. What are you gonna do?!

She drew back, suddenly realizing how very tired she was, her greeny-blue eyes still pinned onto his blue pair. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what she was feeling exactly.

You are an engaged woman, Shayla Stargazer Petrolu! some little voice insisted. How could you...?!

"Th...thank you," she said rather stupidly. Then quite suddenly her eyelids fell heavy, her body at last demanding the rest that it needed so very much after such an inward war. She fell limp, to a peaceful sleep.

Time to rest. Figure things out later.

[ 10-08-2002 01:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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Thinking of how to explain himself, once she awoke...

He simply watched over her sleeping form, ready to protect her from ANYTHING that wished to gain entrance to this room... with his hand on his saber, questions would come after actions to protect Shayla...

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It recognized that black despair, one she herself had battled against within the soul of her Adept, one which she had at the time succeeded in at least temporarily defeating. This time...

This time, the timing seemed to have been choreographed by an unseen hand.

The intangible tendril arrived to face that blackness... only to be washed amidst a sudden and rising light... a light which raised a sword within Shayla's essence to attack and slice and beat the darkness in upon itself. That evil oiliness seemed to writhe for a moment, then inexplicably imploded in on itself, to go back into hiding in the depths of Shayla's soul, there to await it's next calling.

It completely and utterly disappeared... and Graysith was not fool enough to believe it was truly gone.

But what was present was that brilliant light now filling Shayla's being, a light born of love from another, a light which had been surprisingly received and accepted by Shayla. For otherwise the blackness would have persevered with its former strength.

The conflict within her Adept now roiled within her own heart, combining there to see that this was what had relieved her despair... as well as the absolute knowledge that it too was but a repetition of something occuring elsewhere in the city at this very moment.

Even in love does this blackness assert itself, she thought to herself with a shiver, drawing the tendril quietly back as Shayla drifted off to sleep, drawing herself back to her own reality which was to find herself once again enwrapped in the arms of her husband...

... his own undying love for her exploding around her and joining with that of her own for him, protecting at least the pair of them from any onslaught this unknown evil might promise to mount against them.

[ 10-08-2002 02:16 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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A threat which had to be stopped, now.

"Something's out there," he said, "I'm positive of it. Perhaps something slipped in when the shield dropped, but the point is moot. We have to do something now, before someone else disappears. And judging from the fact that the first to disappear was ShaRhylla..."

He hesitated only a moment, concern arrowing into his heart. Then he pressed on.

"...I'm very afraid that I know who might be next...

...so the question is, what are we going to do?"

He paused at that, waiting to see what things Graysith and her Lord might have to say about this, ready to face the new threat head on himself to stop what he so very much believed might happen next if it remained...

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An emotion he couldn't have ever suspected, wouldn't have ever suspected. And while he was relieved that Shayla seemed to be gaining relief at last...

He knew that emotion. He'd felt it from her before. HE'D felt it himself.

WHO???

It was all he could do to force down the sudden surge of jealousy sweeping over him. He forced his feet into motion once again, concern for Shayla again leading the way. When he finally came to a halt, he found himself facing Loban, sitting on the floor with a now slumbering Shayla, gripping his lightsaber as if he would gladly slice anyone to pieces who came anywhere close to her.

And Erik knew the look in Loban’s eye...

His look hardened a bit as he considered Loban a moment longer, then he carefully kneeled beside Shayla, gently running his hand across her face to remove hair from it. He leaned over than kissed Shayla softly on the cheek. Then he looked to Loban once more, the look in the depths of his brown eyes completely unreadable.

“What happened here?”

He waited to see what Loban might have to say

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She couldn't even bring herself to shake her head in reply.

"Until there is something against which we can act, until this evil plays another hand against us, there is simply nothing else we can do at the moment, Captain," she finally said softly. "For this enemy in our midst is an insidious one, and somehow more than merely someone acting through evil, I fear.

"The light of love seems to thwart that small part of it I have encountered in my Adept... at least it appears to do so momentarily."

She turned her head upward as this seeming non sequiteur left her lips, gazing with sudden thought up into the loving emerald pair which through this all had never left her. For a briefly hedonistic moment she let herself drown in them, gathering yet more strength with which to fight their unseen adversary. Then she turned back to Captain Danner again, stronger now.

"Until this enemy shows itself, that we might mount an outer defense, my only suggestion is that we maintain the strongest inner one we may. Perhaps then when it next comes it will find no refuge here, and will depart from us in defeat."

With that she fell into silence, leaning back into the embrace of her husband, trying to relish the warm comfort of the loving unity they shared, and trying to put aside all fear and worry and despair concerning her daughter.

For in the end, as harsh as it might seem, that fear and worry and despair proved naught but to add fuel the the fire's coming at them... and only weakened what might indeed might turn out to be their only real defense against it.

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He didn't know where to start...

Lo-Ban took a moment to pull himself together,"She has been affected, by an evil one that lurks in the shadows of this sith city... she seems to have lost her confedence... but, I believe she is coming out of it..."

He said, and awaited his reply, if there was one... all the while, Lo-Ban wondered if he belonged there...

[ 10-08-2002 03:00 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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"Thank you...for helping her out," he said, finally standing. "I'm gonna take her somewhere so she can rest comfortably.

With that he turned, cradling his fiancee to him, wondering just what in the Universe might happen to them now.

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What he did know, was that he shouldn't be around Shayla when she woke up... He didn't want her to see that it was he that had committed the unforgivable act...

The forbidden kiss...

Then, it came to him... he must find Shawn, and explain to him what he had felt... the hate he had felt for the evil one...

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He then pressed himself more firmly against her, taking from her a passionate kiss, one filled with blood, for he had long ago pierced her tantalizingly full lips, so every kiss was one he might enjoy her dark, sweet blood.

one of his hands then strayed to carress the soft skin of her side, teasing her accute senses, feeling a ripple of tortured pleasure arrise from her with his cold touch.

Slowly his hand moved upward, wrapping about her to tease her yet more, now upon the delicute skin held upon the back of her neck.

Finaly he broke away his lips from hers, allowing a tendril of dark energy to burn away the wound, once more restoring perfection to those wonderful lips, he leaned in again to lick away the remanding blood.

he then looked into her eyes, seeing a primal hunger within, his smile mearly grew darker as he felt her claws sink painfully into his back, pulling him into her. Once more they kissed, now giving her the sensation he knew she desired, alowing his tongue to stray upon one of her fangs, his own blood now reddilly available for her hungry desires...

And thus they remained for an inmeasurable amount of time, passion rising, yet they both teasingly with held the full extent of that passion from the other... Torture was much greater a pleasure to both of them... And this was perhaps the greatest torture of them all...

Suddenly he broke away from her, allowing the dark energy to send yet another ripple of pain through him as it sealed his wounds. Standing slowly he return himself to his robes, watching in a demonic hunger as she dressed within her own provided clothing, taking pleasure in the pure torture she presented as she tossed her fiery hair about her, Noting the way it suductivly hid a small portion of her face. Quietly he stood and approuched her, smiling darkly. "you are complete, my Dark Rose..." he took silent note in the subtle change of his name for her, no longer blackened, the part that had once been light was not discarded, and all that remained was pure dark... "Now you will go unto this universe, and bestow it with your greatness... Ah, you are indeed a queen today. One whom all will grow to hate, and dispise... one whom will never be starved of the emotions she so hungrily persues..."

With that he allowed the darkness to fade away, taking them again to the silent sith city, now within a different room, he took careful note to hide his pressence, making it appear as if she had simply return by herself, if any indeed knew he had ever been there.

"now go, But you must know this: do not physicaly harm your mother... Let the fact that you no longer hold even the slightest shred of light within you, act as torture... And let her torture cause insanity to the pitifal being who acts as her Lord, You may visit me whenever you wish, though i will keep careful monitor over you through your mind... I will share with you all the pain you cause, And watch as your thorns show the contrast of your dark pettals."

Considering he smiled "before we do leave this place though, we must take your cousin... And her mother... Im sure your father would be pleased with that, after all, no need to reveal that he is mear sand within our fingers as of yet... Let us toy with him as well..."

He smiled that demonic smile, before tracing lightly upon her stomach a teasing picture of a blood drop. Before he laughed lightly, "now be gone, my love" he said the word mockingly, in clear disgust of those within the city, for truly, neither being within the room could ever begin to understand the word... Yet it would indeed provide some amusment to them both.

[ 10-08-2002 10:16 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Entaris ]

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Quietly he guided her within the temple, nodding once to terrin. When they reached the central meeting area, he released her gently onto the soft couch, sitting beside her, now resuming his grasp about her, allowing her to find comfort in his strong hold on her.

"This will come to end. Your daughter will be well..." he said soothingly, before placing the thought completly out of mind, not wishing to leave it hanging about the room to torture her any longer.

Gently rocking with her now, he slowly felt her relax "return to your slumber my love... You must regain your strength in full..." he then smiled softly, placing upon her foread a soft, reassuring kiss.

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I need help, and who better than Galen... we must share our situations, and try and figure out how we can both find what we search for... love...

He then easily found Galen, her emotions as great now, as ever before...

He started to walk quickly, for some reason, he felt he should hurry...

[ 10-08-2002 10:39 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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How could they simply wait for something else terrible to happen, when that something else could very likely involve the endangerment of those very people that they did love?

That he loved?

"I can’t stand to see her hurt again," Terrin said at length. "If there is anything I can do to stop something else before it happens...

...I’m going to do it.”

But then, how [i]could they act against something that was unseen?[/i]

Graysith’s answer was the only one that really made any sense, if this thing that had so suddenly appeared in their midst was what she said it was. But then, Terrin wasn’t usually the type to simply sit around and wait for someone to hurt those he loved, whether he could see the threat or not. And if sacrificing himself would protect those loved ones, then he was absolutely ready to do that, without fear and without hesitation.

And after all, actions always speak louder than words. True love didn’t sit on its hands and simply WAIT for a loved one to come to trouble. It did something to stop that trouble before it happened if possible, regardless of what that something might cost.

Love gives and gives, regardless of what comes in return, regardless of the self-risk, regardless of the true logic.

In this case, a small bit of logic might help their cause, however...

At length, an idea suddenly niggled its way into his brain. If that something that was unseen finally had the courage to attack in form, wouldn’t it be useful to somehow be able to track that form and possibly stand in its way before it actually had the ability to strike?

Terrin stated as much to Graysith and Lord Recinis, then continued with, “What about that droid of Shayla’s? She could track life readings for us. If not, I’m sure my men can come up with something...”

At that he quieted, a glimmer of hope in his eyes as he waited to see what they might have to say.

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with but another nod, he then returned his attention to his wife, letting his grasp upon her tighten slightly more.

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"Look alive," he said. "We need to get that R2 unit of Shayla's and track us some lifeform readings."

"Ahhh...I sense a need to assist," Jasyn said, smiling a bit. "It's been hell to be out of use for this long," he said.

"Allright," Terrin said. "You hang here. I'm gonna go get that droid. And then we're gonna see what we can do."

With that Terrin headed down the corridors of the Temple, at length coming to Erik and Shayla's suites. It was really no trouble to get the droid from them, although the impertinent little thing recognized him immediately and started warbling and bleeping things that couldn't be anything other than insults.

In just a matter of minutes he returned with her to the lounging area. "Allright Izzy," he said. "We need you to seek and track all lifeform readings, particularly noting anything new in the area. Can you do that?"

The droid warbled something else that sounded like an insult, then tootled something that could be none other than a yes.

Terrin waited to see just what the little droid might report...

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He knocked on the door, and waited...

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Two new life readings present. One consistent with a Lo-Ban Kenobi of Tatooine who was not present upon last mapping. One of a female. Locking on to new lifeform to track...

[ 10-08-2002 11:33 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Mara1Jade ]

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