Then reality returned in the form of grunts and heavy breathing. She groaned but managed to turn her head to the sound; gradually the blur filling her vision sharpened and vague shadows took form.

Her head spinning, she could only lay there in an inelegant heap, and watch as Phalomir and what appeared to be Panthar rolled about together mere meters from where she was, the only parts of her body capable of movement for the moment being her eyes, which widened further with every passing second.

And upon the stony and unfeeling walls the mosses seemed to writhe, as if in homage to something or someone yet unseen.

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

*PSSHK-kktk*

[ 10-26-2003 12:13 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by The Empire ]

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The tendril entered into her being on the merest wisps of memory, as if the sound it carried was that of the tread of the mist upon a quiet pond, and entirely too loud to bear.

She blinked... shook her head, tried to focus on the pair yet rolling and scuffling on the stone floor in front of her.

"...I know not if our thoughts are still bound... But if My mind reaches you now... I need to speak with you... Come to me when you have time..."

Now a gasp dripped from her lips, as that unexpected voice strengthened within her, bringing with it the certainty of who it was who had sent it.

Their Link. In the time since her husband had left in the night, on the eve of his battle with Dark Lord Roan, she had forgotten it; repressed it, pushed it down and deeply away, thinking it unnecessary as each visit to that gnarltree grove on Dagobah had seemed to assure her....

Blinking again, she tossed her hair from her eyes and propped herself up on her elbows. On her forehead the Glyph began to raven; part of her tensed with the conviction that its radiance would be immediately followed by another red blast from Phalomir; or would it yet be directed at her from the body of the other one? She raised herself up a bit higher, freeing a hand to grasp the rounded end of the odd device Phalomir had given her, somehow startled that it very much did hang upon her thrimm where she had thought she had placed it.

A final niggle....

"I shall wait as long as need be... But please Jharmeen... Come to me one last time..."

A growl rent the air of the corridor, joining with the noises made by the grappling pair, coming from somewhere deep within her throat. Within, the Beast's eyes glinted, a massive paw rushed down to squelch a tiny spark which dared try to flicker into life before it.

A spark representing what... something. A feeling. Emotion?

Which?

And for who?

Light from the dismal sconces marring the walls gleamed from her suddenly bared teeth, and she found herself on her feet and rising. Then she remained still, her face ranging like a hunting animal, seeking, sensing, half ignoring the fighting pair, yet all the while keeping a wary eye upon them.

The Beast, sensing victory of a sort, threw back its head and yowled again, for the barest of moments losing command of its eternal, internal realm. From without its razored toes there came the barest flicker of light; it flew along the Link like a moth following a flame.

And far away and to somewhere else came a single, albeit coolly issued word.

"Recinis."

[ 10-26-2003 02:23 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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And the sentience inside the human before him had something to do with it.

Phalomir growled deeply and glared at the human, inhabited by his “friend” Thoran.

“Phalomir,” said the man. “We meet again so soon.”

The voice was different, somehow reminding Phalomir of someone other than Thoran. He thought hard – the stranger in the temple!

“You are not Thoran,” he said. “Who ARE you? Where is Thoran?”

The man frowned. “Thoran is sleeping. He -- underestimated -- the powers of the force user. That shall not happen again. But as for you, my old friend, I know your abilities well, and I shall delight in taking my revenge upon you.”

The man glanced behind Phalomir and smiled widely. “And I shall take it now.”

In an instant the man twisted his body sideways and jumped to the wall of the mossy hallway at an incredible. He seemed to walk up the wall, bringing a hand up and blasting Phalomir with a blast of bright white energy. Phalomir yelped as he was hit full force by the blast and was sent flying backwards several feet, sprawling backwards on the damp ground. He shook his head and jumped to his feet, sending a blast of his own back at the man as he lighted to the ground. The energy caught the human in the chest, but the blast seemed to simply enter the man and disappear. The brief moment of confusion was enough to keep Phalomir from noticing the air next to his head whirl as a small portal opened. The blast of energy emerged from the portal and smacked into Phalomir’s chest, knocking him to the wall.

Phalomir tried to stand, but the force from the last blast was too great. He stumbled back and leaned against the moss covered wall. The man smiled again.

“You cannot defeat me, I know you too well. And now, my old friend, you shall watch her die.”

Phalomir glanced to the area the man’s eyes were staring. His face went a pale red as he saw the Dark Lady struggling to her feet. She was suddenly everything to him, all of his thoughts focusing on her… all… he could not defeat this man alone, and he was sure she could not as well, but together… with the Finger, which she held in her hand.

“My lady!” he cried, forcing his legs to move. He picked up speed, and reached her just as another blast of energy slammed into him. He focused on the Dark Lady and reached her, grabbing her arm. Her eyes seemed distant, her teeth were bared.

“We can only defeat this being together. I send you my magick, channel it with your All Force…”

Without another word he wrapped his hand around hers over the grip of the Finger and sent all of his remaining energy into her. He fell to his knees, still gripping her hand, and struggled to keep awake.

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

Her focus was on the Link, to another place, taken for the moment by another being.

Yet cold and distant as well.

It was the Beast who saved... well, perhaps not her, not Recinis, not anyone at all. Not intentionally, at least. It threw back it's massive head and let out a great, ripping snarl, sending its talons rending through Graysith's torso in a strange form of incorporeal reality, reaching outward in one final instinctive thrust to save...

Itself.

Directly ahead, a human fell back before the onrush of sweeping claws, claws unseen and weirdly enough, unfelt, though not undeadly...

...while far away and elsewhere, another Sith fell back as hot air blasted across his face, and something strong and unyielding formed from thin air to send him flying from his perch to land, face down, amidst the leaf-strewn dirt all about him.

Redness gradually faded from her eyes. Her breathing returned to something approaching normal. She cast her eyes down to her hand with a calmness entirely out of proportion to the situation, and gave short speculation to the red-skinned fingers now grasping her there.

Hands of a Sith.

Now she let her eyes rise up to meet his, eyes somewhat unfocused as their owner struggled to gain his feet, to reacquaint himself with alertness. They paused but once in that rising to take in the quiet form laying as if glued to the mosses of the corridor. Even as she watched more green, fuzzy tentacles of it reached out, laying root in the pores of pale and vein-traced skin of one arm.

She watched that cold progress with a coldness of her own, before allowing her gaze to continue along its former course, finally ending in a sea of vibrant green.

She had seen green eyes such as this before, indeed.

She used to drown in them.

So in silence, she merely waited again, just to see what the tide would carry in upon it.

[ 10-26-2003 02:58 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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“My lady… I… Are you injured?” he asked softly.

His vision swam once more, but he staggered only slightly.

“I need you,” he whispered. “I can no longer deny my feelings, and I no longer care of my past and unknown future. My only concerns are my feelings for you.”

Not able to focus on the Dark Lady’s reaction, he threw caution to the wind and continued.

“My lady,” he said quietly. “I pray to all that is sacred that there is some small spark of love left within you -- a small seed. I wish dearly to find that seed and nurture it, my lady. I want to grow it, to see it sprout within you and ease your pain and loneliness. You need someone to understand you, to serve you, to love you – and be loved by you. I wish above all that I could be that person.”

His vision grew dark and he felt his legs grow weak.

“My lady, the burdens placed upon you are great, and you should not bear them alone. Please, allow me into your life…”

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

Cool eyes of turquoise enveloping her as hands enveloped her face, an essence filling her every niche as something strong and dark and compelling rushed in to take her....

Cooler eyes of gentle green, eyes bearing this thing as a gift, yet eyes belonging to one who took that gift with him as he left, which in turn made the rending from her being of that remaining thing something having not needing much in the way of consideration....

The cooling body of a tiny sprite, a living thing formed of herself and Recinis, formed in the light of this thing, and left to the dark defended by it only....

Eyes anything but cool for the ardor within them, the vehemence through which they spoke, offering her yet again this thing so many had offered, and she had so many times taken.

Only to lose it.

Again and again and again.

She shuddered.

Once.

The Beast let out a deafening blast, one blinding her to the truth in Phalomir's words, letting her only see the past pathways along which such words had travelled.

And to what ends.

She stared at him, fighting.

Her lips trembled.

Then, taking her cloak about herself in the only defense she really knew, she turned to depart back to the only love she ever felt she would ever really hold.

That for the Sith, and the life to which they had been restored.

The final caterwaul of her inner being deafening her as well to the tentative "Jharmeen?" which echoed along the link she yet maintained, only to fade into silence.

Unanswered.

[ 10-26-2003 03:47 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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He staggered forward and grabbed her, gently turning her to face him.

“Do not run from me, my lady,” he said. “I cannot bear it again. Don’t you see? I am incomplete without you. As you are without me… Sith magick is the one hand. The All is the other hand. Together, hand in hand, we are complete. The Sith need you, my lady – but The Sith need me as well – and I need you.”

From deep inside her he felt the claws of some unseen beast rake at him – the beast which he had encountered before at the door to her mind? Was this what was blocking him? Keeping her in the pain she bore? He felt strength return to him, and grim determination enveloped him.

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

A pinhole which flickered and brightened, striving to burst into flame.

Nothing.

Another set of eyes suddenly swam into her vision, a pair the color of freshly extruded lava, heated and fiery and the most powerful she had ever seen.

They seemed to be watching her from somewhere. They seemed to be...

Smiling.

She shuddered again as strength flowed in from an unseen source, and straightened in Phalomir's hands. Whatever spark there was yet within her, whatever that spark might possibly represent, was squelched into obscurity by the swooping of a massive paw, the deep rumble of vicious satisfaction.

With a strange kind of objectivity, as if she suddenly was removed from herself and could view the proceedings from the dim eyes of the one still adhered to the mossy wall, she stared up at the Sith, meeting his heat with steady coolness, like the splash of water which ultimately would douse any flame.

Objectively, too, was how she suddenly found herself viewing past incidents, past memories, past loves and pains.

It was as if they didn't even matter to her any longer.

Nothing mattered to her any longer, other than the destiny for which she had been chosen. And the one which she had then chosen for herself.

Unspeaking, she stood there, strangely cold and aloof and silent, and simply....

Waited.

[ 10-26-2003 04:59 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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Phalomir straightened a little, staring into her eyes. "The beast..."

He felt his power rising, and for the first time since his initial visit to K'eel Doba he let his spirit come forth and wander. He allowed it to follow the link he still shared with the Dark Lady and sent it into her being. His body stiffened, while his spirit glided along with but one goal -- to seek out the beast within her.

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

...and something else entirely as Phalomir disappeared with Thoran in the body of Panthar Dantares. She wasn't particularly worried about the towering Sith...

...oh no. For here they had risked their very lives to go after him, only for him to then blow them off.

And why was it that it was necessary to follow after Thoran at this point in time? Why had he left them behind to whatever fate awaited them here, and with no explanation whatsoever?

Shayla's eyes darkened, and something flickered deeply in their depths as she whirled quickly on her heel to face Panthar. Her eyes slitted even as she spoke her next words. "We are being used my friend; used as pawns in a game which your buddy Phalomir is determined to win."

Shayla fell silent, her eyes growing impossibly darker. "I'd be surprised if he so much as thinks about us again, especially if he gains what he seeks to from Thoran."

She paused at that then, her eyes defocusing and turning vague at the mention of Thoran's name.

Somehow, even though he was gone, she could still feel him deeply within herself...

She shuddered at the thought, knowing that along the remainders of that link she had was the ice of something horribly evil.

But was that evil of Thoran or of something else? Or was it of someone else?

"You know..." she started then suddenly but extremely quietly. "I'm not so sure we should continue upon this quest any longer...

...not unless we are all ready to face something or someone entirely evil and deadly..."

[ 10-26-2003 06:54 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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Quite a walk indeed...

...mountains, foothills, glaciers...

...oh how he hated the cold.

His scowl became impossibly blacker, and he couldn't help but raise the wristcomm to his lips to make a returning statement. "Well, I fully intend to get to that complex, and unless someone happens to give me a lift, walking is the only option I have left..."

...isn't it? came the final mental addendum.

Saying nothing more then Jasyn began walking towards the remainders of the Vindicator, his thoughts set upon getting some equipment and rations out of the wreckage before he headed onward. Only a few minutes later he began heading off, a pack on his back, towards the coordinates the Imperials had given him. And about that time one final little black thought prompted Jasyn to lift his wristcomm once more. This time he dialed in the frequency for Za'in Almar and uttered one highly irritated statement.

"Where the kriffing hell are you Almar? I could really use a lift about now..."

[ 10-26-2003 08:37 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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She felt a strange anticipation... and an even stranger dread. Her eyes widened, stared unseeing past Phalomir's shoulder; her jaw dropped and softly whispered words issued from her lips as if uttered by a voice entirely alien to her, words suddenly and strangely non sequiteur, issued belatedly as if having been prevented from being spoken at an earlier, more appropriate time:

"What do you need in me, Phalomir?"

That small voice silenced then as another and far more overpowering one roared out from even greater depths within her psyche, that roar a challenge and defiant proclamation and dire promise all rolled up into one great and fetid blast.

From that hidden place, the Beast hunkered in a predatory crouch, its paw curled tightly about something, and stared flat-eyed upon its pewter world, a world into which a shining echo of green now presented itself.

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

He found himself in a dimly lit hall, strangely colored eyes peering at him from the darkness.

“I need her,” he called out. “The Sith need her. Us.”

There was no response.

“I am typically not a patient man, but for this – for her – I will stay here forever. Speak with me, know me. Please…”

There was a slight movement in the darkness before him.

“Parts of my past are still a mystery, but I feel this more strongly than anything I remember. I have the power of the sorcerers, of the armorers, and of the warriors, and I have Sith magick flowing through me. Yet I feel so incomplete – she is the only solace I take. She has accepted the channeler, and through it my powers and hers may combine and rule the Sith through the storm which I somehow feel is approaching.”

He paused.

“She is the Chosen Daughter, yet has hinted to me of lost love and feelings of betrayal. Know this, I give my life freely to her – to you, if necessary – that if ever I betrayed her then my life be forfeit, for surely to do her harm would mean my life be over. Every fiber of my being, my soul, cries out for her.”

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

“Yeah,” he Panthar. “This is one messed up cluster nugget of a stink hole. Where the hell do we go from here?”

As if in response, the tuk’ata dropped its tendrils and turned towards the temple opening. It entered, then turned again to stick its head out, looking directly at Panthar and then to Shayla. It whined and turned again, disappearing into the temple.

Panthar looked at Shayla.

“Um… Do we follow it? I don’t really want to become monster chow, but I think maybe it would have done that already. What do you think?”

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

The words echoed in Shayla's mind even as the tuk'ata continued to look from her to Panthar and back. An involuntary little shiver then swept over her as she recalled the images the tuk'ata's thoughts had inspired in her. She folded her arms then against herself as if trying to push away the cold. Her greeny-blue eyes remained distant.

"I..."

"...I don't think we have a choice. Enter we must..."

She trailed.

...but at what price...?

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

"Prr-rroof..." it snarled, then fell silent, its bearing expressing a steadily growing kind of satisfied anticipation.

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

Soon the winds – and the roar – subsided. The beast looked down at Phalomir, seemingly expecting him to withdraw or cower. Instead, Phalomir met the beast’s glare with a defiant stare of his own.

Phalomir noticed the small ember glowing under the beast's paws and narrowed his eyes.

"What do you hide from me? What do you fear from me? I had hoped you were here to protect, to serve the Dark Lady,” Phalomir said slowly and deliberately. “I had hoped to convince you of my intentions and make peace with you. I believe my hopes were in vain, yet I cling to them. But know this, beast, that I have little left to live for, knowing that my life must be intertwined with hers.”

Phalomir felt energy flowing though his spirit. A large blade appeared in his right hand, and a shield in his left. A red glow softly covered his body.

“And I will do what I must.”

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

“Yeah, well. I guess as an archeologist I should be excited about entering this temple. The problem is, as a living being I am really less than thrilled.”

He sighed and turned to the ship. He waved to Erik, as if waving goodbye.

“Maybe he should stay there, you think?”

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

I smile broadly, and wait, spreading my arms out to either side of me.

[ 10-27-2003 12:34 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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“I do not know you personally, Lord Aelvedaar, but know that I respect your title, and you.”

Phalomir’s eyes narrowed once more.

“But I also bear the mark of the Sorcerers. And more. You have brought the Sith from the depths of destruction to where they are today, and you are honored. But I claim the right to lead them into the future. I do not challenge your title, only your hold upon Jharmeen; your denial of her freedom. She thinks she has chosen her course freely, but she has not, has she? Free her, let her decide.”

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

Shayla...?

She hesitated, then replied, drawing all the strength within herself as she did so. I need you at my back, I need you as my strength. Somehow I know I must face whatever lies ahead...

He never responded to this...

...not verbally anyway. Instead he reached out with the Force, his aura somehow enveloping within her own. She closed her eyes but for a moment.

Thank you. I love you.

And with nothing more than that, Shayla opened her eyes once more, all worry and dread carefully hidden away far within her psyche as she looked one final time to Panthar.

"He will keep watch for us," she said simply, and with no furthur ado she followed the tuk'ata inside the grand Temple through widing passageways, unheeding to whether Panthar was following her. At length they came to a grand stairway which spiraled downward and downward til it stopped at a grand entrance decorated with Sith runes and writing. Shayla glanced back a moment in hesitation, then looked once more to the large wooden doors.

Something...something was pulling her inside there...

And with that she simply reached a long-fingered hand out, pushing one of the great doors open and entering quietly therein. The room which she found herself was a circular one ringed with glowing candles, much like a couple of other rooms she recalled in her past. But Shayla didn't recall ever being in this one room before...

...or did she...?

Almost on instinct, Shayla stepped into the center of the room, closing her eyes and sensing outward with the Force, wondering just what may have brought her to this place. And it was in that moment it happened...

...and a link quieted only moments before seemed to spark into strange life. In her mental mind's eye, Shayla saw nothing but black...

...and in the center of that black nothingness she saw a red-skinned Sith, his hand beckoning to her as it had once in a memory she still could not place. The pull on her soul became increasingly greater...

...and the image of the Sith shifted to that of a man, of Panthar Dantares.

Thoran...? Shayla whispered in surprise, though whether she did so aloud or simply in her mind she was uncertain...

...not that it mattered. For in that moment the pull through that link became even greater til at length Shayla could barely contain it. Eyes still closed, she reached both hands to her temples and shut her lids tighter, fighting against the sudden grip something had upon her mind. She reached for the Force to pour healing energies into herself, and the weight subsequently began to subside, bringing her a moments release in which she relaxed her stance a bit.

But then something reached out once more and grabbed her, the image of Panthar aka Thoran returning to her mind's eye. And in that agonizing moment the lights in the circular room flickered and Shayla screamed, her body then turning to jelly as she fell to the floor completely unconscious.

[ 10-27-2003 01:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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The smile fades from my lips. I straighten, clasp my hands afront myself, let them lay quietly against the richness of my robes of estate, even while my eyes seem to flicker from magma to pewter, iron to fire, back and forth, back and forth....

[ 10-27-2003 01:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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It wasn't a place he was interested overall in terrian either, though their was a possibility that resources for smuggling would be useful. It wasn't a planet on the mapping so anything could be down there...

Replaying all the thoughts of his first shipment as a smuggler over again in his mind he felt them suddenly blast into oblivion as the alerting beep came from his nav. board. Pulling his hand up from the side of his seat, he pushed at the button activating the message.

Listening as Jasyn irritively spoke, a grin grew on his face. It seemed the frequency also triggered a location to the ol' brown-eyed man. Staring down at the screen as it uploaded the area on the surface Jasyn was in, he pulled his head activating the comm. unit on the nav. board. Entering the frequency with his free hand, he began with his message.

"I'll be there as fast as I can rich-boy." The dark skinned smuggler chuckled. "Just hold onto those credits of your's youngling."

Leaning back in his seat, he deactivated the communication device and began with the movement toward the location that was given by his auto-slicing response. Heading forward, he moved through all the obstacles, coming closer and closer to the waypoint.

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

Rich boy??? Who did this kid think he was? Granted, he was a fairly well-off employee of Eagle Enterprises, but he was no millionare, was no Aaron Barnes. Certainly was no Terrin Danner...

That little thought prompted a different sort of dark look deep in Jasyn's eyes.

Maybe he didn't want a lift from this Za'in fellow after all...

Looking up from his wristcomm then, Jasyn lifted a hand to his eyes to block the sun, gazing at the terrain ahead of him. He hadn't been on the move for long, but even then he was beginning to see snow-capped mountains far in the distance, prompting him to shiver a bit just at the thought of just how cold and inhospitable that particular area probably was.

Kriffing hell, if he wanted to hide someone in the last place anyone would ever think of or dare go, somewhere like that mountain range would be the it. A place almost entirely inhospitable...

...and extremely difficult to even pass through in one piece. Someone could get themselves killed trying to pass through there...

Pursing his lips at this thought, Jasyn paused his walking to raise his wristcomm to his lips, once more flipping the frequency back to the Imperials. It was probably highly unlikely, but then that was the very reason he had to ask. "Any signs of life in that mountain region ahead of me?" he queried, falling silent then as his mind continued to spin with thoughts and ideas.

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