As soon as Erik took the first step into that yawning vortex, every nerve in his body screamed a warning that said something was horribly wrong. But then, not being a fully trained Jedi, this sort of feeling did little other than let one know that there was going to be Hell on the way. Would have been nice to have had this feeling a few moments before everythign went totally black...

...but the next thing Erik became slowly aware of was that his eyes were closed, his head was throbbing...

...and someone was calling his name. Equally as slowly someone's concerned...

...and gentle touch began to register. That jarred Erik back into reality even though he wasn't quite ready to leap into the action his body was wanting to.

"Shayla?" he groaned, lifting heavy eyelids and blinking them a few times to clear the fog. He frowned a bit.

Since when did Shayla have short red hair? Either whatever hit you hit you harder than even you suspected or...

With effort Erik sat up, shaking his head to clear the fuzziness from his line of sight. His eyes locked on the brown-eyed, red headed woman who sat before him, even as one hand went to his still throbbing head.

"Galen?!" he said in surprise. "We've been looking everywhere for you...

...are you allright?" he queried. Then, "Where in the name of the fates are we...?"

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

“Erik, oh Roon’s Treasure, but am I ever glad to see you!”

I flung my arms about his neck, propriety be damned, and hugged him fiercely.

“I didn’t think anyone would ever figure out where I was, let alone manage to sneak in here and rescue me!”

I pulled back from him with that little outburst, and held him stiff-armed by his shoulders. The sheer joy of having him here – ok, his strange companion as well – took hold of me and sent me winging away into the imagined prospect of immediate delivery from this charming hell. That joy quickly subsided, however, as his last question finally sank into my shell-shocked brain.

Concern wrinkled my forehead into a frown.

“I—I thought you knew… that you had found me and came to—“

Logic marched steadily to its obvious conclusion; I sighed, loosening my grip on his shoulders and sat back on my heels. With a flick of my eyes I took in the fearsome image of his companion, then I focused them back on the jedi again.

“I think we’re somewhere on Khar Delba,” I said in a low whisper, shivering as the squadron of geese began their inexorable march up and down my spine again.

“H-he, him, that blight on the universe Roan brought me here, left me here with the one my sister used to hang out with; he’s got another little sidekick with him now, I think; here I thought Jharmeen had found me and had sent you to get me…”

I trailed off again, reading what I most feared to see in his eyes.

“She didn’t, did she?”

With that I wound down like an antique clock and slumped, letting my hands fall to my lap where they lay like a pair of wounded birds.

[ 04-01-2004 12:28 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

Thoran watch Phalomir run up the hill, followed by Rhua and Terrin. He started to follow, but then paused, a yellow light – a strange sight in this realm – caught his attention. Off to the right of his position, at the top of the next hill, was the unmistakable figure of Roan. He was standing with three imps, jibbering madly and seeming to work themselves into a sort of frenzy. Roan was working his hands, and a small sliver of yellow light had appeared in the air before him.

He’s opening a portal out of here, thought Thoran. He glanced back up to see his companions reach Phalomir the top of the top of hill, only to see the Sith lord yell an obscenity and dash off down the other side. Is all some sort of diversion? A strange, unfamiliar feeling of uncertainty crept over him, a feeling so alien to him he immediately squelched it. Oh, damn this freedom, anyway!

Thoran took off at full speed towards Roan. He had learned long ago how to manipulate the spring of this strange terrain, and half of the distance was covered by the time the bright yellow sliver had grown into a large circle. He reached the top of the hill just as the last of the demons stepped through the circle, and with all of his strength and momentum he ran full force into Roan. Taken off guard, Roan stumbled backwards a few steps and lost his balance for a moment. Thoran was knocked to the ground at the place of impact, but gained his bearings enough to see the sight beyond the portal.

It’s Phalomir’s body! And Graysith? She doesn’t look possessed. What the—

A savage snarl came from the area where Roan had staggered, and Thoran forced himself to action. He yelled out an earsplitting cry of “Phalomir!” towards the other hill, and dove for the opening. He aimed for the space between two of the imps, meaning to land on top of Phalomir’s body.

But Thoran was a shade. His body had been taken from him long ago when he first became a denizen of the Darker Realms. When he met the Master and became a servant of the Darker Realms, he was given the ability to project himself into the bodies of others, either tagging along or completely swapping his consciousness with the hapless victim’s spirit. He had resided in the mind of Panthar Dantares with Phalomir’s spirit for quite some time, and it was this thought that entered Thoran’s mind as he landed on top of Phalomir and merged into his body.

Phalomir’s eyes snapped open and he jumped to his feet as smoothly as a well-trained warrior. Outwardly, Phalomir assumed a battle stance, claws bared and horns lowered, eyes blazing. Inwardly, Thoran relished in the control of this massive body. Thoran’s own magick was nothing compared to Phalomir’s, but his warrior training would serve well in this huge Sith.

“Be ready, my lady,” he said, smiling inwardly. Those words sound even more corny when I say them.

He smiled grimly at the confused demons and waved a single curled finger at them, inviting them to close.

[ 04-01-2004 04:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Thoran ]

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

The last time he had been on Khar Delba...

...he had left his prematurely born son here, and not for the recovery he had hoped. Instead he was here in nothing short of a living death...

With effort he jerked away from such thoughts, refocusing his somewhat hazy brown eyes on Galen's own. "No," he replied a bit darkly, "The last time I saw Her she betrayed my wife and turned her away, much to Shayla's disbelief."

He quieted a moment at that, his look darkening once more before he refocused them again. "Shayla and I had gone off with a Sith by the name of Phalomir to some Sith planet called Korri'sian to find something Phalomir was looking for. It's a long story, but the the four of us were split up and I was left on the planet with..."

At this Erik trailed, just now realizing he had yet to introduce his companion. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "This is Panthar Dantares, by the way."

Then he quieted once more, trying to figure out just where to go from here. "We were back in the Temple on Korri'sian when we came up on some weird crystal which allowed us to communicate with some red-eyed Sith by the name of Aeolmir. Judging from the fact he dumped us off here, and what little I know about Shayla's suspicions regarding Graysith's buddy you mentioned...

...Ael something, isn't it?...

...I think we're in some serious trouble."

That was the understatement of the year, Kartan.

With that, Erik stood, surveying the room as if he was just noticing where he was. "There's just gotta be a way out of this place..."

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

“You can try, but you won’t find a way out of here, believe me,” I finally said, flipping back my hair with a toss as I then lifted my face to address Erik. “I’ve scoured every inch of this chamber with a fine-toothed comb; there isn’t so much as a crack big enough for a gleeberfly to creep through, let alone a person.”

I ran a hand tiredly through my hair, smiling a bit shakily as I now sent Erik’s towering companion a cautious look.

Sheesh, what in Hell’s Seven Circles kind of name is that for a Sith? I wondered tiredly to myself before, with a jerk, I yanked my wandering thoughts back in hand once again. I opened my mouth, and was about to say something as equally profound to what I had just offered, when once more the utterly unexpected occurred. A sudden vortex, similar to the one that had spit out my equally sudden companions, opened from thin air, and spit yet another improbable person into our midst.

My eyes widened and I leapt to my feet, instantly recognizing the haughty female who used to hang around with Jharmeen, back in the good ol’ days of Phrinnchatka. She hit the floor in a graceful roll, while behind her the vortex snapped closed and disappeared as if it had never even been there.

[ 04-05-2004 10:38 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

He looked to Shayla.

He looked to Erik.

He looked back to Shayla.

“Somehow I don’t think you’ve come to rescue us,” he said bluntly. “Good to see you though. Thought we’d lost you for good.”

He looked back to Galen.

“Damn glad to meet you, by the way,” he smiled. “Any friend of Erik has my sympathy. So, you’re Jarmint’s sister, eh?”

He looked back to Shayla.

“Oh, hey, where’s Phal?”

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

A compromise of sorts was thus made.

She wasn’t even aware of the fact that the Glyph on her forehead had burst into radiant life; she was likewise scarcely aware that one hand had lifted in graceful defense, thumb and middle fingers curled and joined, index and little fingers extended like horns directly at the three gibbering demons. But lift her arm she had, and from those extended fingers there now issued the simultaneous eruption of something twining both white and black. It burst from her, hitting the nearest demon squarely, and wrapped the vile creature tightly in a black that would not fade before the white, or a white that would not darken before the black. Tighter and tighter the twin ribbons of something bound themselves until suddenly the demon seemed to implode, leaving tiny blackened blots upon the deck which soon dematerialized altogether.

Graysith smiled, both in wonder at herself and in the dark pleasure of having killed an enemy. She then slid her shining violet eyes to the battle-ready alien at her side.

“These are yours, friend,” she whispered from the side of her mouth, smiling even more with the realization that by her unconscious defeat of one demon, she had sent a not-so-subtle message of her strength to this one.

If friend indeed he proves to be….

[ 04-05-2004 10:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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

Shayla was on her feet just as soon as she could get there, her greeny-blue eyes alert and ready for whatever she was about to face...

...when a room with three rather astounded looking individuals swam into focus...

...probably the last three individuals Shayla expected to see.

Shayla's brow furrowed in confusion. Erik...?

...Panthar...?

...

...Galen?" she trailed a moment with the as her eyes met the owner of that last name, clearly reading the feelings therein. After all, no effort was made at masking those feelings. "We've been looking for you for so long...

...are you allright?"

Quieting a moment with this, Shayla kept her eyes focused on Galen Jhin'Dar Danner a moment longer. Then, "And how in the fates did we all get here together...

...and just where exactly is here?" she queried even as Erik came to her, concern in his eyes. Her greeny-blues met his, a fire igniting in them. "Roan sent me here from the Dark realms," she explained then, the fire in her eyes darkening to clear suspicion, "And judging from where it looks like we might be...

...I think I know why."

[ 04-05-2004 10:17 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

“Phal?” I queried, “As in Phal-omir?” Reminding myself of our situation, I suffixed that comment with a shake of my head and continued.

“I never did like her much,” I whispered from the side of my mouth as I nodded toward the unflappable blond, then sniffed aloud and cleared my throat.

“Then, pray tell, educate us all in this matter,” I said, unconsciously mimicking the hauteur I perceived oozing from this blond young woman as, at least from my perspective, she tried to match her demeanor to that which I last remembered as being my sister's.

“I for one would sure as there’s Treasure on Roon like to know.”

[ 04-05-2004 10:39 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

Thoran came to his feet facing the imps. The first had stopped twitching, it’s innards flung throughout the corridor. They began to smoke and dissolve as the body of the imp dissipated into the air. The second imp grasped at the hole the tail had left in its underside and looked to Thoran with hate.

“You know me,” Thoran said flatly. “Take us back to Roan and I will spare you.”

Thoran stared coldly at the imp, his peripheral vision already catching the handiwork of the tail around the demon’s underbelly. He already knew what the answer would be.

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

Here we go again...

"I have something both Roan and Aelvedaar are looking for," she said then, seeing no reason to be anything but frank. Still, Shayla didn't know what Galen might know concerning what she was referring to, and she wasn't certain if they truly had the time for her to explain...

...so she then let her gaze shift to Erik, then Panthar. If anyone knew what she was talking to and might have conveyed it to anyone else in this room, it was him.

"I have the Eye of R'lous."

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

He started to say something and stopped, blinking again.

He took in a deep breath and paused, holding it in.

Finally, he shook his head and fixed his face in a confused expression.

“Why?” he asked. “How did you get it?”

[ 04-05-2004 10:50 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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

“Well… goody for you!” I spat, folding my arms across my chest and spread-eagling my legs for balance. My sheer bravado was tinged by a shadow of pure puzzlement; I flicked my eyes to the Sith and cocked my head, wondering to myself if he knew more than he was letting on at the moment.

Oh c’mon, Galen ol’ spud, I followed immediately to myself. Of course he knows more than he’s letting on….

What concerned me, though, was the serendipity over how in Hell’s Seven Circles these two not only seemed to know of each other, but of this Eye-thingy as well.

And what in all the Fates did that have to do with me? Or…

A cold inspiration sent those geese marching up and down my back again.

Or… Darra?

My jaw clenched for a moment in silent anguish before I could muster up the strength to speak those questions aloud, and in a manner not indicative of the churning mass of goo into which my heart had suddenly been transformed.

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

“I do not believe this... thing is going to listen to you,” she stated, waving the Clawed hand toward the wounded demon from hell. Then—

“Do you require assistance? Are you tired from your battle?” she asked politely before falling silent, eyeing the yowling creature warily as she waited to see how events would unfold from there.

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

"Graysith, and Phalomir and I were on our way to Korriban, where we thought you were," Shayla explained, nodding to Galen. "We were in hyperdrive in a Sith warship when we suddenly fell out, were nearly zapped into atomic particles by an unnatural supernova...

...and then found some sort of strange bomb aboard the warship. Phalomir managed to defuse the bomb...

...but it did something to him. I tried my best to heal him...

...but it was as if his very spirit had been simply...

... burned away..."

She trailed, shuddering at the thought. Then she continued. "We were just about to move Phalomir's body to a more appropriate resting place when the Eye spoke to me once Graysith was away and told me that I should remove it from Phalomir's person. It told me that some evil presence had taken over her body...

...and the next thing I knew she had somehow drugged myself, Jasyn Lancaster, and Matt Stanza and left us all for dead on Korriban."

[ 04-05-2004 11:08 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

The comment was admittedly childish, but at the moment I was feeling very much like a lost and lonely child myself. I sighed, and slumped to the floor, where I sat cross-legged with my arms held stiffly behind me to brace myself as I stretched my face upward and back, baring my throat to any invisible enemy that could march down the pike and rip into it.

That explanation doesn’t really surprise me in the least, I thought to myself blackly as I studied the ceiling arcing high over our heads.

If that bastard Roan and Jharmeen’s old pal Ael-whoosis are out on the hunt for this Eye-thingy, what on earth am I imprisoned here for as well?

Another sigh slid from me and I closed my eyes, this time not deigning to say anything but letting the other two fill the air with their discussion about the Eye…

… and not to mention their highly impossible suggestions concerning the means by which they thought we might actually escape from this golden cell.

[ 04-05-2004 11:18 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

I STILL don’t what in the name of the seven moons of Noba he ever saw in her. Oh, gee, what would he say to her now… hmmm… probably spout off some sickeningly sweet drippy romantic crap and trounce this bad ass demon into oblivion. Let’s see, ‘sweet lady, I am humbled by your presence…’ naw, how about ‘my life is to serve you…’, oh friggin’ hell

“Stow it, toots.”

Thoran, without warning, threw Phalomir’s massive frame into motion. He spun into a roundhouse kick that caught the unprepared demon squarely below the jaw. The head snapped back, ripping a tear in the scales around the throat. As the imp struggled to remain upright, Thoran struck his claws under a scale and dug into the demon’s throat, pulling away viciously and coming out with bits of trachea.

The imp dissipated.

Thoran turned back to Graysith, a frown on his face.

“Now, what’s with this ‘friend’ crap? Don’t you know who I am?”

[ 04-05-2004 11:22 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Thoran ]

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

Stow it… toots?!

The remaining demon had scarcely vanished into the hell from whence it had come before she whirled to fully face the giant Sith, her hands fisted, the Glyph ablaze with effrontery, trembling with the effort to hold herself ramrod stiff and not rip savagely into this pompous dewback.

No matter how exotic and enticing was his physical frame.

With a sniff she managed to straighten even further, somehow seeming to gain full inches in the maneuver; gradually her hands loosened and found a place in the folds of her cloak. The electric silence of the corridor was broken by a quiet pinging as the thumb of one hidden hand toyed with unseen menace upon the tip of the Claw, a weapon she did not recognize but one she instinctively felt to be one any sane person would reckon with.

From its lonely place upon the deck of the bridge, the other mystical device seemed to thrum with distant warmth, but no color burst from it to light the corridor in warning.

“No, I do not know who you are… friend,” she stated succinctly.

"Should I?"

[ 04-06-2004 12:03 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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

“Hey,” he said, “you probably don’t know what the Eye is, do you?”

Galen’s blank look told him his answer.

“Well, see, it’s this magic Sith crystal thing that has lots of power. I found it while digging in a cave on – did I tell you I’m an archeologist? Yeah, well, anyway, I was digging around in this cave and found this chamber, and on the floor was this crystal. I picked it up, got hit by some weird energy, and when I came to I was sharing my mind with two other guys! And I wasn’t in control all the time, it was pretty strange. Well, anyway, once I got to know Phalomir, he was OK. Thoran was a little kooky, though. We went through some adventures together, the Eye helped Phal get his body back, although Thoran kept mine and ran off with it. I got stuck in this Sith body, and let me tell you I can’t wait to get my old one back. Where was I? Oh yeah, the Eye. From what I can tell, and what Phal told me, is that it has lots of power that helps someone control the Stuff… or the Many… no, the All! Yeah, that’s that power that Jarlene and Aelvadork have.”

He looked innocently to Galen.

“Make sense now?”

[ 04-05-2004 11:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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

If this is what shared imprisonment is going to be like, I would almost welcome being alone again...

I just shook my head a little and went back to gazing upward, finding great interest in counting the number of great stone bricks that ceiling was made of, and idly tracing my eyes along the spider-webbing of cracks that occasionally marred its otherwise perfection. Yet even as I affixed my attention there, trying to push against the rising heartache that continued roiling within me, I realized there was a kernel of sense in this guy's seemingly wild ramblings.

Not saying anything, I just kept staring upward, letting that kernel nibble about in my head, like a mouse.

The All... So that's what it's called....

[ 04-05-2004 11:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

Thoran wiped his hand on Phalomir’s robe, then noticed that the gore had already vanished.

“Well, then allow me to introduce myself. I am Phalomir, your, um, husband… well, husband-to-be anyway. Pleased to meet you.”

Behind Graysith, the channeller thrummed and pulsed a bright red.

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

It is T’elion; he speaks…

Not letting anything of this pass across her features, she merely cocked her head, her hair now tumbling out of confinement within her robe to lay in disheveled curls in front of her, nearly to her waist. She eyed the Sith once more, chewing upon her inner cheek as she considered.

I remember nothing of what is being spoken; is the one who fills me with warmth speaking the truth? My Sire will answer this question for me; meanwhile…

It came to her that there would be no harm in asking the simple question T’elion was asking. She let her gaze rake up and down Phalomir’s imposing body.

“Phalomir; the shadow of the demons has blinded me; it has been so long... how I have... missed you so."

With those words she forced herself to loosen, and stepped closer to the Sith, step by graceful step until she was intimately close to his imposing frame. She paused there, staring up into his brilliant green eyes.

"How I have missed our times together, the games we used to play. I would say thus, and you would answer so. But there was one thing, one reply I loved to hear you say to me.

"Tell me now, I yearn to hear it again:

"What is it that you would never do for me, my… husband?” she then asked sweetly, placing only the merest emphasis on the final word, as if singling it out for the perusal of some unknown and unseen personage, and all the while shooting out a query to the thrumming device still laying on the deck of the bridge.

What is the meaning behind the words you speak? If this is not the one you state will be my husband, then who is he, and how has he come to pass through a chronotic shield?

Indeed, how in fact did those horrors manage the very same thing?

[ 04-06-2004 12:20 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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

There were so many things he could think of that Phal would do for her… what in the blazes would he not? Oh, come on…. Think…

“Why, nothing, my dearest sweet,” he replied. "There is nothing I would not do for you."

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