I wished that magic and the force still worked, so that I could wrap myself in invisibility as I so comfortingly did in such times of danger.

I wished I had one of my swords, particularly my lotus.

Most of all, I wished our pleasant little ride back to sithland had not been interupted by this detour, that my loving 'cuddle' with my love had not been interupted, and that we were landing on our destination at this moment, only minutes from regaining our powers.

Apparently there was a lot of room for wishes in the universe.

I slipped through the airlock behind Phalomir and Panthar, hands brushing along the walls, eyes seeking out shapes in the gloom. The sensors hadn't lied when they'd said there were multiple contacts, but currently he couldn't discern anything in the dark.

I pause as we enter into some sort of antechamber or cargo hold, the mists making it hard to peer through. I feel my hand bump into something heavy, but apparently movable, and pick it up. Some sort of trophy or idol. Regardless, it'll do in a fix.

"Anything?" I hiss in a stage whisper to the two ahead of me, kneeling as my eyes try to penetrate the gloom.

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

The halfling's lips twisted in a quirky little grin when Rykounagin jumped, so stealthily had she crept up behind him. Assassin though he may be, she was Sith -- or at least half -- and had been trained by one of the most formidable Sith warriors to ever grace the universe.

Then she melted against him, her bi-colored eyes roving about, seeking to penetrate the misty gloom surrounding them.

"What has happened here?" she questioned of no one in particular. "That being behind us is Sith; why would a Sith be aboard this ship, and how could he have gotten here? Was there one aboard when this vessel went into the Darker Realms? How did it get here, with him aboard?"

She paused, suddenly aware that she was rambling a bit. Biting her lip to force her other questions into momentary hiatus, she gripped her Tooth more tightly and continued to creep slowly forward into the gloom. For a brief moment the thought that Shayla was left behind with the apparently unconscious stranger crossed her mind; snorting slightly, she kept on.

Shayla would certainly be able to fend for herself, if indeed she was truly all she had stated herself to be. Nothing other than sheer warrior would do; if the stranger turned on her, then...

Well, as far as she was concerned, she and Rykounagin were now in possession of this lovely and lethal little corvette, Captain Yaoksi Joao's Devil-May-Care.

A fair enough trade.

[ 03-18-2010 11:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

Shayla

She was turned at the moment, perhaps grabbing a weapon or medical kit to help the poor unfortunates on the other ship.

A smile briefly crossed the face of the stranger, then he let out another moan of pain. Not that he was in any pain, not physical. It was to hide the sound of his feet as he gathered himself in and stood abruptly, his massive frame now apparent as he let the large black robe fall from his back. Before Shayla could turn to see what was happening, he slapped the control of the airlock door and sent his other hand whirling through the air to catch Shayla in the side of the head. She flew several feet to the side, the contents of her hands skittering to the floor, and collided with the bulkhead.

“Hello again,” said the Dark One, not really caring if Shayla was unconscious or awake, and worked another control to lock the airlock door. A red light began to flash furiously outside as he sent the command to disengage the ships.

For a moment he wondered if the door on the other ship would close easier than it opened. It was badly damaged, after all. But didn't these sort of things take a few seconds?

It wasn't much, simply the frame of a luckily open hatch, but it was enough to halt her movement and give her something to drag her body up against. Se did so with the greatest effort ever expended in her life, her flaming locks flying willy-nilly in the maddening rush of wind, eyes tearing against the ferocity of it.

"Rykounagin!" she screamed as peered into the gloom, her vision obscured by her tears. But she couldn't see a thing; the eerie mist was so intense, the darkness so nearly complete that it was as if she was inside of a great, dark ball. All she could do was clutch the bulkhead with all of her strength, and hope that whatever was producing the sudden hurricane would stop.

Little did she realize that when it would do so, it would mean not only her own death but that of every member in the little boarding party.

[ 03-20-2010 11:12 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

The ship has lost its seal!

Without hesitation he ran with the air current, stumbling to keep his footing as the force of the air movement beckoned him to move faster towards oblivion. Rykounagin was pressed against a wall, struggling to pry himself from it yet maintain a hold. He was reaching out for something…

ShaRhylla! She was losing her battle to grip the bulkhead she clung to.

Phalomir grabbed the edge of the wall next to Rykounagin, his feet wanting desperately to break contact with the ground. He moved one leg up so his foot was planted against the wall next to Rykounagin’s head, then stretched out with his other hand towards SharRhylla.

“Take it!” he called out, his words nearly lost in the rush of wind. She made no move, whether from fright, lack of strength, or trust. Phalomir roared and stetched further, straining his back, and grabbed her wrist. With a pull he jerked ShaRhylla from her precarious grip and brought her through the air, pulling her close to his chest with his arm wrapped securely around her. He then took a deep breath of the thinning air and turned his body quickly, practically throwing ShaRhylla into Rykounagin. The boy’s position was much more secure, and he immediately grabbed onto ShaRhylla and held her in place.

Phalomir’s grip was gone, and he flew threw the air towards the open hatchway. He saw the approach of open space through the blackness of the hatch, and flung his hand out in time to grab the bulkhead over the hatch. His legs dangled into the blackness of space while with one hand he held tightly, and with the other he worked the control on the wall. The door began to move, but slowly and irregularly. He grimaced and forced himself back into the ship fully. The force of the air seemed to be lessening, which overall was not good but did for the moment allow him to grab the edge of the door and pull, hoping to aid its progress.

Phalomir felt something press against his back, then a hand reached from behind and grabbed the door below where he gripped it. Panthar was here! Phalomir closed his eyes and pulled with all of his strength and after a moment the door broke free from its jam and slid shut, locking with a click.

Phalomir fell backwards to the floor and struggled for breath. The air would eventually repressurize as the generators worked, but right now there was not much to breathe. He heard a raspy panting next to him, and he opened his eyes and looked around for Panthar.

A large being sat next to him, with eyes that burned in the flickering darkness of the emergency lights. But it was not Panthar…

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

I swore profusely, including a few comments involving the promiscuity of a Twilek's mother, though my words were stolen by the wind.

I let out a gasp of relief as the wind suddenly cut out, moments after Phalomir had shot past towards the airlock. Looking to ShaRhylla: "Are you alright?"

Eyes taking in the slightly shocked nod she gave me, I hugged her briefly before letting go and turning the corner to look at the airlock where Phalomir was slumped next to a large... something.

"The fuck are you?" I growl, fingers balling into a fist, mind starting to differentiate only between friend at foe at this particular moment.

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

Changed.

And that change hadn't really manifested itself, indeed hadn't been able to do so, until the Darkness he worshipped as his Master had taken it upon himself to appropriate the lovely little ship he himself had so lovingly rent with his razor sharp claws, and dragging he and some of his brethren along for the ride had gone out on the hunt.

Or so he had thought. But then again, he was an imp: slobbering, gibbering, and indeed not quite the brightest crayon in the box.

Now he suddenly found himself huddled halfway against the edge of the ship's hatch, which the hulking being had just closed. The fact that the rushing wind had stopped didn't really faze him, he was too busy poking and prodding his new flesh... well, at least it was new to him. He had been outside of his dimension before, several times in fact, but this was the first time he had found himself "stuck" in corporeality. It was a new sensation, and he wasn't sure if he liked it yet or not. So he kept on poking a razored claw into his flesh, over and over, cocking his head with interest to see the black ichor that oozed from his self-inflicted wounds.

But...

What he did find irksome was the loud raging coming from another being now hunkered behind him. He turned his head 180 degrees, like an owl, and gave the rash young man a rather disconcerting glance as he ceased ripping into his own skin and let responsive instincts rush into him.

They said...

Kill.

With the swiftness of a hunting dianoga he whirled about, his long scorpion's tail lashing, venom dripping from it's deadly sting. He hunched, baring his fangs in a hiss, when the hulking being now behind him made some sort of noise. Perhaps it was going to the aid of the irritating one; he rolled one eye toward the being, who had by now turned to face him fully.

Instinct or no, all upwelling urges to kill rushed from him, leaving him somewhat puzzled and as deflated as an imp could become. It cocked its head, blinked.

"M-aaa-sssssst-ter--?" he hissed in query before lowering his tail into a protective coil about himself and bowing his head. True, Master did smell somewhat odd, but perhaps that was to be expected. Things were a bit different from what he was used to, for this wasn't truly their realm now, was it?

That’s am imp… what the--?

Then it spoke.

Master? Why would it call Phal ‘master’? And what is it doing here? And why did the ships get separated? And where is Shayla? And who was that guy in the airlock? And—

Guy in the airlock?

Master?

Phal--?

“Yes!” he shouted, moving forward. “Yes, that is your master! Lord of the imps, master of the darkness, doer of all badness and generally nasty dude!”

Phalomir puzzled a quizzical look towards Panthar.

“Because the imps would naturally follow the new Lord of the Darker Realms, or whatever he is, right? And who is that new lord of the Darker Realm? Why, Phalomir, of course, right? Not his wimpy clone, right? I mean, I saw it happen right before my eyes, along with Shayla and Jharmeen.”

Phalomir cocked his head, his mouth open and trying to comprehend these words. On top of the events of the last few minutes, this was not an easy task. But he nodded his trust of Panthar and turned slowly to the beast before him.

“Yes,” said Phalomir.

“That’s my boy,” said Panthar. He tried to catch his breath, and indeed the air was slowly beginning to return to its normal density. But his breath stopped – along with his heart for a moment – as the gibbering and slavering noises began behind him.

“Oh boy,” he muttered.

[ 03-20-2010 11:21 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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

Our ship, she reminded herself as turning, she followed the path taken by her fiancé. Then she stopped, utterly shocked, not so much due to surprise but rather in reaction to a sight that was strangely common, somehow mundane to her.

An imp.

Something welled up within her as she took in the sight of the demonic being now kow-towing before Phalomir.

No! He is that which I shall kill; he shall NOT take unto himself that which once was mine!

Moving forward quickly now, she went to the pair, stopping before the creature and the towering Pretender.

“Do you not remember me?” she cried out, tossing her hair, her Tooth held in her hand; nevermind the little fact that she hadn’t so much as one drop of magick or power to her name. That mattered not; what did was that once she was Queen of the Dark, and in that capacity had complete power over this minion of the Realm.

“You shall obey me, as you once did; not this one who goes behind a mask, who is not who you believe him to be! He is pretender; I am the one who once took you and your kind to my soul, who fed you my blood; dare you to forget this?

“You shall say them nay!”

Her back to the encroaching demons, breast heaving, she took the Tooth and in one quick move sliced the blade of it deeply into the palm of her hand. Turning it upright she held it in offering, and waited to see how not only the imp, but the Pretender would react to her sudden interruption.

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

The viewscreen showed a blanket of nothing. He did not like this, but again that was an issue for later. There were stars somewhere, he was sure, and once he figured out the nav computer then that issue would be resolved. For now, though, there was other business to attend.

“Hello there,” he said, flipping the communication button. “I know you can hear me, I left the channel open on my end. By now you’ve either perished or have managed to close the door. If I am speaking to a ghost ship, then I do apologize to my imps. It was a pleasure. If you’ve managed to live, however, then I take great delight in telling you that your Shayla has been promoted. No longer shall the Darker Realms suffer the treacherous scorn of a halfling who so flippantly changes her mind and forget her vows. She has been deemed… unworthy. I’ve always heard that blondes make better heirs. So enjoy your new freedom, and your new ship, for the next few seconds you have with it. Oh, and for my clone… I do believe father liked me best.”

He whistled again, smiling. He searched the control board gleefully and laughed out loud when he spotted the triggers for the ship’s weapon systems. He swung the ship around until the Devil May Care was in the viewscreen, then stopped the ship.

He hunched, now whipping his six-foot tail over his back, reaching the poisonous sting of it out over his head to where he could strike her easily with it. Instead, he lowered the tip, planting the tip of it carefully against the decking.

"Misss-tressss..." he hissed before turning back to Phalomir and repeating the gesture.

"Masss-terrr..."

Now from the corridor behind the little party, the slobbering and gibbering sounds came louder, accompanied by the scrape of claw and sting against deck and bulkhead. Maladius took a final look at the pair he had accepted as his new Master and Mistress before making a gigantic leap from mid-crouch, sailing over the halfling's head to land behind her. He let his momentum carry him on as he raced down the corridor, turning a corner to come face to face with his brethren.

He hissed, snapped his jaws, drool flying, gestured with his tail and one foreleg. His bloody, pupilless eyes glittered in the misty gloom, drilling the information he was carrying into the simple minds of the remaining imps, willing them to accept as had he the change in their parameters.

The onslaught of perhaps two dozen imps ground to a halt... save for a trio who would not broach such nonsense. With slavering gibbers of their own they leapt in unison, startling their brothers with their alacrity, and sailed completely over Maladius' body. En passing, they whipped at him with their tails, sending him off his feet and crashing toward the others, to act as a block as they continued following the last orders they throught they had received from their Dark Master:

Kill the intruders.

Thus it was that while Maladius lay in a tangle of imps, scrabbling to regain his footing, the three charged around the corner, covering the remaining short distance to where Rykounagin stood with lightning efficiency. They didn't even pause to slobber out their usual death threat, but together leapt toward him, claws outstretched, but luckily tails at the moment stretched behind them, due to the somewhat restricted confines of the corridor.

The Dark... her once love; could that indeed ever have been Entaris, or what the forms he took embodied? But that Darkness, that which had made her his Queen his Dark Rose...

Now he tossed her aside like so much dirty laundry!

It was too much for her to bear. She truly didn't care one iota how he now felt for her, for indeed thanks to the budding but steadily growing love now developing between her and Rykounagin she was beginning to see that It had never loved her to begin with. It merely used her for its own vicious pleasure, manipulated her to create his twin offspring...

His offspring!

Memory of their two Dark Daughters flashed through her head, all in a split second.

They had their daughters, yet he was now spouting off again about creating an heir. Two of them existed; had he forgotten? Or was he trying for a son...?

She shook her head, crushing the quandary down when Maladius interrupted her rage by first bowing to her, then leaping over Rykounagin to barrel down the corridor behind him. She was in mid-movement, to return to Rykounagin's side, when something ever-so-slight, just barely there, caught at the corner of her eye. She squinted, peering toward the portal in the ship's hatch; taking a few quick steps she was afront it, her hands against the cold durasteel as with widening eyes she watched what was now happening outside. It was indeed difficult to see, as what feeble light reaching them from their home galaxy was in a band behind it. But that same feeble light created a dim silhouette; that she could see.

She gasped, more out of sheer affrontery than fear.

"The ship, it is moving out, it is... no. It is turning around, it is coming to face us..." She turned from the hatch to deliver this startling news, only to see three pairs of ruby eyes rapidly growing in the gloom.

Standing in their direct line of fire was her fiance.

"Rykounagin!" she screamed in warning as with Tooth in hand she rushed away from the hatch, shoving past Phalomir and Panthar. Truly something was not right; why were the imps yet attacking?

It mattered not why. All that did was the fact that her love was in mortal danger.

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

If that was true, then perhaps the clone was taken by the Master to complete that dark deal that had been intended for Phalomir himself. That defining moment in his life when hw turned on his own father and the dark, tar-thing that had come to take the young Phalomir into the Darker Realms. Was that a real memory? Perhaps it was after all.

Then in that case, the clone was now taken by the Darker Realms, and was now the master of these imps. And at least one imp thought this clone was here with them now.

It thinks I am its master, the dark clone…

Phalomir’s eyes widened, and he took two long steps to plant himself back next to the first imp. Other imps were encroaching upon ShaRhylla and Rykounagin, and in the narrow corridor Phalomir could not reach them in time.

“NO!” he shouted, his voice booming in the ship’s interior. “These are not to be harmed!”

The eyes, aglow in the dim corridor, turned to him. Phalomir’s heart raced as he calculated the odds of taking just one of these creatures with his bare hands, not liking the results.

“We need them,” he continued. “This ship needs a crew – a human crew. And a Sith, it needs Sith too.” Phalomir glanced at Panthar. He had no idea just how literal these things would be, and in the heat of the moment he didn’t have time to be eloquent.

“So leave them alone,” he said. “And let us focus our energies on the imposter that is still aboard the other ship, before he ruins my plans!”

Whatever that is. What was that about an heir?

Right now it didn’t matter, he waited to see how the imps would react and readied himself to spring in front of them if need be.

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

"We go!" he hissed as with a great bound he headed back to where he had left the others. He barreled into their company just in time to see the trio leap toward Rykounagin, just in time to hear the words his Master bellowed forth.

He screeched to a halt, dithering. He knew the imps were not to attack; indeed, that was why he had returned. But Master commanded they halt, so halt he did. All he could do was watch as the three went into some aerial acrobatics themselves a wonder to behold, as as a whole they sought now to transform their leap to Rykounagin into a leap toward anyplace else.

Two managed the feat, if barely. The third did not, however; his only reward was lights out as the young man bashed him over the head with some object he had been holding. Behind him, his Mistress was making terrible noises, rushing up to the human and taking him against her, becoming noisier by the minute with sounds no Queen of the Dark should be making.

But Queen she had been, and Mistress she still was, so he allowed her the momentary departure from her normal bearing, turning his attention now toward his Master. He kow-towed again, raising his tail and once again planting the tip of it's sting upon the decking.

"We sssstop..." he hissed as he crept forward, pausing only long enough to lash his tail at the two imps who had rushed Rykounagin. They had just regained their footing; the impact they received sent them flying back, knocking now against Panthar and shoving him against the bulkhead.

Maladius paid no attention to this. He merely crouched down before Phalomir, casting looks his way which were interspersed with the occasional ones he sent to ShaRhylla.

"We are safe from our Dark Minions," she stated flatly, giving a succinct nod toward the groveling denizens of Hell. "But we are yet in peril; Shayla's ship appears to be coming in to attack."

She drilled Phalomir with a look which simply stated, Believe me, I know this. And indeed, it was rather obvious to the halfling. By the token of the very words it had spouted out in premature (well, at least for the moment) victory, she knew the being now aboard Preon to be her once Dark Love and Master. He had dismissed her for Shayla; she knew his -- or rather, It's modus operandi all too well, for hadn't she lived with it, given everything she possibly could to it, even (although due to the block her mother had placed in her mind, she didn't clearly recall the hideous fact of it) her own death, over and over? It's parameters were simple, that she could now see with all too crystal hindsight:

It lived for itself, to gain all it could for itself. It used what and who it could, however it could, solely to obtain its own selfish ends. And once it was finished using something or someone, it did not bother to simply leave it.

It destroyed it.

"We are in grave danger," she hastened on, giving Phalomir's shoulder a small, insistent tug, as if by that very motion she could will him into believing her words. She kept her eyes pinned upon his, for the moment her disdain and hatred of him diminished before the magnitude of the peril they all found themselves in.

"We must do something, and quickly."

[ 03-23-2010 01:05 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

...but by who, exactly? And why? Wasn't everybody just getting ready to board the other ship?

With this thought, Shayla sat upright with a start...

...at least, mostly. Something wet and sticky and reddish trickled down from her forehead and into her eyes, blurring her vision slightly...

...but not entirely. Off to the side, Shayla could see that the airlock door was now sealed, and that they were seemingly no longer connected to another ship. She swiped the red substance--her own blood--out of her eyes even as her ears picked up on the sound of a deep male voice that at first listen appeared to belong to Phalomir. But logic began to point out that he had been boarding the other ship, and they had not been able to make any contact with anyone from it via the commlink...

...so why would Phalomir be attempting that again? Intelligible words began to waft through Shayla's lifting fog, which was doubt perpetrated by yet another concussion.

"Shayla....promoted...scorn of a halfling...mind..unworthy. Blondes...heirs..."

The "Phalomir" now speaking was so full of himself that his voice was practically booming...

...and almost certainly could not be the Phalomir that Shayla knew. Scorn of a halfling? Blondes? HEIRS?

A chill raced up Shayla's spine. Self-preservation kicked in and, despite any injuries, Shayla knew she couldn't remain in her current position because something was definitely wrong. She lowered her hand to her weapons belt then, only to realize that her sword was no longer in place. Scanning the area around her, she found what she sought, got quietly to her feet, and picked up the weapon with an elegance only one who had handled a sword could. Gripping the hilt, she began to move silently towards the cabin. With each step, the words of the arrogant “Phalomir voice” became more and more clear. With each step she began to have an inkling of just who...

...or perhaps more aptly What she was probably with. And that pushed her into action. She didn't have any idea what had happened, and how they had been seperated or who might still be aboard the ship if anyone...

...but she knew who at least appeared to be piloting the Preon.

Self-preservation kicked in full-throttle. Pausing for just a moment outside the cockpit of the Preon, Shayla got her barings and made up her mind regarding what she was about to do...

...and then set herself to the task at hand.

He's coporeal now, she reminded herself as she moved in. So enrapt in his boastings via the communit, the Phalomir clone never saw what was coming until it was too late. No doubt hearing motion behind him, the clone turned, a smouldering smile plastered on his face...

...and with one graceful motion Shayla sliced one hand completely off, deciding that anything less would merely get her killed. ”I am not your pawn,” she growled. “And regardless of what you have flowing though your veins, I'd suggest you do what I ask if you would care for it to continue doing so.”

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

“You had me until that last sentence,” he said, the smile not fading. “It was a bit hard to follow. But I have to hand it to you, my dear, you’re going to be ever so much fun than that hot-tempered slip of a thing that always thought herself so big. But a pawn? You? Oh, never. You are much too important for that.”

He looked again at the wrist, then glanced down to the floor at the hand that lie there.

“That was a tremendously accurate blow,” he said. “Or at least I hope it was. You weren’t aiming for something else, were you?” He chuckled at himself.

“But this squabble aside, my dear, I need your help. There are a number of people in that ship over there, each of which I think you have expressed a certain disdain for. Now, mind you, I know we’ve had our misunderstandings but I really do promise to treat you better. In fact, I plan to treat you like a queen. But small steps first, as this gift I present to you. All I need to know is which button shoots the big nasty laser thingies at that ship over there? All of your problems go away, or least a great many of them, and I promise to help rid yourself of your other worries. Oh, and would you be a dear and help? My button pushing abilities have been cut in half.”

...very accurate. That was the single thing that made her pause. But as much as there was truth in what he had spoken, Shayla read beyond to what the Dark Phalomir wasn't saying as well. And aside from her growing dissatisfaction with some of the parties on the other ship, and her hatred of at least two of them...

...she loathed being manipulated even less. And the Darkness wasn't the only one with an agenda, after all.

At length Shayla lowered her sword slightly, cocking her head to the side and allowing her eyes to defocus in apparent thought and consideration. Then they snapped alert and rested on those of the Dark Phalomir.

"You must know I will not be so easily convinced," she admitted. "Even so, those aboard the other ship are useless to me."

She paused. her greeny-blue eyes scanning the Preon's navboard. Taking Dark Phalomir up on his offer to take control of the ship, Shayla brushed past him, stepping over the severed hand on the floor as though nothing at all was out of place in its presence on the bulkhead. As she seated herself at the pilot's station she made a final, and possibly damning, decision. Knowing that nobody knew where they were in space, or time for that matter, Shayla took a gamble. Her fingers played deftly across the controls of the navboard. Although she was without the Force or anything else to sense it, Shayla could almost feel the rising glee of the Dark One behind her as something lit up on the navboard controls that he must have assumed were the lasers coming online.

His joy was probably short-lived. Shayla punched a glowing button, and the Preon responded by yawing sharply to the left, throwing Dark Phalomir from his feet and into the bulkhead as the ship's viewscreen splayed out into hyperspace lines for a short jump 5 parsecs away to who knew where. After all, if the Preon didn't know where she was in space, and its pilot didn't either, they could end up most anywhere.

[ 04-02-2010 12:24 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

“This ship must have been piloted here,” he yelled. “Take Panthar to the controls and get us out of here NOW! Rykounagin can man the weapons, take him to those!”

Panthar didn’t wait for the imp to respond. His own sense of urgency took over and he ran for the front of the ship, hoping he was making the correct assumption.

“ShaRhylla, find something to hold onto,” he called out. “Perhaps this Darker Realms material can withstand the blast, who knows? But there is nothing else we can do except wish that ship away! I will go help Panthar!”

Phalomir glanced once more at the surreal scene before him, imps and mist in the emergency lights. He ventured one more quick look outside to see if the ship had come fully around…

But it was not there.

He stopped and stared, his eyes then flickering around to see if the ship had moved.

“Where is it?” he asked. “ShaRhylla, where did it go?”

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

Expecting yet more madness, she looked this way and that, trying to find something to hang onto. The best object was her fiance, who she then clutched as tight as she could, preparing for what she supposed would be some sort of bone-rattling explosion. But nothing happened; no strange sounds assailed her ears other than the eerie whines and slobbers of the imps, and the distant under-his-breath mutters Panthar was uttering somewhere ahead of her, words or curses she couldn't quite tell as they were too diffuse for even her keen Sith ears to catch.

A few more seconds ticked past; slowly she moved back from Rykounagin but still kept her hands in contact with his body.

"Rykounagin--?" she asked in an extremely quiet voice, then pulled away completely and hurried back to the hatch they had just left. She shouldered past Phalomir and grasped the frame, peering out into the majesty of Everything exposed to her view by the tiny porthole.

All she could see was the band of stars.

"It is gone!" she affirmed, now craning her head this way and that as she tried to take in the entirety of the limited space provided by the duraglass. But there was nothing to be seen, just a black-limned band of distant stars.

She pulled back, first shooting Phalomir and then Rykounagin a puzzled look, but one that rapidly segued into a frown.

"Has it changed its course? Is it now behind us? Has Panthar used the sensors to see if it has just moved to another spot before attacking us?"

She shook her head in annoyance; as a warrioress she far prefered a straight-on confrontation to sneaking about. But likewise her gut was telling her that their opponent preferred something of the same; she knew the Darkness, knew it had them in its sights, and knew they should already have felt the brunt of its attack. She didn't think it was the type to play cat-and-mouse with them for too long a time; it bored far to quickly and easily for that.

Therefore, to her way of thinking, it was indeed gone.

"I cannot see Preon!" she continued in a louder voice, one she hoped that Panthar would hear from the bridge.

[ 04-03-2010 08:41 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

“They had power,” he muttered. “This ship was moving under its own power all along.”

He was not aware of how much time had passed, but hoped that he could fire up the engines in time to move them out of the line of fire. But then came the calls from the aft, giving him pause. He flicked the slimy mucous from his fingers and worked the sensors.

“It’s gone alright!” he called back after a few seconds. “They must have jumped into hyperspace because there’s no sign of them anywhere.”

“No sign of nothin’,” he added, quietly. "Well, Shayla must have gotten the hyperdrive working and--”

And what? Was she flying the ship? Why would she leave? And if that mysterious stranger was who everyone suspected it was, why didn't he fire?

The imp behind him grunted and clicked, startling Panthar. He turned in the seat and pointed at the imp.

“Don’t do that!” he cried. “It’s bad enough being trapped in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of hell demons, I don’t need them scaring me to death every time I turn my back!”

Panthar paused, one part of his mind making plans to check the hyperdrive and run a systems diagnostic to see if anything was really wrong with the ship, but another part of his brain raised a question that made all other thoughts wait their turn.

“So just what the heck ARE you all doing out here? ” he asked the imp.

[ 04-03-2010 09:25 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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He bent down and picked up the severed hand, regarding it. He fitted it back onto the sticky, wet wound that was his wrist and let go, but it fell back to the floor. He shrugged and picked it back up.

However, the minutes slipped by as my eyes regarded the readouts, panning the barrels of the weapons system about in space. They're gone. All the better for them perhaps.

After all, treachery was on the top of my list of punishable deeds. There was only one sentence in my court, and that was death.

"They're not within weapons range. For any range for that matter. Seems they did make a jump." I finally say, getting up from a combat station and batting an imp out of the way, as the devilish thing had followed me there.

"With that threat gone for the moment, perhaps we should look to leaving as well." I say, seeking out the embrace of my fiance and hugging her, relieved that the threat had passed.

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

She paused then, her eyes defocusing.

And why the Hell did you make the choice you did Shayla Stargazer? Could it be that, after all, you don't have the true stuff that you need to get rid of Phalomir, who is clueless, and ShaRhylla, who belittles you despite your promise of allegiance to her?

"And it has nothing to do with any of your empty promises either."

She paused, snorting. "You don't want a queen, you want a tool, or else ShaRhylla's ability to stand up to you would not offend you so."

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He sat down in the co-pilot’s seat and leaned back. His smile faded only slightly as he regarded Shayla.