Not to mention that, even if Dark Rose no longer, she was yet Queen of the Dark. At least to the viewpoint of the imps.

Which might indeed be used to their distinct advantage at some future point.

But as for the here and now... she sniffed, drew herself up in a manner befitting herself and gave Rykounagin a chaste little kiss on the smooth plane of his cheek.

"I agree, my love," she said simply, her bi-colored eyes flashing as one hand flew down to grasp the hilt of her sword.

"While it is heinous to me that we run like whipped womprats, as our powers are gone it would more than likely be best to depart this area. We do not know if Shayla is in control of Preon or not, although I would think she is. Otherwise I am certain we would by now be nothing more than debris floating here...

"Wherever here is."

She pursed her lips in a frowning pout as the threat of imminent death segued into one of a more prolonged anguish. They had no idea where they were, nor did they have any notion as how to return to where they had come from. Or at least how to re-enter their galaxy.

Yet that ship had found a means of finding them, oh so coincidentally. Perhaps the means by which they did yet existed, somewhere about them?

She said as much to her beloved, now pulling him from his station in the weapon's pod.

"We must leave here," she reiterated, tugging him out and against her. For a moment they stood, hard against each other, staring into each other's eyes. A little thrill rushed through her; she pushed it away with queenly haughteur.

"Perhaps Panthar can devise a means to find the path by which this ship has arrived here? Perhaps we can depart from this place ourselves too, before Preon returns?"

She had no doubts whatsoever that once her former Dark Lord and Master gained what he wanted from Shayla, he would be back to easily destroy them. Preon was new and slick, not to mention well-armed; as far as she knew Devil-May-Care's little stint in the Darker Realms warped and molded parts of it that they might direly need.

And she certainly did not wish to discover whether this idea bore actual fruit by testing it in battle.

"Come, my love. We must go to the bridge."

[ 05-18-2010 09:19 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

This was an extremely fascinating thing, to his simple way of thinking. And so, when his thoughts on the subject were rudely interrupted by Panthar's query, he couldn't help himself. It was only at the verrrry last instant that he remembered this being hung about his Master, and if he, Maladius, brought him to harm then he, Maladius, might find himself pitched out into space. Not that being pitched into space would actually kill him, even in his corporeal state.

But it certainly would be awkward.

And so the poison-dripping tip he lashed instinctively out against Panthar swerved in its course in the verrrry last minute, slamming into the navigation panel next to Panthar's resting hand. Black ichor oozed from it to drip down the slick metallic surface and onto the deck.

He regarded Panthar with his bloody, pupilless eyes.

"I not know," he said simply, withdrawing his tail to wrap it about himself. "Master say, 'in ship go' so in ship I go, we go. Master say we come, we find, we kill. Master find way from home to place so strange; Maladius not liking this place."

He hunkered into a little ball -- well, as much as the term "little" could be associated with an imp of the Darker Realms -- and tightened his tail about himself. Cocking his head, he curled his upper lip, letting a string of drool dribble down upon his front claws.

"Master say you drive ship. You takes Master and Maladius home now, no?"

“Uh,” he said, “sure. Maybe. But you, um, need to stop trying to kill the equipment. And me, don’t try to kill me either. Or anyone else.”

Panthar turned around nervously to again face the instruments. The lights seemed to still be blinking and whirling as usual.

“But especially me. Don’t try to kill me. And the equipment. We need it.”

He sighed deeply and reached for the nav board to lay in a course. A sudden bleakness crossed his mind and he paused, hand mid air, and closed his eyes.

“I don’t know where we are or where to go,” he whispered to himself. He opened his eyes and stared out at the darkness before him.

“If I knew for sure which way the galaxy – our galaxy – really was… then maybe I could set a course that would take us only a few generations. Or if we could get back into hyperspace and find something to bump into… but no, we’d probably end up in a worse place. It is just so dark out there. Darker than hell…”

He shook his head and turned around once more to face the imp.

“You said your name is Maladius? I am Panthar. Tell me, Maladius… where did you come from? Which way is home?”

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

I nod and take a step towards the bridge, making sure my love is coming along before continuing.

As we step through the threshold, we are witness to Panthar's rather depressing explanation of our predicament to the imp.

"Yes Maladius... perhaps you can explain what you were doing out here in the black in the first place." I say, folding my arms and looking down at the creature, my distaste for the creature kept in quiet check.

"After all, I'm sure this particular trap wasn't sprung on a whim."

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

She quieted, her eyes betraying little. I want find Graysith.

"So tell me, what exactly are you, truly, if I have it so very wrong?"

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

Like a peer.

This didn't settle well with a denizen of the Dark, one not only born of pure evil but one who was the very epitome of it, and one whose very reason for being was simply to bring terror, pain and death to corporeal creatures.

Whether dead or alive... and not necessarily in that order.

And here these-- these-- living things were treating him like one of their own, asking him questions, poking into his soul, expecting him to answer! The idea made him tremble with rage; clenching his forehands into tight balls of fury, the razor tips of each finger gouging deep indentations into the decking beneath him, he slowly let the tail he had been playing with unravel and hoist threateningly over his head. But...

That being hung about with Master. And this one was with his dark Mistress, who was lazing against him in a most unQueenly manner, at least as far as the Darker Realms was concerned. But...

It was only due ot those two simple facts that he refrained from impaling them both with lightning quick slashes, and instead hunkered down into an even tighter ball of barely contained fury. He slit his eyes, no mean feat for one lacking pupils, and turned his head slowly from one to the other, regarding both Panthar and Rykounagin. As the young man was behind him, and Panthar in front, looking from one to the other resulted in his head swiveling 180 degrees in a most disconcerting manner.

At length he deigned to speak.

"With Master I come here, this Master knows. You know this now!"

Quick as lightspeed, his tail lashed out and thunked into the decking in front of Rykounagin, a clear indicator of whom that statement was directed toward. He then let his head swivel back to Panthar.

"Lovely, lovely Darkness is home, home is here."

With some effort he raised himself up on his haunches, steadying himself with the tail he now briefly coiled behind him, and reaching out with both forelimbs he made a sweeping motion, indicating an area a full 360 degrees around him.

"Home is here, but not here," he finished as with a resounding thump he slammed back onto the deck, wrapping his tail about himself again so as to more easily lap at the poison that was oozing from its tip.

“Well,” he said at length, “that indeed is a truly philosophical question. What am I? Well, I’m the son of a poor sharecropper, born into poverty at an early age and forced into slave labor when I was four. Not buying that? Well, then let’s just say that first and foremost I am the Lord of the Dark Realms. None can possibly dispute that now, the power flows within me. Hey, wanna see something? Watch this!”

He raised his hand before him and pointed a finger at the floor. A smile curled on his lips as he called forth the power to shoot a small demonstrative streak of lightning across the room.

But nothing happened.

The smile turned into a frown as he stared, hand still raised. His mouth twisted in puzzlement.

Quieting then, Shayla's greeny-blue eyes defocused for a few moments before snapping alert once more as a thought occurred to her. She regarded the Dark Phalomir. "If you are as powerful as you claim, then why are you here at all? Could it be that we mere mortals possess something you don't, that you want?"

She trailed, already feeling she knew the answer...

...and quite troubled by it. Suddenly being sans-power seemed like an advantage of sorts instead of the handicap she had once thought it to be. If she was a pawn in a game played by Something Much Greater, perhaps Something or Someone was looking out for those sentient after all...

[ 06-12-2010 10:18 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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“Mere mortals? Is that what you consider yourself?”

He leaned back against the bulkhead, a small look of genuine wonder in his eyes. The arrogance and pompousness were gone.

“Or do you mock me? I have done the unthinkable in underestimating your power, and I bow humbly to your strength. But your demonstration here does not frighten me, do please do not think me a fool who will tremble before you. I am enlightened, and I am humbled, and I see that the fascination and admiration I hold for you are well founded. I harbor no ill will for you, Shayla, and indeed hope you will come to like me. But first, if I may ask…”

The Dark One leaned forward a bit, curiosity running rampant on his face.

“How did you do that?”

That which some have come to think of as Which Was reared its wonderful one-ness back into the omnipotent non-ness of what it was/wasn't; cradled its quite unique non-ness into the accepting arms of the all-encompassing one-ness and let go a little, virtual smile. It took a look about its non-self, taking in the grandeur of ALL there was, the ALL of which some little portions of it were now being allowed to awaken to the fact that their gradually progressing perceptions of it were on the right track.

There was a time Man thought HE was the center of it all. In response to that silliness time was given; Man then thought his little celestial body was. Then his little stellar; oh, such wonderful beings those stellars. Perhaps one day their language would finally be deciphered by the other pieces at play.

He/she/it shook a figurative head, smiled more smugly at the Progression Of Things, which albeit slow was at least on an accurate track.

One day those little motes awoke to the fact that there was more, oh indeed quite more; their tunneled little view expanded its paradigms and took a leap of faith.

Stellars existed, vast quantities of them in wonderful pin-wheeling units. At first only each individual one was recognized by the motes inhabiting it, but slowly, bit by bit, in a manner yet evolving, each little bit grew cognizant of the fact that there were more, there were hundreds, millions, billions of those units, each in turn encompassing billions of stellar brothers.

That the stellars were the true Life of the Universe was not yet understood by the little motes dwelling in the All-ness; it was enough that they now looked out toward a universe with tiny eyes that were gradually opening in recognition of the fact that perhaps the better term was in fact Universes...

"Hey, unfair move! That's partiality!" The cry from him/her/itself came from behind him/her/itself.

That-Which-Was took up some stuff of what is, coalesed it into the brilliant ultraviolet-and-chrome Eyes of which he/she/it had become quite fond, and cast them behind his/her/itself.

A figurative sigh was heaved.

"We hoped we wouldn't have noticed..." it non-said, then muttered in further rejoinder, "But a fair move had been made."

Nothing back but a snort; he/she/it sighed, and then waved a figurative hand.

The fabric of Stuff which wove together existence of both forms, be it living or non, rippled, gathered into an immensely tiny little bunch, and exploded outward in the virtual equivalent of a Big Bang.

Here and there certain motes began waking up, some in surprise, some with regret, but one by one those certain few began to wake up as if from a deep slumber.

The Other still wasn't satisfied. "We're not just giving it away!" it protested, the non-words loud and born in total effrontery.

That-Which-Was merely snorted.

"Of course not. Balance must be maintained; it must always be maintained. We know that, and some of us still know it at different degrees, at different levels than others.

"We'll see now..."

The Other muttered beneath its non-breath. "We still think you're making up the Rules as you go along! But we'll wait.

"Now let us think..."

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

She trailed, somehow surprised by her own words. "...and I think we all should consider ourselves thus."

Quieting then, Shayla's eyes defocused, and she pursed her lips thoughtfully for a moment before they snapped alert once more. "But what do you mean? How did I do...

...what?"

Her final words were truncated somewhat as the sudden ripple of something began to touch the depths of her senses, from a place that was not-felt for quite some time. The empty place in her soul wasn't empty anymore...

...at least not in the way that it once was.

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

...and perhaps...

Shayla didn't let a smidgeon of her thoughts show outwardly. Instead she let her look shift to something totally different and much softer.

"There is something more you want of me than you claim, I just know it," she said softly then. "Tell me the truth."

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

The Dark One straightened as well as he could, the smile returning to his face.

“I am suffering, badly. Not physically, mind you – although a severed hand is a bit annoying. But no, my dear, I am suffering from a broken heart. I was betrayed by those I held close and then rejected by the one apple in my eye. You can imagine how distraught I must be. But I persevere, as I always have. I was offering her greatness, anything she wished, but she chose poorly. But then it opened my eyes to something greater. Something better, more real. You.”

The Dark One leaned forward a little, his eyes seeming to twinkle.

He returned his gaze to the viewscreen and bleakness it showed, trying not to think about the imp.

“Now, if only we could find the way back into the Darker Realms, we might be able to somehow open a portal back to the Sith worlds, or someplace near that. I’d settle for an outer rim world, whatever.”

He then did turn back to the imp.

“But what I was asking is do you know how to get back to home? You see, um, your master wanted me to see if you can remember this, and don’t tell him I told you, but if you can show how well you remember then there might be a promotion in it for you. I mean, only the best get to go on field trips into this realm, and the next one will probably involve crunchy people to impale with that terrifying tail.”

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

...a terrible, horribly wrong choice. Presented with placating my own wants and wishes and continuing on a path to b e a part of something much Greater and Grander, I chose the former."

She quieted for a long moment, her eyes defocusing once more, this time stretching out to that which she had been without for a seeming eternity, recalling her alarm at the thought that her Son had merely fizzled into non-Existence because powers could no longer be felt.

And recalling that, in the end, she had determined that her meager need to sense him there was really quite unimportant. There were so many more greater, far more important things, at stake, just as there had been so long ago when she had chosen to save Erik and others she cared for instead of continuing on in her training, to do the work needed for the Greater Good of All.

In turning against them, we will save them all.

Shayla's eyes snapped alert, clearing and focusing on the Dark Phaloir. "What do you know of the incoming Yuuzhan Vong?"

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

“Yes, being part of something greater and grander. That I can fulfill. Free? Back to the way things were...? That we will work on. It is funny you should ask of the Yuuzhan Vong, though, for I was just speaking of them the other day with an old acquaintance of yours. Do you remember the being who calls himself The Master? Such arrogance, to make everyone refer to you as if you were a slave. But anyway, before I beat him into a bloody pulp, he was asking of them as well. What he told me was that they were coming to your galaxy, that they were in league with something or someone there yadda yadda, and that he had been promised the power to defeat them. He demanded that I give him that power… well, anyway.”

“Why do you ask?”

He felt helpless.

A rage welled within him, and he longed for the ability to send them back home. He should be able to, but without his magick he was just a muscle-bound giant with tattoos on his head.

He grunted his anger and called for the powers that he knew would not answer, but he wished beyond hope that they would.

Sparks flew from his fingers.

Phalomir stared at his hands, a feeling of warmth flooding him, like a greeting from an old long lost friend. His mouth curled into a slight smile, and he looked up to the others in the cabin.

“ShaRhylla,” he said steadily, quietly. When the Halfling lazily drug her eyes to his, he stared intently back with his half-smile and flared his fingers. White sparks of lightning danced between his fingers and played from his fingertips. His smile widened into a full grin.

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

She paused, her look shifting to something unreadable. "I was, after all, connected to a certain chrome-eyed warrior aboard a Warship while possessed by Darkness not of my own."

She cocked her head, frowning a bit. "On a Sith world, no less," she commented. "Interesting. Very Interesting."

[ 06-16-2010 12:10 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"In league with them? My dear, how could that be if I know nothing about them! Perhaps if I even knew who they are or why they would want to come to this galaxy... But still. The Darkness, you say? That Darkness is within me now, bound to me. Do not be frightened, I am its avatar and it will do no harm to those I bless. It tells me everything, and it has spoken nothing to me of these Vong."

Inside the dark one, a small bit of blackness oozed in a distinctively agitated way. The dark one shifted to alleviate the sudden pain in his back.

Sith magick. It is the fire, the lightning; I did not know he possessed such a thing, only the Sorcerer clan is in true possession of it, although the Armorers do implement it into the weaponry they make...

A slight mental start pulled her away from her own tangential thought, a thought arising from pure astonishment but one which then segued into another, natural conclusion.

What has taken it away, has returned it! Inside, a familiar fire began flaring once again, spreading out into every cell of her being, filling her with not so much warmth as much as homecoming.

Her eyes widened, the emotions flooding them running from surprise to delight to something akin of her former hauteur. She blinked, letting a smile spread slowly across her features, and ignoring Phalomir completely cut her eyes to the crouching imp.

"Home? I can--" she began when memory rose up and gave her a virtual slap in the face.

Home. She was about to use that which came instinctively to her, to open a Portal into the Darker Realms, that lethal and soul-agonizing dimension where she had in actuality spent the majority of her life, that place she suddenly found herself aching for with every ounce of her being, Home, where she was Queen...

Had been queen.

She truncated the statement she had been about to make, gave Phalomir a deeply scrutinizing look, and turned to her betrothed.

"Are you you again?" she whispered, giving his cheek a soft brush of her lips and for the moment ignoring everyone else within Devil-May-Care.

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

“We can travel home,” he said quietly, “with your help. But we must make sure these imps are returned ‘home’ as well. It will do good to no-one to have them traveling space. Are you – with me?”

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

She paused, smiling. It wasn't pleasant. "I think that there is more going on in the Grand Spectrum of Things than you truly know or understand, and that there are many players of many different kinds involved."

And in the End the Object is to maintain the natural order of things, and for the Game to Continue?

Shayla kept this thought to herself.

"If you are truly an avatar of the Darkness, here to do its work, then why do you know nothing of these things?"

[ 06-22-2010 01:38 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

She slit her eyes.

"No," she said with a toss of her head. She stared defiantly up at the towering Dark Lord.

"You want this. So... no."

Something dark and familiar flashed throughout her being; she let her lids drop for a moment to relish the feeling. No, it wasn't the Darkness that had held her so long in its thrall. Instead, this was something else, something different, something she hadn't really felt before in her life. But something very, very enticing.

Her eyes sprang open, and a hand waved toward the crouching imp.

"They are mine, they listen to me; they will come with us..."

Then her look of defiance melted beneath one of utter astonishment as, right in front of them the image of Maladius grew wavery, shimmery, translucent...

And then disappeared entirely. A quick look around, a sudden intense listen, and she knew the others were gone as well.

Stupid of me! she raged as understanding dawned.

With the return of the powers of the Dark, the imps had simply...

Gone home.

But whether of their own accord, or simply being recalled... that she didn't know.

[ 06-22-2010 02:05 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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“Even now,” he said evenly, “Out here, in the middle of nowhere, you cannot work together with me. I am not your enemy, ShaRhylla. I know your aspirations are great and you somehow think I stand in your way, but what move have I ever initiated against you?”

Phalomir straightened himself, standing tall and firm.

“Someday you will make a great Dark Lady, but you have much learning and growing to do before that can happen. You harbor much hate, too much anger. Think what you will, but you need others. Without the experience gained from watching and learning from the Dark Lords and Lady - your mother – you are doomed to make the mistakes of those who have gone before you. That is a lesson I know all too well.”

“But there is a lesson I ask of you, ShaRhylla. It is a question that has haunted me for quite some time, and perhaps you can tell me the answer. Why do you hate me so?”

[ 06-22-2010 09:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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