He turned back to Jasyn as a flash of engineer's acuity came rushing through him.

"Crippled, this ship is not."

The words dropped from his mandibles without so much as the slightest hint of emotion; it was as if he was merely giving instructions to an underling about how to repair a balky core flux generator. But though emotionless, those mere five words carried a galaxy's worth of meaning on their backs.

The chitter of clacking mandibles echoed from the bulkhead a final time, then faded away into silence.

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

"If we could get to Eagle Enterprises, we could get her all fixed," he then said, hoping K'khil would understand what he was trying to get across. Then he followed up with, "I just think it'd be better to take precautions and get out of space, so we can make sure something isn't really wrong. That is, of course, unless you have another idea?"

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

For the first time he eyed the man with more than his usual engineer's eye.

"Perhaps of this, the Lady and Master should aware be made," he finally stated, and began to sidle toward the hatchway...

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

He paused, hoping te Verpine could at least follow what he was about to say. "I don't trust the Master any further than I can throw him, and Graysith, well...

...I've seen her waffle back and forth between the best ally and the worst enemy. And now we are headed right to the homeworlds of the Sith. I'm really uncomfortable with all of this, especially with the Master here."

He paused, watching the Verpine keenly. "And you know something of this too, for I know from what I've heard you knew Galen when she was with Tarnus. You must know something of Graysith's other, less than pleasant, side. And now she's back there having a nice chat with the Master."

Jasyn paused, scowling. "How touching."

If the Verpine didn't catch the sarcasm in Jasyn's last statement, the the word was practically emblazoned on the look in his eyes.

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

...and then turned to face the two men.

"With you am I, this Master trust I not," he finally admitted, deciding to return honesty with honesty. "Great pain, has he brought. His own son, to evil has he given."

He paused again, his mandibles clattering like castanets now as the incongruities he had witnessed in the mess hall mere moments before now reminded him that perhaps they were all treading upon very thin ice. For Verpines treasured their eggs, revered life, in their own coolly, logical manner. To learn that anyone could actually give away his own blood...

Well, that was completely unfathomable to him.

"But, empathetic to him, the Lady has become," he then went on, now taking a step forward to scrutinize the console again. "Felt I this; feel things, we Verpine can."

A chitinous manipulatory appendage reached out, stroked the cool dura-plast of the console, as if by that act alone he could put aright whatever it was that Jasyn had done. He was no fool; he knew that some form of sabotage had just occurred here.

And now it would seem he himself would have a choice to make...

"Loves her, he does," he said in apparent non sequiteur as he turned back to face the two men once more.

"The Dark Lord, Phalomir. Into my care, She did he place. My care; against this Master would I keep her from harm. But empathy feels she for him now...

"Confused am I."

To his great surprise, he found that yes indeed, he most certainly was.

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

He shouldered forward to stand beside Jasyn. Spoke to him, though his eyes never left K'kihl.

"Hey buddy! Don't lose sight of the forest for the tree!" he reminded roughly, his voice a harsh, cracking whisper, but one loud enough for the Verpine to clearly hear.

And understand. And then he spoke directly to K'kihl.

"I don't think she needs you any more, pal," he said, thinking back to her sudden change from damsel in distress to Empress of the Galaxy, ordering people around like they were nothing but pawns for her to play with.

...or perhaps not willing to acknowledge that she didn't.

But he had no opportunity to say that, at least not for the moment as Cazun got to his feet and took his own stance.

"Hold it one minute there, pal," Jasyn said, looking to Cazun. After all, as suspiciious a bastard as he could be, he trusted K'khil with everything he had, knowing full well of things he had done in the past, and of some of what he knew. "K'khil has always stood with us, and is a friend."

He paused then, looking to the Verpine. "And he has a point," he said in his direction, now referring to what Cazun had just said. "Consider her, really consider her, and all she has done. I agree, Phalomir probably loves her...

...but now it would seem that perhaps he is the one Sith who really doesn't have a clue in Hell what he's up against. You've already stated your doubts about the Master...

...but what about her?" he questioned, clearly meaning Graysith. "How can she be empathetic towards the Master, considering what he has done to the one who she supposedly loves?"

[ 03-21-2012 10:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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

"There ya go!" he finally blurted. "What did I say? Watch out; now our friend here has ya thinkin' all softy about these guys; sheesh pal, have ya firkin' forgot what we were just talking about?"

He glared at the Verpine, tensing himself in case he would react to this by deciding to take off and try to get back to the others. If he did...

Well, no matter what Jasyn had said, no matter how much he trusted him, well...

"Indeed, friend am I," he asserted, wagging his head toward Jasyn but directing his words toward the antsy miner.

"Trees and forests; such analogies understand I not," he went on. "But explain please, what soft thoughts there are of which you are afraid. What words have you spoken, that afraid you are this one would forget?"

One raised appendage lowered and indicated Jasyn with a little wave.

He studied Cazun, then turned to Jasyn.

"Some conversation, have I missed?" he finally finished as he warily lowered both arms and slowly approached the two men. He came to a halt before them.

"Help would I, if knowledge I had. For friend indeed you are, and have been."

That manipulatory appendage now plopped on Jasyn's shoulder, and gave it a carefully applied squeeze.

[ 03-21-2012 11:02 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by K'kihl ]

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

...how they have brought themselves all forward into this time and place and have all this uber-powers. Talked about how they seem to know about the incoming Yuuzhan Vong, and have known about them even before this Master creep showed up," he continued. "I've just seen them all waffle back and forth between friend and foe way too many times, and I can't keep pretending that I trust them...

...particularly not him or her," he added, pointing back towards the mess to indicate Graysith and the Master. "We were just speculating as to why in the Universe, with all the powers that the Sith have, they would need anyone else here at all. Or if just maybe, since they were once overrun and destroyed by the Dark Jedi and in the future were apparently defeated by the Yuuzhan Vong...

...if just maybe they made an alliance with the Vong to come and wipe us all out. How else would they know that the Vong were coming now to this time and place too, as they have managed to do already themselves?"

He shook his head, scowling. "I don't like it, not one little bit. We've been relying on them far too long, especially with all of these damnable unknowns related to them."

He sighed. "I need to get back to the Boss, and the others."

And talk some bleeping sense into them all, came the final mental addendum.

[ 03-21-2012 11:07 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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

"A problem, it would appear, with the navicomputer there is," he finally said, now moving forward to fiddle somewhat lackadaisically with the console.

"From hyperspace, have we dropped, and to Nkllon must we go. There full repairs to affect."

He turned around, and nodded to the pair.

"To the others I go, this unfortunate state of affairs to announce--?" he ended, but with a clear query in his voice.

Clearly he wanted their full opinion and approval before he returned to do his best to help the ruse along.

[ 03-21-2012 11:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by K'kihl ]

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

...or if they actually realize that we've fallen out of hyperspace and no one has said anything of it," he ended with a shrug, quirking a brow in Cazun's direction, clearly wanting his input as well. At the same time he wondered just how they were going to proceed once they got to Nkllon too...

...for even then they wouldn't be away from Graysith and the Master, at least not entirely.

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

Cazun nodded roughly, slapped one hand on Jasyn's shoulder, and after a slight pause slapped the other on K'kihl's chitinous one. There it held just a fraction longer than did the one on Jasyn's, as if transferring the unspoken message to the Verpine to not try anything funny. For while Jasyn might know the chittery Cricket, Cazun as yet did not.

"Let's go, then."

With that they stepped out, heading back toward the mess. As they moved along Cazun whispered to Jasyn:

"So, what's the plan, buddy? You know anyone on Nkllon with a ship we can use to get away on? Or at least have a way to contact this Boss Man of yours?"

He trailed and froze mid-step. "Oh bloody Kriffing Hell. They are all headed to one of the Sith worlds, where one of my buddies is imprisoned..."

He trailed, scowling. "...or worse."

[ 03-22-2012 12:00 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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

"The Sith worlds?!"

It was all the miner could do to keep from snorting. He sidled closer to Jasyn, keeping his voice very low, for fear the others might choose that moment to come upon them.

He paused, making quick work of using his wristcomm to quickly pull up Terrin's secured frequency and type in a quick message:

Terrin; change in plans here. We need to talk. Headed for Nkllon here and trying to get back in contact with you ASAP. Are you still enroute to K'eel Doba?

Leaving his message at that, knowing Terrin would respond soon, Jasyn sent it on its way across the secured channel and refocused his attention on following K'kihl to where Graysith and the Master were talking about Fates knew what.

How they were going to take over the Universe, no doubt, came the black thought of a particularly annoying shoulder-devil.

And Jasyn had to wonder how accurate said thought truly was.

(((OCC: For receipt of and reaction to Jasyn's message, see Where Will You Go? in this same forum.)))

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

Not headed towards K'eel Doba any longer; headed for Mandalore, to hopefully make alliances with others.

Terrin paused. Yeah, others who were not Sith, for once.

Thinking we might need to start spreading our wings, and relying on the Sith a little less. I'll keep you posted. Have you found Graysith?

Finishing the typed messasge, Terrin pressed the send button, knowing his thoughts would be transmitted along a secured frequency.

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

“To tell the story of Phalomir,” he said, “you must first understand the story of the Sith.”

He anticipated the reaction of the Dark Lady, and paused a moment to allow her annoyance to pass. He sat and leaned back against the wall.

“Your involvement with the Sith has been well noted,” he continued. “But how much have you truly discovered about thus great race? You know of the powers of the All, and you know of the tight bond between all Sith and the collective forces that bind them, that which we call magick. But the story of the Sith is vast and long, our race existing for thousands of years before mankind crawled out of the swamps and took to the stars. We were a race of warriors, of magicians, but most of all conquerors. And we ruled all.

“But our folly as a race was obvious. We wanted more, and we wanted to keep what we had. There was always new technology, new ways to infuse magick into it, and finally, there was the discovery of the All. It was a miracle – none would ever dare to oppose us again. But not all of us relished this thought. If a race could be all powerful, where was the glory? Where was the challenge? No, this could not be allowed. So those of us would opposed the use of the All formed a league, and charged our brightest with the task of finding a way to control it.

“ Yes, you know this part of the story. Phalomir told you. It was Trelanicus, the Sith he thought was his father, the Sith who forged the Eye of R’lous. But that rebellion failed, you see, and Trelanicus died, locked away in a bunker on an outlying planet. But his assistant did not die with him. No, his assistant had studied the All, had learned some of its mysteries, and was the test subject in the forging of the Eye. His assistant knew the basics on how to open portals, and in a desperate attempt to escape the fate of his master, the assistant opened his first portal. Sadly for him, it was into the Darker Realms.

“He was the first living being to ever cross into that realm, and for that he was a novelty. Being an opportunist, though, he struck a bargain with those forces. I won’t go into detail, but suffice it to say he quickly learned much more about the All, including how to travel through time itself – a secret he kept from all others. His part of the bargain made him an agent to the realms, and no longer a slave to a physical realm, or a rebellion, he took on a new name. He would never serve again, and would be forever known as Master.”

He paused, allowing a few seconds to pass.

But then another thought struck her:

What is found can be lost... and indeed then found again by another...

She calmed the Glyph further, crossed her arms, and gave her locks a little toss. Tried to regain her normal state of annoyance toward the Master, but found that somewhat difficult to achieve. Settled instead for momentary apathy, which at least for the time being quite effectively squelched the little flicker of empathy toward him that had been struggling into life. Even when another thought lifted its head in the attempt to push this away:

No one is simply an agent of those Realms. Ever. A "master" of nothing, this one is truly nothing more than a slave to them, but one with power...

She tucked that new insight away for future reference, where it settled down for an amiable chat with memories of what that heinous place had done to her own daughter. Then gave the waiting Sith her undivided attention.

"Leave the ship to those who manage such things," she stated flatly.

"Continue."

[ 03-22-2012 11:37 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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

“I understand your confusion, and doubt,” he said. “As it was, those who practiced the All were few in number. And I knew they could not control it forever. It corrupts, turns brother against brother… they had to die. And so they did.”

He paused a moment, reflecting.

“I took on an assistant of my own, Thoran. He was a cunning, devious lad. Once a Sith, now a shadow in the Realms, but his talent was clear and he was given to me. He helped me rid the Sith of the All, for what I thought would be for good. And then those powers that be within the Realm wanted to collect on me. They wanted to end my career early, so to speak. So I used my new tricks and escaped with Thoran into time. We had many lovely adventures together.

“But I made the mistake that nearly every male at one time runs into. I met someone, nature took its course, and I was suddenly given a son. I had little time to contemplate settling down, though, for my past caught up with me and I forced to face my old friends from the Darker Realms. I had no chance to flee this time, and to make amends with them I did some work – you see, it takes much energy for the realm of the dead to influence the realm of the living, they need folks like us to do their work for them. They had a target in mind, whether it was part of a master plan, or simply to punish me. But I helped them… but you must understand that it was to protect my son, to hide him from them. I had no choice.

“So I ushered in the Dark Jedi and destroyed the Sith.”

Got Graysith, but are having some ship difficulties, he keyed in. Also have the Master with us.

Leaving his message at that, Jasyn hit send and let it spiral across the Universe towards Terrin's secured frequency.

((OCC: Jasyn's message will be received in Where Will You Go in this same forum.)))

[ 03-22-2012 10:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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

Two.

During this, Jharmeen didn't so much as utter one word. Didn't move one muscle. Didn't even so much as blink. But inside her a volcano was beginning to seethe, one which was starting to spew forth lava and ash, blasting her momentary empathy toward the Master into ash, pummeling her carefully guarded apathy into dust. It built inside, slowly for the first nano-seconds, then with rapid-fire force, growing in strength and certainty until it was nothing less than a veritable pyroclastic event, hovering on the razor's edge of explosion.

She blinked, holding it at bay.

This one is crazed. Truly, psychotically mad.

The knowledge flowed through her, arming her, tensing her will.

He states it was to protect his son, yet he has used him as barter with the Dark Realms. And the egomaniac has the unutterable gall to claim to be the source of the Dark Jedi.

He does not even know what they even are.

She gave him one final look, then let the Glyph explode. It filled the room with its glorious radiance, blinding him to her, giving her the cover she needed as in one smooth movement she whirled and leapt. She gained the doorway in that one agile bound; in the next fleeting moment she was in the corridor, looking right, looking left...

...to see them stopped dead in their tracks, Jasyn's hand holding something to his lips, the others hunkered close like animals caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.

"No time!"

They had to go, had to get away, fast. Without giving any of them time to so much as draw in a deep breath, she threw back her head, and throwing out her left hand, forefinger and little one pointing outward, the others curled against the palm, she made a unique twisting motion.

Behind the little group the very fabric of spacetime shrieked as it was ripped, taken unto itself and coiled into something that roiled with a greeny-golden otherness, all at once powerful and beautiful and lethal as a hunting dianoga.

"Go!" she screamed, then took off herself, leaping toward them now, running, arms outstretched toward them as if she was a mother reaching to embrace her children. Her arms touched their bodies, her momentum did the rest.

The Portal she opened shrieked once more, then accepted the sacrifice and allowed them entry. Seconds later, after they had passed, it snapped closed, leaving behind no sign they had even been there.

((OOC: Follow Graysith, Jasyn, Cazun and K'kihl into Another Shade of All in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, thank you.))

[ 03-22-2012 11:41 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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Darkness.

“And then once again I escaped through time,” he shrugged. “But this time with my son. I went to the future again. This time on a desolate world, now ruined by the Dark Jedi, but hospitable enough for me to use my powers to create a home. Labs, rooms, a hangar. I raised my son there, until they found me again. And this time I took us all to a time yet to come. I didn’t really know how far I had taken us, but the Sith were restored. The worlds were thriving, and I found a quiet little place to settle down. Until they came – the Vong.”

He waited.

Silence.

He scowled, and concentrated, the darkness ebbing as his eyes healed. He saw he was alone.

“Hmph,” he said. “I was just getting to the good part.”

He stood, walking to the cockpit and seeing it empty. The void of space broken in the main viewscreen by the planet looming in the distance.

“Alone again,” he sighed. “But not for long. Phalomir is alive and whole, which means there is still hope.”

His eyes flashed a bright red as a smile curled on his lips.

Interesting.

He placed his hand on the console and stretched out with his feelings. There was nothing wrong with this ship. A smile traced along the curves of the Master’s lips. His respect for this human had risen slightly. He scanned the control board and noted the condition of the lights.

“Clever,” he said. “But it takes more than deliberate mal-programming to keep the Master at bay.”

He thought first of using his powers to fix the problem, then hesitated. No, there was no hurry. And the occasional use of manual labor was good for the mind, no? Plus, it would allow him time to clear his head, to think of his next move.

Although, in reality, that was already clear.

He keyed in commands, his fingers deftly working the keys. It was so mundane, yet the tactile sensations that shimmered through his skin were pleasing. The negative reaction from the nav computer, however, was not.

He scowled, his thoughts moving away from his unsuccessful reprogramming to now recall the earliest days of his mad existence. He had not completely lied to Graysith, although the truth was stretched a bit. He was, after all, a colleague of Trelanicus and helped to create the Eye of R’lous. But as for the rest… meh. It didn’t matter what was true anymore. The Eye had served its purpose, for it had incubated Phalomir and conveniently died. Never mind that wrong Phalomir was given the key to the Darker Realms, the real one was still alive and still had the same potential.

But the poser had to go. Yes, the clone was still powerful, but the Master knew something that the clone did not.

More to the point, he could Shayla something that the clone could not…

The computer beeped its contemptuous tones again, indicating another failure. The Master paid it no mind, waving his hand over the console. The lights all went blank, and in a moment came back all green.

Go with your strengths, he thought. And when all else has failed, return to the beginning.

He smiled again, staring at the view screen. A swirling shape began to materialize in space, beginning from a pinpoint and spiraling out to a size that would allow the entire ship to pass though.

The Master guided the ship forward into the Elseness, the portal closing behind and leaving no trace that it was ever there.

((OOC - Follow the Master into "Motes in an Electric Eye" in the Jedi/Sith forum))