The Misty Mountains

Andraste · Oct 8, 2018

Andraste eyed Vollen as he was flung backwards and focused entirely on defense against her attacks. The Empress remained where she was, preparing to launch more attacks to follow up. However, she was surprised by Vollen staying where he was and addressing her directly. Andraste watched him curiously for a long moment, letting the fight play out around them. She was unconcerned by anything else going on in the field, meeting Vollen’s gaze directly across the plains. Her yellow eyes held amusement and curiosity all at once, and it was clear his words were whirling around in her mind. He had presented an interesting proposal for her, and by its very nature worked to probe at the finality with which she had approached this battle.

She knew what he was doing. In other circumstances, she would have scoffed at it, but there was truth to his words. Andraste smiled at him, taking a few steps closer. First, she used the Force to yank the sabers from his grip, tossing them off to the side. She kept the Force coiled around his neck, forcing him to his knees to face up at her. Andraste would only close the distance if he didn’t fight against his sabers being thrown.

She could sense the pain in him, the weight of all his past failures crushing him worse than any attack she could ever have done. Andraste knew he was cracking, especially as he looked across at his fallen allies. She kept her gaze fixed on his, “That is for me to decide,” She responded, addressing him face to face for the first time. Andraste walked closer so he could make out how small and vulnerable she was by appearance.

She closed the distance at the same time as applying his own earlier useless trick – dull senses. Andraste intended to have him faint by the time she closed the distance. She would only get closer if it was very clear he wouldn’t resist and simply collapse as she intended. If there was even the slightest hint of movement or resistance, Andraste would be on the move to counter him. She could see he was surrendering, but she didn’t put it past him to pull any last second trick.

His fate would remain a mystery for now.

@Nightfall096

Darth Kravos · Oct 8, 2018

Kravos could still see Vollen, but for the moment, Andraste seemed to have him under control, so Kravos made his other move against Jinlo. She'd resisted the grip on the saber, but the Dark Lord didn't release it. She was tackling the pain of lightning, but surviving, she was flashing Evandrus, which - at the distance he was at - wasn't pleasant for the Dark Lord, but far from blinding.

And that was what Kravos saw as his opening. Still pulling at the saber blade and ready to make it cut her in two if she lost her grip for even a moment, another tendril of the Force gripped her neck with crushing power and pulled up and back... hard. It would slam her helmetless head into the ground, ready to split it open with the force of the blow, leaving its contents to spill out on the ground even while it strangled her.

With her muscles spasming under the electricity of the other Sith Lord, the resistance around her saber (which, if it was lost, would cut her in two), the flash against the other Sith Lord, and the bodily (saberly?) attack against Cregan, it was nigh impossible for her to resist the Dark Lord's grasp. @Nefieslab @Plebometer

Darth Evandrus · Oct 8, 2018

Jinlo was doing well - but he doubted that she would do well enough to wiggle her way out of this. He raised his right hand with his saber higher to further push on her lightsaber blade, pushing back on it even as he continued to shoot lightning towards her with his free hand, now using almost all of his power in the Force to do so, the rest just in case he needed to counter.

His lightning connected and Evandrus poured on the pressure with his lightning despite her rudimentary defence against it. It was only then that he noticed the build up of the Force within her lower left hand. Cursing mentally, he moved backwards, pushing her blade back with his own as he slid back, moving back as her blade did, he kept his blade still in a high guard in his right hand.

He turned his head and managed to cover his right eye with his bicep before the light hit, blinding his left eye. Dropping his guard lower (across his chest, down from it's high guard position), he backed off rather than recommit with his blade, the Force acting to guide his movements even as his one working eye was now able to see. The lightning still continuing, never having stopped even now that he had taken a step back and she had made no move to make her block of the lightning more effective.

@Sreeya @Plebometer @Nightfall096 @Phoenix

Jinlo Halan · Oct 10, 2018

With The High judge repelling her already retreating fore blade with his own light saber before returning it to back to his high guard, he had repelled the upper blade of Jinlo's saber staff but Evandrus had not accounted for the upwards cutting swing of her trailing blade. As Evandrus moved to shield his eye with his bicep from the blinding light she had projected, lowering his guard to cover only his chest. As the trailing blade connected with its target unopposed striking the Sith Lord from below, only to be stopped in its continuing upwards travel as it connected with the light saber positioned at his chest. He would not be completely bisected but the Jedi master would inflict a mortal wound upon the fallen Jedi master.

Though the Force lightning would dissipate as a result of the mortal wound being inflicted upon the Sith Lord, the ever continuing ethereal glow of her Force Shield, that had allowed Jinlo to reduce the interference from the Dark lord and the Force lightning that was being thrown at her so she could carry out her attack. Despite persevering, the young raven haired master's body was aching from the physical exertion of wrestling her physical control over her weapon and weathering the tensing of her muscles being brought about from the reduced electrical charge running against her chest and throat.

Yet despite this there was another threat being thrown into the mix, although Kravos had been hampering her use of her own weapon, it had not been enough to satisfy him. The Darklord in the wake of the blinding flash of light had used the Force to wrap a tightening tendril around Jinlo's neck, before using it abruptly pull her neck upwards forcing a pained gasp to escape the Raven haired master's lips. Out of relex Jinlo deactivated both blades of her saber staff, and pulled as much Force energy through her bonded kyber, using the living conduit of the Force to draw upon the Force to her fullest potential in the circumstances.

Knowing that what ever fate that was about to befall her, would not be one she could walk away from. The raven haired master poured all her remaining strength into directing Force Stasis towards the Sith Empress. Having used it countless times to subdue and place the more serious cases of patients into a catatonic state before carrying out her duties as one of the Temple's Master Healers, Jinlo figured it was the best opening she could provide the Jedi Councillor with whilst Andraste's attention was focused solely on him. There was a probability that she would not be able to react in time to the deadening of her senses, giving Vollen an window to act how he wished.

Beyond that there was nothing else that the Raven haired master could do but accept whatever the Force had deemed to be her ultimate fate.

Vollen Shai · Oct 11, 2018

Vollen moved his eyes left, seeing as Jinlo fought to the last against Evandrus. Cregan. That's how Vollen remembered him anyhow. How he had hoped to remember him. It could never be the case now. Seeing them locked in combat like that, it was a reminder of how so much had changed, how much time had passed. He felt so much older than he had back on Balmorra. The galaxy wasn't like that anymore. Nor was he.

If and only if Jinlo managed to break the combat and take down Evandrus, freeze Andraste in a stasis, there would have been some hope. Vollen would have channeled energy against the empress' choke, breaking her hold and in that same moment using one hand to channel a dart of electrokinesis at her with the intent to incapacitate her, send her out of the fight. If she was being held by a stasis, it would by highly unlikely she would have any chance to move away from it, nor even in time if she hd managed to break it. Simultaneously with his other hand he would try to hold Kravos in a grip, so that he could not react or defend the empress from his attack, at least long enough to bring down the empress.

If Jinlo lost the combat, or did not succeed on all fronts, then Vollen would keep resisting the choke, but only halfheartedly. There was no hope of one against the three dark lords, no matter what he did now. Perhaps she'd kill him, the shame he felt watching his friends fall by his side, and himself reach into something he thought he had so well suppressed more than enough to make him quietly desire such an end. Otherwise, perhaps he'd live. Though his mind was far too clouded, and lost, to plan further ahead than that.

No matter what came, things would be different.

@Sreeya @Plebometer @Nefieslab @Phoenix

Darth Kravos · Oct 12, 2018

Kravos could barely believe it when the blade passed through Cregan.

No! his mind screamed. The two had been friends since long before they were Sith. They had been in the Jedi together, had been best friends despite their squabbles, and now he was gone. In an instant it was over, and there was no undoing it or turning it back. He wished he could move back just a split second to save his friend's life, but he couldn't. No power could bring him back.

It was over, and there was nothing and no one who could stop the unbridled wave of hatred that Kravos felt. Jinlo's head split open on the stones in the dirt and the Dark Lord didn't stop. Rage swelled and he bashed her head against the ground again and again and again until there was little but a stump mounted on a pair of shoulders. She was likely dead after the initial impact, but that didn't stop his bloodlust.

His gaze turned next to the unconscious body of Ailyah. He could feel the anger and rage in his wife, and he knew that whoever she turned on would fair no better, but this family of Phoenix had been a thorn in the Dark Lord's side for too long. They were at least partially to blame for Cregan's death, and he would have his many, many pounds of flesh.

He gripped the pair of Lekku in the Force and ripped them both to the side as if to split her head in two. They both tore free... and then came the fire. He summoned a raging ball of it, shoving it deep into the now blood-soaked hole he'd just torn into her head, shoving it through the gaps in the skull until it burst out the other areas of her head. There was nothing left but cooked grey matter and there would be no recovering.

There weren't many people Kravos truly cared for, but one had just been left on the battlefield in two, and Kravos would have his revenge. Tython would be next. If he had to go there personally, he would burn the Jedi to the ground. There would be nothing to stop him and no length he wouldn't go to. @Autumn's Firefly @Plebometer @Nightfall096 @Nefieslab @Sreeya

Andraste · Oct 12, 2018

Andraste watched as Vollen collapsed and fell into slumber, his stuns and other attacks not firing off since Jinlo never successfully put her in stasis. This happened as Jinlo died and before she managed to get off any attacks like the stasis. She had every intention of letting Vollen live, mainly because she knew he would suffer quite a bit after being tainted with the dark side. He would have to live with his choices and suffer internally for the remainder of his days. His titles would be stripped and he would never be trusted the same again.

But that was all before she felt the blinding pain of loss. From the bond she had shared with Cregan, she felt blistering pain. It was beyond anything she could have imagined, and it was before she even realized that he had died. She doubled over in agony, shaking in fury and dropping to her knees. It was visceral pain, it was emotional pain and it was pain through the Force. Andraste howled and wailed, crying out loud unnaturally as the pain shook her through the core, biting and cutting into her like a thousand blades.

Her yellows eyes were almost blinding white, the Force charging through her more powerfully than ever. He couldn’t be gone. It wasn’t real. And yet she felt it, felt it clear as day. Felt it in her blood which now felt too hot to flow within her veins. Felt it in her bones which suddenly turned to lead. Felt it in her heart which was shattered. Felt it in her mind, her thoughts poisoned and suddenly filled with fury she had never known before. It was beyond the rage she felt that day she was exiled. It was anger like she had never known it before. She was cracking and breaking, and from within that husk grew something even more sinister. It was everything everyone feared her to be, it was everything the galaxy was terrified of. The image of a compassionate and understanding leader melted away and the savage beast emerged, a living nightmare that would resonate with Jedi for generations to come.

When she opened her mouth next, it came out in the form of Force Rage. It was an anguished scream that echoed out throughout the field, the Force answering her calls. She first coiled it around Jinlo’s limbs, raising the woman into the air as all four limbs were yanked clear out of their sockets. Andraste watched strode forth, letting the blood spatter on her dress as she continued to tear away at the woman’s body, tearing out chunks and pieces till flesh, blood and viscera flew everywhere. The grass was stained red and Andraste kept going till there was nothing but unrecognizable bits of her left. She crushed the woman’s sabers and moved onto the next Jedi. Throughout her actions if Vollen showed any signs of movement, she was prepared to quickly shift course.

Next was Telunaris, the one that attempted to use Force Light on them. She coiled the Force around his neck and yanked his head clear off, sending the head flying across the field. Andraste whirled around to finally rest her gaze upon Vollen. He was the man she had been willing to let live. But her rage surpassed to a point where the slivers of humanity she had left were squashed. She gathered the Force around his body and crushed it till every last bone cracked and snapped under pressure. She felt the life leave him and still she wasn’t sated.

With another wave of her arms, the bodies were all lit on fire. Flesh popped and melted from the heat, the entire field ablaze as Andraste stood amidst it all. Her actions were methodical, and she purposely did not look to see where her husband laid dead. She gazed straight ahead, speaking in a murderously ominous tone, “Mobilize the fleet. Notify the council,” She slowly lifted her eyes to look at Kravos, her own pupils now stark white, “We will erase the Jedi.”

@Plebometer @Nightfall096 @Korvo @Autumn's Firefly @Phoenix @Nefieslab

Vollen Shai · Oct 12, 2018

This was what he deserved. Perhaps. Such was what he thought anyhow, as he felt his consciousness slip from his body as the empress’ grip on his mind grew stronger, darkness falling over his eyes.

Better it had fallen over that than his soul, that was his only solace.

He wouldn’t feel the pain of being crushed, his body burned away. Maybe if he hadn’t failed in his final moments he would have instead felt the cool embrace of the cosmic force, as his life would have fallen into it. That wouldn’t be the case anymore.

No. Vollen Shai would feel absolutely nothing. Perhaps, in some distant time his being might find its way into the force, even be called back to the material world again if it felt he needed to be used like that. A hope then, that something in his life, his death, might serve a greater purpose.

A fools hope, but a hope nonetheless. And that meant Vollen was the fool, fallen here in the marshes of Ruusan, here at the end of his days.

Perhaps he would see Cala again, one last time.

* * *

If the Sith were to look into the ashes before them, they would have found a pair of crystals. One, Vollens. And near it, another, older, cruder, as if ravaged longer by time, rolled up against his, untouched by the fire. In small ways they still lingered then, still fought against the darkness, unburnt, unbroken.

But undone, nonetheless.

/ExitThread. End Vollen.