Ask Ramifications

Renfry

Character
Independent
Rank
Nightsister Queen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Messages
1,375
Reaction score
586
She could feel the rage, the confusion, the indecision within him. The Force groaned and strained within the room, bent in such a way as to leave marks and stains. It crept up her arm and down her spine. It almost made her forget the agonizing pain that crawled across the skin of her left arm.

Her heart was pounding and she clenched her left hand at her side to keep it from shaking.

I want to protect my home, my child, and my Empire, she said. It was the simple answer to his question. They were things she would die to protect, and while she had no desire to kill him, she would fight if she had to.

He had built a great deal for the Empire, discovering Exegol, building up the Imperial fleet, bringing portions of the galaxy into their fold. For him to die would be a waste. For either of them to die would be a waste.

And yet she thought back to the stories she had heard of Sidious and Vader. Time and again the two had come to conflict even to blows, and yet for years they had kept the galaxy in check together. An alliance if not always an easy one.

She waited several moments more, watched him struggle, and drank in the waves of emotion before she finally spoke.

What is your decision? she asked.

@Braden
 

Darth Caelestis

Character
Sith Order
Rank
Imperial Council

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Braden Drake
Joined
May 6, 2021
Messages
545
Reaction score
288

The flames continue to move with each breath, moving back and forwards like the waves of an ocean. His body was tense, every muscle and fibre almost at breaking point as a combination of The Force and his emotions wrecked through his entire being, each trying to enact their will upon his limbs. The knuckles on his right hand red from ripped skin gripped tightly around the hilt of his lightsaber, blood pooling as the metal dug into his palm.

She spoke and gave an answer, was it the answer he wanted, no, but then he never asked the question he truly wanted to. His indecision and fear constricting two words ‘from me’ from the question, that could have changed everything. Were those words held back by Caelestis or by Artorigas. He couldn’t be sure, the former had everything to gain from it, the later perhaps just had more to lose. Fear was a path to the Dark Side, it had been told to him a hundred times and a million more to the galaxy and they were right. For fear led him to hide those two words and without them Andruil’s answer only gave strength to Caelestis.

Finally his eyes lifted from the ground, the rims of his eyes were puffy and red, the whites of his eyes bloodshot the iris a thick yellow hue. Caelestis stared up at Renfry again, his empty hand shot up as he still knelt a huge wave of flame erupting from his bloody palm looking to engulf the Empress, in white flames.

@Phoenix
 

Renfry

Character
Independent
Rank
Nightsister Queen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Messages
1,375
Reaction score
586
He lashed out, his eyes turning bloodshot as he looked at her, and her own were wild to match his. Her hand came up, the Force flowing through it as she let it pour out of herself.

The flames slammed against a glowing, green barrier of semi-transparent energy. Once, long ago she had erected such a barrier to fend off a blow from the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order. At the time she was not even a Sith, let alone ascended to the top of the Order. Now, here she stood. Her power amplified multifold from those days, but instead of standing with a team of others, she stood alone. She stood against someone she cared about. Someone who had turned the full brunt of his weight to destroy her. Who she had hoped to turn back, to bring to his senses. She had held her blows in the hopes he would be dissuaded, she offered him a second choice and he had chosen....

So you have chosen death. Her words were once again cold, but there was no pleasure in her voice. She took no joy in what would happen, and she didn't even know if he would be able to hear her.

And so her mind turned from placation to annihilation. She knew the strengths and weaknesses, she knew that her power was matched by only two other beings in the galaxy and so she knew she had the advantage over him in raw power and arcane knowledge of the Force. She also knew that he was injured worse than she was. The pain she felt in her arm was now all but evaporated in the new flood of adrenaline, but her lightning had struck the core of his body. The damage dealt would linger, slow and weaken him. His muscles would still be spasming. In other words, he was more wounded than she was.

And then that barrier she had created closed. It was quick and with a wall of flame between them it would be difficult to tell what was happening until it was too late. The barrier transformed like a dome over the Councilor, and the flames now trapped inside with him would serve two purposes. First and most obvious: they would burn him. The second, less obvious reason was that the flames would quickly consume all the oxygen within, leaving him choking on death within only moments.

@Braden
 

Darth Caelestis

Character
Sith Order
Rank
Imperial Council

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Braden Drake
Joined
May 6, 2021
Messages
545
Reaction score
288

Caelestis lashed out, anger, frustration, rage poured through every part of his body, summoning the Dark Side to him, funnelling it through his soul. As he sought to consume the Empress in the fire’s of his passion and strength. Artorigas watched behind the glass of Caelestis' yellow eyes, the fires pouring forth from his very own hand. The barrier she erected was powerful indeed, no Force energy he or Caelestis could summon would break it. This was the true might of the Empress of the Sith.

As fire reigned forth as from a dragon itself, his body racked with pain he struggled to hold on, both to the fire and to life as Caelestis stubbornly tried to break the women’s shield with his strength. Soon the fire began to turn, looking to engulf the Imperial Councillor. At first he seemingly turned away from its master, but quickly even it turned against him. The fire caught on his clothes, the GI burning away the scars of the lightning still red and raw upon his skin visible for all to see.

Artorigas stood in terror, behind those eyes as he watched himself destroy everything he had built. The burning began to take to his skin, bubbles of flesh upon his back, his arm. Tears began to wash down his face, the one sign Artorigas had to give in that moment as Caelestis slowly killed them both.

The air was growing thick with the smell of burning flesh, oxygen was rapidly depleting in the dome that surrounded him. Caelestis looked into the eyes of Andruil through the white flames, his body racked with more pain than he should be able to withstand. He snarled at the women before closing his left palm, the fires extinguishing. As they dissipated Caelestis stood naked, half burned, but still full of hate.

As the smoke cleared Caelestis struck, the last of his strength he leapt forward, screaming as he charged, lightsaber held in both hands he looked to strike the women in two. From the smoke she would not be able to see him, the last remaining Force Energy within him allowing him to move as quick as lightning. The blow would surely hit true, remove the head of Andruil, the Empress of the Sith and in that moment crown him.

Totally captivated in fear, Artorigas watched this all take place, the fires burning, he could not feel Caelestis' pain. Trapped behind a wall of Darkness, he saw the smoke appear and Caelestis leap through his blade running true. That is when he saw Andruil's eyes, in that moment he was thrust back to Makem Te, to Dathomir, Dromund Kaas, Korriban, Serenno, Exegol to every meeting they had.

Just as the blade reached its mark, a near silent snap-hiss could be heard through Caelestis’ and Artorigas’ screams. The blade disappeared as he reached her, a soft smile on Artorigas’ lips.

@Phoenix
 

Darth Stolas

Character
Sith Order
Rank
Imperial Council

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Mr. Teatime
Joined
Dec 19, 2020
Messages
921
Reaction score
567

Morgan's grip on Raze's head strengthened and solidified as the Dark Lord resisted and leaned backward, powerful enough for the helmet to begin denting inward. The Force coiled more fiercely, pulling down on his head into his neck to compress it. These iron coils abruptly twisted as they pulled, stopping the backward slide and weaponizing its momentum. With far more than enough force to not just snap his neck and leave him paralyzed from there down, but rotate the entire head 360 degrees around and tear his head off entirely if unresisted. Coming in while Raze was leaning back and far before he hit the wall for stability, his neck would be twisting against the weight of his own partially off-balance body.

And since Raze was reaching out to Morgan with two high-concentration attacks at once, his defenses should be limited. Raze might be stronger now than before, but Morgan was a near-peer and the difference wasn't enough to overpower him easily. He was used to dueling enemies stronger and more experienced than himself. Immediately after his combination attack that built off the previous, the Firrerreo Sith focused again on defending himself, the fires within rising to meet the invading demon that dared to touch him. Even if Raze ended up paralyzed, that wouldn't necessarily stop his Force-based attacks unless he also dropped dead on the spot.

The touch of the half-Sephi's mind to Morgan's was not the welcome thing it used to be. It was foreign, hostile, unwanted, and infuriating. At first, it shocked him and he flinched at the sight. Visions of life crashed against the flames, visions that burned just as maliciously. Surely the Drast saw them, but the first set of Firrerre did not have the effect Raze may have intended. Firrerre burned, and Morgan burned more fiercely for it. Kaia burned, and it made him all the more murderous. Every face he knew reduced to ash in the vision they became cinder for the monstrous furnace in Morgan's heart. Raze was chipping away at what made Morgan who he was, what made him sing sweet songs of love and loss. He was stoking the flames of the vengeful Drast. Angry tears fell down Morgan's face, and he was all the more furious for it. Even if he survived he would never be exactly the same again.

Twin pairs of conflagrant eyes stared back at Raze's in his mind, at the silvers sometimes glanced out from where they hid behind a demon the Cadre had tortured and whipped into Emryc's head. Stolas had no intention of being another little girl or white rabbit to be killed for Raze's satisfaction. Stolas was a monster in his own right. All the ways he'd been weak and failed were there. So were all the lies and secrets kept by Emryc and Raze, a mausoleum of broken promises that made them worthless. Visions of Emryc making his promises at the foot of a grave were twisted, showing grove trees burning like torches as fire rained from the sky. Stolas resisted Raze's attempt to weaken him psychologically by shifting what he was shown to how Stolas now perceived them in this anger.


Ours is the Fury! sang out in his mind as a vengeful chorus. Liar, betrayer, oathbreaker! Like a chant of war it echoed, louder and louder. I'll kill you! roared the chorus, Rip you from Emryc and tear you to shreds!

So long as Raze was reaching into Morgan's thoughts, Stolas could cause damage without actually invading Emryc's mind. So Stolas bared his fangs and claws. He dug into the tendrils of influence that showed him visions and shared with Raze agonizing, redirecting the emotional impact back upon Raze. Claws of abject misery rent and fangs of lethargic sorrow bit deep, forged from a year of abandonment and all the broken promises and betrayals, sharpened to blades by Firrerre's devastation. Morgan always had powerful emotions whereas Raze had little. So long as the unfeeling demon was in Stolas's mind he'd be forced to experience these things he had never, and could never, feel or understand in the same depth and intensity as Morgan himself. With these weapons he began to shred Raze's invading mental presence like an arm stuck haphazardly into a tiger's den, weakening it to try and force him to retreat back behind Emryc.

All the while, his will refused to allow the coils to fully entangle his neck and choke him, fighting against it the grip. Once his defenses were in place, the Force gripping Raze's head mightily squeezed the helmet's crimson visor inward. His intention was to shatter the glass and send the razor shards into the half-Sephi's eyes to render him blinded and bleeding.


@Sreeya
 

Renfry

Character
Independent
Rank
Nightsister Queen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Messages
1,375
Reaction score
586
She held the barrier over him, holding back the flames even as she could feel the strain against her mind. The full brunt of his power slammed against hers and it strained all the power she had accumulated over the years to keep him at bay. Her face twisted up in tension, grimacing in pain.

And then he was there. He had darted through, using the Force to boost himself and batter through the barrier she had created. His blade swung and she stepped back, her own saber blade flicking up to try to catch it. Her wrist swept down, a vertical slash downward with the intention of catching his saber. She wasn't sure she could catch it in time, and she suddenly wondered if this would be the end for her.

All this journey she had made. The work she had gone through. The conquests she had made and surviving a fight against the Eternal itself. Now it would end here. Her life and journey would come to a close, and the unborn child in her belly would die with her.

But her blade didn't meet his and there was no burning sensation in her neck. What there was was a sudden resistance against her arm. She didn't see the result at first for her eyes were on his eyes. On his lips. On the smile. His eyes were suddenly different again, no longer Caelestis, but eyes she recognized. Eyes she had spent hours with. Eyes she had come to care about even if their paths had never quite intertwined.

And then her eyes dropped to her saber and the path it had carved through his shoulder and into his chest.

Her eyes flashed back up to his face again and her saber deactivated with a hiss-snap as her mouth fell open. As he would begin to fall to the ground, she reached out to break his fall, trying to catch him.

Art! No, no, no, Art... why, she said, looking down to his eyes. It was who she had wanted to see. Who she had wanted to reach only moments earlier, and now he was here and he was dying by her hand.

Her eyes were already starting to well up with tears. Her magicks could heal, but not anything... not this, and she didn't have what she needed. Her hands hovered over the wound as if she might be able to stop it by putting pressure, but she knew she couldn't.

I didn't want to... but her voice trailed off. The cold, hard eyes of Andruil were once again replaced by the tear-stained eyes of a young woman who was just trying to keep her life from falling apart. Her hand came to rest atop him, not even feeling the burning pain against her palm from the embers clinging to his clothes.

This wasn't what I wanted... she said, her voice cracking slightly.

@Braden
 

Darth Caelestis

Character
Sith Order
Rank
Imperial Council

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Braden Drake
Joined
May 6, 2021
Messages
545
Reaction score
288

Artorigas felt it, in that moment as he the sabre deactivated Caelestis had gone. The darkness deep down, the wretchedness inside which had ripped at his soul and sanity for the past decade was finally gone. He alone controlled his body and mind and he alone felt the pain of the lightsaber as it ripped into the side of his body. A burning sensation not unlike the fires that had encased his body, less pain more a cold ache.

His eyes stayed on her as he fell to the side, all strength disappeared from his legs slowly collapsing to the ground. He could see her mouth moving but could not hear any words, only the crashing noise of his own blood within his ears. ‘So this is the sound of death’ he thought to himself as he lay there. Her hands were pressed against his body, how long had he craved her touch, only to finally receive it in the final moments of his life. Bittersweet, but sweet nonetheless.

It was getting cold, heat seemed to flow from his body, he tried to reach out but his hands would not move, The Force would not come to warm him. No fire to hold off the cold, to hold off death, today. No this was his end, from a lowly second son to a King in the Sith, he had achieved and seen so much, but now it all seemed meaningless. For as he looked up into Renfry’s sobbing eyes he could only bring back memories of her.

Their first meeting on Makem Te, the annoyed attitude she had with him questioning the Dark Side, Serenno when they first danced, Dathomir where they played around their words, Exegol where he gave her the gift she wanted, but not what he wanted to give. For a moment his mind shifted to the sadder things in their relationship, all Hallows, Life Day, these past few moments. But he quickly put them to one side, buried them with the negatives of his past, he would not be dying a hero. He caused too much pain and suffering to go quietly into the void, but he would at least try and die happy.

With the last of the strength in his body he raised his hand to touch her face, it could only hover just out of reach. In death as in life it seemed, but he would not be sad. Renfry’s voice cracked, emotion tore through her, he did not like the look in her eyes, the sadness. So he smiled, she had always smiled back before, hopefully he could get her to smile once more. “Mi’Queen…”

@Phoenix
 

Darth Raze

Character
Sith Order
Rank
Supervillain

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Sreeya
Joined
Jan 14, 2022
Messages
258
Reaction score
181

Perhaps one of the weakest things about the Force was the reliance on line of sight. One had to focus specifically on a target in order to apply the Force to it. In this case, Morgan was focusing on Raze’s helmeted head. The Sith Lord felt that compression and the tug in the opposite motion of his slide. His head tilted down towards his neck, but one of his hands came up to harshly and powerfully jam up against the bottom of his helmet. This caused the helmet to detach off his head as he abruptly ducked down and from underneath it. The abrupt and sudden removal of his head from his helmet meant there was the smallest lapse of Morgan focusing on just the helmet and where he expected Emryc’s head to be. The helmet crushed and shattered entirely in his grip, but the hold he had on Raze was entirely broken with the Sith Lord stomping on a back leg to keep from landing on the ground on his back. As a result the twist and other subsequent attacks were negated. Helmet removal was not something Morgan would ever expect of him in the many years of knowing him.

Instead of the silver gaze Morgan had once cherished, he would be met with vibrant yellow eyes that dripped with nothing but malice. He almost didn’t look human, an animalistic and barbaric look to him that Morgan wouldn’t recognize. Raze knew what he was doing when he entered the Firrerreo's mind. It had been a bait to get Morgan to lash out and hopefully follow him all the way back. As soon as the initial flashes of memories played within Morgan’s mind, he would withdraw back behind his defenses. Morgan would have to pursue if he wanted to give chase, and if he did so, he would be hit with a defensive blast. If not, that would be the abrupt end of the mental attack.

Mental attack potentially abandoned, the Sith Lord retained his grip on the Councilor’s neck, now solely focusing on the choke to cave his neck in and begin crushing bones. This would have doubled up the moment he tossed off his helmet, pouring all of his energy into crushing Morgan’s neck. His superior strength was evident at once as he channeled power into the attack. There were no emotions needed to drive his attacks, just a cold and methodical desire to kill. There were no sad reflections, no looking back on better times, no reaction to the hot tears that ran down Morgan’s face. There was nothing but the perfect product of what the Cadre had intended standing before Morgan right then.

@Mr. Teatime
 

Darth Stolas

Character
Sith Order
Rank
Imperial Council

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Mr. Teatime
Joined
Dec 19, 2020
Messages
921
Reaction score
567

Stolas would never had expected Raze to throw off his helmet. Neither the demon nor the half-Sephi whose face it wore would ever have done that in any prior circumstance in order to keep his identity hidden. It surprised him, and he wasn't able to transition from helm to head quickly enough, negating his attack. Beneath Morgan saw Emryc's features, but they did not belong to him right then. Cruel yellows glared from behind sunken sockets, face twisted into a mirror of Raze's own. Morgan hated it. He hated that look on a face that belonged to Emryc. He hated how it made him think of the homes he'd lost. He hated how it reminded him of Dorian, whose claws grasped greedily with no care as to what they left behind. He hated how much he hated it all.

Morgan nearly followed the retreating Raze from his mind out of sheer fury, psychic jaws snapping to grasp his presence as it abruptly left. But he had no intention of something so intimate as directly touching his mind ever again, not after all he'd done. As a result of the quick retreat, both minds were left more intact than either intended.

With the mental attacks abandoned, they were left with their influences on the material world. Raze had focused fully on the Firrerreo's neck and Morgan let out a half-strangled snarl, reinforcing his resistance by strengthening the flesh and bone of his neck through the Force to delay, making it a struggle to squeeze down further even as Morgan's neck was visibly pressed inward. It was an attack that was so characteristic of Raze, to dominate and kill in the same breath, a slow and agonizing action with persistent purposes. He couldn't resist fully while still going on the offensive, but both Sith had offensively-oriented fighting styles with limited care for their own safety. It wasn't impossible they'd kill each other at the end of it all.

Throwing off the helmet removed his influence from Raze's head but it still held firm on the helmet itself, crushing the armorplast to pieces. Almost in slow motion from Morgan's adrenaline-fueled perspective, the shattered helmet of Darth Raze fell in front of his head. Raze was balanced on his rear foot with his stance downward to duck out from the helmet, giving Morgan an opening. Drowned in fury, he transitioned his attack to the next.

Concentrated coils of the Force within and around the crushed helmet abruptly exploded outward like a frag grenade a moment after it'd been thrown off. A tight shotgun blast of armorplast shards burst from point-blank right in front of Raze's face. It flew toward his head, his neck, and upper torso. Carrying enough force to pierce flesh and bone, the shards could tear through his chest armour into his vital organs, shred his throat and neck to ribbons of flesh, and burst out from the back of his head in a shower of blood and brains. Even a partial defense could still be fatal.


@Sreeya
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Renfry

Character
Independent
Rank
Nightsister Queen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Messages
1,375
Reaction score
586
The tears were flowing freely down her face now. The pain in her arm was now dwarfed by the pain swelling in her chest and throat. She could feel the life force beginning to drain out of him into the Force.

I'm sorry... she whispered quietly.

And then amidst the faint sounds of sizzling and the strange silence that death brought with it, she heard his single word. The word they had joked and teased over. The word she had enjoyed hearing from him. At first, it cut her to her heart, but the smile on his face, the emotions she could sense in him. It made her smile momentarily through the tears as a flood of memories came back. From when they'd first met and he was just an Acolyte. As he had risen through the ranks to become one of her right hands, a member of the Imperial Council.

And then he was gone. Never again would they spend hours talking or dancing. Never again would she tease him about his overly polite mannerisms or surprise him as he studied the secrets of Exegol. He died, and with him a piece of her died as well.

She sat there a few moments longer but there was no further breath. Nothing else to be said or done. She reached up and closed his eyes for one final time before rising to her feet, gripping the saber hilt in her hand. She no longer felt anything. She was numb to the world around her. She felt no love, no hate, no rage, no fear as she made her way to the door of the Council Chamber.

She stood there a moment before pressing the button. With a loud hiss the door slid open, swirls of smoke and the scent of burning flesh followed her out of the room, the very picture of death and its scent followed her out into the room.

She could sense the swirls of violence and death that lingered out here as well. The Shadow heralded to her that one of the Councilors was already dead and as expected, the survivor was Stolas.

Stolas. Their relationship had always been a complicated one. Ever since he had challenged Malicia their relationship had changed. Distrust had been sown. In the years that followed, his drive to succeed on the Council had waned. The breakup with Emryc had only amplified that. Assignments she had given him left unfinished, Jedi attacks executed without warning from the ISB. Her decision to remove him from the Council hadn't originally intended to be with death, but he had shown his true colors against Malicia all those years ago. Per his own evaluation, he was not loyal to her, and she knew he wanted the Imperial Throne. She didn't trust him not to stab her in the back once she'd finished her challenge: wounded and pregnant.

There was still no joy in her face. No pleasure in killing someone she had once called friend. No excitement for battle and no pride in her victory. Just a grim determination to see the Empire protected no matter the cost.

And so she emerged into their battle chamber, ready to finish this purge once and for all.

@Braden @Mr. Teatime @Sreeya
 

Darth Raze

Character
Sith Order
Rank
Supervillain

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Sreeya
Joined
Jan 14, 2022
Messages
258
Reaction score
181


As the helmet had been crushed above and ahead of him, he could see the shards formulating. However, his focus remained on the choke, never relenting from the full assault. Keeping the helmet suspended in mid air, forming the shards to be lethal and launching them while being persistently choked would ensure the attack was not going to be as impactful as intended. However, Stolas was putting his all into it and he was fighting for his life. Darkness surged through the attack, rage and power pulsing behind the Councilor’s attempts.

Raze wasn’t going to release, and he abruptly stood up as the shards exploded at him. Even that wasn’t going to be enough and he knew it. His right arm abruptly swiped in a clockwise maneuver in front of him, his focus still on the choke. He cried out in a loud, inhuman roar as the shards peppered and tore through his arm. It tore through muscle, bone, tissue, unapologetically shredding and ripping. It destroyed his arm, some of the shards piercing through his arm and towards his face. They grazed his face, several of them embedding at different points in his jaw. Many of them tore through his armor on his chest, embedding into flesh but not through his heart.

Raze was no stranger to pain, his screams of pain and agony echoing as he kept his focus on Stolas. The pressure built to the point of no return against Stolas’ neck. Every bit of pain, despair and agony poured into it the same just as it had when Hans’ blade drove through his gut. The grip would collapse Morgan’s neck, shatter his trachea and every other bone. The offense Morgan had chosen had been far too elaborate and far more complex than a simple lightning or inferno attack. It had wasted precious focus and energy. It had allowed that sliver of an opening, which was all Raze needed to finish what he started.

His left fingers closed into a fist as his attack was completed, and he would leave the Firrerreo nothing more than a lifeless husk on the ground.

@Mr. Teatime
 

Darth Stolas

Character
Sith Order
Rank
Imperial Council

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Mr. Teatime
Joined
Dec 19, 2020
Messages
921
Reaction score
567

Stolas snarled as his attack went off, razor fangs bared and eyes as fiery as twin, all-consuming suns. They bored into Raze, willing him to die. Willing to bleed and fall, no matter how much Morgan knew he'd be horrified by it afterward. No matter that it would break his heart to do it. A Drast did not kneel, and this one would fight on to the bitter end.

Yet he could tell, his fury as it was, simply wasn't enough. Metal stormed through Raze's arm and left it in bleeding shreds, hanging limp and in pieces from his shoulder. Others buried themselves in his chest, but not deep enough to kill. Some found his jaw or scarred his face, but none found the throat they'd been seeking. Pressure built around Morgan's neck and he focused on reinforcing his body, on tearing out the embedded shards and making Raze's wounds that much worse.

There was no time for that now. History passed in slow motion before his eyes, past to present from the very beginning. From the first meeting aboard the Cadre station to when Morgan left it behind with a little cracked figurine in his hands, tears falling freely from his face. From when Raze walked into his apartment and Emryc left it and his warm words and songs behind only reluctantly. A year of miserable abandonment and worrying, the strained but joyful reunion in front of Ship. Promises spoken in Firrerre's Drast grave forest that Morgan hadn't heard before played again in his head, and he knew that Emryc had meant every word of what he'd said.

He'd gone through life on the whims of others, never quite following a path all his own. Take a throne, live up to your name, be as strong as your ancestors. Master this, become as powerful as your ancestors, wear your brands with pride. He'd been set on this path by others and continued to walk it much of his life even still. But now his journey was over, there were no more steps to take.

Morgan made a choice, then. His very last one. For the first time in his life, after years of being trained by his family to embody and channel his fury during every waking moment, he made the conscious decision to let it all go while he was still awake. It'd chained him to a knife's edge his whole life and now, right now, he just wanted to be free. He didn't want to die as Stolas, or as Prince Ali Drast. Just Morgan, the name he'd chosen for his very own as a young boy. It wasn't Stolas the killer that Raze would watch die through Emryc's eyes. It wasn't the distant prince with his thousand games and false smiles.



It was a man with skin returned to shades of warm gold, as if bathed in effervescent and salubrious sunlight. Eyes that shone in golden hues of dandelion wine looked back at him. Tears fell in cascading rivulets down his face to the bloodstained floor below, glimmering in the lobby half-light, tears for what they'd become, where they'd ended up. The snarl was gone, replaced by an expression only Emryc had ever seen. It was the face of the man he'd fallen in love with, and who'd loved him as dearly and truly as if it was always meant to be that way.

Morgan's expression softened, and it was there in how he smiled the way only Emryc was allowed to see, bright and warm and bittersweet. Even after what Raze had done, how Morgan felt for Emryc had never gone away. That's just the kind of man he was. He was so selfish, so greedy, that he just couldn't let go of that one final spark still burning in his heart. Even after they'd broken apart and Emryc found another who made him happy, who felt like home, at least Morgan hadn't broken his promise.

He'd never let him go, never stopped loving him just for being who he was. That one last smile may well haunt Emryc for the rest of his mortal life, for it showed that he'd never hated him, that he'd never wanted this. Even as the flesh of his neck caved in, as bones snapped and crushed, as fresh blood flowed from between his lips, he smiled.

As his life bled away into nothingness and the light behind his eyes faded, he died on his feet, head dipping forward. His body stood there as lifeless as a statue carved in his likeness, stubborn as he always was. His arms went slack, his eyes closed, but his body did not fall. Even in death, Morgan would not kneel. He'd promised.



Unbroken words to keep,
Now, his guitar gently sleeps,
Silenced, still he sings,

Good bye, Cheri.


I really did love you, soldier boy. Don't forget.

Carry me home.


@Sreeya @Phoenix
 

Emryc Thorne

Faction Leader
Consortium
Rank
ISC President

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Sreeya
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Messages
2,159
Reaction score
1,747


Raze felt that familiar crush as Morgan collapsed under his attack. He felt the life leave the Firrerreo, and he knew his task was completed. The beast methodically reached for his saber, igniting it to slice his own right arm off at the elbow, letting the useless mass of sinew and bone drop to the floor with a sick thud. There was a hiss of pain, but the wound was cauterized and no longer bleeding.

Raze was a monster in every way possible. Including to Emryc. As a result, there was no slow transition back to Emryc. As the light left Morgan’s eyes, so too did the yellow from Raze, replaced rapidly by the silver that heralded the abrupt and sudden arrival of Emryc when he had been absent the whole time. He arrived just to see the ghost of a smile on Morgan’s face, the realization of what happened hitting him worse than the agonizing injuries he bore.

“Morgan..” He said, his voice barely above a whisper as he saw the firrerreo finally slump to the ground. His head tilted to the side, the hints of a smile just barely there as if he were playing some kind of joke. As if this couldn’t possibly be real. Emryc felt his chest tighten, each breath more and more painful as he felt the shards in his flesh. He could only breathe in short bursts, his eyes wide as he stared at the scene ahead of him.

“Morgan..” He whispered, a sense of almost pleading in his voice. He weakly stumbled across the room, carelessly crushing pieces of his helmet as he walked. Pieces that had meant so much to him before. He all but collapsed next to Morgan, staring down at the Firrerreo. Trembling fingers reached forward to delicately grasp at his shoulder, gently pulling Morgan against his chest. Before he realized what was happening, his lip began to quiver.

And then something happened that hadn’t happened since he had been a baby.

Hot tears pooled and began to slide down Emryc Thorne’s face. The silver, frosty eyes were brimming with tears as they flowed down his cheeks, mixing with the blood from the embedded wounds on his face. Emryc buried his face against Morgan’s hair, squeezing his eyes shut as the unfamiliar sensation took over him. It was overwhelming and unnatural to him and he didn’t know how to process it. His breathing was labored, his eyes were doing things without his control. His entire body was trembling, and he held Morgan fiercely to himself as if he would simply turn to ash and slip through his fingers.

He smelled the familiar citrus and herbs for the very last time, he felt that familiar warmth for the last time even though it was rapidly leaving Morgan. But he knew things were different. He felt the absence of that fire within Morgan. Morgan’s skin didn’t shimmer gold or silver as it often did when Emryc held him like this. And it never would again. Not for him. Not for anyone. Emryc exhaled a shuddering breath as more tears flowed. He closed his eyes and rested the side of his face against the top of Morgan’s head. With a broken voice, and barely audible, Emryc began to sing. It was a gentle song, an ancient lullaby Morgan had sang to him what felt like centuries ago.

“Blackbird..singing in the dead of night…” His voice cracked, and he was offkey, but he kept going, just barely above a whisper, “take these broken wings…and learn to fly…” Morgan sang it for him when Emryc had been lost, when he brought him back from the depths of chaos. This time chaos had won over and he emerged far too late.

“Blackbird…singing in the dead of night..” He whispered now, “Take these broken wings and learn to fly..” Emryc trailed off, struggling to speak. His voice was hoarse and he felt tremendous weakness wash over him.

So many promises. So many unspoken words. So many dreams. He could only remember two young boys on a ship smiling sadly as they parted ways. Two, naive boys that thought they knew everything. That thought they had forever. That it would always be them against the galaxy. In the end it all came to this.

“Goodbye, Nightingale,” He whispered quietly, tightening the embrace for a long moment before he finally released Morgan. He gently eased him down, his hand still trembling. Emryc weakly looked up at Renfry then after looking around the room. He knew if she was standing there, Caelestis was no more. He gazed at her through his tear and blood stained face, one of his arms gone and his chest embedded with shards. He remained seated on the ground, looking up at his Empress.

“Is this what you wish to bring our child into?”

@Phoenix @Mr. Teatime
 

Renfry

Character
Independent
Rank
Nightsister Queen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Messages
1,375
Reaction score
586
She had arrived just in time to see the finale of the conflict. Raze's helmet had been ripped free, and now she could see the face that went with the vicious aura of pure violence that she had always felt. It was Emryc's face, but everything about it looked slightly off. The angles and curves were different and the way the shadows fell were not the same. Most strikingly, though, the eyes lacked any hints of the silver that were an inseparable signature of Emryc.

The helmet's detonation heralded the end of the fight like the crashing of a cymbal. Shrapnel peppered Raze, but with it the final blow was struck to Stolas. Morgan. The light faded from his eyes and she could feel that essence slip into the Force. Few would understand the grief once could feel over a death even being the one to order it, and she knew she wouldn't try to convince them. They didn't stand in her shoes and so they could never know. But as she watched him fade, there was sorrow and grief in her heart.

It all felt like it was happening to someone else. She could tell Emryc had returned, and it was only now she saw the severe wounds he bore. Fighting for her. More pain and death in her wake. It had begun like this all those years ago: Renfry and Emryc, fighting against the galaxy. They had loved, lost, grown, and struggled. They had fought with each other and against each other, but always they had prevailed.

And in all those years, she had never seen Emryc weep. He was an emotional rock in contrast to her hurricanes of emotion. He was always unmovable, and yet now he wept openly and bitterly, singing a song in broken voice. For all that had happened, the breakup and burning of Firrerre, there was still a piece of him that belonged to Morgan.

He looked back to her and he would see the path carved by tears through the soot that clung to her face. He had long known that she and Art shared a connection, and even without seeing the body, he would surmise what had happened in the chamber behind her.

We're Sith... she said quietly, her voice lacking conviction. For the first time in the decade since she had joined the Order, she doubted if she wanted to be any longer. It was their lot to suffer and inflict suffering. With great power and responsibility came great sacrifice and suffering. The price over the years had come in many forms for her, and if she continued it would take many more. Perhaps one day claiming the child that now grew in her belly.

The lightsaber fell from her hand, clanging to the floor before she fell to her knees, sitting on her feet and simply remaining there. There were no words to say. Condolences would be but empty gestures for them both. It wouldn't bring back the dead or heal the wounds that now riddled their bodies.

I want to protect her, she said. More than anything else anymore. More than the Empire, more than herself, more even than Dathomir.

@Sreeya
 

Emryc Thorne

Faction Leader
Consortium
Rank
ISC President

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Sreeya
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Messages
2,159
Reaction score
1,747

Emryc watched her quietly, seeing the burn on her arm. He gazed down at his own stump. He couldn’t help but notice she wasn’t severely injured or dead. He knew Caelestis enough to know if he truly wanted to destroy her, he would have left her at death’s brink before he went down. He was vaguely reminded of when Raze had taken over to hurt Jaikus and the Axxilan refused to fight back. Were he and Artorigas the people truly capable of love? And people like Emryc, Renfry, Morgan and others only thought they were capable of it? They could be driven to destroy the ones they ‘loved’, but the others could not. Had he been lying to himself? Was this yet another test he failed? Would Emryc have emerged to surface if Morgan had refused to fight back like he had when Jaikus had done that? It was too late to find out.

“We are Sith..” He repeated quietly, lifting a hand to wipe off his face. He didn’t miss the reveal of the gender of the baby. Emryc had been entirely uninvolved in the pregnancy and asking about it. He had every intention of keeping his distance, wanting little to do with it. However, today shook him to the core, and it reminded him of the fact that his monstrous and chaotic blood ran through the veins of another. Would she grow to be as twisted and broken as he was? Would she carve a path through the galaxy worse than Raze ever did?

There was an odd sense of calm. It was nothing but bloodshed all around them. He and Renfry were the only ones breathing. Emryc stared at the ceiling, a faraway look on his face. The Empress would have that nagging sense of what he was thinking. It was similar to the look he had right before he disappeared for a year. Except this time, Renfry was almost entirely alone.

@Phoenix
 

Renfry

Character
Independent
Rank
Nightsister Queen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Sep 20, 2020
Messages
1,375
Reaction score
586
Her mind lingered in this moment for longer than she should have. The galaxy felt empty for her, and she realized there was no one for her to turn to. There was no friend or ally on which she could rely to unload this burden she now carried. The feeling of isolation was heavy and threatened to consume her.

And so she did what she always did in those moments. She focused on the next step. The next movement forward. Her eyes moved over to rest on Emryc, and she knew what he was thinking. Maybe it was their connection in the Force or maybe it was simply having spent a decade by one another's sides, but she knew.

She let his mind linger for a moment before reaching out for her lightsaber and re-clipping it to her belt. She pushed herself back to her feet and walked over to him, extending a hand to him. The hole in her heart was no less present, but if she gave into it now, things would only get worse.

You should come to Dathomir, she said. She had long ago offered the world to him as a place to escape when the galaxy was crashing in around him. It was an offer she had made sitting on the side of a cliff, and it was an offer that stood.

I have an idea for your arm. I can ask Jaikus to come as well and you two can have your space, she said. Even as she said the words, it was one more arrow in her now-numb soul. She had discovered long ago that she would never be the one to center Emryc no matter how much she wanted to. She suspected Jaikus, on the other hand, could.

They were both hurting, but in different ways. She would weep and vent later when she was alone. When she could, but for now, she had to press on. The Empress had to press on.
 
Top