Ask Unchained

[Darth Raze]

The hallway was long and the lights were flickering. If she entered, she wouldn’t even recognize it as her place of work from just earlier that day. There were long streaks of blood along the hospital's walls and the floors. As a Force user and empath, she would feel the echoes of agony and the cries of those that were murdered slowly and meticulously. People under her care. People that worked for her. They were hunted for sport.

There was an oppressive presence at the end of the hallway. The lights flickered on and off, and each time they illuminated the hallway she would see the silhouette of a man standing at the end of it. She would feel his icy presence, and she would see haunting, crimson eyes. There were several bodies strewn at his feet, left as empty husks of the humans they once were.

The man wore no helmet. He was unapologetic about what he was and what he had done. He was here for her.

@Killa Ree

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

She wasn't sure at first what drew her back.

A low, instinctual feeling of something wrong. A sense of dread, of foreboding, that crawled up the back of her throat, that settled a durasteel weight in her chest.

The smell of blood was achingly familiar. Its' sticky resistance treaded with her boots as she stepped into the hallway, features tight with rage. Tight with cold certainty that whatever had been unleashed here would have left no survivors. After all, she could sense no other life in these halls.

Halls she had restored with her own hands, that she had created to be a haven that now reeked of death.

Gritting her jaw, amber eyes narrowed as the lights flickered on, flickered off. She had sent an alert to her other nexuses, to other places of MC, but she knew that her guard would likely arrive too late.

No... she was too late.

Forcing herself to swallow back the bile that threatened to choke her, she glared down the hallway, to the being that was the sole cause of this. Like an echo of the Sith assault on the Ranger base, only this one... this one seemed more potent, more steeped in Darkness than any other.

Prosthetic arm clenching, she prepared herself, her voice low as she stopped at the entrance.

"You now have my attention. What do you want?" Though her voice was cool, calm, she seethed, the Force wrapping around her mind, across her senses and form, to prepare for an assault, even though she was sure she wouldn't be strong enough to face this person alone. She wasn't even sure she would survive, but she had to try. After all, she had promised Sevrin she would fight to survive.

@Sreeya

 

[Darth Raze]

He felt her through the Force, the revelation that she was a Force user curious to him. An empath. He did not envy empaths. The little scene he created for her must have been tearing her mind apart. The Force whirled within her in a way that made him crave her. He had to actively will the tentacles from coming out of his face. The ones that craved to taste her and drink to his heart’s content. For now, he would entertain himself.

“What is your connection to Fortress Inferum?” He asked curtly, “And who is that Sephi that you were sometimes seen with years ago. Black haired. Silver eyes,” He didn’t elaborate further. Emryc had no interest in digging into his heritage or past, but Raze would leave no stone unturned. He was hungry for knowledge, especially about himself.

His bearing, the way he carried himself, and his tone all suggested that this was not the time to be clever or sarcastic with answers. The stench of death clung to him, and a single wrong move would seal her fate.

@Killa Ree

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

She could feel her heart thundering wildly in her chest as his first question pierced the air, then the second. Rage, barely constrained fury was contained as her fists clenched into her palms, nails digging deep. A singular thought slipped into the Force, through the echoes of time and space, towards the last person that would probably hear her alive.

One of the only two that mattered.

I love you, Sevrin. I'm so sorry. I need you to live for me, please. And... look after Silvi for me. Look after our daughter.

The thin tether that would have continued to connect them, that could have been used to hurt him, was abruptly shut down as she glared down at the man who dared to walk in here, who killed those that she had sworn a sacred oath to heal. She could sense the Darkness like a cloying, oily mass, but she didn't falter. She knew if she left their bond open, it would hurt him, or worse, kill him too. She would not let him suffer because of her, because of the target on her back finally bringing up the ghosts of her past.

Instead, she continued to glare at the stranger, her voice coming out icy. "Fortress Infernum... you mean that castle, long ago abandoned?" She cocked her head once, amber eyes narrowing. "It was once in possession of a man who once taught me. He unfortunately died, by his own hands. By his own weakness. I once found knowledge there... long ago."

But to ask about black hair and silver eyes... did he mean Emryc? Or Sevrin?

She gritted her jaw, feeling the power build in her prosthetic arm. The hidden words, the art in the machinery, just waiting for this moment.

"I know of two with that description. An old former flame, and a person in power. But you didn't answer my question."

She took two steps forward, brushing her left hand over her right arm. The intricate work on it began to glow a pale violet, words of an arcane language forgotten by many. A whisper of something in the air as she stopped once again, waiting for his reaction to trigger.

"What do you want?"

@Sreeya

 

[Darth Raze]

Knowledge. He had guesses as to the kind of knowledge. Alchemy. Sorcery. It was what he sought.

Ilana Morata was wasting his time. He knew she was using the Force - he was powerful enough to sense even the slightest usage of the Force. She was communicating with someone. And it was enough to seal her fate. The Anzat exhaled slowly, wondering why people insisted on speeding themselves towards death.

“You know perfectly of whom I speak,” He said icily. She was mocking him. Curiously, her remark about both Emryc and that other Sephi having a strong resemblance was not something that was missed on him.

Without warning, the Force would coil around her neck. She would raised to hover a few inches off the floor. Crimson eyes gazed into her, the Anzat’s demeanor calm and almost bored. His hands moved to clasp behind his back.

He dove into her mind, intruding and tearing past any resistance she could put up. It was a complete violation, and he cut like a knife through her thoughts and deep into her psyche. All her secrets, all her fears, everything would be revealed to him. He violently rifled through it all, searching for what he wanted.

@Killa Ree

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

His hunt wouldn't be for very long.

It didn't hurt as much as she anticipated. There was pain, yes, and someone else screaming with her voice, but... it was like shutting the door to a room she wouldn't be able to enter anymore. All her memories, all her thoughts, fears, and inner turmoil, would be like snatches of torn ribbons in a black wind.

She would die on her terms. No one else would be permitted to enter her thoughts, to touch her mind. She already knew her time was limited, but her biggest regret was---

No.

There was no time for regrets.

As he lifted her off her feet, the arm glowed once more, and lashed out.

Thin blades burst from her fingertips, aiming for his face and throat. To slash deeply, to interrupt his quest, to distract as the other hand shakily grasped for something else. As golden eyes met those of crimson, there was only a fragmented smile, as her gaze burned into his own.

We all die in the end.

One image of Ilana, crazed and laughing, fragmented in congealing blood. Of her nails digging into her face and throat, tearing out her eyes as she screamed wordlessly at Amariel, to live, to fight back. Clawing forward to swipe claws of blood into the stranger's back, tear at his hair and bite at his neck. A vision, nothing more than smoke.

She tilted her blaster up, glaring at him.

"No. I do not."

The trigger pulled, the blaster bolt burning through her brain and out her skull, as abruptly she sagged in his grip, dead.

She would not give the satisfaction of answers to one that had make her break the vow to do no harm. Nor would she be the tool he so wanted, the answers that he clearly would kill for. Hopefully, her death would be the warning that the rest of the galaxy needed, that something was coming and it would not stop. It was clear he was searching for something related to either Sephi; she wanted to make sure to protect them both, in any way she could. If only she was stronger...

But such regrets were only for the living.

@Sreeya

 

[Darth Raze]

The maneuver was slick, and perhaps may have worked for a lesser Sith. However, he was no ordinary Sith. He was the most powerful Force user to walk the galaxy at this point. He didn’t have any inhibitions or any distractions in the form of Emryc anymore. He had already felt her gathering the Force to herself and noticed the way she moved towards her arm. If there was one thing he was an expert at, it was reading when someone intended to cause harm. As that was his constant state of being.

No, this was not a Holomovie where she would get the last laugh. This was not some big middle finger she would be able to give him. This story didn’t end that way.

Raze wanted intel from her, but it wasn’t so desperate that he would entertain her antics. Even as her hand began to move, there was a sick crunch as her neck was twisted and snapped from the hold he already had on her. Well before she could throw anything. Well before she could conjure any kind of image. He took it further, twisting her head around till it turned in a grotesque manner, a full 180 degrees to face towards the security camera behind her. He held her there for a moment so the cameras could have ample time to capture her haunting, dead expression. And so he could have these images sent to her daughter before all.

Ilana Morata did deny Raze one thing - a satisfying meal. With a wave of his hand, the infamous doctor that had changed the galaxy and AMS was flung down the hallway like little more than a rag doll. While he didn’t get exactly what he came for, it was clear he wouldn’t hesitate to erase anyone that didn’t play by his rules without a second thought. There was no reasoning or bargaining with someone like him.

@Killa Ree