Private Seeking Shadows

[Kyric]

Kyric fought to break the creature's hold on him, but even when he ripped one of the hands away, another would batter his exposed body until it reaffirmed its three-fold grip.

I have to center. The kiffar tried to breathe. He tried to focus, but the splitting pain pressing on his skull made it impossible. Well, that's a damn shame. Steeling himself for the inevitable, he abandoned the idea of survival entirely. To try for the impossible proved fruitless. His head swam from the lack of oxygen, still, he drew what little strength he left into his arm.

Then the creature's grip weakened substantially and Kyric delivered all his collected might into a telekinetically-enhanced punch directly to the creature's jaw. It had already released the kiffar, so the backlash of Kyric's strike served to create more distance between them as it reeled back.

"Kyric-" With undeserved authority the girl barked an order, "Get the feth away from that thing, and toss me your lightsaber."

That's a great idea. He thought.

Kyric groaned out in pain as he turned himself over to his left. A surge of biting-hot pain spiked in his side, but he threw back his arm and dug about for his spare saber anyway. Missing the intended target, the Wayseeker snatched the gnarled hilt of Solipsis' former saber and threw it at Capris.

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

Kyric's pain blossomed in the force, making Capris wince. The sight of his slumped body only served to confirm what she'd already felt. The Wayweeker was looking rough.

But thankfully still coherent.

Solipsis's saber snapped into her open palm, a sudden flush of dark energy accompanying it. Highly concerning coming from Kyric of all people, but hey, who was she to judge? Her questions could be tabled. All that concerned her was keeping Kyric alive long enough to have them answered.

With a stabilizing breath, the girl did her best to find some sort of center. She hadn't touched a lightsaber since.. well even before the whole losing an arm fiasco. Needless to say the adjustment looked rather awkward. She'd much rather have punched a hole through this thing, but Kyric had already guinea pigged that idea enough for the both of them.

Closing her eyes a moment, Capris ignited the blade. A painfully obvious jet of red confirming her suspicions. Whatever, still works.

Still reeling from the break in its exoskeleton, the beast wrested its head side to side, the enormity of its body nearly shaking the ground in sync. Capris slipped close, plasma tearing up the earth by its feet in seemingly random lines. She couldn't rightfully tell if she managed to blind the thing or not, but either way the odds were comically skewed. She'd only ever attempted a maneuver like this once before, with an equally scary but far smaller opponent. Now she had to cover a lot more ground a lot faster.

And of course she wasn't fast enough. While she managed to successfully dodge a series of blind strikes, cutting deeper and deeper lines as she weaved her way around with practiced coordination, it still didn't take long before one of its limbs managed to coordinate a blow. Packed muscle hit Capris square in the side, forcing the girl a good couple yards back into a mound of dirt. Dammit. Her vision swam as she forced her body to back into a semi-upright position, spitting out a wad of dirt as she did so. She could already feel a forming bruise snaking its way up her entire left side, a uniquely sharp pain in her ribcage.

This is a lame way to die.

Staggering back to her feet, the girl forced her spotted vision to clear, reaching out for the lightsaber which had been unceremoniously tossed aside. The sequence was incomplete, and definitely not to a standard she approved of, but there was only so much time. Besides, she needed the beast well within its radius before it went and stomped on Kyric's head again.

Prepping her body for the inevitable toll she was about to take on it, Capris sighed, adjusted her feet, and charged the creature. As intended, it reared to meet her, only to twist its body as she dove to one side of it. Allowing herself to fall to the ground, her hand burned in acknowledgment while she worked to activate the rune, faint blue stirring from the sandy basin. The sith spawn raised its dual limbs above its head, blocking out the sun from Capris's view with every intention of pummeling her into the ground.

It was then a spire of ice erupted from the ground, sending a spray of dirt in every direction. With enough blunt force, it skewered its way through one of the creature's shoulders. The thing dangled above her at an awkward slant, angrily pawing at her like a cat.

Capris wiped the dirt from her face, chest heaving as she tried to gather both her breath and resolve.

"For feths sake. Know when to quit.”

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Kyric worked his way up to one knee in time to see the shard of ice emerge from the earth. The blunt force ripped through tendon, bone, and cartilage-like tissue paper before exploding out of the spawn's back. He climbed to his feet, eyes wide in surprise. Rabbid snarls eventually shifted to pained groans as the endorphin-like surge of the dark side finally departed the horror's body.

"I suppose I'm lucky you didn't take off like I said." He rounded the pillar of ice and studied the sithspawn. Reaching out to the tattered remains of the experiment's mind, the kiffar slowly numbed its senses to whatever agony wreathed its shoulder. After a moment it fell limp. Asleep.

He turned to her. "I uh- I'm havin' some trouble discernin' how I should go about dealin' with you going forward. The last bit o' me that's got any sense is tellin' me not to trust you. Which I'm sure you would say is a fair turn of hand given how this played out." A thin stream of blood slowly trailed from his left nostril to the top of his lip. "But you came through for me, so I'll settle on a thank you and leave it at that."

You're too soft. She dragged you along like a dog and used you like bait, Kyric. He felt a presence like thin fingers trailing along his neck. That's not something we can tolerate.

Not for nothin', but she didn't owe me a lick of honesty. I trusted her on my own. Sometimes that backfires, sometimes it doesn't.

A hollow sensation set into his chest, but Kyric ignored it and peered back at Capris. "You mind passin' me back that laser sword? It's sorta important to me. I can't really lose it."

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

With a wince she climbed to her feet, blood, sweat, and dirt sticking the loose pieces of her hair to her forehead.

He still managed to be polite when getting a knife pulled from his back? Guess it was the Jedi conditioning. Or well, no, he wasn't a Jedi. Why did she keep having to remind herself of that?.

There was a small flare of hurt at his assessment, but Capris quickly resutured her expression into an even one. There was no reason to care what Kyric thought of her, not at this point. She should just be glad he didn't decide to draw a lightsaber and drag out this whole ordeal. If that was the case she'd most definitely lose.

"Yeah-" Frankly too exhausted to offer up any defense, Capris just shrugged in acknowledgment, "Good call. Knew you were smart."

She seemed to have a strange knack for taking people's misplaced belief in her and breaking it over her knee like a twig.

Tossing the lightsaber back to its rightful owner Capris shook her hand free as if to rid herself of the jeebies "All yours."

With that said and done, she turned her attention back to her own injuries, hatching out a small sequence over her ribcage. While the runes she practiced weren't exactly seeped in the dark, there were certainly whisps of dark energy. It was strange combination which left little to be said about her true allegiance.

Either way, the pain ebbed down. It wasn't a catch all healing spell, but at least it kept her on her feet.

She considered for a moment before a pair of conflicted tawny eyes met Kyric's

"Figure you're going to shoot this one down, but I uh- can heal you if you want?" Her offer was underscored by a rare bit of awkwardness."You'll still definitely need to get patched up, but I can help with the pain."

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Kyric caught the saber with a faint wince. The pain in his side didn't agree with such free use of his arm. "Thanks again." He managed a weak smile, then turned to assess the sithspawn instead of looking at Capris. While her use of such dark powers did not go unnoticed, Kyric did not comment on the matter. His brother had likely done worse.

Her offer left him conflicted. No surprise.

"I appreciate it, bu-" Kyric started while turning to face her. Seeing her stopped his denial. She was trying a lot harder now than the night before, and that meant something–even if it came after a horrible beating.

"Sure." Kyric decided. "I can't imagine regrettin' less pain." He slipped his jacket off and tugged up the skintight body-weave top. Half a dozen purple-black bruises covered the left side of his torso from the repeated impacts while held aloft by the abhorrent.

"Do you need a lift to a nearby port?" He looked her squarely in the eyes as he did the night before. "Shouldn't be much trouble."

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

It was a relief to hear him agree.

"I'm out of tricks, promise." Raising her hands in mock surrender, Capris closed the distance between them with an apologetic smile and began a cursory inspection of his injuries. Her fingers ghosted over the damage, eyebrows threaded in concern. Actual, genuine concern.

"Damn that thing did a number on you." She said in an almost disbelieving whisper. Not that he needed the reminder or anything. Not like she needed a reminder.

With a look of concentration, the girl picked a particularly gnarly patch of torso and started to scribble something out, an immediate flex of energy encircling the area. Growth stitched together with seal stitched together with numb. It would encourage the skin to heal superficially and also tapper the pain a bit.

For a moment her tracing stopped, as if considering something. And then with a slight shake in her hand, she embedded sleep into the sequence.

Capris braced against Kyric, catching his dead weight as the rune went into effect. Right after he offered her a ride as it was.

"Don't worry about it." Capris mumbled flatly, a distinct feeling of shame taking hold in her chest. With a loaded sigh, she readjusted, hooking an arm under one of his own. She'd find a nice mound of snow to prop him up on and call it a day. Dragging him a couple meters to what could constitute as cover, the girl laid the wayseeker down and covered him with her shawl, hopeful to avoid another instance of him being snowed in. She then turned, ready to leave, before promptly stopping in her tracks.

Groaning at her own inability to leave things as is she kneeled, grabbed his palm and scribbled out a protection rune. It was something she'd done a million times on relief missions with Khalil but this time there was little pride to be found in the action.

Finally she forced her eyes back to the Sithspawn and started the long march back. This thing was going to be a fething pain to move..




God she felt like shit.

Kyric