A Blood Trail

[Vrak Nashar]

Jaguada
[member="Joon"]

Vrak slowly walked through the winding corridors of the once great fortress, his hand looped around the collar of an unconscious man, his body dragged in the wake of the Sith. There was a scowl on the Pureblood's face, an expression that told of not only distaste, but pure disdain. He slowly moved through the halls until he passed through a doorway, the great stone archway having long since broken apart, barely holding up the wall that stood upon it.

The ceiling of the grand hall was nearly gone, only protecting a quarter of the remaining space inside.

Above them dark clouds seemed to loom, snaps of lightning and thunder resounded within the sky and a slow drizzle had begun. Vrak ignored the tiny droplets of rain as he continued to drag the robed figure across the floor, eventually reaching the end of the Grand Hall were a series of steps lead up to a dais, and then a broken throne. The ceiling managed to cover this portion of the hall, though the rain began to slowly drip from the broken edges of the roof.

The Pureblood peered up at the Throne for a second, and then threw the robed figure forward.

There was a slight crack of bone as the human crashed against the steps of the dais, a gasp as he was shocked away.

"W-where am I?"

The voice was hesitant, the mans face having been beaten and bruised so badly that he could hardly see out of his eyes. Vrak scowled at him for a moment, but then spoke. "Jaduada. Gean's Fortress."

There was no small amount of disdain in his voice.

"W-why?"

"You know why." Vrak told the man. "The Jedi have taken something from this place, hidden it. I need to know what was done with it."

The man stayed quiet, his refusal to talk being born of loyalty. A frown pulled across the lips of the Pureblood. The Jedi would of course try to resist him, it was only natural. Their kind had been at war with his people for Millenia. They would always try their best to resist. A sigh escaped Vrak's lips, a small shake of his head. He would have to resort to more...brutal methods. Slowly from his hip he drew a small metal spike.

 

[Connor Harrison]

At one time I her life, the sound of thunder would have scared her, but now it was empowering. Nature in its wildest form; cracking across the skies and lightning flashing brighter than any star.. It was clear how the Force was pulled from nature itself when nature acted like this.

Joon stood in the decaying Fortress only a few minutes before she heard – or rather felt – a splice of Jedi and Sith aura, a horrid conflict; light and dark. As rain fell on her head from above via the broken roof, she didn’t waste a second in bolting from the throne to the edge of the hall, hiding in an obscured chunk of roof that had come down over the years now knotted with vine and debris, all moist from the rain and weathering over the years.

Her amber eyes peered out from the debris as she hugged it and waited, her breathing slow and regulated. Two figures came to view through one of the large broken archways, and they began a conversation.

She didn’t think about smiling at all, but she did as the violence spiked, and a crack echoed out to her from one of the men. The aggressor, an almost red-skinned being, was in control. The weakling with his back to her, obviously a Jedi.

So the Sith were present again; where she expected trails of the Empire to be found, time and time again the Sith warriors were popping up.

It went quiet as the red-man fiddled with something, and her mouth bore a permanent smirk as she waited in anticipation. What was this? What was going to happen? Who were they?

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Joon"]

Vrak stepped forward, the Jedi seemed to shirk at the motion, trying to escape before the Pureblood could do as he intended.

The man wasn't fast enough however, and in the blink of an eye Vrak drove the metal spike through the mans stomach. The act was so fast and so instant that the Jedi hardly had time to react. Confusion pulled across his face, then a whimper of pain escaped his lips. Vrak seemed to pay him no mind, pressing the heel of his boot against the end of the metal spike and pushing the heavy metal further into the mans body. There was a slight crack as the spike hit the ornate stone behind it.

"Hold still." Vrak told the man as he delivered another solid kick, pinning the Jedi to the steps.

"W-"

The mans own words were interrupted by a bloody cough.

"What is this?"

Vrak didn't answer, instead he took a step back, his eyes closing. Joon would be able to feel a sudden swirl of the darkside, a rise of the force that seemed to reach from Vrak towards the metal spike that had been buried in the Jedi's stomach. The moment it happened the Jedi let out a scream, black tendrils emanating from the spike and reaching across the young mans body. A scream escaped the Jedi's throat, an echoing cry of horror that bounced through the fortress.

 

[Connor Harrison]

As the spike impaled the man, Joon’s eyes went wide and she found herself leaning forward to see more. The ferocity of this attack was so subtle and so intimate, it was like art. Her smile grew a little bigger, head craning behind the slab of roof to see more as she heard muted cries and words.

And then her body quivered gently, as if her being was being drawn out. A swirl of the natural Force around her. Suddenly, the man cried out and writhed on the floor.

Joon jumped little at the sound of the cry, as it was loud and seemed to echo through the Force itself into all areas of the Fortress, but it didn’t deter from her sadistic viewing. The wounded man seemed to be fighting…something, she couldn’t see. The Dark Side was strong around the red-man, and he controlled it with precision.

She rose gently from behind her hiding point, face neutral, her hands on show, but the pleasure and interest in watching the show didn’t drop as she creeped forward. Her aura alone was going to be enough to alert the attacker, but hopefully she wouldn’t come across as a threat or a saboteur – simply, an admirer of pain and the beauty it created.

”What is that…” she asked as if in a daze, almost to herself.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Joon"]

Vrak whipped around in an instant.

The Jedi groaned, pinned to the ground with the metallic spike. The darkside rushed through his body, breaking him just as Vrak had broken Jamie back on Naboo. The darkside would do it's work without the Purebloods assistance. He whirled on the newcomer, his free hand reaching up in an instant.

Months trapped inside of a prison on Naboo had made the Pureblood more than a little paranoid. He did not trust figures from the dark, he did not trust those he did not know. This woman wasn't familiar to him, her voice was foreign and worst of all she was human, or appeared to be anyway. That alone made her more than a target, it made her prey, at least until Vrak figured out what she actually was and why she was here within this ancient ruin.

His palm flattened.

The force reached and curled, biting towards the woman and hopefully sending her flying against the far wall where she would become pinned.

 

[Connor Harrison]

Joon didn’t have time to react. To bust with the activity on the throne, she failed to take the red-skin into consideration, and only when she looked to him did she feel the invisible energy that kicked her off her feet and flailing back into the stone wall beside where she had come from.

The stone cracked and kicked out dust on impact and she gasped in both shock and pain.

Blinking to counter the shock, Joon peeled forward to get off the wall but she couldn’t move. Glaring at the red-skin, her hands bent into claws and her arms strained as she fought the grip. She snarled, reaching out with her call of the Dark to push him back as best she could.

”Let me GO!”

The shout was not a request, but a demand.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Joon"]

He skidded back a few steps as the force pressed against him, but his hand stayed up to press the girl against the wall. A snarl passed over his lips, fingers curling as he let the force flow through him. His eyes glanced briefly towards the writhing Jedi Knight still pinned to the floor. The Spike would keep him there, but Vrak didn't want to chance that he somehow escaped.

The man he'd used it on previously had been a bit...combative.

"No." Vrak said as he stepped forward, the rain beginning to quicken, heavy droplets of water falling on him as he stepped towards the girl. A hand reached across his belt to draw his lightsaber, the saber-staff slipping into his grip. One side burst into life with a loud snap-hiss.

He had no time for games.

"Who are you?" He asked as he approached the girl, weary of another outburst. "Why are you here?"

Another glance towards the Jedi.

 

[Connor Harrison]

Lightning illuminated the throne room for a second, followed by the crack of thunder. It made everything far more exciting for Joon. Still pinned, her eyes stayed on his as he came forward, her energy burning up by simply fighting his grip.

Whe his weapon was drawn, her breathing stopped for a second as she noted the blade hissing to life, the rain sizzling on it with each drop to the blade.

She looked to him, and the weapon, then back again.

”My name…is Justiciara Noctare, but you…call me Joon!”

She pushed her head back against the wall, wary of the weapon coming closer.

”And I serve the Empire, and….the Dark Side. And I have no quarrel with….YOU! NOW LET ME GO!”

She seethed again, pushing out, groaning as she fought to get free, her unstable rage bubbling away from a situation she had no control over.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Joon"]

He had the advantage, he could probably kill her without much issue, though by her words at least she wasn't a threat.

The Pureblood thinned his lips, unsure of his next step. Another glance back towards the Jedi told him that the process was nearly complete. He could see the thin lines of corruption lace through the mans skin, the spike having weakened him enough for Vrak to continue. He frowned fora moment and then looked back towards the girl. He was unsure just which Empire she originated from, there were already three of them in the known galaxy after all.

He frowned, then his palm closed and lower.

The pressure that had kept her pinned against the wall would drop away suddenly, vanishing in the blink of an eye that would likely see her drop to the floor. Notably however his lightsaber did not extinguish, the blade continuing to burn brightly in case the girl had any thought of attack. "Why are you here?"

He repeated the question.

Did the First Order have some interest in this world? The Iron Empire? The Remnant?

Vrak needed more information.

 

[Connor Harrison]

Keeping her face strong and tight, she didn't stop glaring at the red-skin, and then suddenly she slid down to her feet, nearly toppling forward. The pressure gone. She was free.

Standing, she took a step forward to throttle him, but the blade was glaring at her and her tracks were stopped.

”I am here for same thing you are. Power. Strength. The ability to destroy the Jedi and the Light. Everything they stand for. GONE.”

She slowly stalked to her right, like a predator circling another. The rain lashed down more, hissing off his blade.

”You're a Sith Warrior. He,” she pointed, ”is a Jedi Knight. He is my enemy too.”

Boots crossed one over the other as she circled.

”I serve under the true Empire forged by Sheev Palpatine, whose ashes bore the First Order and all the imitators that followed since. I am genetically harvested to do one thing. Destroy the Jedi.”

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Joon"]

Well that was certainly...detailed.

His fingers twitched around his lightsaber for a few moments, consideration drawing through his thoughts. He could kill the girl, end her life in a wink, but...that was hardly the only option, and far from the best. He smiled as an idea bloomed, his thumb slowly tracing around the side of his lightsaber. A second passed, and then the crimson light ceased. The hard fall of rain replacing the constant thrum of his lightsaber. He half turned away from the girl, glancing towards the Jedi again.

"True Empire?" The words seemed to amuse him more than anything else.

The Jedi let out a loud groan, his hands covering the spike that had been driven through his belly. Vrak watched him silently for a moment more, seeing the Jedi writhe in pain, the odd black tendrils now having spread all the way to his palms. Slowly he began to wander away from the girl, his off-hand waving for her to follow.

The storm began to pick up as Vrak moved back beneath the roof, his steps drawing closer to the Jedi.

 

[Connor Harrison]

Joon swallowed and raised her head in defiance as the saber vanished, and probably masked her sigh of relief. That did, or the hard rain above and inside the room.

Ignoring his comment, the clone hesitantly followed at his beckoning hand. As she did, her attention couldn’t help fall to the Jedi on the floor. Her eyes narrowed in morbid fascination at the ethereal tendrils claiming him from the inside out almost.

”What are you doing to him?”

She stood and looked down at the weak youth, as one would to a test subject or experiment.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Joon"]

The spike was, of course, an artifact of the Sith. A device that had been forged by his forefather some centuries ago. It was relatively simplistic in design really, acting much as Sith Poison would but with a more...vile twist. It cause incomprehensible pain and weakness, allowing a person skilled in the arts of the darkside to more easily extract information from someone using the skill of drain knowledge. The device wasn't necessarily an implement of torture, but rather interrogation.

"I am gaining insight." He told her simply, a version of the truth.

The Spike itself didn't really allow him to look into the Jedi's mind, that was another skill entirely. It simply weakened the Jedi to the point were resistance was all but impossible.

"Do you not recognize the power?" He said with amusement. Slowly the Pureblood leaned down, reaching his fingers around the Jedi's throat and lifting him off the floor as thoughhe weighed less than a child. The Spike resisted for half a second, then came loose from the stone steps, blood dripping from the back. "The Darkside?"

His eyes closed.

 

[Connor Harrison]

Joon stood still and watched the ritual of sorts play out, transfixed by the Jedi and the process he was playing a part in.

”Of course I feel it,” she tutted casually as she watched the red-skin lift the youth, ”but…what is it doing for YOU? What do you see?”

She stepped forward, watching and moving beside the Sith, looking at the blood dripping onto the floor. Her mouth went up in a smile.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Joon"]

"It does nothing for me." Not the whole truth again, but a piece of it. The Spike was an important piece of a large puzzle. He could likely pull the information he wanted from the Jedi's mind without it, but the task would be much more difficult, if not impossible. This way he only had to put minimal effort into the ordeal, something that was much preferred over actually using his own copious amounts of energy. The Jedi twitched for a second.

"It weakens him." He said as the force began to slowly slither up his arm. "Makes him frail."

Both physically and mentally.

Slowly Vrak began to dig into the Jedi's mind, pouring through his thoughts until he found the one piece of information he was looking for. The man seemed to struggle, attempting to lift his hand, his mind working hard to push Vrak back to no avail. "I do the rest."

With that, he tore the information he wanted from the Jedi's mind.

 

[Connor Harrison]

Transfixed, she looked between the Sith and the Jedi, bright amber eyes wide like a child watching a magic trick, nervous at the outcome - what would happen next?

”I feel it,” she whispered.

Joon closed her eyes to feed on the Jedi’s fear and pain.

”Teach me to cause pain like this,” she whispered again.

She felt the spasm and twitch from the Jedi, literally a body racked with pain, bleeding out but with no mercy of death until the Sith said so.

”What is he hiding…”

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Joon"]

Rather unceremoniously Vrak dropped the body of the Jedi onto the floor. The man clattered to the ground with a loud thud and the crack of bone, a sputtering cough leaving his lungs as the Spike was driven just a bit deeper into his stomach.

The Pureblood frowned slightly, looking down at the man with more than a little bit of disgust. "I cannot teach you."

That wasn't entirely true. Drain Knowledge was a simple enough skill that most anyone could learn if they tried hard enough. The technique was fiercely disruptive of the victims mind, horrid to go through and almost always permanently damaging. If one could stomach the idea of ripping apart someone else's mind they could use the technique easily enough, though oddly even some Sith shied away from such things. Perhaps it was because it most often left the victim entirely...subdued.

The Jedi twitched on the floor.

"You serve your 'Empire'." There was no small amount of disdain in his voice at that. "Not me."

Slowly the Pureblood reached down and wrapped his fingers around the Spike, jerking it free of the corpse.

 

[Connor Harrison]

Joon was distracted again by the body of the Jedi collapsing down, etched with dark tendrils that seemed to spawn from his innards. The blood was dark and his body pale. She looked to red-skin, and then knelt by the Jedi.

She stared at his face, seeing what little life was left and how the Dark Side could be used to take what one wanted in such a fearsome way.

”I serve an Empire but I have no guide. I need one.”

Turning her head half-way, she kept her eyes down.

”My lust for knowledge and loathing for the Jedi is equal to yours. I can help you. You can help me."

Slowly, she turned back to the Jedi and glared at the body.

”This galaxy needs to bleed a little more I think. Don't you?”

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Joon"]

He turned towards the girl. "I'm not interested in Chaos."

Oh Vrak knew opportunity when he saw it, but another Sithling running around doing whatever they wanted was...well unpredictable. He couldn't allow another variable doing whatever they pleased whenever they pleased. The coming months would see his plans come to fruition, and if someone were to step in the way of that it would be unfortunate. Teaching her without some sort of guarantee would be foolish, mostly because she could very well ruin a piece of what he wanted without even knowing it.

"I need loyalty." Not exactly accurate. "I need everything to go as I require."

His fingers slowly reached down to wipe the spike on the Jedi's clothes. "It does me no good if the galaxy bleeds in the wrong place."

Simple truth.

He'd worked for far too long to have his plans jeopardized now.

 

[Connor Harrison]

With his words, Joon stood and looked upon the red-skin like he was some bug.

”Of course not. You're not a surgeon. You're just a lone Sith Knight trying to make a difference.”

She didn't know if she was annoyed or offended.

”And you will never know another as loyal as me. Ever.”

Joon walked around the other side of the Sith.

”And chaos? Who said anything about chaos? Chaos is illogical and rash. Nothing good comes of chaos. It's all about putting one piece of the puzzle in at a time, like a methodical operation. You aren't a surgeon as I said, but maybe you should let those willing help cut away the parts of the flesh that are rotten.”

She stopped and stood still, looking down at him and folded her arms.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]