A gift for a child [Keira & Salem]

[Darth Vulcanus]

​

For the cold is not the end.

And the embrace is but a beginning.

Thus was the truth of which the Man in Black served.

And his service began here. Surrounded by veins of dark magic left by the Witches of Dathomir. Veins that flowed cold, wicked power through the dead stones and rotting soil. He would rip these veins asunder and allow the cold to flow forth as blood from an open wound.

The lost children would rise from the poolings ooze of wicked power, awoken from their eternal dream to spread the gift to all others. Pain would be a forgotten memory in the galaxy. Only bliss would prevail.

Stepping across the dark landscape, the Man in Black strode toward the cave that overlooked the grassy field; the cliffside bathed in green light from witch camp pyres burning across the tainted landscape. These children wished to touch the cold world beyond the stone gate, wishing to unbury their loved ones from the icy ground. Ignorance guided that quest, they shunned the embrace rather than accepting its icy touch.

They needed a father's guiding hand and he would offer his to them soon.

The Man in Black drifted his gaze across the witch paintings sprawled across the cavern as he entered. Ancient Dathomiri was scrolled in blood in tangled dance with depictions of a battle long ago, one in which a Great Mother fell in battle to a many-armed demon. The anguish of that day still clung to this place, a putrid ooze that could be tasted at the tip of one's tongue.

It bothered not the dead.

The Man in Black moved further into the darkness, surmounting rock and bone until finally walking underneath the shadow of the one he sought. A tall, stone woman with her body bent back in anguish; her hands grabbing at two wounds forever gaping in her chest.

[member="Keira Ticon"]

 

[Keira Priest]

It wasn't often that Keira put much stock into visions of the Force. Which was to say she never did, because unlike the numerous Force religions that populated the galaxy, she only viewed the energy field as a tool. It wasn't a mystic deity or malevolent entity, but rather just another weapon in her arsenal. And so when it happened that she was granted a vision or other foresight she didn't hold to it the same weight that most would, instead looking upon it with speculation and no real intent to follow through. Of course, it helped that she was never privy to such anomalies in the first place, and when one finally did come knocking she'd only brushed it aside at first, as was typical.

But of course, it was never that simple. Rather than leaving it at that, the vision kept recurring in fits and bursts, demanding that she pay closer attention. Begrudgingly she had done so, delving into meditation for what was the first time in years in order to more carefully examine what she had been granted. There wasn't much she was able to suss out other than an overwhelming darkness, one different from that she faced when hunting the Sith and their ilk. This one was even more impure, if such a thing was possible, the corruption it maintained less carefully honed and instead more volatile than anything she'd sensed before. It was a darkness that didn't quite fit in the puzzle of the ethereal, and of course it had come calling on her doorstep.

From what she could discern, this creature - whatever it was - was on Dathomir, a planet that had once upon a time held more weight among House Verd than it did presently. But it was still important to the aliit, and as the Alor'ad she had a responsibility to protect her clan from those that wished ill upon them. So it was off to the blood-red world for what was the second time in months, something that didn't escape her notice. First it had been a Sith Lord, and now whatever this new disturbance made itself out to be. The dark had always been inherent to her family, certainly, but this meant something more was wrong. Anything that subscribed to such a darkness was better off dead, and thankfully she had no qualms with devoting her time to just that.

Recently she had been seemingly living solely within the phrik shell of her armor, and this time was no different. The moment she had made her plans known, Thalia of course had her own ideas. "Why do you always have to take me with when you're going off to get yourself killed?"
"Here's a better question: after seeing everything I've survived, why do you think that this is going to be the one person to get lucky?"
"Oh, I don't know, something about a darkness you've not sensed before seems a little off, is all."
"You just got done telling me I didn't wholly understand the Force the last time we were here. What makes this different?"
"The last time we were here you were fighting a Sith. At least you know how to deal with them."
"And that same process will be just as useful this time around. A bullet between the eyes wraps everything up nicely."
"You always say that."

Annoying as the AI had the capacity to be, she did make for a good conversation partner until the shuttle touched down on Dathomir. There was no need to call for a scan of the area, as her senses did the job for her, leading her across grass plains until she happened upon the cave. It was at that point she drew her pistol, her HUD adjusting for the low-light conditions as she stepped inside.

[member="Salem"]

 

[Darth Vulcanus]

​

The Man in Black's hollow voice called on the wind, a faint whisper summoned to the fringes of reality by the ichor that flowed through the natural world.

The man stopped not his quest, placing a thin hand on the heart of the stone Mother Talzin and pushing with all of his weight. Her form shattered with a crash that echoed out the mouth of the cave, ancient bones skidding across the stone as they flew loose from the cold corpse. Standing straight, empty eyes peering through the dust and rubble, The Man in Black gazed upon the trophy he had come to collect.

Mother Talzin's skull lay cracked and broken on the floor, long preserved by the stone cage it had been trapped in. Reaching through the decay and pushing aside the stone skin, he wrapped in hand around the skull and pulled it from the ruin. A cackling howl ran from the cave, a green mist pouring from the darkness and onto the cliffside that the child had arrived on. The air grew cold and heavy, a tangible weight bearing down on the cliffside.

Dark. Angry. Eternal.

Turning towards the mouth of the cave, the hollow eyes waited for the child as she moved through the darkness ahead of him. He could feel her heartbeat, hear her breath. So much pain. So much agony. Such ignorance. She would be free soon, though. Free of the darkness that forced itself upon her.

Just as it was for her parents.

"Ticon..."

 

[Keira Priest]

The muscles of her jaw worked slowly as the darkness poured out from the mouth of the cave in tumultuous waves, washing over her as if she wasn't there and nearly drowning her beneath its all-encompassing, smothering hand. Still, she forced herself to continue on, breath coming more difficult through lungs that felt as if they were entirely blackened by corruption. It was a side-effect of what resided within, she knew, and a reminder as to why true monsters such as this were better off dead. A whisper followed closely on the heels of the unnatural impurity, the voice seemingly born from the death rattles of all those that had passed before and all those that would heed the call after.

It didn't stop her. Despite instinct telling her to turn back Keira continued on through the darkness, the technologies within her helmet allowing her to peer into the dark and what lay beyond. This was a holy place, that much became evident the moment she set foot within, but other than a passing acknowledgement she paid no heed. Perhaps if circumstances had been different she would have tread more carefully, but there were more pressing matters at hand than disturbing any final resting places. She would sooner kill the thing causing the trouble and worry about trespassing later. This was why she hunted Sith and their ilk and left the professionalism to someone else.

The moment her family name - her given one, not that which she had chosen for herself - was spoken, she froze for just a split second. Those that knew of her blood family and just what that name went were few and far between, and those capable of recognizing her as belonging to that line on sight amounted to just her siblings. With armor shrouding her form she was just another faceless warrior, the ram's head of House Verd painted in white across the back plate of phrik. There was no possible way to determine her heritage, unless--. No, she didn't want to think about that possibility. She knew her family well enough to know that none of them would ever amount to something as horrendous as the toxicity that flowed freely from the figure cloaked in shadow.

"Still think it's a good idea?" Thalia broke her from her reverie, but she didn't respond to the barbed comment. Instead she spoke aloud, "What's it to you?" And then she fired three shots downrange, two intended for the chest and one for the head, just as she'd been trained.

[member="Salem"]

 

[Darth Vulcanus]

Smoke. Ash. Bits of flesh filled the air and fell upon the stone as the blaster bolts hit the mark with military precision. Still stood the Man in Black, smoke gently wafting from the gaping holes in his chest and forehead. Through the seared skin and gnarled flesh, one could see the twisted, rotting bones of his chest and skull. No blood pooled out as there was no blood to lose. Instead, chunks of rotten, liquidized meat began falling into maggot-infested puddles on the floor; various insects flocking away and to the decaying flesh.

A slow, lifeless leak of air escapes the receded lips of The Man in Black as he turned his hollow gaze back to Keira. He did not flinch. He did not shake. He felt no pain. He Felt no fear. The cold embrace had already taken him and no amount of mortal harm the woman enacted would steer him from his mission. Taking a single step forward, The Man in Black put a single hand on the ancient slugthrowing revolver on his hip and spoke with an airy whisper of the grave.

"Such pain. Such remorse. The cage of this mortal life has burdened you and your family." each step closer was a clanging mesh of metal and leather, each word a whisper from rotting, gnarled teeth, "the embrace will free you. No harm. No pain. Only bliss. Fear it not, Ticon."

Stopping just shy of three arm lengths from the girl, The Man in Black jostled his weapon and looked her in the eye with a long, dead glare that pierced eternity. "Fear not the embrace."

[member="Keira Ticon"]

 

[Keira Priest]

In moments like these where the average individual would have run the other way, instinct took over. When it became apparent that three shots weren't enough to put him down, Keira fell back on the single fail-safe she maintained. As he stepped forward she didn't move, only holstering her pistol and standing there calmly. Once he finished speaking she inclined her head slightly as if she was about to respond, but that moment didn't come. Instead a concentrated burst of the Force sufficed where words failed, one that would send any unprepared backwards and crashing into the nearest stone wall, the impact unforgiving. These days she hated any semblance of relying on the ethereal, but it had its uses.

Death wasn't truly something she feared, anymore. When one had such an intimate relationship with it, there wasn't much of anything to be afraid of. Countless were the times she'd nearly crossed the line and never returned, but somehow she'd always managed to get pulled back and thrown back into galactic affairs as if nothing had happened. Death was an old friend, something she recalled so clearly it may well have been just another memory. No, she wasn't afraid of dying. In some ways she welcomed it, entirely at peace with the idea of no longer existing in the galaxy. But it was something she'd always resisted due to the simple fact that she wasn't done yet, not being quite at peace with the impact she'd made.

And so always she resisted, despite what may have been better for those around her or the galaxy as a whole. This would be no different, regardless of the persuasions of her adversary. "Well, he's not human. Nothing comes back on the databases."
"Doesn't matter. If I have it my way he won't be around long enough for it to be a problem."
"You do have a wrist rocket."
Absently she toyed with that idea, but it would wreak far too much destruction in such an enclosed space for it to be strategically applicable. The Force worked just as well, provided he didn't get back up quite as easily from this one.

[member="Salem"]