Across the Void

[Vereshin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pem_im238xc
​

Beings of indiscernible race and identity brushed by the coat of Vereshin who wandered listlessly through the passageways of a space station deep in the outer rim. Holding the ticket for a public shuttle, he blocked out the surrounding chatter and pressed onward down the hall to the holding bay. Noise invaded every coherent thought as he held his breath for as long as possible before releasing, the smell and earthly fiber of the space denizens making him feel gradually queasy and long for his own room.

The incessant beeping of equipment provided a brief distraction while Vereshin caught on to the presence of another Force user, one who used the Dark Side. He stopped in his tracks to scan the corridor for the individual and wondered idly if they were also Sith. Should that be the case, they may prove useful on the Knight's endeavor into the maw, the feat of siphoning dark matter. Sighing deeply, the voices surrounding him became too much and Vereshin found a bench beneath a wide window overlooking a vast nebula.

Shuttle pass in hand, his gaze caught the illuminated numbers of a clock above the entrance to the hangar bay and woman with emerald skin rummaged through her purse next to him. He read the time on the clock, he shuttle was not due to leave for ten minutes and he rummaged through his pocket for a cigarette. A young man, though Vereshin could not guess his age, of a race with tentacle features strode up before him and the lingering presence he felt earlier grew strong. He cocked his head to one side, weary from travel and raised an eyebrow before opening his mouth to speak.

"Hello, are you Sith?" The acolyte slid the cigarette into his thin lips and lit the end with a snap of energy from his fingers. He blew smoke into the air, opening and closing his mouth in a few puffs in between talking. "I am myself, although I know I don't look like it." Vereshin finished while he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, they always seemed to fall down because his head was too small. "Are you taking this shuttle?" He asked a second question.

[member="Tsisaar Taral"]

 

[Shade of Decay]

Having only recently found himself liberated from the hands of the Anx - and still contemplating the dark gemstone he'd picked up in Gravlex Med's spacious caverns - Tsisaar Taral was in mighty need of some personal time. To that end, he had chosen to find his own route back to Bastion, rather than simply travelling with the fleet...which, in Tsis's case, meant that he went far out of his way, visiting some planets he'd never yet been to, studying in what libraries he could be granted access to, and in his time alone, practicing with both the lightsaber and the Force. Even while it meant a break from his usual learnings, he was determined to make the trip worthwhile beyond an attempt to get some much-needed relaxation.

Part of this journey of study had led him to the Maw, an area which had, for many reasons, long been a tangible reminder of the Dark Side's influence on the galaxy, what with the reasoning behind its construction and what all had been done in or near the cluster. He was now waiting for the shuttle that would take him to the cluster's remnants, having used nearly the last of his funds to purchase the ticket to Kessel. A quiet wait, however, did not seem to be written into his fate, giving the sudden tingling he felt through the Force, another presence making itself known to him.

A few minutes later the two came into contact with each other, Tsisaar nearly tripping over the man's legs on his walk to where his shuttle would actually be docked. "I am taking this shuttle, yes," he replied flatly to the second of the young man's questions, his brow simply furrowing in response to the first question, a reaction brought on by Dark Side-driven paranoia. Said distrust rapidly faded to simple curiosity, though, the man's obvious negatively-inclined Force presence being a rather clear marker as to his allegiance; no self-respecting Jedi would intentionally paint themselves as a Dark Sider like this. "Bit of a bold one, aren't you?" With a quick glance to make sure nobody was focused on their conversation he sat down on the bench, stretching out his tired legs. "Claiming allegiance to the Sith within Jedi territory; what a novel idea."

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

The air conditioner on the space port billowed a chill wind into the hall, causing Vereshin to huddle beneath his black coat. He watched the other man's tentacle appendages twitch with hypnotic curiosity. When he challenged Vi's introduction, the sorcerer recoiled and felt his mouth turn dry. He bit his lip and swallowed, holding his breath and releasing over and over. He played with his fingers and tore at the sides of his nails while struggling to formulate a response.

"Well, the Silver Jedi no longer control this area of space as far as I'm aware." He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and cocked his head to one side, trying to control his nerves and collect his posture. He did not believe he had said anything wrong, not understanding the need of the man to respond patronizingly. The light signalling the departure of the shuttle turned read above the holding door and the passengers made their way forth. "Oh!" Vi exclaimed as he fumbled through his coat pocket for his pass. He rose to his lace up shoes and ran past his new companion to the ticket scanning machine. Panic began to rise in his throat and he sorely cursed the need for public transport.

Vi stood in the queue and watched the other passengers nervously as they scanned their tickets. The woman in front of his passed through and he tried to mimic her actions. He swiped the ticket backwards and stared awkwardly at Tsisaar waiting behind him. "Oh kes!" Vereshin cursed to himself while the passengers waited behind him. The other Sith pointed and corrected him. He blushed in response and pushed his glasses up his nose, checking the ticket and scanning it once more, this time on the right side. The Sith sorcerer passed through with Tsisaar behind him.

The shuttle waiting to take civilians through the maw waited in the holding bay behind the thick doors. Vereshin stopped in awe to gaze upon the blanket of indigo nebulae and coursing stars beyond the viewpoint. The lines of his mouth turned upward while he glanced over to find the tentacled Sith behind him. As the passengers moved, Vereshin followed them on board and stopped in the hallway of the shuttle beside his comrade. "My name is Vi, if you will." He offered a hand to shake and silently hoped the transport offered passengers individual rooms. "Who might you be?" He asked the fellow Sith.

[member="Tsisaar Taral"]

 

[Shade of Decay]

They no longer control the area?

Come to think of it, Tsisaar had lost track of how long he'd been travelling. Although if the Silver Jedi were losing territory, he'd somehow managed to get pretty significantly out of the loop. "Be that as it may, it always pays to be careful." He hurried along behind his new companion, passing through the turnstiles with a relative minimum of fuss. It'd help if they'd just standardize the ticketing format galaxy over, but that's never going to happen. Not that Tsisaar himself was particularly fond of public transport either, but he wasn't much fond of ever having to deal with large groups of people. A thing which public transport basically required.

Where Vereshin's focus was drawn out of the hangar, Tsisaar's was more focused on navigating through the people around them, and - once inside the shuttle - picking out where, at the very least, a secluded set of seats might be found, if there were no separate rooms. "Tsisaar," came his automatic reply to Vereshin, before he noticed the offered hand and shook it once. "Looks like we paid for the right shuttle. Most of the rooms have seeting for six, but I'm sure it won't be hard to claim one entirely for ourselves." The crowd actually on this specific shuttle was enough to fill it maybe three-quarters full; likely due to the expense of the tickets.

Tsisaar could acutely feel the negative weight of the missing credits, in the same pocket where he was keeping the stone he'd picked up on Gravlex Med. It was not a comfortable feeling.

"May I recommend one along the starboard side? Judging by the route, it's likely to give us the best view of the local attractions."

 

[Vereshin]

"All passengers please wait until after take off to move to find your rooms." A speaker called to all those arriving on the transport. Tsisaar did not continue to patronize Vereshin and softened his tone. He appeared to admit his mistake regarding the Silver Jedi. His companion felt swiftly more calm.

Aliens and rogues pushed by the two Sith and made their way towards the lounge area of the shuttle. A Twi'lek mother cradled her child as Vereshin and Tsisaar sat down next to her and waited for the ship to take off. The infant wailed and Vi raised his fingers to his ears and pressed them tightly to drown out the horrible noise. He shook his head without any subtlety and the engines surged into gear. The shuttle left the spaceport and moved into the stars. Once they were a good distance away, the passengers began to depart from the lounge.

Vereshin rose to his feet and read the room number on his ticket. Rather than be paired with a stranger, he chose to follow Tsisaar until they reached the door. "Tsisaar, I do not particularly want to share a room with a stranger." Vereshin said as a enormous and stinking gunslinger approached him from behind and his slid his passkey into the room Vereshin was to take. With a grunt, he looked him up and down and entered. The Sith scientist stood with his mouth parted. He darted inside Tsisaar's room with haste before his own room mate arrived.

"I don't suppose you felt the same way?" Vi asked, fidgeting with the strap around his shoulder and scanning the from every angle. Two beds sat on either side. A door lead to a refresher and a window which made the entire wall of the relatively short room soared over endless stars. Once more, Vereshin was drawn, hypnotized to the window and placed his fingers against the glass. He stared for a short period at the wide galaxy while leaving greasy stains on the glass beneath his hands.

"I want to meet a Starweird." He spoke with a dreamy and distracted tone while Tsisaar explained the situation to his previous room mate at the door. Vereshin sat down on the bed and removed the bag from his shoulder. He unbuckled the straps and retrieved his notebook and pen, flipping open the last page and wracking his mind for possible experiments to conduct along the trip. A holo-communicator sat on the side table for passengers to call for meals. Vereshin wondered to himself if they supplied good tea.

[member="Tsisaar Taral"]

 

[Shade of Decay]

"I've never been particularly fond of the people I end up stuck with on these things, no," Tsisaar replied to Vereshin, passing by his new travelling companion's room rather quickly. The man he was supposed to share a room with was much smaller and less troublesome-looking than the one in Vereshin's room, as well, making him hopefully more easy to deal with. A short amount of time arguing after their first meeting prove otherwise; Tsisaar was not particularly inclined towards engaging in protracted arguments at the current time, so he chose one of the simpler options to solve the problem.

"You will leave and find a different room," he growled, punctuating the words with a wave of his clawed fingers and a mental push through the Force. Judging by how quickly the man's jaw slacked and he started to shuffle out, a bit too hard of a push. "Well, I imagine he'll be alright eventually. Can't have done any lasting damage there." He relaxed into a seat, shutting and locking the door with another quick gesture. "I'm just glad I didn't have to pull out my lightsaber." He glanced out the viewport himself, looking at the remnants of the Maw. The blackhole cluster had been slowly dissipating over the last eight-hundred years, with Sinkhole Station having been destroyed; some of the black holes were beginning to move more towards each other, ready to merge into a larger and larger blackhole. Within a few tens of millenia even the ones that were currently trying to escape would be pulled into the conglomerate singularity. For now, though, it was still relatively stable. Enough so that it could still be directly explored, Abeloth's planet could still be observed, all sorts of activities like that.

"I don't imagine I'd be much a fan of Starweirds," came Tsisaar's quiet reply. "A week or so ago I was blindfolded, beaten, and held prisoner underground by a bunch of overgrown lizards. I've had enough of annoying fights for at least the next month." He looked out the window again, drawing his brows down in a look of consternation. "I can't really think of any other deep-space phenomena but those, though. Nothing particularly interesting anyways." With a sigh he reached into his own pack to pull out a book, only to be interrupted by a light rapping at the door. "What are you willing to bet that's the security officer here, trying to make people go back to their assigned seating?"

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

The shuttle drifted through the Maw with an ominous loom. Vereshin listened to his companion bicker with his previous room-mate and he rose from the bed abruptly, hugging the notebook to his chest and shifting to the shadow in the corner of the room to hide himself, although he still remained in plain view of both Tsisaar and his assigned room-mate. The man came to to terms with the situation and exited. As the door closed, Vi emerged from the corner with the notebook before his face, stroking his nose against the leather bound cover and gazing over the edge.

"I too, am glad you did not have to draw your lightsaber." Vereshin spoke with an understated tone, silently dreading any situation which would demand either of them engage in combat. He only desired to explore for the mean-time. When Tsisaar mentioned his encounter with the Starweirds in the laboratory near the Stygian Caldera where the sorcerer himself had been working at the time, Vereshin realized they had both been present for the encounter. He only regretted he had not been able to study one of the incorporeal creatures.

"I was working in the laboratory when the Starweirds came aboard." He lowered the notebook slowly and turned again to the window. Once again, the site of the galaxy and the Universe beyond drew his gaze like a mesmerized child. "Unfortunately, I was never able to examine one." The biology of organisms and their chemical make-up did not interest him. A sentient anomaly formed of pure energy and existing only in the depths of space was one exception which intrigued the Sith. "However, you are correct in assuming that Starweirds are the least interesting anomaly to encounter in the Maw." Vereshin finished and pondered the labyrinth of black holes and dark matter encircling the vessel as it passed through the unstable cluster.

"I am interested in searching for dark matter." Vereshin finally spoke. With the massive gravity surrounding the journey of the ship, the hull jolted every so often and threw passengers off their feet. A surge weighed through the metal and Vereshin stumbled, planting his hand against the window to hold on and dropping his notebook in the process. Footsteps scurried outside of the door and raised voices called to one another. The ship slowed in movement, alerting the passengers to a disturbance encountered by the crew. The curious Sith stood wide eyed and gradually reached down to collect his notebook.

[member="Tsisaar Taral"]

 

[Shade of Decay]

As the jolt passed through the ship, Tsisaar steadied himself on the door, before reaching out and opening it. "Just wanted to remind you guys to buckle down," the flight attendant said cheerfully, although his clothing was somewhat disheveled from likely having just fallen to the floor. "We're likely to encounter some strong tidal forces, given how the cluster has been growing more unstable since Sinkhole Station was destroyed. Best to be careful." He cheerfully went along his way after that, checking on passengers in other rooms while Tsisaar closed and locked the door again. Before turning to Vereshin with a moderately confused look on his face.

The way Vereshin had just been talking about Starweirds and a laboratory made it sound like it was something Tsisaar should've known about. But he had no clue, whatsoever, as to what the other sorcerer was referring to. While he pondered the words for a millisecond more, the lower third of one of his hullepi started to tingle uncomfortably. As did his head. Through the Force, it about felt like reality was being pulled apart around them. Probably just the black holes. But this Vi is a bit strange.

"I'd imagine there's a lot of dark matter around us," he replied, breaking himself out of his momentary confusion; he'd felt like he'd been thinking for a while, but from the muted sounds of the flight attendant nearby, he couldn't have spent more than a second in his own mind. This entire place is strange. He walked back to his chair, shutting out his senses in the Force for the most part, and trying to ignore the tingling in his hullepi. It was thankfully starting to die down. "I'd be interested to see if it can't be manipulated, although I doubt we'll have the time to figure out a way to do that here." He thought about it a bit longer, before remembering a ubiquitous, galaxy-wide piece of standard technology that made him re-think that idea.

"Although, they build refineries around more stable, singular black holes to manufacture the weird little knots of space-time that make repulsorlifts work. Never really spent the time trying to understand the math or the physics behind it, but I'm sure that if they can do that purely technologically, there's no reason we couldn't figure out a way to use the Force for similar effects, or to mess around with dark matter or anything like that." Not that tuning into a gravitic signature using the Force alone would be an easy task; it wasn't the sort of "senseing" most Force sensitives were taught to do. But if it's a universal energy field...

With a quiet grunt, he reached over to his bag, pulling out some sort of beverage he'd found. After tasting it, he made a bit of a face. "Bottled rootgrass tea? I can't believe this ever became popular anywhere. Probably some Hutt thought it tasted good and forced it to be distributed everywhere." He was already committed to finishing it, though, so he continued to drink it. The unpleasantness rather quickly transitioned into a dull ambivalence, amid the jolting and jostling of the ship. "The pilots are doing a pretty good job of not dragging us into any black holes, aren't th--"

A quick look out the viewport made him think otherwise.

"I wonder if we can help with that."

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

Tsisaar did not respond to Vereshin's mention of the event in the Stygian Caldera and during the pause that followed between them, a shift in the Force triggered his perception. He suddenly could not remember anything preceding or following the event as though the memory had been misplaced in his subconsciousness. Vi shook his head and gathered his bearings. When the ship attendant arrived at the door and spoke, he looked up, distracted and swallowed a gulp laced with anticipation. Tsisaar went returned to the bed and continued to talk. The growing amount of speech became slightly overwhelming to Vereshin.

"I would be immensely intrigued to visit one of those refineries." Vereshin perked up at the mention of facilities structured around black holes. His eyes widened in subtle joy as Tsisaar continued. He could not believe himself how young he remained and how many places he had yet to travel. "Well then, I think I might be able to assist if this is something which interests you as it interests me." Vereshin smiled coyly as Tsisaar mentioned his lack of knowledge surrounding physics or mathematics, brushing a hand through his lightly slicked back hair. He said nothing more and gazed awkwardly over the window.

"Oh no thank you." Vi extended a hand in a gesture of polite refusal as Tsisaar offered him tea. Only preferring his white or black tea, he did not drink it while travelling or else risk having to repeatedly stop at inconvenient times. A surge wracked the hull and the two Sith looked through the window. Stars and asteroids spiraled into an unnatural vortex while footsteps scurried in panic outside of the door. Vereshin blinked once. He tried to make sense of the shapes and slid his notebook and pen inside of his coat and motioned to leave.

"I'm curious." Was all Vereshin said to Tsisaar as he widened his eyes and strode past him. Ignoring the warning to stay seated, he opened the cabin door and strode outside. He waited for a few seconds in case his companion decided to follow him before moving onward and sliding by the frantic staff members.

"Excuse me, sir, you need to stay inside your cabin!" A female ship attended waved her hands in an urgent manner towards Vereshin. He strode past her without a glance snapped his fingers. In an instant, her movements froze in time and she stood like a statue. While Tsisaar strode past her, Vereshin made his way to the end of the corridor and looked around for the hangar bay for a more adequate view of the external situation. The woman returned to movement as soon as Tsisaar disappeared behind the corner. Vereshin held a hand above his teeth and giggled while he listened to her shriek.

[member="Tsisaar Taral"]

 

[Shade of Decay]

I suppose that's my answer.

Tsisaar followed along behind Vereshin, not paying much mind to the flight attendant when she suddenly froze in place. Had it been up to him he might've tried to solve it a bit more diplomatically, but it might have just fallen to use of the Force anyways, so it was a bit of a moot point. The shriek behind him when she could move again was, however, somewhat harsh sounding. Enough so for him to wince. "Let's just focus on getting to the cockpit," he said somewhat firmly in response to Vereshin's giggling; while he wasn't sure who it was directed at, in his mind, now wasn't the time to giggle.

He hurried along after that, intent upon his destination. He had to wave off a few attendants, letting Vereshin deal with others, generally mumbling "move along" or "focus on the other passengers" to accompany his minor mind tricks. In the heat of the moment and the panicked jumble of thoughts the attendants would be having similar to the passengers, it didn't require a very hard push to get them to continue moving past; by the time they might stop and turn around, Tsisaar and Vereshin would already be just around a corner and out of sight. He just wasn't looking forward to dealing with the security officers onboard the shuttle.

As he walked, he could feel the ship surging and bucking beneath his feet, while the pilots fought hard not to be stuck in the gravity well of the black hole nearest them, or to send them careening off from it into another one. A hard fought battle that it seemed they were having quite a bit of trouble with; Tsisaar's fascination with black holes, however, wasn't enough for him to let himself be swallowed up by one. He rounded the last corner to the hall leading to the cockpit, only to find himself a few feet away from a pair of armed security officers, charged with guarding the pilot and the bridge crew. They noticed him just as quickly, levelling their blasters.

Tsisaar raised a hand to try and calm them - maybe even veer into yet another mind trick - and one of the guards spoke up: "Don't try any mind-tricks on us, Jedi!" he growled, keeping his blaster fixed on Tsisaar. It seemed he had accidentally revealed the presence of his lightsaber. What an idiot. The Jedi would be trying to help right now, likely would've come faster than we even did. "They won't work!" Tsisaar snorted in impatience and indignance, rapidly growing fed-up with the situation at hand. We're about to be swallowed up by a black hole and this fool is ready to shoot one of the only people who can even help. The security officer who spoke up would find his throat starting to constrict painfully as Tsisaar spoke up, leaving the other one to Vereshin.

"Not Jedi, Sith," he corrected, though in contrast to his impatience, his demeanour and tone were positively urbane. "And we're probably the only two beings on this shuttle who can keep us all from having our component atoms shredded apart, so I'd recommend you let us pass." Somewhat unintentionally, he let the final word draw out into a bit of a hiss, abnormal for his own speaking patterns. Ah well. A bit of extra help for the intimidation tactic can't hurt too much here. Without waiting for a response - not that the guard would likely be able to give one - he flicked his hand to the side, the man slamming against the bulkhead and falling to the floor. Another flick and their blasters went flying down the corridor to the cockpit, where Tsisaar was already walking, hopefully with Vi behind him.

"Satisfy your curiosity quickly, and then let's see how well we can pull ourselves out of this mess." Almost literally, he thought wrily as he continued to walk.

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

As Tsisaar sternly directed Vereshin to the task at hand, the mage scientist cupped his hands to his mouth and stood abruptly still. He stopped his giggling instantly and fixed in his stance with an expression of sarcastic shock. He hid his face behind the loose and frayed scarf and peered over the edge. He picked up his feet and followed, the amount of staff growing larger as they moved through the corridor. They arrived at a corner leading around to the cockpit and faced a round of security guards armed and holding the door. The Sith slid from the shadows and approached with Tsisaar taking the verbal command as he tried to calm them through the Force.

"Well, actually we are not Jedi." Vereshin raised a finger to politely correct the guard, looking down at his garments of black. He always wore the colour to display his affiliation with the Sith while never wearing robes or armor. As Tsisaar raised to Force choke the first man, Vereshin stretched his fingers in preparation to cast. Closing his eyes, he channeled his focus and extended his energy, concentrating on the matter making up his appearance and form.

Vereshin multiplied the light particles making his body visible and conjured two exact duplicates of himself. They dispersed into energy and slid around each side of the guards. The energy gathered and the doppelgangers took shape, each one appearing exactly like the Sorcerer in all physical aspects. They stopped and waved from each side of the guards, who exclaimed in bewilderment and turned around frantically, trying to decide which illusion was real. Vereshin uttered the incantation beneath his breath, memorizing the formula and applying the spell in lyrical form.

The duplicates of Vi smiled politely to the guards and waved, each one mimicking the exact movements of the other. One of the guards fired a blaster into the illusion standing at the left side. The sound of the bolt firing caused Vereshin to squeal in displeasure and clasp his hands to his ears. His concentration broke and the spell failed, forcing him to make his move while they gathered their senses. The duplicates waned and died while Vereshin seized the last opportunity. He slid past them and into the cockpit while leaving Tsisaar to deal with the remaining men with a more physical approach.

Vereshin arrived the cockpit and met the features of panicking pilots and crew members. The entire hull jolted beneath the weight of the massive gravity tearing at the ship from either side. "Do remain calm." The sorcerer said, splaying out both his hands in a reassuring gesture. "We are here to assist." With that, Vi slid a hand into his coat and revealed his notebook, which he flipped open to a new page as he wracked his brain for any possibel solution to the problem. Eyes wide, he moved by the cursing captain and approached the viewport like an enchanted child. Stars seemed to disappear into an invisible force on either side of the ship. Furniture fell over and glass split between the tearing motion.

Splaying his notebook over a spare space on the control panel, Vereshin estimated the mass of the vessel and the velocity required to haul it away from the twin event horizons. "Come hither." He waved a hand over his back and summoned Tsisaar over. "Your power will be required to pull the ship away." Vereshin continued his equation while allowing Tsisaar to meditate if he wished.

"Leave the matter of the black holes to me." The sorcerer stifled a giggle at his pun, turning around with a thick eyebrow raised in anticipation. The captain remained in his seat as he awaited the words of the Sith. Vereshin reached through the Force and detected the disturbance in energy caused by the black holes on either side of the ship. He estimated just how much time remained before the ship reached the event horizon and jotted numbers fervently while Tsisaar meditated and the crew braced themselves.

[member="Tsisaar Taral"]

 

[Shade of Decay]

Come hither?

From everything he had seen of Vereshin so far, Tsisaar could not honestly say that he had expected a word choice as antiquated as that. He withdrew his hand from the hilt of his lightsaber - had the pilot, copilot, or anybody else been so foolish as to try and fight, he wanted to be ready to defend himself - before walking further into the cockpit. Through the viewport, he could see the massive disturbances that were causing the chaos in the ship. Though they had long since exhausted the matter which made up the accretion disks they once possessed, their presence at such a close range was extremely noticeable.

Unlike Vereshin, however, he drew his thoughts and eyes away from the black holes rather quickly. He had no basis in astrophysics or any other such schools of science to draw from to solve this mess, unlike Vereshin; where the gaunt human acolyte was scrawling furiously in a notebook, Tsisaar was left to focus only on his strength in the Force. Thankfully, the extenuating circumstances present - while they might be detrimental to a Jedi's focus - were the perfect sort of environment to focus on, generating the directed emotion that would fuel the Dark Side.

Worry of the black holes. Check.

Annoyance at the crew and other beings on the ship. Check.

Still-seething rage at the Anx of Gravlex Med. Fear of impending doom. Desire to succeed at any and all costs. Check, check, and check. Tsisaar took a deep breath, none of the emotions or thoughts he was forcing himself to dwell on showing themselves in his body language or expression, the careful control he had maintained since he first had managed to escape from Arkania - only once lost, deep in the caverns of a now nearly-lifeless planet - keeping him perfectly still. A few more breaths and he settled deeply into his meditation, opening himself fully to the Force, enabling him to draw on far more power than in any normal instance. It's just like when I first learned how to access it.

He opened his eyes again after a moment, turning them slightly in Vereshin's direction, though they didn't appear particularly focused. "Whenever you're ready."

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

With Tsisaar scrambling to command the crew and direct the passengers to safety, Vereshin checked his formula one final time before allowing the notebook to fall to his feet. The figures equated, but they did not matter. Equations were of no use when the bounds of the universe lay at his very feet. As Tsisaar spoke to him from behind his back, he sounded very far away, as though his words were distorted by the gravity pulling the ship towards the abyss. Moving before the viewport, Vereshin extended his arms.

He could see it, a plane of perfect darkness, unblemished by space or light. There was no noise and time drew to a halt, allowing Vereshin to concentrate with heightened clarity. The hull of the ship began to tremor beneath his feet as he relied on Tsisaar to push the vessel away from the maw. With every gradual movement of the ship, Vereshin relied on the technique he had mastered to fly through space. He dissipated the particles of his form and apparated into a cloud of opaque energy, directing the smoke through the viewport of the ship and over the event horizon.

"It is happening now." The sorcerer uttered beneath his breath, although he could assume that Tsisaar and the crew could not hear them. He did not even know if they were there any more. "... as it has been happening since the beginning of time." With one final incantation, Vereshin directed the particles of his apparition into the maw and applied too much force in the process.

A fierce sensation wrenched his feet from the bride, threatening to tear him flesh from bone. When he tried to move his arms, he could not feel them. His entire body had been dispersed into stray particles, vulnerable and easily distorted by the massive gravitational force ahead. He was torn from one side to the other, his conscience split between madness and reason, tolerance and rage. As the particles diverted, they were consumed by the black holes on either side, erasing one aspect of Vereshin's personality forever, while entrapping the other in space.

His patience and virtue were sacrificed in order to attain power unfathomable to any being, wrenched from reality's fickle radius and compacted into nothing. The two halves ascended from other side of the ship, leaving nothing in the wake of the dual singularities. Passing beyond the hull and into the stars, he could feel every bone crush under the weight of the gravity. His organs ruptured as the apparition tried to hold them in place, trapped in time until he resisted the maw and left through the other side.

Vereshin, the wayward scholar, was gone.

[member="Tsisaar Taral"]