Adventures on Korriban.

[Darth Ophidia]

Saiah revelled in triumph for a second as the blood and organs came splashing down over her. With her lightsabre she ensure that no body part large enough would fall on her. However, when the moment of glory was over, she realised the effect the Matriarch's dying screams would have on the children. Their rage was palpable, and the echo of their collective movement became apparent to her.

In haste, she dug through the remains of the Terenantek Matriarch. She kept her signature as small as she could, approaching the size of a mouse, while her hands collected the last few objects. As she was about to scurry, she remembered something mentioned about the venom of the Terentateks. Her left and lightly brushed the scratch on her side, and she did note a certain feeling of slackness, or numbness. While her initial idea had to be to harvest some of the Tererantek venom for her own use, she now realised she had been poisoned and time was running out. Swiftly, she cut off one of the Matriarch's smaller spines and extinguished her sabre before she hurried away. Her eyes darted left and right, searching for monsters in the dark.

Meanwhile, the venom was spreading through her veins, she needed a way out of this grave. Or else it would be hers for all eternity.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Despite the cries, [member="Saiah"] would find refuge within this room of the Matriarch. Despite being beasts, they were still of the Dark Side. And fear still ran through their minds. They were fearful of the unknown being that had taken down their strongest, and it wouldn't be hard for the Assassin to find her way out, if still poisoned.

Outside of the entrance, which was perhaps ten feet from where she currently stood, was the Zabrak, both red arms crossed over his chest as he waited patently for his apprentice to get out. He expected her to.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

As Saiah ran for the exit, the venom worked itself deeper into her system. She became dizzy, lightheaded, but somehow she made it out. The barb of the Matriarch clenched under her arm. Upon seeing the light of the sun, she slowed down and walked out with a calm pace and her head held high. Her lightsabre was still clenched in her hand, and her body was sticky with the gore of the Matriarch's innards.

When her feet touched the sand, she threw the poison barb into the sand and stared at [member="Darth Ferus"] with blurred eyes. The only thing keeping her standing was her will, her body was beginning to succumb to the venom in her veins. She would need some medical attention, but she had made it. She had defeated the Matriarch. Success.

 

[Darth Ferus]

"You've done well, but we're not done yet. The poison coursing through your veins, do you know how long it will take to kill you? Not long enough for you to get the medical attention you need. So, consider this a two part lesson." With a subtle wave of his hand the Zabrak would set in motion a simple display of his power. A nearby pillar fell flat without any struggle, and the ground between both [member="Saiah"] and Ferus would open. A bubbling red basin would be revealed underneath the shifting sands, and another flick of the hand would bring this basin straight up from the ground below.

"You will have to use this basin to expel the poison from your body, or you will die a slow, painful death. This, however, will feel far worse. The painful death would be a mercy. Now you must choose. Expel the poison from your body into this basin and at the same time craft your own loyal creature, or die."

 

[Darth Ophidia]

A grin spread over Saiah's lips. Ferus was giving her an easy way out, but Saiah wouldn't bite. She would not be intimidated by prospects of suffering. Suffering incited passion, and passion one gains strength. Death was awfully finite, but by bearing through unimaginable suffering, she could transcend her limits and become something greater.

"You give me no choice [member="Darth Ferus"]. Death means failure, and failure is not an option."

She folded up her sleeve and undid her assassin's blade, leaving her left arm bare beneath the elbow. She glared down into the bubbling liquid in the basin as she clenched and unclenched her left hand. Pain, pain was awaiting. Then, with a sharp inhale, she plunged her hand into the bubbling substance and put her mind to work. She stared intensely ad the liquid and the approximate area where her hand would be. As the liquid burned away her skin, she set all her forces to finding the venom in her system. Simply the process of ravaging ones own system in order to find a venomous substance and expel it was painful enough. Doing so into what felt like having ones hand inside a burning star was a whole other level of pain. She gritted her teeth, trying to hold on, however it was futile not to scream. The scream of her raspy voice resounded over the desert plains and echoed between the mountains.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Ferus watched on as [member="Saiah"] went through it, but he was not silent. She had chosen the path forward, the path to power. And as her master, he would at least help explain what it was she was doing. "Alchemy such as what it is you are doing involves concentration, and forbidden knowledge. You don't have the latter, which is why this will be so much more painful. Focus on manipulating the poison from your body, and when you do, focus on giving it shape. You're not just saving your own life, but creating a new one. The flesh you loose in this basin, the blood, the poison. You will make yourself a creature fitting for you. What, I do not know or care, but you will create something to hold the poison. If not, the poison will reenter your body, and you will die."

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Create life from the one she was losing. How peculiar, how like the Dark Side. She pressed her arm a little further in, why? She felt she needed the material. The basin was eating her arm, burning it away, but she felt confident in what she was doing. In her mind, she searched for the perfect form, and as her hips shifted and she felt the golden coin digging into her hip, she knew exactly what shape it would take.

She pressed the poison out of her arm and into the basin, along with a substantial amount of blood. She was growing even paler as blood pumped out of her body and into the basin, however, Saiah remained strong in will. She would not let death claim her. Saiah was Sith, and Sith are masters of death. Little by little, she created a new form within the basin. First, the venom at its core. She drew the venom out into a long string. Bones. She felt the bones ripped from her hand and morphed into the structure of her creation. Then flesh, blood, skin.

It was not yet alive, but it would be. Saiah screamed again as electricity crackled across her body and into the basin. She gripped her creation's tail and sent the electricity into the familiar to start its organs and bring it the spark of life

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

All the while Ferus watched and waited, a small grin on his face. She was doing well, especially for just figuring out the process. Patiently he would wait though, his blue eyes ever watchful of a sign of failure.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

While the shock helped, it did not bring it to life just yet. She had sculpted the raw form, now she got to shaping the little details. The long, slender shape, the sharp fangs hollowed for delivery of the venom she had in her blood. The scales and the patterns. Saiah twisted and turned the creature as each and every step of the way taught her new things, and with each turn she improved it, perfected it.She took inspiration from the dream she had during her knighting, forming a shape from the nightmarish figures that occupied her mind at the time. Her knowledge accumulated and her mind was sharpened by pain. Sometimes, one gets to a level of hurt where it simply doesn't matter. She had too much at stake in this creation to allow herself to be distracted. And soon it would be finished. She encased it in another burst of lightning, crackling along her form and into the basin once more. It connected her to the creature, as though through an umbilical cord.

Saiah stopped and stared into the basin, then withdrew her hand. She felt the basin replace her arm as she withdrew it, the skin on her arm was like ink and covered in burn scars. She clenched and unclenched her hand to test her strength of it. It felt like her old one, almost as if she had only lost feeling in it for a short while. She then glared into the basin again, her black hand stretched out over the basin as she mentally called for the creature within to emerge.

It emerged from the basin, rearing up towards her hand. She let her black fingers stroke the side of its head and along the scaly body as the serpentine Sith Familiar climbed up on her hand gracefully. Saiah looked at [member="Darth Ferus"], a smile spreading across her lips.

 

[Darth Ferus]

A smile formed on the Zabrak's face as he looked towards [member="Saiah"] . A single nod, and he would lower the basin with a final wave of his hand. His voice would cut through the silence, crisp and clear now that the poison was gone. "You have a name for it yet? A new species, even if Sith Spawn, needs one no?"

 

[Darth Ophidia]

"Yes, she has a name. I will call her Nagajj."

Saiah let the serpentine creature slither up her arm and settle across her shoulders as she stared at [member="Darth Ferus"], a genuine smile on her face, yet a shrewdness to her eyes. She and the serpent looked rather alike in some ways, like two of a pair. Then again, it was made from a part of her, and in a way it was part of her. As she felt the serpent slither across her shoulders, she also felt the shell spider silk and corellian leather of her clothes from the view of the serpent. Nagajj reared and placed her head on Saiah's hood, staring at Ferus, tongue flickering out of its mouth to taste the air. Saiah stroked her scales almost absent mindedly.