Private Apprentice to Flame

[Syd Celsius]

Syd smiled as Starlin Rand focused the Light within himself. He was indeed making great efforts.

His next attack was free of the aggression and frustration of previous attempts. She caught it but found it more difficult to do so...unlike previously, he had thought out his attack.

Syd began to counter attack with both blades, swiping at his chest and limbs.

"Good. You are learning." She spoke, alternating between slices and stabs, before recombining her blades mid attack and transitioning to a staff assault. The more aggressive attacks she exposed him to, the less he would be surprised by whatever tactic used by someone who was actually trying to kill him.

"An opponent's tactics can change on the fly. Some will attack physically, others, like the witches who you destroyed earlier, will attack spiritually. You must always be shoring up two fronts, Starlin."

Syd used Force Flight to leap away from him.

"Your lightsaber possesses one additional use...grinding lightning. What I am about to throw at you is not exactly lightning but it is a facsimile of it..."

Syd's mouth opened and weak green bolts of lightning like energy erupted out of it, shooting towards Starlin. He would be facing lightning attacks a lot in his line of work...

 

[Starlin Rand]

Now Syd was getting creative on him. Starlin blocked and parried her strikes, and tried to get in a few slices and stabs of his own.

“Better not mention those witches, or I might start laughing again,” he joked as she flew away from him. His amusement faded as she revealed what she was going to hit him with next.

“Lightning, oh boy. We’re getting into some Emperor Palpatine stuff now.” He raised his blade, readying himself.

But nothing could really prepare him for that first blast of electrical energy. It was mere carpet static compared to what was possible via the Force, but it still scared the chit outta him as it started to crackle in the air around him. He aimed his lightsaber to catch it, and was almost astonished when it actually worked. The green lightning was devoured by the blue blade, causing the focused plasma beam to burn brighter and hotter. He had expected to have to literally “grind” the lightning, but instead he found that the lightsaber did most of the work for him, attracting the energy and absorbing it.

“Okay… so far so good,” Starlin said. “Got anything stronger?”

Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

"Anything tougher risks killing you. My abilities were always geared towards the lethal due to my nature as a weapon...I do have some small other offensive abilities...just...haven't used them in a while..."

Syd had been very hesitant to pull anything from Darth Phyre's memories. However, the Sith had been forced to rely on neutral abilities from time to time...but The Cult of The Brain Demon had always had a curious weakness at telekinesis for the most part.

Syd focused, trying to remember something that wouldn't risk mutilating or crippling him in training.

She closed her eyes...

(Cutaway of Darth Phyre pulling a soldier to her with the Force and beheading him)

(Cutaway of Darth Phyre slowing someone down with The Force)

(Cutaway of Darth Phyre using a Lightsaber Throw to behead an innocent woman)

(Cutaway of Darth Phyre using Force Push to hurl a missile back at a desperate rebel whose family she had butchered.)

(Cutaway of Darth Phyre using Juyo to butcher a Jedi.)

Syd snapped open her eyes, breathing a little faster than normal, skin rippling everywhere as she calmed herself, pulling away from the violent memories. Even those few flashes had been almost more than she could manage.

"Sorry...I have bad memories..." she explained awkwardly.

(The stress of the Situation has caused Syd to recover lost combat knowledge)

(Plasmid Acquisition Theme Plays)

(Powers have been re-learned)

(Skill relearned!)

Power: PULL

Spoiler

Attempts to pull targets or object towards them with telekinesis. Moderately difficult to resist but is also moderately taxing to use. As skill grows, more objects and targets can be pulled towards them.

Power: PUSH

Spoiler

Non-Lethal variant of push that hurls back targets only a few meters but leaves them heavily stunned. Very good for hurling back missiles and grenades, which will reverse right back upon their source. Moderately taxing to perform however. As skill grows, targets remained stunned longer

Power: SLOW

Spoiler

Uses telekinesis to try and slow target down to almost nothing for a few seconds. As skill grows, targets can be slowed longer. Only mildly taxing.

Power: THROW

Spoiler

Throws the lightsaber, causing it to spin at high speed towards the target for a moderate distance before boomeranging back to user. As skill grows, distance blade will travel increases. Highly taxing.

Skill: JUYO

Spoiler

Highly unpredictable lightsaber art focused on pure aggression and unpredictable attacks, but heavily sacrifices defense and the ability to counter Force Powers.

Syd felt the knowledge come back, but was still not certain how wise it had been to even seek it.

"Forgive me, Starlin...I sometimes get overwhelmed by...past experiences..."

Ironically Syd found herself drawing on her training in The Resistors to try and use the recovered knowledge responsibly. She decided to blend it with Resistor Niman, and slowly approached Starlin.

"You have battled my Lightsaber. You have resisted my Force Powers. But some opponents can combine both at once..." Syd trailed, casting Force Slow and then flying towards him with a slash, combining Force and Saber.


Starlin Rand

 

[Starlin Rand]

There it was again: another flashback. Syd even drew attention to it, apologizing for becoming overwhelmed by her memories.

“Hey, it’s cool,” Starlin replied. “I mean, it’s not cool, like awesome or anything, but it’s okay that you… uh… have these experiences… yeah.”

The boy’s fumbling attempt at reassuring her stood as evidence that most people were, in fact, just as weird and awkward as Syd was, despite not being transformed into living weapons and imprisoned in nullification resin.

When Starlin began to feel Force Slow, panic rose in him like bile. He hated when this happened to him in hologames, but in real life? There was something about being functionally paralyzed, unable to move except in a slow, limited way as if the air around him had turned to syrup, that triggered an almost claustrophobic fear buried in the deepest recesses of his psyche. It threatened to cut through all his progress toward Jedi calm and serenity. But he knew at the back of his mind that it was only a trick, that he wasn’t helpless, and he just needed to call upon the Force in order to break free...

Syd’s slash was narrowly blocked by Starlin, though his arm trembled from the strain, both physical and mental, of fighting the sluggishness which had overtaken his body. He felt the Force around him and imagined Syd’s exertion over him as invisible sticky strands binding his limbs. He pulled and pushed on the bindings, stretching them until they tore. At last, he was free and could counter her attacks once more.

Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

The Slow attempt had nearly worked, if nothing elelse. But Starlin broke free of the strands at the last moment.

Continually the boy surprised her. His strength clearly lay in the manipulation of Force Energy. He might make a good Consular someday. But today he also needed to be a warrior.

Undeterred by him catching her blade at the last moment, Syd parried, turning it aside and making a quick, short range stab at his shoulders, before starting a series of cunning swipes and slashes executed with ghost like alacrity.

"The style I am using is called Niman. It is the most balanced of the styles...and its the one you use to combine with Force Attacks. No specific strength...but no weakness. Sorcerous types like myself will often employ it against you, and they will use much nastier combinations than what I am using." Syd explained as she struck at his legs, before suddenly executing a Force Push mid slice. If it connected, he'd be stunned for a few seconds, enough for a follow up attack, which Syd immediately tried to execute just like a real combatant would have on Starlin Rand . His saber defense had repeatedly caught her off guard, so she was curious this time whether she could actually get a blade through his guard...

 

[Starlin Rand]

The stab aimed at his shoulders landed, provoking a yelp of pain from Starlin. He didn’t have a chance to nurse the welt, as Syd continued her assault with gusto.

“Oh yeah, very balanced!” Starlin muttered, shortly before he was knocked back by her Force Push. The blow knocked the breath from his lungs and sent him skidding across the floor of the chamber, his eyes widening as he saw Syd already moving to attack again while he was still sliding on his rear.

There was no time to get to his feet. Covered in a sheen of sweat and coughing, he brought up his blade to counter her follow-up. Their sabers crashed together, orange and blue light blooming in the darkness, before he pushed her back and rolled away, trying to put some distance between them so he could get up.

“Does that… Dragon Kung-Fu only work in unarmed combat, or can I use it here, with the lightsaber?” he asked breathlessly, standing off to Syd's left with his lightsaber clutched in both hands. He was glad he was wearing gloves—his palms were slick with sweat, so much so that he would've lost his grip on the hilt long ago.

Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

Steady grip. She'd gotten through but he had recovered.

"These days, its odd if fists don't come into play during a duel..." Syd told him with a grin as she sprang forward, trying to use a combination of Force, Saber, Claw attacks, and kicks to try and give Starlin Rand a taste of how brutal a real duel could be. Those witches would show zero mercy to him. She could afford him only a smidgen more than zero...she fought at ninety nine percent of her speed as to the full hundred.

"The more mistakes you make against me the less you make against the real thing. I know this is rough..." she explained, prepared to defend and counter her attacks as she attacked him. "But the kind of opponent we are fighting is the very worst, most malignant kind of beast there is. They are vicious animals without so much as a shred of morality. They will think nothing of flaying the flesh from your bones, apprentice, and Force only knows what they'd do with me."

Syd switched to Juyo suddenly. Shii Cho was not as unpredictable as Juyo but if the basic lessons stuck, Starlin would know the basics of target zone attacks were across every style, and he could use that basic fact to realize a simple, brutal truth about Juyo:

Sure, you can be unpredictable. But there were still only so many places your blade could go in a given distance.

Syd upped the stakes by linking her blades mid flip attack and beginning a series of heavy staff spins at his legs, than switching to single blade mid attack.

"Your enemies will use every trick in the book to kill you." She warned mildly as she attacked him. "Their magics are deeply twisted and evil, I cannot stress enough how much danger we are in. I can normally turn people into stir-fry, but not these types...we need to be careful and use our heads. So defend or fight as though your life depends on it, because once we leave this station...it will."

 

[Starlin Rand]

For his question, Starlin was rewarded with a punch in the face. He staggered back, blinking, and only managed to dodge Syd’s other attacks by relying on the Force and sheer adrenaline. This was definitely brutal, uncivilized… and likely to end a fight before it ever had a chance to really begin.

Starlin imitated her technique, throwing every martial form he knew into the mix. It felt less cool, and it was far from the elegance of simply using an established form, but at the same time it felt weirdly liberating to be free of the set patterns and lessons established by the ancient masters. A bit punk rock, even.

Her switch to Juyo, a technique he had zero knowledge of, took him off guard. He watched in startled bewilderment as she whipped herself into a frenzy.

“What the hell was that?!” he exclaimed, darting away from her. It was all he could do—her attacks with this form were vicious and tore through his defense like it was made of tissue paper. “...And more importantly, why didn’t you teach me that one first?”

He could pick up on the rough outline of Juyo just from observation; the gaps would have to be filled in as he went along. Leaping back into the fight, he slammed his lightsaber against hers, hard enough that if they were fighting with metal swords the steel would have resounded like a gong. He was matching her blow for blow, but there was one problem—he had fallen into the trap common among Jedi who employed Juyo, channeling his own inner darkness into the duel and accepting the fury of his opponent, matching it with his own. His combat prowess suddenly increased tenfold, especially given that they were sitting on top of a potent Dark Side nexus with a seemingly limitless supply of dark energies to fuel his aggression…

Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

Switching to Juyo so early had been a mistake. Her first real screw up as his teacher. He had started to draw on his darkness and the nexus had fed into it, enabling him to keep up. And like an idiot Syd had kept fighting him.

Syd had for a second found the dead Darth Phyre within her stirring slightly in her grave, as she fought, brutally slamming their blades against each other. The Nexus was drawing her out of her grave.

Syd pulled away guarding.

"Starlin, snap out of it! Don't listen to the darkness!" she exclaimed, shutting off her blade to signal she was done, exhaling heavily.

"I shouldn't have used Juyo. Not here. You weren't ready. I wasn't ready either. The Nexus was feeding on the combat. Turn away from your negative emotions. They're especially poisonous here..."

Syd knew the screw up was permanent though. Starlin had perceived its basics extremely quickly but at terrible risk to himself. He would need to learn ten times the emotional discipline now.

"Okay, we can't do anything about you knowing Juyo. So we're gonna...we're gonna cover that subject on its own at a later date." she said. "Until then, unless it is absolutely necessary, do not use Juyo." she said firmly. "Many Jedi have fallen to the Dark Side because of that style. It requires intense emotional control to use properly. I used it in the hopes you would fall back and become more defense oriented in your strategy, in case an actual combatant decided to use it against you. But I miscalculated...you learned the basics instinctively. By accident. That...was unintentional. I'm sorry for that. But I will teach you to control what you have learned, lest it destroy you."

She sighed, rubbed her eyes.

"Let's leave the lightsaber stuff alone. I could no better prepare you for the lightsaber part of the fight ahead if I had a whole day to train you." she said. "You should meditate. Get...get whatever we drudged up out of your system...wow, I am not good at this 'Human' thing..." she muttered. "I messed up. I hope you will forgive me. You're my first apprentice. I've never really actively taught anyone."

Not as Syd, she hadn't. But that was besides the point. Starlin was her first Jedi apprentice.

"In another fifty minutes we move deeper. If we can destroy or at least quiet the Nexus, we'll have a shot at making it out of here. But there are probably going to be witches standing in our way. A good deal of them..."

Syd knealt down to meditate, deeply disturbed by her mistake at accidentally teaching Starlin Rand Juyo.

Fifty minutes later...

Syd kept quiet as she moved out of the station, the waters flowing deeper into a much wider Zeffo drainage duct. She kept the shotgun out in front of her as she moved, growing more and more disturbed by the slashed up Stalkers she and Starlin came across in their path, which grew more in volume the deeper they went, until she found another service ladder that led upward. She flew up it, opening the hatch and floating into the chamber above

...one utterly defiled with fresh gore arranged in pentacles, the symbol of The Bogan drawn in blood at the center. Pillars seemed to be constructed of gore, ruining ancient Zeffo inscriptions.

Syd's flesh shuddered everywhere disgustingly as it reacted to the magic present.

"Ashla, shield me from wickedness." Syd whispered, a purple fire enveloping her body, stabilizing her flesh for the moment as she held the hatch open for Starlin.

"Brace yourself..." she warned. "You're not gonna like what you see."

Once he was up she silently signalled him to keep close. Better defensive perimeter that way.

"Stay on your guard. They already know we are here..." she whispered as she moved ahead. Phyre had often made such places from the innocent people she had tortured and harvested, all to increase the power of The Bogan. Syd hid her deep sense of guilt at Phyre's bloody deeds, distracted as a heat ripple moved closer. She only saw it at the last second.

She barely managed to get a blast of flames from her mouth before The Witches stopped hiding themselves with magic, each clad in white, wrinkled and hideous. Their red lightsabers activated as Syd roasted the first one, some trying to hit them with lightning, only for Syd to use the last of her shotgun amm blasting two of them apart into yellow blood and organs, while another two lunged at Starlin with double bladed lightsabers...

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin was seemingly having the time of his life, meeting his master in combat. It felt almost effortless, a welcome break from the hard work and laser focus that had characterized his previous attempts at dueling—

Then suddenly Syd was pulling away, turning off her blade, yelling at him to snap out of it, don’t listen. He hesitated, freezing up. Why was she so upset? Had he done something wrong?

"I shouldn't have used Juyo. Not here. You weren't ready. I wasn't ready either. The Nexus was feeding on the combat. Turn away from your negative emotions. They're especially poisonous here..."

Starlin turned off his saber. He was still confused. “I… uh, thought I was doing pretty good,” he said sheepishly.

Finally, he understood the source of her fear. It was the martial form she had introduced to him, Juyo. Something about it was too aggressive. The combatant risked going too far when employing it in a fight.

Starlin accepted what she told him, though he still wasn’t sure how the darkness had managed to reach him so easily and quickly. The truth was, he hadn’t even registered the presence of the Dark Side creeping in during the fight. Part of this ignorance was due to his lack of experience. Another part was his lack of maturity, and the emotional volatility that came with being a teenager. At his age, he was just beginning to learn how to regulate his feelings at the most basic level, let alone how they projected through the Force.

In short, while he might not understand how it happened, he could see how it might be a problem. “It’s fine,” he replied, feeling even more uncomfortable about the whole thing now that she was asking him for forgiveness. “I forgive you. It’s okay.”

But just like that, they were done practicing for the day. Starlin took off his cap and ran a hand through his hair. “Phew. I could go for a shower right about now.”

Since there was no clean running water to be found, he took a seat near where Syd was kneeling, crossing his legs. After a little while, he changed his position, drawing his knees up to his chest and bowing his head.

He was thinking about his mother. More specifically, he had an image in his head of her sitting across from him in their crummy living room, with the fake black marble coffee table between them. She was listening to Nimdok drone on about archaeology, but every now and then her gaze would dart to her son, focusing on his face, a crease developing between her eyebrows.

Back on Jerrilek, he had predicted she would be easy to convince. He was wrong. Nimdok had smooth-talked her for what seemed like hours, but Jen Rand had never fully come around to the idea of Starlin becoming his assistant, leaving home for weeks or even months on end, getting in all kinds of trouble. What had happened here on Zeffo so far was exactly the sort of thing she was afraid of.

Holding up his lightsaber hilt, he ran his fingers over the weapon. It had been slow to sink in, the weight of what was happening to him. What he was becoming. Glorifying or debasing, glamorous or gritty, every story he’d ever heard could not prepare him for what it truly meant to be a Jedi. Yet here he was, with a lightsaber, with a master, with knowledge of the Force.

He wanted to know everything. Deep down he knew it was impossible to know everything about something as boundless and eternal as the Force. That didn’t mean he couldn’t try, spending his life learning everything he could.

Fifty minutes later…

The sound of running water was everywhere, and so was the sharp odor of blood and decay. There were a lot of dead bodies in this particular area, an insane amount really. It felt more like a killing field in the aftermath of an ancient battle than a drainage duct.

He waited at the bottom of the service ladder as Syd checked the next level out. When she gave the all-clear, he put his hand on the bottom rung, then paused. Hadn’t he learned how to fly like her?

Putting away his weapons, he closed his eyes, centering himself. He pictured his body becoming weightless, floating upwards through the hatch...

A few seconds later, he banged his head on the ceiling. “Aw chit,” he hissed in pain, rubbing the top of his head. He started to sink back down, but quickly reached out and grasped the ladder, hauling himself through the hole.

You see, the thing about gore and body parts is, if you’re just looking at them, you can almost trick yourself into believing they’re fake. But you can’t deny the smell. The gore-splattered room reeked of death. Starlin broke into a fit of coughing as soon as it hit him, covering his nose and mouth to stifle himself and keep out the stench.

With his arm still over his face, he unhooked his lightsaber from his belt, holding it at the ready. He noticed the heat ripple shortly after her and forced himself to grab his gun with his other hand, nearly gagging on the horrible air.

The witches charged at him. He fired the Heavy Incendiary Rounds at them, watching in amazement as the flash fire commenced. The hags screamed and flailed as they burned. One fell, either already dead or too wounded to continue. The other flung off her charred robes and charged at him from across a much shorter distance.

Aside from being scarred for life by the sight of a naked, disgusting old scow lunging for him, Starlin barely caught her initial blow. She was fast. He had to be faster. Practicing with Syd meant he had experience with fighting the double-bladed saber, but this was real combat, a life or death situation—

Don’t think about that, he told himself. All right, think about it a little. But don’t let it be your focus. Pay attention—ha! Did you see that? How about that? And that?...

He was vaguely aware of Syd fighting the others, but the witch took up most of his focus. At the back of the mind there was that thought, using Juyo would make this go much faster, but he didn’t dare slip into the infamous martial form no matter how much easier it would make things. Relying on his faithful defense, he was still locking sabers with the witch by the time Syd finished with her opponents.

Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

(BFG Division by Mick Gordon plays)

Syd cut through and set fire to The Witches, roasting and burning them alive as fire leapt from her mouth, her blades whirling past defenses as she slipped in to pure Form 2, unwilling to revisit Juyo right this moment as she continued to carve her way through the opposition evading magical projectiles with great efficiency, or slowing them down and pushing them back with the Force at her attackers, so much of her current savagery resembled Phyre's. These things disgusted her. They were what she had used to be. She took no chances, going for maximum lethality in order to protect herself and Starlin.

She prayed Laertia never found out she had used to be one of these monsters. Syd was not sure why that was such a nightmare scenario to her.

After all, how could her past have any meaning to Laertia Io? She'd probably encountered at least a dozen ex sith. Many did these days.
Laertia would not even tell Syd her real name. She had secrets too.

Syd had no plans to seek them out. To each, their own demons.

The killing was nearly over. Syd waded through disgusting white blood and yellowed organs and already heavily decaying flesh as she torched her last opponent, turning to see Starlin Rand in a blade lock with the last remaining Witch.

Not putting his life at risk, Syd Force pulled the witch away from Rand, impaling the naked, disgusting beast. It instantly began to decay and spoil off her blade, burning as it died.

Syd then proceeded to torch the nest of gore, burning the flesh to ash, revealing the beautiful Zeffo inscriptions underneath. But the taint of the Dark Side still remained slightly.

Syd's flesh wriggled violently on the bone from a distubance in The Force.

"Its her. The Head Witch of this coven. The only Witch left in this coven." Syd announced. "She's at the very center of this entire complex. We must hurry. She is drawing power from the Nexus itself. If we do not halt her progress now, she will become too strong for even me to stop."

Syd focused her power, flesh shuddering everywhere as she concentratedon The Light, drawing it to the places it needed to go, rapidly purifying the chamber as Syd struggled to stay in control of the purification process. Finally, the chamber glimmered with clean water and brass walls once more, the rest of the corruption vanishing. There was an unnatural, ear piercing metallic shriek from somewhere in this underground death trap.

"We've bought ourselves maybe a half hour lets--"

Syd froze, flesh shuddering again, but this time not of her own will.

One of the spider like Zeffo constructs from earlier, the same type with a red crystal that had disrupted her, proceeded to do so again after crawling out of an access hatch, forcing Syd to back away, unable to use her abilities or even really think clearly as fissures pouring bright green blood started to erupt on her body.

Nine foot tall Zeffo Constructs punched through the wall, their force cores corrupted with the red energy of the Dark Side, started to advance on Starlin, while Syd was held in place, surrounded by Crystal carrying spiders, desperately reaching for her pistol, and firing an explosive bolt at one, barely managing to escape the kill radius as it blew, taking the other spiders with it.

A lightsaber was hurled into its Force Core from behind by Syd as it was getting ready to attack, but she could not fully evade the blast of red lightning from the core and was knocked off, unconscious, leaving only Starlin and the last remaining tall construct.

 

[Starlin Rand]

The witch was abruptly flung away from Starlin, who turned in time to see Syd impale the creature on her blade. Then she torched the corruption in the chamber, revealing ancient inscriptions.

“Phew,” Starlin exhaled as he sensed the darkness slipping away. The witches were all dead now.

Or so he thought.

"It's her. The Head Witch of this coven. The only Witch left in this coven. She's at the very center of this entire complex. We must hurry. She is drawing power from the Nexus itself. If we do not halt her progress now, she will become too strong for even me to stop."

Syd might have paused in her work, but she never really stopped. Even before she finished speaking, she was already moving on to the purification process, bringing in clean clear water and polishing the bronze walls of the room that had once been filled with gore.

Starlin was already fatigued again, but he mustered up his own Force Light once more to supplement hers, just as he had done before. There was nothing funny about the situation they were in now, but he had hope to fuel the beacon.

Finished, Syd turned to him again, only to be interrupted. What happened next was almost too quick to process. A whole bunch of Constructs burst through the walls, advancing upon them. Syd killed several, but the last one survived her initial attack, struck her with red lightning, and—

Starlin stared in shock at his master, now lying unconscious on the floor. The remaining Construct rumbled, forcing him to look away from her and face his opponent.

His foe.

Whatever was in the Construct’s core that weakened Syd’s powers didn’t affect Starlin that way. The boy swallowed and assumed a duelist’s stance, realized what he was up against was not going to duel him, moron, then barely managed to dodge as the thing tried to gore him with a spindly metal appendage.

He swung his lightsaber. The blue blade sliced through the jabbing arm. His lungs filled with the acrid stench of burning motor oil. Gagging, Starlin ducked under the Construct’s flailing limbs, catching lightning on his blade. He kept moving, pressing toward the machine’s torso, then leaped up with his arm extended, willing himself to fly on target, aiming for the crystal core—

An explosion of sparks followed as his saber plunged into the heart of the machine, impaling it. Starlin yanked his blade out and tried to get away, but his floating backwards was sluggish. At least, until the core blew, sending him flying.

His arms went up instinctively to cover his face as he was knocked across the room. He landed hard on his back, the wind knocked from his lungs by the impact. Coughing, he struggled to sit up, got on his knees and tried to crawl away, only to feel a horrible pain in his forearm.

A piece of jagged shrapnel was embedded clean through his left arm, piercing the soft tissue and muscle between the radius and ulna bones. Dimly he remembered that you weren’t supposed to remove an object that was stuck in you, as it would cause more bleeding. Clutching his injured arm to his chest, he pulled himself behind a pillar, taking cover as the Construct continued to erupt, trembling in its death throes.

How long did Syd say they had? Half an hour? There was some time left, right? He could wait a little while to see if she would wake up. And if she didn’t… well, he didn’t know what he was going to do then. Jam the shrapnel in the Head Witch’s eye before he died, probably.

Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

Syd was out cold for a few minutes before the power of her armor revived her from unconsciousness.

She blinked open orange eyes, floating up.

"Starlin?" She called out worriedly before spotting him and floating over to him.

"Bad wound. Here...let me help...this might hurt..."

Syd focused on the shrapnel. She felt the metal through the Force.

She breathed in and out carefully, focusing, looking for the fault lines...Phyre had known many secrets beyond the Dark Side.

She reached out with her finger and tapped the metal shard...which promptly splintered and fell out of the wound in bits and pieces. Syd's mouth opened and a blue light that glittered from the back of her throat shined on the wound, sealing it up after a few minutes.

Syd stood, helped Starlin up with the arm that had not been injured. She surveyed their handiwork.

"I'm glad you survived." she said, turning to face him. "We have to head to the center before more of the Zeffo Constructs show up. We can't afford to rest."

She then gave him a classic troll grin.

"On the bright side, the Boss Battle up ahead has got to be Monster, right? Got to be worth at least two thousand experience points, and whatever loot boxes that happen to be around." she joked.

She spotted a passage from where the constructs had burst through, silently gesturing for Starlin to follow. The passage led to a sealed door with Zeffo inscriptions. Syd's flesh rippled in reaction to the Dark Presence on the other side.

"Keep close and be ready to fight." She warned. But the actual killing of the witch must be done by me. If I die...you will have to find some way to escape and track down other Jedi who can finish your training. I don't know if there IS a way to escape ahead. But you must try, Starlin."

Syd then pried open the door with telekinesis and floated ahead into the grand chamber. Gigantic statues of the Zeffo loomed over them in a semicircle, a boulder sized kyber shard suspended in a polished bronzium ring held by a chain on the ceiling.

The Witch lay at the center of a platform below the shard, a beautiful, lithe figure with dark hair and pale skin in a gray gown. Syd was not fooled by her immaculate beauty, and if @Starlin had picked up anything from hanging around Syd (Besides loads and loads and loads of grotesque body horror) he would not be fooled either.

The Witch turned to face them, a crimson energy flowing from her and into the crystal.

"So you are the ones who have slain my sisters. I sense great power in both of you. It burns with you, redhead, and with you, boy, it glimmers."

Syd's pulsing orange blade flashed on.

"Prepare yourself." Syd warned. "You'll corrupt this place no further."

The Witch scowled. "Corrupt? According to who? The Zeffo sure as hell were not using it. I wasn't even planning on drawing your attention originally but you persisted with your excavation."

"Feth you! I saw your Gore Nest!" the former Sith exclaimed angrily.

(Snippets of BFG Division by Mick Gordon plays)

The Witch laughed cruelly.

"I guess we'll have to burn through another few hundred Adults and Younglings."

Something about the answer provoked something in Syd and she was flying towards the Witch at high speed, intent on dismemberment.

The Witch snarled, blocked her attack with a red bladed curved hilt that sprang to life, while her free hand shot out to Force Choke Starlin.

 

[Starlin Rand]

You can’t block Force Choke with your lightsaber.

Starlin was about to learn this the hard way. But for now, he was simply glad to see Syd up and about again. His forearm no longer hurt, the wound having been healed, and they were on their way to defeat the Final Boss, the Head Witch.

When the door opened, he was surprised to find not another hideous old hag, but a beautiful young woman waiting on the other side. Crimson energy surrounded her, pouring out from a crystal suspended overhead.

Syd and the woman exchanged some banter while Starlin stood at the ready behind his master. His lightsaber was out and on, the blue blade shining brightly.

Then Syd lunged forward, only to be blocked by the Witch’s blade. The great and terrible beauty’s hand shot out, and Starlin knew instinctively what she was going to do to him. He’d seen it a dozen times in holofilms. Now he felt it, the Sith closing invisible hands around his throat and squeezing.

He gasped for breath, momentary panic seizing him. What should he do? What could he do? Fight back, of course.

Reaching inward, he pulled on the Light. Warmth suffused him. It seemed always willing to do his bidding, glad to see him, happy to protect. The hands around his throat melted away, and he was free once more.

“Hey, harpy!” he shouted, waving his lightsaber at the Witch. “You’re gonna have to come up with better than that!”

Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

The Witch snarled at him, hands starting to crackle with deep red electricity, only to be punched in the face by Syd and forced to re-engage her. Syd slashed at her, but even when she did, the wounds sealed up, and the witch was getting stronger by the minute. Syd belched fire on the Witch, but the red energy surrounding her body protected her, and she attacked Syd with superhuman speed , Forcing Syd to go on a defense strategy with a staff saber, constantly repelling vicious, cobra-like strikes that rivaled Syd's own attack form.

"Your flesh will make a fine host..." the Witch sneered.

"Both your flesh and spirit will burn, monster!" Syd retorted, kicking her backward, summoning sword constructs made of fire to attack her from all angles, slicing, chopping and dismembering. But the witch healed from all of it. She screeched, and more Zeffo Constructs burst from out of engraved walls to engage Celsius and Starlin Rand , firing beams of corrupted red energy from their cores, which forced Celsius to break off her attack to avoid repeat blasts and keep zipping through the air to find some way toward them, and when she landed among them, she slowed one with The Force, allowing her to conjure a fireball from within and bursting the core, flying upward to dodge the blasts of the others, tricking them into hitting two about to attack Starlin, and landing atop one and plunging her orange blades into it.

The Witch for her part, had floated to the top of the crystal, cackling as she began casting heavy lightning bolts that left craters wherever they impacted rapidly at her and Starlin's direction.

Syd whispered a spell that caused a number of bird like constructs of purple flame to fly out of her hand and began flying around the Witch, harrassing and distracting her.

"Starlin! You have to break the chains on that crystal! I can't get near it! The magical force would turn me to putty!" She exclaimed. "I'll distract the Witch and the constructs as long as I can, but you must break those chains!"

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Oh man,” Starlin whimpered as the Zeffo Constructs burst through the walls. “Oh man!”

He dove out of the way just in time to avoid getting crushed. Luckily Syd was already on the offensive, knocking the Constructs together and distracting the Witch.

Starlin jolted as his master gave orders. “Right!” he yelled, then leaped into the air, aiming for the chains—

He missed. “No!” he yelled, arms and legs flailing for purchase as he started to fall. “No, no! Come on! Please!”

He was still falling, picking up speed. “Feth!” he screamed. He couldn’t seem to get a proper grip on his Force Flight, and he was losing altitude fast, albeit in spurts.

Without really thinking about what he was doing, he threw his ignited lightsaber upwards at the chain. It spun through the air over him, the blade slicing clean through the metal. The crystal, deprived of its support, crashed to the floor. It was heavier than Starlin and thus hit the ground first. The boy meanwhile continued to drop, stop, drop, stop, screaming all the while, as if he were tied to a rope held up by a faulty machine. Or a sadist.

Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

Syd sliced and slashed and sliced at the contructs, blades eventually melting through the ancient alloys of the constructs when she saw Starlin fall, just as he threw the saber upward and destroyed the supports.

The Witch screamed as she fell too, the Kyber going ahead of both.

Syd dived after him in the chasm, though she went into a deadly spin as she fell, blades outward, dicing the screaming Witch to pieces of quickly rotting flesh as she fell past her to catch Starlin Rand .

Her hand reached out as he flailed about, catching it as they both fell.

She did not cease to a halt immediately, lest she risk snapping his neck from whiplash.

(Cutaway of the Green Goblin throwing Gwen Stacy off the bridge.)

Instead, she gradually slowed them, to the point the sliced and diced apart remains of the Head Witch had landed before they had.

The bottom of the ancient tomb opened up into old storehouse sections.

Syd glanced at the pile the Witch's remains had made on impact. The tissues still quivered, even as they stank and spoiled.

It would have been her, once.

Syd breathed fire on the tissues, breaking them down. A faint etherial scream could be heard in the background noise of the mind as the Witch's spirit was dragged to Chaos.

(3000 XP to both characters)

The shattered apart remains of the giant kyber beckoned. Syd whistled.

"That's gonna make a lot of lightsabers. Okay, let's see what this beast had in terms of goodies..." Syd wondered heading to one of the storehouse entrances and was not disappointed.

It was a treasure trove for Force Adepts. Even the various corpses of Stalkers in the chamber around them could not ruin it...

"What'd I tell you? Loot boxes. Ideally, being a Jedi is not about getting ancient treasure or useful gear...it sort of happens as a side effect however, and its a time honored tradition to sieze the useful stuff so you are harder to kill for someone else. In short...to hell with the Witches. Their chit is ours!"

(Zelda Acquisition Theme Plays)

(Syd and Starlin just acquired Loot for clearing a dungeon!)

(Haysian Smelt Ingot recovered. This is a material used in lightsabers.)

Loot Box: HEALING STIM (Starlin)

Spoiler

Golden chest containing a Healing Stimulant, an extremely potent regenerative medicine. Can only be used once a day after severe injury due to how strong the chemicals are.

Loot Box: PURE BYROTHSIS LENS (2) (Syd)

Spoiler

Heavy lightsaber Lens designed to increase raw damage output at the cost of a more difficult to control gyroscopic field.

Loot Box: CRYSTAL, DAMIND (Starlin)

Spoiler

Broadens the beam of lightsabers, enabling easier deflection. Lessens Gyroscopic effect, enabling easier handling. A crystal type used almost exclusively by the Dark Lords of The Sith, though the crystals themselves are not inherently evil.

Loot Box: CRYSTAL, FIRKRANND (Syd)

Spoiler

Brittle crystal that imparts an ionic effect to lightsabers, enabling severe damage to machines and shields. A crystal used almost exclusively by The Dark Lords of The Sith, though the crystals themselves are not inherently evil.

Loot Box PYDYRIAN HEALING STICK (Starlin)

Loot Box: ALCHEMIZED FABRICS (Syd)

Spoiler

This pile of enchanted armorweave fabrics is a catsuit waiting to happen

Syd turned to him.

"Starlin...I have not forgotten the promise I made to you. I promised you that after the end of our journey here if you wanted out, I would allow you to leave...the choice is still yours. Being a Jedi will 'never' be easy. Not ever. Its a hard life, and the price is often death before one's time, and its often not a pleasant death. But if you stay, I will show you secrets about Magic, about The Force, that shall make you understand why it should be respected and why the Darkness should be fought. You've seen what they are capable of. You know how evil they are. I would not judge you for wanting to steer far clear of them, and me, from now on. I only ask that if you decide this is where we part that you use your new gifts responsibly and to help others." Syd offered, giving him a chance to really think it out.

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin finally stopped screaming when Syd slowed his fall and neatly deposited him on the ground, feet first. Still filled with adrenaline, he stood and watched as she finished off the Witch, then breathed an audible sigh of relief. Ding dong, the Witch was dead, and Starlin had managed to get through the ordeal without joining her in that fate.

He followed Syd in silence as she approached the storehouses and began rifling through the loot boxes. Turning his lightsaber off and clipping it to his belt, he accepted the loot she handed to him. His heart was still racing even though the danger had passed, but he was in good spirits. It looked like his time at Zeffo had come to an end. Even with everything he had gained and learned, he was really just glad to have survived it all. He could go home and tell his mother and friends and Nimdok all about this crazy adventure. And now that he had a lightsaber of his own, they’d be inclined to believe him.

As Syd gave her speech, offering him a choice, he hardly hesitated. It only made sense to continue his training under the same master who had saved his life more than once, and had given him the first few tools to ensure his survival and growth as a Jedi.

Looking straight at her, he grinned. “I’ll stay on with you for a little while longer, Syd. If you don’t mind.”

Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

Syd smiled at Starlin Rand

"I'm glad you have chosen to stay." The Witch spoke "Let's start moving this stuff out."

Epilogue: Silver Rest, Kashyyyk


After formally putting Starlin in the Record as her padawan, he was giving a security pass and his own quarters to meditate on the events of that day. This left Syd time with the recovered relics. She had busily catalogued all the important stuff. But just as she was about to call it a night her eyes fell on what looked like a marble tablet with Dathomiri and Zeffo Inscriptions, bound with what she realized on second glance were dark side runes printed on thick ribbon. She had been so busy preserving stuff she had not thought to really look in her haste.

She undid the ribbons with a whisper of unnatural things and the ribbons burned to dust as they fell off. She examined it. It looked like a heretical blend of Zeffo Disciplines and Dathomiri Secrets, relating to the Lightside and how it could be used to restore Zeffo. She felt the remnant of a scholar of the Witch Allya upon it as she touched the Ashla seal.

It was an unconscious reflex to touch it. Syd realized she had made a mistake as the knowledge transferred into her, her flesh bulging and melting, and reshaping as she involuntarily absorbed the fragment, flesh finally resetting into that of a middle aged woman with a light tan complexion and hair a darker red than Syd's. She wasn't Syd. Syd was buried.

The Sorceress of Zeffo prowled around the Star Courier, using Syd's memories to place everything. It would need them when trying to guide Starlin. But what to teach first?

The Ashla aligned thing currently puppeteering Syd knew in an instant. His command of the Light must be increased

And how to teach it...?

She sat down in the seat, folding her arms to think.

"A boy so strong with the light he's practically phosphorescent...a misstep with him would be an incalculable loss..." she pondered to herself before deciding it was best to release control...

(Plasmid Acquisition Theme Plays)

(Syd acquired a new Force Power!)

Power: SORCERESS OF ZEFFO (See Bio)

Spoiler

This Force Power, usable only on icy, or arboreal worlds enables control of light and magma with magical spells, as well as healing via magma. Highly resistant to and capable of suppressing magic, the drawbacks are the persona developing a will of its own in regards to the Lightside and being more vulnerable to nuetral force powers. The Sith technique Waves of Darkness can Force the Sorceress back into Syd's body, rendering it unable to be called upon for twenty four hours. Must use The Light Side or Light related magics every three days to stay in complete control. Of all the Sorceress Personas, The Sorceress of Zeffo is the hardest to put back into the box. If it surrenders, its because it wants to.

The Sorceress, still wearing Syd's white armor, knew now was not the best time to try spreading its teachings just yet. It was not even on its planet of choice, though it vowed to return there someday.

Like a vice grip releasing, she let go of the body, her face vanishing into Syd's.

Syd scrambled away from the tablet utterly freaked out by how much juice she had just absorbed, watching as the tablet crumbled to dust.

Syd sat back down, hyperventilating in fright. What the hell had just happened?! Its was as if she had fething blacked out!

(OOC don't worry, this is just an epilogue. You don't have to reply.)