Private Apprentice to Flesh

[Arianna Belasko]

The small puddles of green blood that had been the first Sorceress moved away from Draco Miles as she sought her out, while the blood spiders moved to cut Draco off from the first Sorceress, two of the spiders began leaping for Draco, because as inhuman as these two were, they understood it a near universal rule:

Spiders leaping for you is terrifying.

They weren't going to bite of course. Just landing on her would be enough to potentially trigger the desired GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFAHHHAHHHHAHHHH reaction.

The first Sorceress had used the time for the spiders leaping to reform into a crude Blood Construct of the Ardasa Sorceress...

The Reformed Sorceress split into a swarm of Wasps made of Blood while the spiders continued leaping for Draco, and the Blood Wasps dive bombed Draco from above, not trying to sting but obstruct her vision so she potentially wouldn't be able to block or swipe away the blood spider constructs...

 

[Draco Miles]

Draco's blood moved back into herself as she noticed the spiders starting to come at her, figuring she needed every drop of it now to focus on mobility and NOT getting something so terrifying crawling on her body. Her sprint had devolved into now leaps, propelling herself forward at rather surprising speeds before she'd leap off of a wall, flinging herself over 30ft straight for the first sorceress, a spike of blood forming itself out of her cut palm as she looked to impale the construct... and then the worst happened as Arianna Belasko split into wasps. Changing direction from maiming and attacking, Draco would hopefully just barely dodge by sliding underneath, and realized there was nothing she could do to combat these masters of the blood bending. She had no clue where they were no matter what she used: Eyes, ears, nose, Force... Either they were masters at force concealment, or they genuinely could split their body and minds into thousands of small insects and terrify the shit out of everyone

Knowing defeat now, Draco would prepare for it in the only way she knew how: making it easy for punishment to be delivered. She'd swiftly untie and unzip anything keeping her dress on before letting it and her drop, the dress falling onto the floor in a neat yet messy pile while she lay face down and roared out

"I YIELD! I YIELD!"

She shut her eyes, not wanting to know when the painful bite of what should be a whip would be crashing down on her for failing to best her master in training, a scene she was all to familiar with and what she truly believed would happen, since this was the first time she had not met or exceeded expectations

 

[Arianna Belasko]

The wasps and spiders made of green blood withdrew the instant the now naked Draco Miles surrendered, each spider and wasp collapsing into little pools or droplets of blood that hit the floor and began traveling to Arianna's own discarded black gown, traveling inside it and reforming into a humanoid figure that eventually turned into the Sorceress of Ardasa, now the only one in the room besides Draco.

The Sorceress walked up to Draco.

"Do not be perturbed by your loss, Draco..." The Sorceress advised. "You did extremely well to last as long as you did. But we have seen the current, absolute limits of your ability and now we have a basis to go by when instructing you further..." she proclaimed. "Someday, you will be as skilled as I am, as Arianna is, I'm sure of it. But that day is not yet arrived."

The Ardasa Sorceress's form and mind shifted disgustingly shifted back to that of a significantly older version of Arianna, and for the first time, Draco might have picked up a hint as to her Master's unique weaknesses. Arianna had started the training session looking like this. Using her power to such an extent for an extended period of time seemed to have drained her significantly.

"Don't look at your failure as anything but a learning experience..." Arianna encouraged. "Now, get dressed, training is over for now. I have a wonderful day of shopping ahead and would be just delighted to have you join me..."

Arianna's form and mind magically shuddered and bubbled into that of the Ardasa Sorceress once more.

"And so would I..." The Sorceress purred before shifting back into that of Arianna, who clutched her head, swooning for a second.

"Must have pushed myself too hard..." Arianna said to herself. "Are you hungry, Draco?"

 

[Draco Miles]

As the sorceress started to reform in their gown, Draco lifted her head up, wanting to at least see what she would be punished with, even if it'd probably make the pain feel worse. Her body loosened up, trying to make it so that it'd hurt less when she was squishier. Each step towards her was like the horns to the end times, a sound she feared heavily while she remained rooted to her spot, not daring to disobey.

What truly came as a surprise though was to be told it wasn't that bad. There were times with her previous master where he said failure was expected, and despite working well within expectations, would still receive punishment. A cruel way to live, and the scars across her back was evidence of it. Though laying there completely in the nude, @arianna could see that it wasn't contained to just her back, it encompassed a good portion of her body too, from torso all the way down to her knees, but mainly focused on her backside. As she heard her master's form bubbling and reverting, she took a hesitant peak, an amber eye gazing up at the much older version of her master, and all her fear was replaced with worry. She got to her feet and put her hands on the much older woman's shoulders, checking to see if she was affected in any other way while she spoke

"Master! I-… I apologize for making you stress yourself so much, yes, I'd be glad to accompany you for the day. How could I assist you? Is there any way I could… give you my energy? Would good food help you, Master?"

Draco was genuinely concerned for countess Belasko, wanting to make up in any way possible so that everything was perfect and easy for the woman who had saved her on that desert planet so long ago…

 

[Arianna Belasko]

"Draco, my dear, relax..." the now aged Arianna emphasized. "There is nothing you can do about it. I am like this until my body feels on energy again."

Seeing the scars on Draco reminded Arianna that even after all this time, Draco was still afraid of punishment.

"You did much, much better than most in your position would have. Most never got past several seconds initially. You lasted two whole minutes!" She praised.

"Get dressed. I'll be in the foyer, my dear, darling Draco Miles . We are going to take you shopping! You earned it."

And Arianna meant it. At least, the creature controlling Arianna from deep within meant it.

"Fighting me is no easy feat, Draco. I mean it. Stronger, hardier people have lost to me...." she assured. "You lasted in a fight one minute and forty-five seconds longer than they did. You did great."

Arianna left the chamber to give Draco her privacy to change and clean up.

"I'll even let you pick the speeder we use!" Arianna promised her as she headed out of the chamber...

 

[Draco Miles]

She was definitely NOT relaxing, but calmed her exterior in order to satiate what her master desired. Her eyes though were still wide and full of worry yet her breathing was calm and the rest of her face was reflecting that too. Seems the eyes were always a gateway into the soul...

"I... I am extremely grateful and appreciative of your praise, Master. I couldn't dare think of besting you though, the techniques you apply are... are rather... impressive, imposing... terrifying. I don't think any force user alive could feasibly counter your blood manipulation with their own. Tell me, master, how can I manipulate my own body?"

She was abruptly cut off though at the prospect of shopping and spending more quality time with her master, outside of the classroom, immediately dropping her lust for power and instead opting to take back everything she said

"On second thought, I would indeed rather go shopping, Master. Let us depart posthaste!"

She said this while standing triumphantly, striking a pose and pointing into the air like she were some sort of superhero... but still completely nude. Seems she was rather comfortable in her birthday suit, rather strange. It was a few seconds later she remembered her lack of clothes from how the wind felt, immediately going for her dress and swiftly trying to get dressed so she could pick the speeder, practically rushing out the door kicking some shoes on

 

[Arianna Belasko]

While Draco Miles went and changed, Arianna went to her own quarters and changed her outfit...only to lose control of the body and suddenly warping into the mind and appearance of Vivian (See Bio) and clasp the edge of her table.

It was getting harder and harder to come out of being Arianna. This time, only outright draining her had allowed Vivian to free herself. She felt her and Arianna...merging.

For Vivian, that was not a good thing. Vivian had always hated being Arianna. Hates the arrogance, the privilege. She now knew things were coming to a head, that at one point, Vivian was going to have to decide what was more important, being herself or being Arianna.

While the elderly red head went to look for something to wear, she was disturbed by the sound of something behind her, and she slowly turned around, facing the presence of what she thought was her master, Darth Themis, and was about to go to her knee, only to realize something felt...off...

"Wait...you aren't Themis!" Vivian protested, before a glowing light side aura emitted from the other Woman all but paralyzed her.

"Decades..." the woman said. "You've had literal decades to see for yourself what Laertia turned into. And you did nothing..."

The Woman stepped closer. Vivian stepped back.

"Like minded folks like myself think you've been given enough chances to see the error of your ways..." the Themis lookalike continued.

Glowing runes suddenly appeared in her room, to shield what was happening from Draco's senses.

"Since you have ultimately refused to do anything to end Laertia's madness...I will take action.

The woman lunged and clasped Vivian by the Temples, both their flesh shuddering. Involuntary, pig like squeals escaping both of them as their flesh ultimately merged into a bubbling disgusting mass on the floor, their clothes torn to shreds as the gelatinous mass reformed into the woman who had attacked her in the nude, pressing a finger to one nostril, blowing real hard, and the crystal containing Vivian's essence slid out in a glop of green blood, inert and inactive...

The woman placed the crystal in a special container, dampening the spirit inside and rendering it comatose.

Her flesh shuddered as she felt the power in this body, the personas she had seized control of.

She vowed to put it to a better, more honest use.

The Woman then sighed. Now came the hard part..

She concentrated, and began draining as much energy as she could to trigger the overdose state needed to become Arianna, and felt her own charitable nature and instinct to aid the innocent start to become submerged into Arianna's vain, self absorbed nature, her bronze skin vanishing under Arianna's pale flesh, her mind becoming the Arianna still delighted at how well Draco had done...

When Arianna went to meet Draco in the Garage, she was in a much different dress to boot.

"Well Draco..." Arianna said pleasantly.

"What have you picked. What say I let you drive, Dear Draco?"

 

[Draco Miles]

The quick disturbance in the force before Vivian was silenced by the woman definitely tipped off Draco, but she assumed it was a drain of energy from someone her master was using as a battery. Her head would turn to it, but she wouldn’t give it much thought as she went to the garage and waited for her master, clad in the same dress given to her for the dinner date. With how long Arianna Belasko was taking though, she started to get worried… that was when she stepped out in a different dress, and all made sense as to the delay in time. Draco smiled warmly and nodded as her master asked the question.

“That I cannot decide, Master, your collection is simply too exquisite. I cannot decide which one we should drive, I want to drive them all!”

High off of the praise from her master and the liberty of being her chauffeur, Draco was simply too giddy to properly select what she desired, and instead opted to show her wide range of piloting skills to her master.

 

[Arianna Belasko]

Arianna smiled at how giddy Draco Miles was at the prospect of piloting and opted to select a cherry red airspeeder, daintily getting into the passenger seat and waiting for Draco to hop in.

While she piloted to the Mall, Arianna, now being controlled by the new persona underneath the vain, pale Sorceress decided to stoke Draco's ego some more.

"You are by far one of the most impressive students I have ever had the pleasure of instructing. House Io really doesn't deserve you..."

Arianna sat back.

"House Io doesn't deserve what it's become..."

Meanwhile...

Whatever had purged Vivian and taken Arianna's flesh for herself had underestimated the Shard. It was a powerful will, a reprogrammed Fragment of Ersethy. And a mere containment system, especially one using the Light Side, was going to have to be a TON stronger than what was being used to keep Vivan asleep for any reliable length of time.

The container shattered, the glowing green shard levitating out, drops of green blood forming on its surface that gradually became tendrils of tissue that grew and spread out to form marrow, then a skeleton, then muscle, then skin, until finally Vivian reformed, quickly getting some clothes on, lethally pissed, and not just because she had lost all her other personas...

...but because the thief's words genuinely cut deep.

Vivian knew exactly what House Io has become. It was a thing of evil, and she had let it happen.

That failure wasn't on Arianna. That was on her. On Vivian.

As Vivian set out to pursue the Thief, massively strengthened by Arianna and all the other Personas swimming in the cells of that body, she ran the Thief's words about how she had failed.

To be frank, Vivian's chances were grim. Whoever the Thief was, they had already been strong enough to literally seize control of Arianna and expel Vivian from the body utterly. The Thief was now massively overpowered now. Vivian had no idea how to defeat her. Arianna's personality was capable of immense ruthlessness, a master at striking bargains. And enough power that The Battalion feared her.

But Vivian had defeated stronger opponents before. And there was still a learning curve to properly controlling Arianna's personality so that it didn't overwhelm the controller. That might give Vivian the edge she needed, disrupting the bonds while still fresh. Getting the Thief to indulge Arianna's more negative traits might cause the Thief to pull back at a critical moment for fear of losing oneself to the Role.

Vivian thought on all of this as she headed out the door, recalling her most ancient techniques for fighting another Master Force Spawn...

 

[Draco Miles]

She leapt at the opportunity to drive such an elegant, aggressive speedster. Literally hopping into the driver's seat and turning it on before making the engines roar in a neutral gear, wanting to hear that kitten purr before sending it off to the 'races' at a modest speed, for her master of course. Draco didn't want her panicking at her driving, despite her apprentice's high placement in the House IO Grand Prix.

What struck Draco as odd though was that Arianna never really compared Draco to her previous students before, she had always commended her and said she has done better than most, but never went into specifics... Draco's ego as well was a dangerous one to stroke, with such intense combat prowess was so much more dangerous, or weaker, with an inflated ego. It made for Draco to ask more questions, to beg for more attention to scratch that itch she always had to instructive members of her life

"Ahhh~? Who? Where did they fail, so that I may show you just how better I am, Master~ I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality and generosity for saving my life on Jakku, and I hope with every passing day I exceed your expectations more and more"

 

[Arianna Belasko]

"I have taught a few over the years," Arianna said, tone a delicate purr.

"But until I ran into you? It was the first time I ever had an apprentice who truly stood out. Now, don't get me wrong, some of them had a reasonable level of talent to be worth teaching in the first place but, NONE of them had your raw power output. Now in detail work, some rivaled you, perhaps, but you would have run circles around all of them in the end. I wouldn't worry about their names. Most of them were stuffy and boring. A lot of juice in the battery, but no machine to be worth running them in."

They soon arrived at the Khemost Mall, House Io's Skeletal Neutralizer War Droids of various models along with regular citizens. It was tense in the Atmosphere. People were scared after the Cult of The Brain Demon's latest celebrations. The agitation could be felt in the air. When the Cult had been away from Khemost to do their rituals it was easier to ignore. But now that the rituals,bloody and sadistic, had begun being conducted at official sites on the planet, both the old Arianna and the current one realized the time for what could be saved from House Io to separate was drawing close. The dream was over, perverted by no less than its own creator. Sane people had seen the price of rejecting the status quo of the Galaxy so hard, you become even more vile than most of the things you came together to fight.

Arianna had warned Laertia of how seductive the Cult could be. Heck, Draco had made out with its then-Matriarch, The Amalgam! Arianna had never let Draco know she had found out about that, but even she couldn't help but be flabbergasted at The Amalgam's ability to get into anyone's head, despite how vile and psychotic that creature was while alive. She thought Draco must have had a Charles Bronson-grade Death Wish but nope, Draco was pulling a James Bond.

As they got out of the Speeder, Arianna let her student take the lead, wanting to genuinely see what Draco's tastes were.

Little did she or Draco know it, but the old source of Arianna, Vivian, was in hot pursuit...


Draco Miles

 

[Draco Miles]

"No passion...?"

She asked, wanting to figure out exactly where her last students failed in their studies compared to Draco, to ensure she never disappointed her master and always was in the limelight to the person whom had saved her life on Jakku. The fact Arianna knew of her little escapade with The Amalgam though was surprising, she'd thought anything done in that temple stayed in that temple, but the fact she was able to learn how to control fire was something she had kept close and hidden in her sleeve, something she'd utilize at the most precious of times and practice in secret.

The sight of the Model 01 Skeletal Droids were something Draco had gotten used to, their internal computers more easily detected by Draco and fleshed out in her mind, something she could grasp and understand, something she could hopefully one day incorporate into her own armor systems to beef them up, to see faster, to hit harder, to be a more effective war machine. She had made her armor from scratch after all, and was always thinking of how it could be better. This want for better technology obviously swayed her choice in where they'd go.

"You want me to take you somewhere...? O-Of course"

She'd take them over to a mall map and take them to the nearest electronics store to look at tech there, see where the latest and greatest tech had yielded hopefully fruitful results to this apprentice

 

[Arianna Belasko]

Vivian followed in a speeder, watching as Draco Miles pulled up with Arianna to the Mall, all while hiding her own presence. She HAD to separate Draco from Arianna as soon as she could, but spooking Draco would spook whoever it was who had stolen Belasko's flesh from her.

Vivian broke her form down to an oozing gelatinous mass of bubbling flesh that slinked between parked vehicles as it followed her...

Meanwhile...

In the Mall, Arianna watched as Draco perused the contents of the tech shelves, citizens naturally going to where Arianna wasn't as they moved. By this point, Arianna was regarded as the same level of horrific threat as the Battalion and Darth Phyre before her, and no amount of looking gorgeous was enough to fool them any longer. Her gorgeous looks and fashion were regarded the same way you would be alerted by the bright colors on a poison frog. Her easy, celebrity grade smiles stirred instinctive feelings of dread in whoever the smile fell upon. EVERYONE knew Arianna was an abomination at this point.

As for the creature wearing her face, it was starting to wonder if it had underestimated its ability to control Arianna, because the gruesome, vicious urges that Vivian had learned to battle back every day for the past two decades while channeling Arianna were starting to bubble up, urging her to find someone innocent to slaughter. To torture...

The persona clamped down, made Arianna's thoughts tolerable again, but this persona was not so easily subdued. Draco really DID get a watered down version of Arianna most times. In all likelihood, had Draco met the ORIGINAL Arianna, she would have likely ended up despising and fearing her more than she has despised and feared her own original master.

The creature underneath Arianna's face needed a moment to breathe. To gather it's thoughts.

"Draco, if you will excuse me a moment..." Arianna said politely to her star protege. "I'll be right back..."

Arianna left and headed into a changing room in the mall, and cut open her palm with a sharp nail, glowing green blood leaking out of it and traced a strange script on the door to hide the destabilization that was imminent.

Arianna's flesh bubbled and warped her face shredding and splitting open, one side forming Arianna's deformed silently screaming face and the relatively intact one of the creature that had stolen her, which split off from Belasko's cellular mass, tearing through the expensive dress she wore, the spell on the door preventing Draco from sensing any distress as the thief's mass fully cleaved away from Arianna's mass, which was now a writhing, disgusting mass of sweating, bubbling skin growing tendrils, covered in blond hair strands and mouths full of sharp, misshapen teeth.

The Thief, Amygda, felt her nude form bubbling and warping still from the stress, and had to take a moment to catch her breath, even as her stolen form's piled up flesh continued to writhe and hiss almost silently next to her, unable to think without a central persona/host. Without one, all the secondary personas trapped within really were nothing but mindless data.

Amygda breathed a moment, trying to get control of her feelings, stealing herself for a re-merge...

Just when she was about to...that was when the pile of sweating, bubbling, horrifically deformed flesh pile scooted and the changing room door.

"CHIT!" Amygda yelled as she quickly morphed her body to look like it wore a dress and bolted out of the changing room, watching the flesh pile, operating on mindless instinct, slither through the isles of clothing and scaring the hell out of anyone who saw it, including the Model 1's in the Mall, one of whom picked the writhing tentacle pile up, the Droid's body language indicating pure disgust.

"EWWWWWW..." the Model 1 said, one of its onboard weapons coming out to vaporize it.

"NONONONONONO." Amygda yelled, catching up to the Droid, just as he was about fire.

"This yours, lady?" He asked, doing a double take at the Woman's face because it resembled that of Moya Virtu .

"Yes! Thanks! Sorry!" she hissed, grabbing the flesh pile, it's tentacles partially merging with the flesh of her arms and chest as she held it and ran back into the changing room as her face started to merge with its tendrils...

Meanwhile, Vivian, seeing Arianna's momentary absence as a cue, casually sauntered up to where Draco was. Vivian had been revealed as the true person in control of Arianna long ago to Draco, so her student would recognize her true teacher immediately...and would know something was amiss, because Vivian rarely stopped being Arianna for any extended length of time. Vivian considered Draco a friend...just last Life Day, she had gifted Draco a sweater she had knitted personally as herself.

"Draco..." Vivian called out, cutting right to the chase. "I fear we have a bit of a problem..."

 

[Draco Miles]

Ignoring the gazes of onlookers was something both easily achieved and pressing all the same. Their fearful emotions feeding into her dark side tendencies as the attention felt almost infectious. The time she had spent with her previous master in isolation was a unique kind of loneliness compared to this, in her case before House IO, no one knew of her, know one knew of the hyper lethal assassin whom cleaved her way through entire temples in the outer rim just to reach her target, so her always vigilant senses were overloaded since she was supposed to be enjoying a time at the mall with her master. What was most potent of all though came from her master, Draco could sense the distress in her master as they browsed the isles, felt how she was craving a chance to indulge in slaughter and wanton carnage, something... she had never felt before. Before she stepped away, Draco turned to look at Arianna Belasko with curiosity

"Ma-"

And she asked to be excused, only furthering Draco's curiosity when she also asked for privacy. Reaching out with the force would only make matters worse, and reveal she was spying on her master, so instead she did... just that, burying her seeds of doubt and going back to perusing the isles with people still staring at the monstrous 'woman' who accompanied Countess Belasko. The slime who came up to her though instantly made her crouch down and scoop it up into her dress, instinctively trying to hide her master as she reached out with the force and discerned the true connection of the old woman she had known barely, but understood to be her true master, someone who would never appear so weak in public

"How do we deal with the imposter? Anything special I may utilize, or will brute strength alone solve this?"

She spoke curtly and softly, trying to make sure no one else would hear it as she searched for where Amygda had ran off to. The seeds of doubt had resurfaced in her mind and blossomed into the truth like she feared it would, though thankfully this time, it was something important and was glad to see. She would return her master to her body, no matter the cost

 

[Arianna Belasko]

A few minutes before...

Amygda frantically tried to rebond with the mass of tissue but now it was rebelling on instinct. None of the personalities were truly alive without the central host, but the mass of tissue containing all that data instinctively sensed it's new host didn't quite have the stomach to commit to the bit, so to speak, and the mass of force powered tissue actively resisted bonding, exhausting her. The writhing mass of pale tissue strewn with golden blonde hair strands, misshapen tissue occasionally formed a face of one of the stored personas within it, including Countess Belasko herself on occasion.

Only her power kept it from leaving her fully, but she was having severe trouble reconnecting. But she simply hadn't counted on Belasko having that strong a personality...and she marveled that it's previous host had not been utterly consumed by being this vile woman for so long.

It was wriggling on the floor when it's cells instinctively sensed it's old host. She was very near, and seeking her personas out, making It's struggle with her become Titanic, the sounds within the dressing room scaring the daylights out of everyone. No one intervened, afraid of becoming mixed up in an impromptu horror story silently whispered among those discontent with the horrible cult that ruled Khemost.

Amygda now had a decision to make.

If the storage could not be made to serve the light's interest...it would need to be destroyed, which, though an incalculable loss to House Io, would be an incalculable loss to an abomination like her or Vivian. You just didn't destroy personality storages. It just wasn't done without the most severe, extenuating circumstances to justify the loss of knowledge, of technique on this scale.

But the fact remained...for all her power, she was not strong enough to assimilate the writhing data before her without risking rebirthing a totally evil and sadistic Arianna Belasko because she became too consumed by the roleplay. Absolutely no one, NO ONE, on Khemost wanted to risk that. A fully reborn, truer to the text Arianna Belasko would turn Khemost into an even more open air slaughterhouse than any Cultist ceremony ever could have. NO ONE would really be safe from a realistic Arianna Belasko. The Arianna Belasko that Nathan Bloodscrawl had rejected a marriage proposal from after one solid look into her blue eyes... BEFORE she got Force Powers. He hadn't even been tempted.

OR...she could copy her personality into the tissue. Sure it would just become another form to Vivian, but perhaps, it might be one with greater influence.

Amygda's face parted from her skull, revealing wriggling bits of glowing green muscle covering a black skull that sprouted tendrils and crawled down an arm, leaping into the pile of writhing tissue and dissolving into it almost on contact. Her face regrew quickly on her skull as she released her hold on the tissue with a sigh and departed the dresser to make haste. She would need all her skill now to depart this place with her life...

The tissue skittered along the floor, and concealed itself with Draco once Vivian sensed it to her surprise and held off remerging with it while Draco started to look for her.

"Draco. Let her go. Let her slip through. We'll get her later. She's not going to be able to leave for several hours due to the orbital screening process for foreign goods being scheduled today. She will hide. Right now, we need to fix our immediate problem..." Vivian insisted quietly gently pulling her back from going any further.

"Let's find somewhere private..."

FIfteen minutes later...

Vivian had slyly stealthed her and Draco Miles through the mall.

"I'm so sorry about all this, Draco, I really DID mean to just give you a day of fun, but as they say in my line of work...Force Spawn's gonna Force Spawn." Vivian said glumly as she led Draco up top to where it snowed.

Vivian then summoned the Tissue away from Draco, the non sentient yet rich with data mass of flesh skittering towards her outstretched hand.

Yet it went still, writhing disgustingly in the snow.

Vivian crouched down...

"It's over stressed. I can't remerge with it like this. I try to reconnect, and I'll induce cellular breakdown, destroying the data, and Arianna Belasko along with it. But if I don't remerge with it eventually it will die anyway...and the information won't recover in its current state in time before it does..."

And for a brief moment, she was going to do just that. Let it die. Let Arianna Belasko, the evil hypocrite who had enjoyed the benefits of being Countess of Khemost for over a decade now, protecting the Doves Percival Io secretly fought for, while innocent people everywhere else on countless fringe colonies died to sate The Parliament's bloodlust, die.

She genuinely considered just wiping out Arianna for good. She had never liked being the vain, self absorbed woman, to comfy to give more than token cover to the Doves by hiding their activities across the planet. Too happy to let The Cult corrupt her beloved House as long as she protected all those she genuinely loved. She was a vain, selfish monster, Cult or no Cult, no matter how watered down Vivian made her. Just ditch Arianna's mask and thoughts once and for all, take Draco, teach her like a proper light adept and RUN.

But would Draco want to leave? And could Vivian give up being Arianna?

Because, the truth, Vivian finally admitted to herself, staring at the bubbling mass of teeth and blond hair, copies of Arianna's eyes occasionally appearing on its surface, blinking, before rolling upwards and vanishing back into the mass, was that she had enjoyed it. She hated being Arianna. Yet she also enjoyed it. She enjoyed the vain thoughts, the struggle of restraining the personas murderous impulses. The thrill of indulging them even slightly.

In that instant, the Master Force Spawn learned the final and foremost lesson of her kind:

It was always said that the host could not act out of character, or they wouldn't be able to maintain channeling of the persona. When in truth the Persona was whatever you perceived it to be. It never did anything unless the host truly wanted to do it. It was HER that was guilty, in the end, not the pleasant face Draco saw most of the time. Phyre had understood this truth as she had understood many things better than her so called enemies in spite of her bloodlust. In the end, no matter WHO the original Amalgam had once truly been, it was Phyre who had ended up making that face what it was to others more than it's original owner ever had. Yet in a double irony, Phyre's face was all but unknown to Khemost's populace. A master roleplayer to the very end. To this day it was not the face of Phyre that was remembered by Laertia, but that of The Amalgam who she had absorbed into herself.

Vivian stared at the mass as Arianna's face formed on its bubbling surface briefly.

She was very deep in thought now. If she destroyed Arianna, all her authority in House Io would likely go with it. Then she would no longer be able to safeguard Percival and the Doves. But the Arianna Belasko that had protected him would never resort to rebellion to save those who could be saved from the Cult.

Arianna would have to be fundamentally altered, and Vivian along with her...but to do that the remerger at the psychological level would need to be permanent and irrevocable. It would be the only thing that could save the data. But to sacrifice Arianna was to sacrifice the Doves Protection from a Cult VERY actively seeking them.

Vivian held out her hand, condensed the tissue into a solid, stiff mask of shiny pale flesh in the shape of Arianna's face. Now was her chance to be free. She would never get a better one. She might not be free ever again if she went through what she was considering.

"Draco..." Vivian trailed, leaning against the railing. "We should talk."

She held up the face mask of Arianna, still slightly shuddering and bubbling on the surface.

"There is only one way to save Arianna at this point...and...I'm...conflicted..." Vivian admitted.

"I can remerge with Arianna...but I have to do it in such a way that I would never be able to undo. And what would result would no longer be quite the Arianna you knew...and I might very well never have the strength to re emerge..." Vivian said.

"For over a decade now, it is this face you have seen. Her voice. Her thoughts. Given sustenance by me. I regret not emerging more, but it's very difficult to stop being her. I will do it. But...I need the truth from you before I decide..."

Vivian walked up to her. She was so different from Arianna. It really was like talking to a completely different person. None of the usual aristocrat charm and confidence.

"For a long time now, I have considered you a true and dear friend..." Vivian said. "But I never truly knew your thoughts on the matter. Do you consider me a friend? Or...or am I only your friend when I am Arianna?" Vivian asked sincerely of Draco.

"I can do that. I can be her permanently. I..." Vivian fell silent, grappling with the decision.

"I just want to know if I myself matter to anyone on my own. If I ever mattered to anyone beyond who I could pretend to be in even the tiniest bit..."

 

[Draco Miles]

She was about to reach out with the force, to drag it back and stomp the rival Force Spawn into a puddle for daring to even disgrace Khemost with its presence, let alone attack the esteemed Countess Belasko herself! No one should get away with assaulting her master, NO ONE! Yet, like the loyal dog she was, she halted and let Amygda slip through, comforted by the thought that she could capture them at a later time due to the fact of the screening process occurring today

"Yes, let's get this situation handled before anything worse occurs... I am sorry I did not stop her sooner, Master."

Outside in the snow, Draco stared down at the Writhing flesh wondering how exactly they could reassimilate it. Did Draco have to assist in any way? She crouched down to get a closer look at it, watching as Vivian tried and failed to connect with her own flesh, and the grim news terrified Draco. She stammered trying to discuss with Vivian

"I... always considered you two one in the same, that the thoughts made by Arianna and you were simply one in the same, influenced by each other's personality. Even as Arianna, you mattered heavily. It was your mind which allowed me to be her apprentice, and I'd love to keep seeing you... but what would be left with only you?"

Was Draco really comfortable telling someone to sacrifice themselves for her own sake? She was rambling on and not really believing what she spoke, that it was entirely ok for Vivian to forsake herself in order to be consumed by a dark side alchemist and force user. It was the light Draco had seen from Vivian which truly enthralled her in the first place, the kindness and thoughtful teachings of Vivian which shown through Arianna Belasko to mold Draco from a cold blooded killer to an apprentice she could be proud of. Vivian mattered heavily to Draco, and yet in this moment it seemed impossible to quantify that, to put it into words and explain how deeply she cared for the woman before her.

"I-I don't... there has to be a different way. I cannot feed it? Give it something to stabilize so that we can reach a safe point? I would give my body to ensure your safety, please! There has to be another way"

She got on her knees, practically bowing and slamming her fist onto the powdered snow as if she was pouting and throwing a tantrum, feeling out the mass of flesh and knowledge through the force, trying to understand it, to comprehend how she could assist and keep her master the same, to revert things to the way they were

 

[Arianna Belasko]

At hearing the response Draco Miles gave, Vivian walked over and gave her apprentice a hug.

"Your answer means more to me than diamonds. It is more precious than Aurodium."

Vivian, despite knowing it was pointless, let Draco examine the blob of pale flesh rippling with hair and teeth and fingers and copies of her blue eyes all across the amorphous mass. The Data of Arianna, not conscious, not truly alive save for the Force Energy coursing through its flesh, bubbled violently but otherwise didn't react to her. Vivian's magic was subtly keeping it from trying to merge with Draco.

"It's no use, Draco." Vivian said with a sigh. "The data has been completely through the ringer. And enough people have suffered because of Arianna Belasko's inaction at Laertia's crimes. It's time she took action. It's time someone made her actually want to be something...different...just different enough to actually cause change."

(Cutaway to the hellish civil war on Khemost that occurred weeks later.)

Vivian stepped towards the writhing data.

"Once, I was content to hide behind the face this data contained, and not take responsibility." Vivian said grimly, staring at the bubbling mass "As much as I have tried to be a good teacher to you...I was abysmal at actually steering Laertia on the right path. I was content to let everything I did be the result of staying in character. But real character means taking responsibility for consequences for behavior...so the only thing I can do to atone for more than a decade's worth of living vicariously through the face of a beast I sent to hell years ago...is to actually make this Arianna, a real character...to become the basis of her moral center..."

She looked at Draco and smiled again.

"Oh, Draco...I don't know if you'll ever see my face again...but if you don't... always know that I will be staring at you through hers." Vivian assured before she began placing her foot on the pile of moving flesh.

Before her foot could make contact however, a MASSIVE burst of purple lightning struck the ground close to them, sending both Vivian and the pile of flesh flying away. Vivian could not feel if Draco had been hit, and couldn't see her through the debris cloud.

She saw a woman even more pale than Arianna as she pulled herself up, flesh rippling. She was still only at base power due to the re-merging interrupted.

And she felt an absolutely horrifying, blood curdling presence in the Woman.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" The Woman sneered.

Vivian recognized her instantly. It was a copy of The Congregation.

As in, the original master of The Amalgam.

"Such a great opportunity. Couldn't waste it..." The Congregation sneered, gripping Vivian in a Force Choke and hurling her off the building, going for the Data, even as she let off another devastating lightning blast where she believed Draco was in the debris clouds.

Only Draco stood in the way...

And no matter what, the Congregation could not be allowed to get Arianna's data...

 

[Draco Miles]

That is so messed up! They were having a heart to heart moment, and Draco had her guard down, and wasn't even in her armor. Just a perfect storm to be caught off guard and sent flying back, the debris cloud prompting her to try and use it to her advantage focusing on the force spawn, concealing herself in the force and making sure she couldn't be sensed as she took advantage of the debris cloud to launch a surprise attack while Vivian was thrown off the rooftop, launching herself to the right the lightning, away from the data, before firing herself forward, letting lose her force concealment after she had hopefully tackled The Congregation and received a blast of force lightning. If she indeed was hit so close to her target, it'd play into her favor. She had spent decades mastering Force Lightning, so much so that her control of it allowed for her to spew it from her mouth, each individual tooth, like fire and avoid frying her brain. She'd redirect it once more, calling upon her own power as well and using the attack as a boost to her own abilities as she'd fire force lightning back into The Congregation while squeezing her tightly, looking to distract her with the sensation of electrocution while truly focusing on snapping her spine with the strength that rivaled wookies.

Arianna Belasko

 

[Arianna Belasko]

The Congregation snarled as she was tackled, only her own beyond considerable mastery of lightning allowing her to withstand the heavy burst from Draco Miles . Her muscles swelled unnaturally as a Force Rage gripped her. But Draco's lightning attack nevertheless cooked The Congregation's skin, even as she began to overpower Draco, hissing the darkest curses to try and melt Draco's brain, shatter her self confidence, feed on any fear she might possess if at all possible.

Meanwhile, Vivian had brutally hit the ground on the building below, and was heavily wounded on impact (At least, by The Standards of Force Spawn she was heavily wounded. The height she had been tossed from would have killed an ordinary being). The Data was still unmerged, and would start degrading soon. Vivian coughed up glowing green blood. All her forms were trapped in that blob of data. She was only at her base strength, that of a veteran Knight, and she was a reprogrammed fragment of Ersethy, but that was no guarantee. The Congregation was such a psychopath that even when Vivian had been first created she had heard stories of her cruelty. Draco was in the fight of her life against The Congregation.

Vivian pulled herself up, a sack of broken bones and sagging, shredded flesh as she staggered towards an emergency ladder. She had to get to Draco, help her out before The Congregation got the upper hand, even if it meant forgoing re-installation of the data.

Even if it meant risk losing it forever. Even if it meant deliberately destroying Arianna's data just to prevent the Congregation from merging with it. That would mean the recreation of a True To the Text Arianna Belasko, and that was a person so unfathomably vile that Vivian knew Draco would never look at Vivian's "Arianna" the same if she met the real one. She was so evil the people of Naboo...freaking NABOO...had burned her alive during the Plague.

When the people of NABOO say "Enough with all the peaceful discourse, it's time to burn a mofo", you know whoever they torch fethed up.

Vivian snarled, finding the strength to climb. To paraphrase a superhero: "If you can't do it without the suit, then you don't deserve it."

Arianna was her face. She was Arianna Belasko, Countess of Khemost. Loving Grandmother to all Neutralizers. Sorrowful mother to Laertia. She has made that face hers.

Now it was time to fight to keep it.

"I'm coming, Draco. Just hold out against her a little more..." Vivian whispered as she climbed, The Congregation's lightning attack thick and powerful as it was fired not at Draco, but the ground beneath Draco, trying to blow out the floor under her...

 

[Draco Miles]

There always came a time where there was indeed a point where one bites off more than they can chew, and the fact the force rage had kept the Congregation's spine from snapping then and there while still getting electrocuted only meant the capacitor that was Draco Miles was certainly going to be overloaded. Trying her best to redirect it back through her jaws, she gave up the endeavor of crushing The Congregation to instead grab at her wrists, forcing them off of Draco to try and pull a move that the most famous of Force Wielders had a few hundred years ago, like Darth Vader, she was pulling those putrid hands off her body and forcing them down to the ground. Trying to make it so the lightning cast would go majorly past Draco and turn down the amperage pushing through her so she could then skip The Congregation to the edge of the rooftop, kicking her away and giving Draco a chance to stand. Underneath her sapphire scales undertones of purple showed themselves in the same pattern as lightning across her body, like victims of lightning strikes, she had taken SIGNIFICANTLY more than she could chew and the damage was showing with burst blood vessels.

The snow around her glistening on the rooftop, and giving her an idea. Taking the lessons from Arianna Belasko and The Amalgam, Draco would gather a ball of snow in one hand that began growing while the other grew flames before clasping her hands together, melting the snow and turning it into fully usable water that she then formed into a weapon. Her mind settled on one emotion only, RAGE, and she wasn't worried about wearing it on her face. Row after row of razor sharp teeth showed itself as her lips pulled back into a snarl, revealing her more trandoshan lineage as fiery amber eyes focused on her opponent, ready for another burst of lightning to come her way and having the more conductive material take it, her newly formed water spear, burying it in the rooftop so that there was a ground the extra voltage could leak into. She'd toss up more snow in the air, needing The Congregation's vision obscured so the surprise could come in handy. Draco knew she could be tracked in the force via her weapon, it was made out of it and just holding the form together made something she could be tracked by, so she left it buried in the roof, standing tall, to make the Congregation believe she had stayed there and kept up the snowstorm to buy time. Instead, in only a fraction of a second, Draco had come from the left side, grabbing her arm and holding it up before kneeing the force spawn in her gut, trying to make her double over so Draco could follow and let her savagery show by sinking her teeth into her opponent's neck and biting with all the force she could muster, trying to tear through that soft flesh and crack through the bone of her spine to remove The Congregation's head while ruthlessly slamming her liver with left hooks, wanting the pain of hand to hand engagement with Draco to paralyze her for long enough to ensure victory...

A dead force spawn would make a lovely parting gift for Vivian