Private Bonding time

[Astrid pentoghast]

A continuation of Nathan Bloodscrawl and Astrid pentoghast story from here

Tag: Nathan Bloodscrawl
A hidden base on tatooine

Astrid had teleported her and nathan to an old hutt smuggler base nathan was strapped up to a torture table his ribcage was still broken so was his arm from astrids smoke demons. Nathan's arms where clamped to the table by two heavily reinforced by the table so was his chest legs and head nathan would find himself stripped to his pants which where ripped to become shorts and he was shoeless. Astrid was at a near by table Nathan's lightsaber was dismantled the crystal removed Astrid had restarted Nathan's heart a few minutes ago.

Nathan could see surgical equipment illegal drugs and legal ones aswell Astrid was keeping an eye on nathan his lacerations and contusions had clotted but still fresh. Plus Astrid Had done nothing about the deafness in one ear but had dealt with the disorientation she wanted him luced but in pain for what came next. She sat there awaiting nathan to wake up.

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan tumbled through the outer darkness between Death and Life.

As he did, all the memories came back, rushing by him in watery streams that melted into each other. His training as a child at Castle Bloodscrawl, and it's destruction. His desperation deal with the Sorceress of Ossus. And now, his hated bond to Syd.

He saw her, in the shadows, watching him with many faces, each shifting between the other on her skull.

Destiny, or Will, or whatever, carried his silent, spectral form between the physical world and the netherrealm of the Force, set him before her ever shifting face.

It is not your day to die. I will not let you despite what power your captor believes she holds. Syd spoke in his Soul. But every moment you spend in life afterward waiting for the moment you get to kill me, will only be because I allowed you to get that far. What supreme irony.

I'll be thinking about it all the way up to the point I eventually crush your skull. Nathan replied, unrepentant in his desire to see her die. There is no barrier in the afterlife I would not breach, no suffering I will not endure again and again and again, to make sure you pay for what you did to Lysandra and my Daughter.

The ever shifting face of his wife's killer loomed over him.

"We shall see, Nathan Arnold Bloodscrawl. We shall see..."

She began to look like she was far away.

"I will do everything I can to find you, of course. But I have no clue where you are, and our Bond is not so strong that I can pinpoint you. It may be...difficult...to secure your release..."

(Cutaway of Count Dooku sitting in a fancy chair by an elegant looking fireplace.)

(Count Dooku: Oh, Lady Pentoghast, you are about to have yourself some fun.)

Nathan snapped awake, covered in sweat, everything hurt.

He had been captured. Chit. Chit.

His eyes locked on to Astrid pentoghast . He said nothing. He would not bother with the usual verbal platitudes of defiance. He only narrowed his eyes. Now was a time for survival. The first few minutes would tell him what he was in for and how he was in for it.

It was not his first time as a prisoner of the Sith. He had been subjected to various levels of cruelty, at various ages by truly talented monsters.

Now was a time to learn, to study. To endure and not yield.

Anything to make it out on the other side.

Anything to eventually reacquire the Cult of the Brain Demon and Destroy it.

He looked at her, saw his weapon disassembled, he had to imagine that's what she had in mind for him.

Even though he said nothing, that gaze, dripping with silent annoyance and scorn rather than anything that even resembled fear, all but screamed 'C'mon Bennett! Let's Party!'

(Cutaway of actor Vernon Wells being punched into an electric generator in Commando)

 

[Astrid pentoghast]

Nathan Bloodscrawl

Astrid sat there still reading Nathan's mind listening in on nathan and sids discussion but not intervening at all watching the streams of his past flow by. She sat there with Nathan's lightsaber crystal in her hand before pocketing it as she sat there how best to approach this he wouldn't be easy to break not conventionally any way. Plus she wanted him to remember this remember her and hate the memory of ever meeting her.

She wouldn't give him regular torture she would break the man mentally as she got up and grabbed a medical bag that held a brownish colored liquid inside it. Hanging it beside nathans table she hooked it to a medical hose and put the needle into nathans arm looking at him. Astrid lowered nathans medical table to where he was horizontal and laying on his back "soon you'll be feeling the effects of an hallucinogenic that I made with some illegal spice in liquid form. Your gonna be it's first test subject I made this dose for a larger than average epicanthrix so the effects might be stronger and last longer than my needs" she stated standing by his head looking down at him.

The nightsister was gonna make nathan relive all his worst memories from his enemies point of view it would be his hand that killed his wife turned his daughter. It would be his hand that destroyed his house she would guide his hallucinations through the force. She would force the bond between nathan and sid open to pull from them both using the force when the drugs took effect.

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan refused to respond to anything Astrid pentoghast just said to him. His eyes only narrowed as she attached the poison to his drip.

He started seizing up immediately, black veins spreading through his arms and to his very skull. His eye twitched as the pain started and he mildly writhed on the gurney.

What happened next in his head was too horrible to fully describe. It was like looking through the eyes of madness, seeing the whole world as mad, watching everything awful that had ever happened to him, ever been done, being done by him.

It was like it was real. Constantly. Looped again and again to the point he felt Syd cry out in pain, clutching her head across the Galaxy as the bond opened. Nathan shook violently now on the gurney, the image of his hands going around Lysandra's throat a million times at a million miles an hour, reliving every sensation.

Astrid was definitely able to pull power from their inverted Dyad...the destruction of his Mother and Father dying by his hands allowed her to get a taste of just how truly deep Nathan's suffering went, how it seeped into all the delicate places of his mind, and it surely allowed her to pull whatever she could from it and the Force itself seemed to writhe unnaturally around him as it did.

There was no telling how long he was there. How long it went on. How many times he killed Lysandra. How many times he beheaded his own Mother. His trauma, already bad, deepened at exposure to this especially savage method.

And yet...

...Nathan wasn't breaking...

Despite expericing her telepathic torture like it was real, he remained fully aware of where he was.

And whenever Astrid's face came into view, Nathan's eyes would lock onto it even as he thrashed about. No scream escaped him. His eye twitched as he was forced to murder all he loved for the hundred thousandth time. He was also, despite the extreme mental agony he was in, kept the worst of it from reaching Syd...despite the fact she was in intense pain herself from what Astrid was doing. Syd gathered her ancient, terrible strength however, and began forcing the bond shut, to prevent Astrid from getting anymore than what she had already gotten.

"May I have another dose, please? A stronger one, this time? You've clearly never administered torture drugs properly." Nathan requested in a hoarse, yet collected voice, refusing to get angry, get enraged like she probably wanted, even as he watched Lysandra's face in overlay over Astrid's start to scream and rot as he imagined himself killing Lysandra again.

"I think it's helping to clear my sinuses..." he muttered, voice dripping with truly caustic contempt.

 

[Astrid pentoghast]

Nathan Bloodscrawl

Astrid watched Nathan's memories turn against him the physical pain was unusual but a known result of the drug it added to the experience and added to Nathan's suffering. It didn't much matter to the nightsister he almost blinded her almost ruined her face this was about making sure he remembered her. Watching as he killed his family over and over making sure syd watched as much as possible and suffered.


Astrid wondered what kept this man on The straight and narrow what kept him from becoming sith or utilizing the darkside as she did. She penetraded his mind again forcing herself through Nathan's memories viewing his failures, his life, laying his life bare before her. The nightsister peered through Nathan's memories trying to find a reason why the man would stay good and not be jaded by what life dealt to him.

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan tumbled through his own memories as Astrid pentoghast laid open his life. He kept the truly vital stuff from her, but barely...and it was taking all his will to keep doing it, even with the extremely horrifying experience she was merrily putting through, taking in his absolutely endless suffering like it was syrup on a giant bowl of Ice Cream (The exact flavors of which I leave to be determined by whoever is writing Astrid).

He knew he had to give something up. So he focused on the one memory he truly despised.

Nathan blinked, and found himself in Castle Bloodscrawl in his old stone room. Every nerve ending on fire. He could feel Syd in agony, desperately casting every spell she could to try and keep the horrible torture he was experiencing from driving her mad. Not so much him. He, after all, had just tanked an excruciating torture method that would have rendered millions, if not billions of other people in his place as unsalvageable, murderous wreckage. Feral Animals, basically.

The Bloodscrawls had discouraged any behavior that might have led to opulence on their part. Nathan's walls were barren save for the writings of Jedi Philosophy, a small bronzium bust of Obi-Wan Kenobi in one corner, the banners of his family, bearing their crest known as The Fanged Chevron , was draped over the entrance.

Nathan saw his younger, self, close to his mid teens staring out the window.

At that age, he had harbored desires to leave his Homeworld of Ession, but he knew The Plague would make it too dangerous. Plus, there was still the issue of the ongoing Galactic Fuel Shortage, which had happened because of the Plague causing severe quarantine laws to be put in place, which meant all fuels had to be reserved for their own worlds to the point it was actually illegal to sell any amount of fuel to a foreign power, to the point the act of doing so was considered High Treason on a disturbingly high number of worlds.

The Fuel Shortage was merely one unintended side effect among many that the History books didn't talk about much, but out of all the unintended consequences caused by the Plague, the Fuel Shortage's effects caused untold catastrophic economic damage. He had done an extensive study of it upon being resurrected, and concluded the shortage had been the second biggest galactic disaster after the Gulag Virus itself. In a lot of ways, some worlds on the outer rim, and even some in the core, had never truly recovered from the damage. The Plague echoed outward...

...and in Nathan.

He watched his younger self staring wishfully in dark brown Padawan robes when he perked up, seeing an entourage in large numbers approaching the castle.

Not this. he thought in his mental and physical agony. Can't believe I gotta watch this fethed up day again...

But Astrid, in her pride and rage, wasn't entirely safe from Nathan's prodding either.

"It's the face, isn't it?" He asked dryly, refusing to get angry and feed Astrid. (Syd, however, even in her agony, was drawing up very specific ancient curses on parchment for use on Astrid as a sort of "Magic Cocktail" of truly strange chit to plague her with even in her old age, when she eventually found out where Nathan was being kept.

"I guess with one so empty losing the face would be the spark to your engine. Broke out the good chit. I'm flattered."

He shrugged.

"Way I saw it, I was doing you a favor trying to make you look like you'd been beaten with an ugly stick...not like what's on the inside didn't already look like that. Is that why you've pulled out the stops? I bet you can't stand the idea of the outside looking like the inside. Can't stand being reminded you got a pretty face you don't deserve..." he muttered calmly as he followed the phantom version of himself down the stairs.

But whatever his words, whether they affected Astrid or not, it was clear being made to relive this, the start of his whole journey, was very rattling to him...

 

[Astrid pentoghast]

Nathan Bloodscrawl

Astrid watched Nathan's memory unfold like watching a holovid. So he had officially joined the jedi probably against his will she figured but not completely knowing but seeing how he mentally reacted to it. And felt to it it wasn't a happy memory Astrid knew sith with less messed up backstories in all honesty les tragedy as she felt for fhe man to a small degree.

She smiled at his attempts to get under her skin "no I do this because it's fun to peel back the layers of a person's mind see how they tick who they truly are" she said walking around him to his side. "You are a man tortured by your past but I say embrace it wield it as a weapon" she offered looking at him standing there "join me in the darkside I could teach you to be an amazing sith by day" she said before lowering her face to within a few inches of Nathan's face which was being held down.

She forced syd to experience what happened next through both their senses as she kissed nathan on the lips passionately. "By night you would lay with me in my bed as we embrace" she said showing both nathan and syd a force vision of nathan and astrid embraced in passion sweaty in soft blue silk sheets. "It's about time you found a woman who would look after your needs I could be that woman I could make your pain go away break your connection to that woman who killed your family your daughter" Astrid said looking at him awaiting his response.

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Syd clutched her head halfway across the Galaxy in pure agony, screaming as she shifted through every form stored in her body. She could feel Nathan suffer from what Astrid pentoghast subjected him to, yet he was weathering it. But she could feel his innate trauma increase with every passing second, as not only was he aware of being led down his own memories, he was still suffering reliving his worst ones through the perspective of the victimizer.

She struggled to use a spell to at least ease his trauma, only to have it brutally rejected. Nathan didn't want her help beyond finding him.

Again, she was baffled by his resistance to dealing with her even now...but only for a split second before she understood.

Nathan wanted her dead. He STILL wanted her dead, even after helping him. Lysandra was the one loss he must avenge. To take real, concrete help from her would weaken his resolve.

Nathan, for his end walked through the memory of his, even as his stomach twisted in disgust at her offer, and not just the fact it was a crass offer, even as she was following him through his memory she was still doing this.

He watched from ancient Battlements in Bloodscrawl Castle, following the younger version of himself, watching his Grandfather in full black, horned armor go out to meet the Castle invaders, led by none other than the future monstrosity called The Battalion ...

He had never heard what they said to one another. He only saw the results... Elaine Tear's blue lightsaber cutting through young Nathan's grandfather diagonally. Then everyone stormed the castle...

"First off...you subjected me to reliving my wife's brutal murder, from the perspective of her killer..." he finally said in a his as she played out her strange, eros-tainted vision

"Why the hell would I be attracted to you?" he asked very calmly as he watched the Castle come under artillery fire.

"And second off .." he added in the cold inhuman manner of a Droid. "Syd is not yours to destroy. I came back from the literal dead to slay her...no one is getting their hands on her before I do ..."

 

[Astrid pentoghast]

Nathan Bloodscrawl

Astrid watched his memories flash before her eyes so to speak as she forced him to relive his past trauma she monitored Nathan's bond with syd and how they interact while she was doing her work. She watched Nathan's grandfather die by The Battalion blade and how Nathan resisted syds help in anyway besides finding him as Astrid looked into nathans eyes as Astrid reached through Nathan's mind into syds mind.

Astrid projected an illusion of herself for syd to see Astrid with "tattooine" she said as she stared at syd. Before disappearing from syds view and mind as she walked around Nathan "the offer still remains you could rebuild your house and make it stronger than before you could be stronger than ever before you could command legions of troops to help take down your enemy" she said.

Looking at nathan she sat down waiting for an answer and for syd She would know Nathan's answer before he spoke but he was no longer Interesting he was tortured by his past who wasn't. He was. Going to spend his life getting revenge that was boring he was boring a force user with a grudge who was only connected to something out of the ordinary. Something worthy of her time without telling him.

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan's mind took a dive for the worse. The poison working through him. He was struggling very hard now, his most sensitive information locked away deep and tight. But at the cost of reliving all his pain and early trauma, even as he was stuck in the memory in of one of my the be worst days of his life."

He refused to let it break him. He was stronger than some poison. He had seen worse. Felt worse. Suffered worse after death.

It was then that he sensed her. She was always present.

Laertia Io , his Daughter, turned leader of the depraved Cult of the Brain Demon, appeared in a burst of purple flames, wearing a skintight white catsuit.

"Oh don't mind me, I'm just a spectator, watching my father pointlessly humiliate himself..." Laertia, known among her Cult as The Parliament, said in a cheery voice as Nathan's mind swooned in a hellish haze of past horrors crashing upon a near indestructible mind showing hairline cracks in certain places. Only the knowledge of the consequence of failing to withstand the torture Astrid pentoghast was subjecting him to kept him fighting the endless horror of being attacked from all sides by his own memories.

"Am I the first you made that offer to. Or the latest. Telling if the formet. Pathetic if the latter..." he snapped. "And what makes you think you'd even be worthy? The men in my family wouldn't look twice at someone like you. They had taste. I see nothing impressive before me. Demonstrate you are more than this poison, more than using my own memories,
I dare you. I defy you to truly impress me..." he snapped.

"What could you offer? You of all people? I think I have seen the extent of it..." he mocked, trying to find her psychological weak points. Whether she resisted or took the bait would tell him much, and he could feel a truly pissed off Syd scrambling every magical tracing method she could think of."

"The one I am connected to will absorb you when she finds you!" he hissed. Note that he didn't say kill.

Absorb implied a much more horrifying fate...

"You will be but one more face in a Gallery of them once she is done with you..." he muttered coldly. "And that's if I don't break out first and fold you like a dossier..."

 

[Astrid pentoghast]

Nathan Bloodscrawl

Astrid sat there examining nathans memories his life was mostly struggle one worse than hers in every way yet he wasn't a sith. Yet he focused on revenge and that drove him almost completely to avenge his family it seemed something she understood completely. "Your not the first I've offered but you are the first to refuse" she said sitting there waiting for this person nathan spoke of the nightsister was prepared for any potential combat but was also prepared to flee if needed also.