Can Lightning learn lightning? (Kára Morrigan)

[Darth Vaildra]

Darth Valdra, the Sith Lord quickly making a name for himself, but still relatively new to the ranks of the Sith, had been asked to teach a Acolyte how to use Lightning. Why him, why did they ask him? Since joining the Sith the former Hakora had become somewhat of a Nihilist, but in reality he was just really bored and needed some action.

This is the reason he preformed his current actions. He sat in an old chair with his legs propped on an even older table and his eyes were set in a position of closed. All signs on Valdra was that he was asleep and that would be true.


[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

I entered a crumbling palace of black stone and rusting durasteel.

The air tasted of death. It was a sweet flavor, almost cloying, and one that I was intimately familiar with, after six long years enslaved on a Vong worldship. Sometimes, when I closed my eyes, I could still hear my foes screaming, begging for mercy, for a quick death.

I had never obliged.

Further into the palace I went, boot heels echoing loudly through the corridors. Inky black shadows hugged walls stained with blood. The wind swept through open windows, an undulating wail that bled into the tortured screams of the wretched creatures kept chained in the dungeons below. Unbidden, a sigh escaped my lips. I had missed this. The dark side was rich here, permeating the air itself. I could feel it sinking into my pores, coiling about my limbs like some languid snake.

I found my 'instructor' on the second floor, lounging in a creaky old room, seemingly asleep. He was a Sith Lord called [member="Darth Valdra"]. I couldn't help but compare him to my beloved master, Lord Kaine, who I had not yet seen since escaping the Vong. I found this Valdra...lacking. Perhaps he would surprise me?

"Ahem."

 

[Darth Vaildra]

The sound echoed through the halls. It was like the alarm early in the morning after a long night where no amount of screaming or hitting the snooze button could get rid of the returning sound. The sound kept going and getting louder with each beat of repetition. The sound was hidden with a very impatient, "Ahem" to which the Sith Lord replied with a childish, "Just five more minutes. This would not help so his eyes slowly came open to the piercing light of the old room, why had she picked such an ugly and disgusting palace again?

Darth Valdra, Sith Lord of the One Sith was not your run of the mill, typical Sith. In fact he was missing one thing that seemed core and fundamental to any Sith which was the Dark Side corruption. His skin looked normal, his eyes were a glowing blue and his age looked exact instead of like a corpse. He was the protect of an Eldorai father and Echani mother and was the genetic mutation known as Valyrian and one of the many strengths was he was almost immune to falling to the Dark Side and thus he kept his beautiful appearance. Down side was he could not use the Dark Side to the level of other Lords, but he had other abilities that made him formidable in the Force and had e secret trick he used that hid in the hilt of his claymore whenever he truly needed the Dark Side.

All this said, he could still use the Dark Side and use it well and did not need to be corrupted to be a Sith, he was primal Sith a Sith who knew what it took to survive. By looking at him though, the one word would be responsible. He finally opened his eyes completely and looked at the beautiful Acolyte that had join him, "Well seems I am still dreaming, is this the part where the dancing ladies come in?"

[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

"Well seems I am still dreaming, is this the part where the dancing ladies come in?" [member="Darth Valdra"] said.

I almost smiled. Imagine if he had seen me when I first came to Lord Kaine! "I could dance for you," I said, voice low and husky. I licked my lips. "But I'd have to kill you afterwards." My mouth curled into a grin that was equal parts lascivious and murderous.

It was hard to imagine that this man was a Sith Lord. His eyes weren't even the right color... And yet, there was something about him, something intangible, unquantifiable, that transcended my physical senses.

"You aren't dreaming, Valdra. Unfortunately for you." I stepped further into the room, walking past him to study the runes etched into the walls. I ran my fingers down the deep grooves, tracing the carvings. This place was old, and crumbling, but there was power in its walls, in the very stone itself. "I am Kara," I said as I turned around to face him. "And you are my teacher, no?"

 

[Darth Vaildra]

While she spoke, Valdra's lips twitched and then she let him have the punch line of being a teacher. At this Valdra busted into laughing, not an evil or mean laugh, but gut busting would be accurate to say. It was getting to the point in his laughter that he had to drop his feet to the ground and bend forward with how much his gut was hurting. After an absurdly long time he finally calmed down wiping the tears from his eyes. He stood up making his way around the table with a smile fresh from the laughter still present.

"Are you serious? I mean, really, are you? You are touching these walls like they are some treasure.." He deepened his voice for the next words, "to the Dark Side." Returning this his normal voice, he continued, "this place is trash and the power of these walls are no more powerful than the tip of my boot. Though, these boots are good for ass kicking so maybe you are on to something. Please, for the love of the Force, tell me you aren't one of these Acolytes who wants to be the next Galaxy's most wanted and eat babies for breakfast and whatever the closest thing to kittens are in this bloody Galaxy. Seriously, I can't take this serial killer attitudes anymore."


He could have stopped there, could have let her speak, but he had something to get off his chest and this time it wasn't his shirt. "Do you know what a Sith is? A Soth is a bloody Jedi that opened their mind, maybe a bit too much with some, but nevertheless opened. Being a Sith does not mean you must be some killer or take pleasure in the screams of the dying, what is the code? Passionate, we are passionate and this Galaxy needs order and we give it war to bring it all together. Anyways." Valdra sighed as he ended his rant. Sure hi views weren't traditional to the One Sith, but that was the beauty of having your chains broken as the code said. Sure he killed people and would torture someone if need be, but if someone wanted him to drank blood of chew baby bones he would probably run his sword through them and end such nasty thoughts.

"Yes, I am your teacher and I guess you wan to learn how to zap people? Mainly boys who flirt with you, bet that happens often. Lightning is one of the more dangerous abilities so for now we will learn spark as I rather you not ruin that pretty head of hair you got."

[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

"...Please, for the love of the Force, tell me you aren't one of these Acolytes who wants to be the next Galaxy's most wanted and eat babies for breakfast and whatever the closest thing to kittens are in this bloody Galaxy. Seriously, I can't take this serial killer attitudes anymore."

I don't eat babies for breakfast, I thought. Babies were for dessert only. Maybe a snack. I decided then that I didn't like this [member="Darth Valdra"]. I found his opinions... disturbing.

"...Being a Sith does not mean you must be some killer or take pleasure in the screams of the dying, what is the code? Passionate, we are passionate and this Galaxy needs order and we give it war to bring it all together. Anyways."

I just barely managed to stop my brow from arching. Who did he think I was? Who did he think he was? I had fallen in love with pain and death and degradation long before I became a Sith. One could say that I had a passion for it. An obsession, even. Especially after the Vong...

"Yes, I am your teacher and I guess you wan to learn how to zap people? Mainly boys who flirt with you, bet that happens often. Lightning is one of the more dangerous abilities so for now we will learn spark as I rather you not ruin that pretty head of hair you got."

I had never met a Sith like Valdra. Granted, I had met very few Sith in my life, and only two of note; Lord Kaine, and that delightful woman, Circe. Both had been deeply mired in darkness... as I was. "My hair is of no concern." A pause. "But thank you." I didn't like him, but he was still a Sith Lord. I could be polite, no matter how I longed to carve out his pretty blue eyes and mutilate his handsome face. My breath quickened as I imagined his screams; if I focused I could just hear them... "So, are you going to show me this spark, or do you mean to tell me what other parts of me you think are pretty?"

I wondered, briefly, if manifesting Sith lightning was anything like forming energy constructs. I imagined that the processes were relatively similar, given that both were, at their cores, forms of energy, albeit expressed in different ways. Regardless, I opened myself to the infinite and unfathomable power of the dark side, felt its corrosive energy swirling in my veins. My eyes, a beautiful aquamarine, turned to a sick, putrid yellow.

 

[Darth Vaildra]

Valdra smiled, he could feel it, her anger, she needed the anger to use Lightning as it was a manafestation of anger, but her anger wasn't quite there, he needed more. "Beautiful, if you think I find a low Acolyte like you beautiful then you have much to learn. It would seem though my words didn't anger you enough. Personally I hate the path of teaching lightning, but it seems it can't be avoided." Valdra's glowing blue eyes began to swirl as they became a glowing redish Orange that made her eyes seem like that of a puppys to him. Valdra raised his hand as he was harnessing the Force. "Like police learn how to taxer someone, you too must feel lightning and harness anger to use it." The tips of Valdra's fingers began to glow a terrifying blue as the air filled with the crackling sound of lightning that sound. Lightning erupted from his hand heading for the girl who has to stand and take it if she truly wanted to learn this power. It wouldn't kill or seriously injure her though maybe she wished it would.

[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

[member="Darth Valdra"] was trying to make me angry? He should have just said so. Then thin, blue, crackling arcs of lightning filled my vision. In the half second before the lightning hit, all I could think was, how beautiful. And then the pain came.

It permeated my senses, circumventing them, overcoming them, turning up to down and left to right. My veins pumped liquid fire. A scream caught in my throat, seized by contracting muscles. I was lifted onto my toes by the initial burst, but as the pain continued, I felt myself fall to my knees.

The agony drove me deeper into the dark side, and like blood leaking from a wound, a memory dripped to the forefront of my mind. I had felt this pain before. Back when I first met Lord Kaine. He had shown me but a glimpse of his great power, unleashing a torrent of rage much like the lightning coursing through me now.

I reached for such rage as he had felt, for the rage I carried with me always. It boiled in my gut, and as the pain came to an end, and I climbed shakily to my feet, it burst up through my chest, into my throat, my mind, spiked out of my eyes.

Now I was angry. Black rage rumbled in my bones. I pulled more from the Force, clawing at it, ripping, savage in my handling of it's power. My fingers spit sparks, blue light forming at the tips. I splayed them forward, and pushed...

 

[Darth Vaildra]

Darth Valdra smiled, the young sparrow had something he admired, determination, courage, will power. With the right training she would be unbreakable, but that did not make her powerful in this moment. While anger and rage were needed to make lightning they were only foundations. Though most couldn't see it in a Sith Lord because of how dark they appeared, the great ones knew the difference between rage and controlled rage. The lightning ripped from her like a tiger bursting from her cage, but the bolts hit around Valdra. With his raised arm he absorbed what would have hit him continuing til she tired herself. With the absorbed energy he xonverted into fire, his speciality and through it at the wall breaking a decent size hole into it which showed just how powerful she could be if she harnessed and focused her anger.

Valdra remained in the leaning sitting stance in front of the desk. The amount of power she released would undoubtably tire her which meant he could talk and together come to an understanding about this ability. "Tell me little Sparrow, what did you feel, what were your thoughts? Like your attack hold nothing back, we are here to learn not just unleash rage."

[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

Eventually, my anger dissipated, settling back into a steady simmer. I felt tired, my limbs oddly jello like, hanging loose and limp. Phantom spikes of pain struck me every now and again, a remnant of the lightning that had been so recently coursing through me.

"What did I feel?" Dark rage writhing against me, coiling into my pores like a million hot needles. "Power. Pure, sweet, power. It was pain, and rage, and hate, all served in one helping." It was glorious. Transcendent. "I was thinking of my master, when I summoned the rage. Recalling the distinct... taste, of his lightning, the sheer weight of his anger."

I started pacing, more to get feeling back in my limbs than for any nervous energy. Five steps, then turn. Click. Clack. Click. Clack. Click. Turn. "Are you familiar with Lord Zambrano?" I asked, keeping my eyes on [member="Darth Valdra"]. Five steps. Turn. "I was returning to him when I learned of you. I thought it might be nice to bring him a gift."

 

[Darth Vaildra]

Darth Valdra sighed and hung his head as he listened, "Sure there was more than just power you felt, if it was only power then why did you attack? What drove you to attack a Sith Lord who could easily stop it. THIS this is what I am searching for because if you can harness it, you can become unstoppable. When leading someone to the Dark Side you must push them to give in to their hate, but giving in is not where it ends, you must harness that hate into a weapon and that takes control, determination, will power and practice among other things. Your lightning was strong, but it lacked focus it lacked mind. A Sith is not only powerful, but focused. If they just unleashed power they would do more collateral damage than combative and quite honestly we can't afford this. No seriously, if we were paying for damages how would I get such a nice coat." He motion to his red drench coat.

[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

"I had no focus. No driving impetus to attack you, save that you were standing there. The fact that I couldn't conceivably hurt you never crossed my mind. You're teaching me; why would it? That you could overcome my first attempt at Sith lightning was expected. If you couldn't, you would be a piss poor teacher."

I mulled over his words. Rage was enough to generate lightning, but simply generating it wasn't enough, supposedly. Focus. Right.

I had ripped power from the Force to fuel my lightning, recklessly, without true direction, merely seeking to express the depths of my anger. But to refine that anger, to master my focus, I would have to master my mind, streamlining my awareness to a sharp point as opposed to a bludgeon. An arrow or a sword, as opposed to a rock or a hammer.

"But I understand," I told [member="Darth Valdra"]. Soon, my stamina would return to me. Then I could try anew.

 

[Darth Vaildra]

Darth Valdra stood up and walked over to a chest that he opened pulling out a rubber dummy he had requested for this. He let her sit and rest a bit until he had it set up. "Now, get up and come here." Valdra walked over to a spot away from the dummy. "This is power without control." Valdra lifted his hand and unleashed lightning once again making it lick the ceiling, the walls, the floor, everything and still hitting the dummy, but not really doing much. "It is reckless, good for multiple enemys, but a chit way against one. With focus though." He harnessed the Force into his hand and created a ball of lightning and shot it at the dummy. It knocked off an arm and hit the ball behind it erupting in some lightning. Is was becoming clear that this much use of a dark side ability was weakening his use due to his grey alignment. "Imagine your arm is in the cannon of a tank and if it the missile exploded to early it will destroy you.


[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

I watched [member="Darth Valdra"] execute a spherical variation of the standard lightning attack, observing him with physical and metaphysical senses alike.

I tried something simpler before attempting to craft a sphere of Sith lightning. I had likened the level of focus necessary to use the power as my potential allowed as being akin to the point of a blade. I put the metaphor to the test as I pulled strength from the black aether, almost overcome by a sudden burst of dark rage.

I emptied my mind of unecessary thoughts and impulses, or tried to at least, allowing the dark side full purchase in my thoughts. I fed everything to the void, to that great black flame, and as excess burned away to vapor, what pieces of me that remained solidified to diamond hardness; flawed, still, by only just so.

I lifted my arm as if reaching for the dummy, fingers angled straight, muscles taut. The Sparks were brighter this time. Barbed lances of cackling blue light coalesced at my fingertips, almost like claws.

All on its own, my mouth curved into a savage grin. With a jolt, I pushed the energy away from me. A thin, pointed bolt of lightning burst from my hand like a javelin, piercing a single point on the dummy's chest to crash against the wall.

I didn't feel nearly as tired as the first time. I'd used less energy this time, but my increased focus led to enhanced efficiency, which ultimatly resulted in a more powerful attack.

With a better understanding of the attack, I attemtped the lightning ball. Slowly, power again began to gather at my fingertips...

 

[Darth Vaildra]

Darth Valdra slowly clapped as she was successful on controlling the lightning to the target. She needed more power, but that was a perfect starting point. Then he saw her trying to do what he did. "NO! STOP! A lightning ball is too difficult to do this early, Kark, I was lucky mine worked because I am not that great with Force Lightning. If you want to learn how to make a Lightning Ball we will get to that, but first practice the spark over and over until you can unleash a small amount of lightning. It is about control and power, both must be master to fully use the Lightning correctly, too much power and it goes everywhere, too much control and the lightning is nothing more than static."

[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

Heeding [member="Darth Valdra"]'s instructions, I proceeded to prepare myself to attempt Sith lightning once again. Anger was easy to summon. I lived in a constant state it. My anger was a perpetual thing, bolstered by every breath.

I thought of the tortures I had suffered through in my youth. I thought of my fathers last gasping breaths, of the weakness that led to his death. I thought of more recent tortures, and those long, bitter years on that frakking worldship.

Rage pooled in my gut, and spread like fire to my fingers. I clenched down on the raging anger, and like a torrent of water constricted to pipes, a sort of pressure built up inside me, restrained to my lifted arm. The target had gone gauzy, unfocused, so great was my inner focus.

And yet, even before I released the lightning, I knew that I wasn't focused enough. Something was missing. Some hidden catalyst.

I was going about this the wrong way. I needed to meditate on this. Ponder the makings of the lightning in the Force, before trying to inflict it on the physical world. I pushed out the energy building at my fingertips, resulting in slightly more impressive burns appearing across the dummies chest.

Energy spent, I gathered myself, calming my rapid breaths. When my heart beat slowed, I reached for the dark side.

 

[Darth Vaildra]

"Good, but now, have a seat." He placed his foot on a large, wooden chair and push kicked it to her and sat on his desk. "Lightning is formed from anger, but like all emotions, it is a two edged sword. Not only can it aid you, but it can harm you. You are young, yet you are filled with darkness and I can only imagine the hell you have been through."

He poured himself and her a glass of Corellian red and used the force to give it t her to help her relax so they could get back to training. "You see, anger and using your past will ether make you numb or tear you up. I see you are a strong woman so you will probably make you numb and numbing yourself is never a good path. You must find a new way to power your lightning. I use my hatred for injustice so it is not a personal thing I hate, but something metaphysical, do you understand what I am getting at?"

[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

I took a seat and listened to [member="Darth Valdra"] speak. He poured me a glass of wine and floated it over to me. I grabbed it out the air and took a sip, letting the flavor settle across my tongue. Valdra told me that my anger was inadequate; or rather, the source of my anger. Personal experiences didn't have the right 'umph'. He used his hatred of injustice.

How... fitting, for such an unorthodox Sith. I held no such compunctions against injustice -- not in such broad strokes. There were different sorts of injustice, though. Slavery, for one. I had been a slave twice in my life now. I hated the institution with a fervent zeal that bordered on obsessive.

But more than that, I hated my old master, before Lord Kaine. I'd killed him years ago, but the hate was still there, just as strong as it had always been. The two, my old master and slavery, were inexorably linked. I couldn't quite separate the two. But if nigh on a decade hadn't dulled my hate, if ending his miserable life hadn't lessened my rage, then this wouldn't. He still lived, in a way, in the psyche of every slaver in the galaxy.

I reached into the black void of the dark side and heard its sweet voice whisper into the depths of my soul. A content sigh breezed from between my lips. "Thank you for the drink," I said, truly grateful. "I believe I understand what to do, now. Unless you have another kernel of wisdom to share?"

 

[Darth Vaildra]

It wasn't that Valdra disagreed with her chosen way of harnessing anger, but the outcome of where it led. He remembered with he talked with Darth Venefica

​

​

"Do you know why the Sith Order loses time and time again to the Jedi," she said without turning to look at him. "Because we spend more time killing each other....under the guise of the 'weak are made to serve the strong or die for their shortcomings'...than we spend time fighting them. Strength begins with proper teachings. Strength begins with patience. Strength begins with encouraging the weak to grow rather than killing them."​

It was all the more reason to pursue the power of the Sith and make the up and coming Sith strong not only in body, but also mind. Anger could be one of two things, a driving force or a blinding force. It was what made you angry and how your body reacted to that anger. The more you fell to blind anger the more Sith would fight among each other and only death could come from that and the Sith would be doomed to fail.

The original Sith were Jedi. Jedi who wanted to understand both the Light and Dark side and learn the Force completely, not people of destruction. It was the Jedi who bought the destruction, their hatred for the Dark side led them to kill their own brothers and sisters which showed who really was the evil ones despite the means.

Valdra rummaged through his desk and grabbed a glass ball with a tiny piece of metal in the middle that was enchanted to stay in place. He tossed it to her, " You want to learn to make a lightning ball, use this. Use the tiny piece of metal in the middle to focus it and form it around it. If it comes out of the glass it will shock you, but when you can master that ball, you should be able to form one in your hand without it."
[member="Kára Morrigan"]

 

[Kára Morrigan]

[member="Darth Valdra"] tossed me a glass ball with what seemed to be metal encased in the center. "You want to learn to make a lightning ball," he said, "use this. Use the tiny piece of metal in the middle to focus it and form it around it. If it comes out of the glass it will shock you, but when you can master that ball, you should be able to form one in your hand without it."

So I had to restrain the lightning to the metal, and not allow it to escape the glass? It sounded easy, but I had already come to understand that manipulating lightning, on top of summoning the power itself, was far from easy. Not impossible, but certainly difficult.

The anger came easily, as hot as it always was. But maybe hot anger wasn't what I needed? Fires died out, snuffed by wind, or water, or ice...

Cold anger, though, the kind that had settled and grown over time, was a timeless thing. Cold anger was patient. It provided clarity, whereas hot anger blinded. Yes, that was what I needed. Cold anger. Frigid rage.

And I knew just where to find it. I reached into the dark side, felt its rushing power fill me up, sinking into my pores. A sort of calm settled over me, like the eye of a storm. I pushed, and power coalesced in my palm, first in a thin stream, growing to swirl within the ball...