Chemical Romance

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Jairus just nodded, before kissing her again.

It had been a spur of the moment thing and already he was starting to regret it. Somewhat. Not because of her worry (not just because of that anyway), but because some part of him knew that she was right. It had already been underlined that the things he did had repercussions, if he hadn't shoved that thing in his chest all those years ago?

He would be fine now and the Lady-in-White wouldn't have been able to use it against him, limiting his power and potential in the meantime. "No, definitely not." The response came as Jairus watched the Technobeast dash into the shadows. "For the most part they don't really have a personality, anything resembling their former selfs is destroyed as the virus take hold and rewrites their basic genetics." From there it was simply wondering out-loud, because this wasn't something he had immense experience in. Personally Jairus had never seen the point in preserving their personality or quirks.

They were tools to be used... not pets.

"Your father would have had to slow the process of the virus during the conversion. Make sure that it doesn't reach its brains or its frontal lobe anyway." That was actually similar to what Jai had been doing and was doing right now. Already he could feel the strength returning to his muscles as the virus took hold and strengthened muscle fibers, tendons, bones, allowing him to shift his attention from his chest as the virus strengthened parts of the heart on its own.

"I wonder why he would do that."

Already the Sith had stepped forward, scratching the technobeast behind its ear, following the line of its jaw towards the chin. It seemed to massively enjoy being scratched just underneath the chin, so Jairus intensified his efforts there. "Kinda cute, aren't you?" It actually purred at the back of its throat at that admission.

"Stay." Strict and firm and the 'monster' immediately sat down on its behind to wait on them. Most of the server room was ruined, at least as far as Jairus could see from the hints of light Raj's flashlight was radiating.

"Anything?"

 

[Kuzo]

She stopped in her tracks and turned to look over her shoulder when he explained that. A slow blink. Then again.

She didn't need to say anything for him to be able to read the 'and you just casually thought it was a good idea to absorb that. Maw damn it Jai.'

Sometimes, words just weren't necessary.

She shook her head, gritting her teeth slightly and went back to her sweep. Last time they had been here, she and Locke had been in the room for several minutes before Kresh had showed up, seemingly out of nowhere. But there wasn't anyplace in the room that a beast that large could have been hiding, was there?

It was in far worse shape than the last time they'd been here. She could see deep claw marks gouged into the equipment. Things knocked over in a fit of rage-

She stopped, thoughtful for a moment as her hand brushed across a series of marks. No. Not anger. Distress. Anxiety. This was an animal that had gotten a reminder of what it had been missing, and then she'd gone again. How long had it waited, pacing, lashing out in separation before it had stopped expecting her retu-

There was no flash of danger. Because she wasn't in any. But a huge roil of muscles and fur and the dull gleam of metal suddenly filled her view and without further ado she was lying on the floor with a very excited Kresh sniffing her and wagging its tail.

"It's okay!" She called out from under the beast.

"Found him."

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

He wrinkled his nose at her in response, but otherwise let it lie.

What was there really to say about this all? The deed was done and now all that they could do was see how it would turn out. Hopefully... Jairus was right and there wouldn't be a problem, hopefully it would exactly as he wanted it to and give him some respite from focusing on that gorram heart. It was almost impossible to research cures or try to fix it himself while so much of his mental energy was tied up with keeping the thing at bay. Out of nowhere a huge hulking beast leaped onto Raj.

Jairus was about to jump in himself, but Irajah's voice halted him in his tracks.

Head tilted.

So this was Kresh. Behind him his technobeast growled softly, but a pat on its large shoulder was all it took to silence him. "Big one, ain't it." Jairus chuckled softly, before feeling something wet. Brows furrowed and he rubbed at his lip with his hand, looking down... blood. Obsidian. It came from his nose.

He looked up and saw that Raj was still 'playing' with Kresh, so he wiped his nose and sniffed in a bit.

Blood gone.

No point in making an issue out of it right now. "So... where are we actually keeping these two? The apartment isn't anywhere big enough for 'em."

 

[Kuzo]

She missed it, focused on scratching behind Kresh's ears. She regretted how long it had taken to get back here. She'd only interacted with him for a few minutes then, but he'd saved her life- she didn't think they would have made it out without him attacking the other technobeasts. But more than that..... even if she had only met him properly in the last year, she had grown up on stories of him. Not just stories of him, but stories of the two of them, going on adventures. He was an integral part of her psyche in a way that she couldn't properly define.

He was a link to the parts of her father that she wanted to remember.

"I have a whole floor that's not really in use at the clinic," she said, pushing firmly on Kresh's chest. "Come on, geroff."

Once she'd managed to get herself up again, dusting off, she gave a quick once over of the technobeast from a less awkward angle. He butted his head against her hip and she had to take a step back to not get knocked over again.

"But yeah, they'd wreck the apartment in a week. That way they won't be alone- if you think you can convince that one that I'm a friend," she said, eyeing it. It hadn't thus far treated her as a threat or a meal, simply ignored her- which was fine anyway. But the last time they'd met it had done its level best to eat her liver, so she wasn't taking chances.

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"I can do that, I think." He looked at Kresh, because contrary to his hound not paying Raj any heed... Kresh was paying a lot of attention to him once his existence was made clear by the sound of his voice. For now the technobeast didn't actually attack or anything, but something told him that if he took a few steps into the room? That would rapidly change and that wasn't something he was looking forward to. Especially not with his own pet being rigid and protective about his new boss.

"Can you tell Kresh to not try and rip me to shreds if I walk into the room?" She did and Kresh immediately went down on its butt and started mewling into the air, ears swiveling back and for like it was a little cat.

"Follow, but I swear if you attack Kresh, you will be sleeping in the kennel." It whined but then followed suit while eyeing Kresh suspiciously. Jairus wondered if it could remember being 'killed' by Kresh in the first place. Could it hold a grudge, if it did remember? Jai didn't think so, but he wasn't sure how much of its personality remained. Enough to still seem like the animal it used to be, but... how much more was there? "Alright, sit there and don't move."

It immediately went rigid.

Huh.

"Touch its nose, Raj? It won't do anything right now."

 

[Kuzo]

Kresh she knew from experience would accept that type of command, and it only took a moment to instill that Jairus was friend. Or, at least, not food. Turning to his current..... pet? What even were these going to really be here?.... Irajah reached out and, very gently, booped its nose. With Kresh and Jai watching, she reached out, softly scritching it behind the ears as she'd been doing for hers a minute ago. Kresh gave a little whine, moving up to butt her other hand. She shook her head, but offered the same to him anyway.

"Well, I think this has been productive," she said with a laugh.

Hazel eyes moved to Jairus, and the smile faded, ever so slightly around the edges. Not angry or upset, but worried.

She glanced around, frowning slightly at the destroyed computers.

"Well, I pulled most of the important information off when I was here last time," she mused, more to herself than anything else. Later, she'd go through it with a fine toothed comb. There was so much more in those files than simply Gideon, and maybe she'd find something about Kresh and the other Technobeasts there as well. While the virus that created them had been simply a curiosity before, now it was imperative that she understand it.

Glancing back up at him, she smiled again.

"Let's head home."

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

He watched his technobeast with a scrutinizing glance.

But it behaved and as such Jairus didn't move to do anything, just watching with a little smile how she interacted with them. It was funny how... normal it looked for her, even back then she had never been 'just' a doctor, even if it had taken him a while to figure it out. But Jairus was happy that eventually he had figured it out.

The Sith leaned down, brushing lips and smiling against her. "Let's." Before whistling to his beast and letting it take point again, Kresh only cast one sad look at Raj, before she shook her head again and allowed him to run free as well.

"They are like little children." He offered his arm to her, before they walked out of the room and back towards the exit. There was a strange feeling washing over him after the mention of children.

Brows furrowed in thought.

But before Jai could pin-point it... it was gone again.

Strange.

 

[Kuzo]

"Glad they're not," she said quietly, notedly distant for a moment before refocusing.

It had been literally a different life. And while some of the threads of experience she had woven over into this new life, there were some she had left snipped, cut off neatly at the point where Derith's knife had met flesh and opened up that grinning line across her throat.

But one that fell into neither of those categories. No clear and neat cut. No careful reweaving into the tapestry of experience. One thread had been frayed into all of its component strands, broken but too shredded to stretch across the divide for the new shuttle, weft and warp. It was, as far as she was concerned her greatest failure..... and her greatest act of mercy.

How was it possible to be both shattered by and yet still grimly proud of a moment like that?

Mostly, she just didn't think about it.

Arm in arm, the two headed back toward their exit. Originally, she had planned to find a way to free to remaining technobeasts, but the bodies and the lack of any other response told her that there was nothing left here to free. Now, they simply had a different problem.

"How in the world are we going to get them up with us?" She frowned, squinting up the ropes and into the darkness.

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Amen.

Jairus tried to imagine them as parents and couldn't even wrap his head around that possibility. Oh, she would probably be great at it, but him?

"Don't think that will be a problem." Jai mumbled while crouching down next to Krait, deciding his name in the spur of the moment. "Look at their claws, big and strong enough to climb."

Probably wouldn't exactly be an easy exercise for them, but they didn't really have a different option here.

Jairus doubted he could throw them that high.

"You... talk to Kresh while I talk to Krait?"

They would probably need some encouragement, because Krait was already staring at him in suspicion. Enough that it made him chuckle just a little bit.

 

[Kuzo]

It turned out that the only reason the technobeasts had stayed in that basement was because there was no one to encourage them to do anything else. It took some cajoling, some showing, but once the two had the right idea and knew it would please Irajah and Jairus?

"Wow, look at them go," Raj commented appreciatively, peering up into the gloom.

From there, it didn't take long. They climbed slower (at least Raj did, and Jairus seemed content enough to pace her). It wasn't difficult, Irajah using the Force to augment her strength with barely a thought- so closely related to what she used to do with containing Gideon, that constant, round the clock attention to her body making something like simply supporting her muscles barely more than a twitch of consciousness.

The technobeasts were waiting for them, still eyeing each other dubiously but patient enough when the two emerged from the hole. Irajah stretched, the warmth in her limbs from the Force and exercise surprisingly pleasant, and she decided to add more of that to her training when she wasn't nose deep in research.

She frowned slightly, eyes slipping over the interior of the ground floor with a thoughtful cast.

"One more bit of unfinished business I think," she murmured softly. "Let's get outside. I have something I'd like to do."

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"Right?" Jai looked up as Raj did and even whistled softly in appreciation. Krait immediately froze up and listened intently for any more commands, but after a while the technobeast realized nothing was forthcoming and then continued on his old trajectory. That made Jairus chuckle and shake his head just slightly.

"Very intent too, aren't they?"

If it weren't for the fact that their apartment was no place for them they would have been the perfect watchdogs. But sadly it was not to be, not without scratching up all the old oak and making a mess of the penthouse.

It was spacious.... but not quite designed for those two.

About ten minutes later they were done climbing and Jai joined Raj at the stretching. This hadn't been difficult for him either, just regular physical exertion wasn't his issue. It was stretching his other muscles that was the real problem. A dangerous one, allow too much and he was at risk of losing his fething body.

Not acceptable.

"One more bit of unfinished business I think," she murmured softly. "Let's get outside. I have something I'd like to do."

Head tilted and Jai glanced over to her in curiosity, before nodding his head silently. They stepped on out, a light rain had added itself into the mix, making the leafs of the trees heavy, the air damp, but it was still warm here. The Sith Lord took a few more steps out, looking up and closing his eyes for a moment.

The rain dripped, wet his face, beard and he murmured while a memory washed over him.

Fur wet, jaw hurt, the ache of muscle exertion, but it had to run... keep running. They were coming.

Eyes opened, amber vivid, but Jairus seemed more at ease now. "What do you want to do?"

 

[Kuzo]

She was distracted enough to not fully register that Jairus was slightly off in that moment. That small frown curving her lips, a certain distance in those hazel eyes.

The last time she'd done this, it had been in anger. She was stronger now, in so many ways. Logically, she knew that she might not even need it- the anger- to duplicate the feat. And yet, oddly, the anger was right there, just waiting beneath the surface. She didn't need it, strictly speaking, but she dipped her hands beneath the surface of the waters regardless. The anger now was different, aimed at someone else, something else.

No longer her father, at the secrets she had found in that facility on Gap Nine. Now, at the person who had forced her hand, to accelerate certain plans rather than waiting as she had intended. It wasn't anything big or important, but that wasn't the point, now was it?

She remembered the sound of stone on stone. Gap Nine. Coruscant.

"Stand back," she said, not answering his question. After all, he was about to see.

Reaching out, she laid her hand on the outside wall beside the door. Her thumb brushed the edge of the keypad in an almost intimate gesture.

It was so much easier now. Again, drawing on a combination of Shatterpoint and Telekinesis, she found the leylines that marked the vulnerabilities in the construction. Rather than relying on brute, screaming anger, lashing out, she focused it. It started with a hum, the natural resonance of the building, simply amplified. Ten fold. A hundred fold. A thousand. It climbed in frequency and tenor.

​The cracks started at the base of the wall, crawling light lightening up to the roof two stories up.

It didn't take long from then.

Though she stood right beside it, not a stone threatened her. She brought the building to its knees, crumbling- until the floor inside gave way and all of it went thundering into the basement and subbasement, sealing everything in a tomb of stone.

It was not, she reasoned, Locke's to destroy.

It was hers.

When she turned back to him, there was a hint, an aurora of gold in those hazel eyes, gone again too soon, but bright as day and twice as warm.

"I'm done here," she said, letting out a long, low breath. "We can go home."

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

It was still strange to him how their roles had subtly reversed.

From powerful to lacking and from untrained to almost master. It would not be long, before the student would completely surpass the Master. He should have been used to that feeling, after all, Jairus had trained Matsu in his younger years and she was beyond powerful now these days. But back then they had simply progressed into being equals.

As Raj drew strength from her emotions Jai mused on a question. A wonder mostly, would he have been able to deal with this reversal of roles all those years ago?

Or would the Sith have allowed them to become ruin in an attempt to protect his pride.

Further musings were interrupted as Irajah applied power and collapsed the structure. He could feel the shaking of the earth as layer upon layer fell, collapsing in on itself as supportive beams and duracrete suddenly found themselves not existing.

"I'd say I am astonished by your progress," Jai remarked calmly, while pulling her closer and wrapping his arms slowly around her waist. "But I am not really surprised how far you have come." He kissed her gently, letting the tension ease from her shoulders and eyes. Before pulling back and smirking. "Just don't forget to come on back to us mortals every once in a while."

It was a joke, but there was a layer of pain there as well.

He had never been this fragile before and it concerned him.

 

[Kuzo]

She looked up at him, perplexed for a moment and then-

"Godhood has never been something I aspire to," she said softly, but there was amusement in her voice. Pushing herself up on her toes, hands steading herself against his chest with fingers splayed, she kissed him lightly. Then deeper a smile curling over her lips.

"I leave things like that to you and Matsu," she murmured against his mouth.

She didn't look back at they moved away from the shattered building. With Kresh walking on one side of her and Jai on the other, there was nothing there now but the hollow remnants of a past that she had made peace with. The building, at least, was behind her.

Elliot Locke, however.... there was a bit of unfinished business.

The technobeasts balked for a moment at the ramp up into the ship. They could have simply ordered them up, but Irajah went up and down a couple of times first, showing them in was safe before doing that.

Trust, after all, was a matter of no small importance to her.

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Jairus snorted.

Godhood had its prices and he felt it keenly on him, but that wasn't something he wanted to rehash right now. They had been worrying about it too much already.

At some point you just had to let things roll out and see where the dice landed.

"Godhood? Hardly." Jai responded while watching her get the technobeasts on-board. Strange how closely they resembled actual pets in terms of behavior. Her father had a... peculiar way of creating them by the looks of it. Back when he himself had been experimenting with them Jairus had been less than interested in giving them character.

But perhaps that said more about him than her father.

"I would be okay with being a Demigod or maybe an angel..." With their strict 'mama-papa'-voice they made it clear that the technobeasts were confined to the hold.

The last thing they needed was them rummaging around the ship.

"So, back to home then?" He asked while they crossed the corridors to the cockpit.

 

[Kuzo]

"You hardly seem the angelic type," she started with a smirk and an arched eyebrow as she reached out to run her hand over his hip.

"Maybe a bit more-"

She didn't finish the sentence.

Irajah stumbled, her hand tightening on his shirt. Hazel eyes were a million miles away-


Everything was pain.

Pain and cold.
Red mountain and red sands and
spikes reaching up into the black sky like
hungry fingers.

She huddled, a fleck, a shard, a shadow, silver and shiver. Somewhere, a line was drawn, tension singing up that wire to someone far away- or was it? Was it real or just an illusion, a phantom brought on by hurt and the slow, slow drain, drip by drip of existence as it was swallowed up by thirsty sands?

Time was meaningless. She had the feeling that it was both eternity and a single moment, all wrapped together and hanging on the tip of that jutting spike, but that was impossible.

Nothing existed but the pain.

Until, from one moment to the next, it did.

She didn't know what it was. But the hellscape shook and heaved. It rattled and clattered, stone on metal on stone.

Bones.

And the sensation of great,
tawny
eyes.


Pain. Weakness had kept her here, wherever here was.

It was fear, however, that galvanized her.

She didn't run. There was no running to be done, no running possible. But she clawed her way in the direction farthest away, eyes wide- if she could breathe, draw even a single breath it would be ragged and hard, too high in the chest and offering not enough to feed the lungs and brain as terror swept over and she moved.

Crawling up.

Irajah drew in a hard breath of air- for a moment, in his arms (when had she fallen?) her heart had stopped. Her eyes were wide, frantic, searching for things that weren't there anymore- that in truth, had never been here. Like a long rubber string threaded tightly between two points, something on the other end had snapped, sending a backlash of tension and pain.

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Now he knew fear.

...and it scared him to death.

His arms wrapped around her, eyes closed while his brow leaned against hers and not being able to do anything but wait and hope. Just a few months ago Jairus would have been able to dive into those depths and pull her back from the visions, safe and sound. But it was a risk now, too great. As Jai reached out and pulled Raj in, another presence would make use of the opening.

The Sith did not wish to speculate what the Lady-in-Silver would do if she managed to take control a second time.

"You scared me, Raja." Jairus mumbled kissing her brow and leaning back to give her some room to breathe again. "What happened?"

She had been far away, very far, almost as if she had returned to that place of shadows, ghosts and locked memories. The Netherworld wasn't for everyone- some could thrive there, grow stronger. But only through preparation.

Few received that chance.

 

[Kuzo]

"I.... I'm not sure. Um. Why are we on the floor?"

She looked around, realizing she was cradled against his chest, both of them sitting on the floor. She blinked blearily, a little confused and disoriented.

In truth, more than a little.

For a moment, it had been like she was there again.

"I saw..... the mountain," she said quietly. She didn't need to elaborate which one she meant. There was only one mountain that mattered. "It's...."

She trailed off, frowning slightly.

"Something.... strange happened. Right before I got the intel about the base. I kind of forgot about it in the hubbub....."

Pushing away from him slightly, she tried to sit up, but immediately leaned back against him again, a wave of dizziness and double vision crawling across her consciousness. A dark haired man she didn't know, neither of them did, and blood on her hands. Irajah flinched, hands going down to her abdomen- a twinge there.... but there was no wound. Why would there have been a wound?

"Something's happening in the Netherworld.... happened.... happening? It's..... really confusing. I don't..... I don't understand it, Jai."

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

What could Jai do without putting them both severely at risk?

What was there to do?

But there were multiple ways to Coruscant, was there not? Some of them were more involved than others, some more risky, dangerous, far more obvious than others. "I taught you how to reach out to me, connect with each other." It was intimate, basically a melding of mind and purpose in that moment. They didn't do it very often.

"If you do it now, I can take a look." Jairus hated that he couldn't do it himself. That he needed her to do it, especially when she was already feeling weak from the ordeal.

He supported her softly, not drawing attention to it.

"It might be nothing, but for a moment I couldn't feel you, Raja."

 

[Kuzo]

"What do you mean you couldn't......"

She trailed off, understanding dawning as she searched his face.

"Oh."

Irajah nodded, settling her back against his chest, her cheek resting against his shoulder. Reaching out, her touch on him within the Force almost physically shaky, she tapped into the bond. Every time they did this, it cemented the pathway, like wearing it down with familiar feet. Easier and easier each time.

She held nothing back. He saw the moment in her study- the impression of pain and chains and eyes. Stone scraping against stone. The discomfort, the pacing. And then now- fresher, more immediate, more..... personal.

"It's something to do with karking Kaine," she muttered, half to herself. "I didn't realize it at first, but that.... that feeling of terror? I know that. I used to have nightmares about those eyes. His eyes. And that was what it felt like."

[member="Jairus Starvald"]