Darkness Once Gazed Upon (Open to Silver Sanctum)

[Chastity Lunelle]

Location: Silver Sanctum Jedi Temple, Voss​

Like a ghost in the sky, the opaline moon of Voss loomed, briefly illuminating the woman as she slunk through the Silver Sanctum Temple grounds. Wearing a dark black cloak, with the hood pulled over her head, sulfur-colored eyes shone brightly from the chiaroscuro of her face. Tendrils of dark hair snaked out from under her hood, like pieces of seaweed. Dark red lips pulled back in a sneer at the sight of her former home. Then, she was off, moving across the grass like a banshee haunting the grounds.

Her movements parted the light fog that lay over the Memorial Gardens. She moved swiftly, but used as little of the Dark Side of the Force as possible. The Voss temple was a testament to the Light, and unleashing her power would surely trip some psychic alarms.

The woman’s dew-soaked boots disturbed a family of doves, nesting in the grove near the archway where she and her Master had trained. She plucked the mother out of its nest, and twisted its neck with a snap, letting it fall to the ground amid of a tumble of loose feathers. It was a momentary sacrifice to the darkness that consumed her, the points of its constellation pulsing before her like a beating heart, telling her where to go. Who to find and turn. Or kill.

She had a lightsaber hilt at the waistline above her skirt, and a curved Sith-alchemized knife strapped to one of her thighs. The kind of knife used for slitting unsuspecting throats.

She had forgotten her own name, but not his. She would find him soon. Her Master, [member="Connor Harrison"].

 

[Connor Harrison]

What if dreams came true...

In his quarters, the lower side of the Silver Sanctum Temple, Connor Harrison lay on his bunk, arm resting over his face as he tried to sleep.

...and you could be who you wanted to be...

Weeks had passed, probably months - he couldn't tell. It had been a snowball effect since losing Ziost. Losing Ziost? Losing Chastity. Losing his Padawan - lover - friend - redemption.

...and you could do what you wanted to do...

The fleet were rebuilding, the Jedi were spread thin and the Primeval threat was no more real than the Sith. These thoughts and more raced through his head again, sleep evading him as the Temple was quiet for the night, but somehow more active than ever.

...and you could help who you wanted to help.

He had traveled to the heart of Voss to train others in what would be nothing but more failure at his own hands, and aided those once close to him in their own adventures across the stars, all the while feeling empty and helpless, with nowhere to go and nothing to follow.

What if dreams came true...

This wasn't a night like most. He could usually sleep for a few hours, broken only by being restless. Her robes still adorned his floor, the clothes piled in his wardrobe she never wore. The training saber that belonged to her now barre beside his.

...and the world opened up, and you were never, ever afraid?

The heat began to sweep over him, an uncomfortable night fever that started to make him twist and turn, pushing the sheet off to let as much air from the open window reach his scarred torso. Connor had dreams before, visions, but this wasn't like the rest.

What if dreams came true...but dreams do come true.

He could feel her - hear her. This felt...real. She was...here!

Don't they?

His eyes opened, a gasp escaping his lips.

"Chastity."

[member="Chastity Lunelle"]

 

[Zatten Black]

Zatten had never felt quite welcome in the Silver Temple on Voss. It was very obvious that he was a Dark Force user just by the aura he emanated. Add to that the sheer intimidation factor he'd managed to cultivate with his black armor and weaponry, and you had what looked like a rather stereotypical Sith walking around in what was supposed to be the greatest bastion of the Light Side in the Sanctum's territory.​

​

The Zeltrochiss found himself walking in the courtyards, appreciating the natural beauty around him... until a bunch of animals came rushing away from the brush, and past him further into the forest behind him. Knowing that his specific, and slightly demonic, form of Force Body would set off alarms in the tower, he simply concentrated enough to enhance his sight a little bit, the darkness lightening slightly as his eyes turned Chissy red.​

​

Something was there... Just what, though?​

​

[member="Chastity Lunelle"]​

 

[Chastity Lunelle]

The cloaked figure stole through the training grounds, leather boots softly crunching on the gravel. The Voss temple towered before her, a behemoth of the Light. As the woman slunk around to the temple's front entrance, there was something scratching at the back of her mind with its yellowed claws. The feeling of being watched shivered through her spine. With the suddenness of an unwanted flashback, a vision flooded her mind's eye: she and her Master in his bed, entangled in each others arms, serene and peaceful. She ruffled his hair, and they laughed about some clumsy thing she had done during a lesson. She pushed it away with an inner howl. Her eyes darted over her surroundings once more. What was once a familiar setting, the Jedi temple, the gardens resplendent with their lush green grass and waterfalls, now took on the air of an alien landscape. She was an intruder in her own home, a very uninvited guest.

The strangeness overwhelmed her, and for a moment she sat on the stairs, completely nonplussed. She pinched two fingers between her eyes and scrunched up her nose. A ferocious series of blinks came, along with a shake of her head. Then she rose to her feet, her mission once again etched in the stone of her mind.

With each imposing stair, the woman felt surer and surer of her sadistic yearning, which thrummed along with the patter of her quickly beating heart. Eventually she ascended to the top, and, with serpentine grace, slid inside the entrance to the Jedi temple.

[member="Connor Harrison"] [member="Zatten Black"]

 

[George O Rourke]

[member="Chastity Lunelle"] | [member="Zatten Black"] | [member="Connor Harrison"]

With George being new to the Silver Jedi he took every opportunity to learn as much as he could. He had decided to visit the Temple on Voss with some reading material, hoping the light force surrounding the temple would calm his mind and absorb more information. He had sat down in a corner of the temple away from everyone, it was dark and the light of his holopad lite up his face.

George sat there ready through pages of teachings some regarding saber combat other about the force. All was hoping to improve himself as Jedi. He felt good, the reading was making sense and he was understanding it, learning more with every page. However, this began to dull. George was pushed away from the holopad, his mind floating away, but why? George could feel something different, a change in the surroundings. But he couldn't put his finger on. He decided to shut off his holopad, sitting in the dark focusing on what was around. But nothing so far.

 

[Connor Harrison]

Without seeking her aura, she had been lost to him and nearly presumed dead. A slave, sold to some nefarious lord or lady and broken down mentally and physically until nothing but a shell was left. This wasn't the same feeling Connor had experienced since Ziost. She had found her way back, but she somehow wasn't calling to him, and her signature was weak and tainted.

Throwing on his vest and trousers and heavy boots as if going for a night-time run, Connor instead pulled up his com and, after hesitating for a second, his weapon. Leaving the cold sanctuary of his quarters, he activated the com for a signal he trusted - [member="Coci Heavenshield"]. Whether she was around even on Voss was another story.

"Coci, it's me. Chastity's back, but something's not right. She's outside I think, but not letting me know willingly. Be aware."

As he moved towards the main entrance, Connor changed signal on his com once more to reach the Antarian Rangers.

"This is Connor Harrison. Chastity Lunelle is in the vicinity of the Temple grounds. Under no means are you to take lethal force against her, no matter what. Any of you who does will answer to me. Keep her calm and stay with her if you find her."

With a sigh, he signed off and pinched his brow gently, his mind a vipers nest of thoughts. He had that feeling in his stomach, not born of the Force, but the natural reaction of all human instinct when something wasn't right. The Guardians of the Temple, the Jedi keeping watch for security, would know what to do. Skimming his hands down the metallic banister of the lobby stairwell, the peaceful water feature in the center, Connor looked up and saw her.

His skin crawled, because the figure he recognized as Chastity only by her weak Force aura he had bonded with weeks before, wasn't the Chastity he knew. Now, he felt others could well be in danger.

"Chastity - wait there."

He stopped a few steps down, noting that her presence wasn't yet acknowledged by others further inside and she wasn't waiting at all.

[member="Chastity Lunelle"] | [member="Zatten Black"] | [member="George O Rourke"]

 

[Zatten Black]

The Zeltrochiss' red eyes traced a path along the courtyard. He could see the person running, but then she disappeared again in the shadow of the temple. It seemed like a good idea to try to get there before her, so he broke into a run for the door. By the time he got there, she was already gone.​

​

A no-kill order came through the Rangers' signal, which made Zatten smirk. Like he'd been planning to end this game with a loss. Giving up on not raising an alarm that was already raised, he let the rest of his Force Body change complete itself. That felt good. And so, he ran into the temple after the mysterious figure, apparently a Chastity something-or-other.​

​

[member="Connor Harrison"] [member="George O Rourke"] [member="Chastity Lunelle"]​

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

"This is Connor Harrison. Chastity Lunelle is in the vicinity of the Temple grounds. Under no means are you to take lethal force against her, no matter what. Any of you who does will answer to me. Keep her calm and stay with her if you find her."

The signal came in through the droid's open comlink.

As he had powered down, the request initially went into a queue where it was assessed for priority, urgency, and the need for an immediate response. As the signal analysis identified the source of the transmission as Jedi Master [member="Connor Harrison"], it was assigned the highest priority. As it made reference to an intruder, the urgency was immediate. As was the need for an immediate response.

Sitting in a lotus position, the human replica droid was literally plugged into the wall. His power cells recharging, while system diagnostics recycled the buffers and de-fragmented his memory. As such, what should have been a point-two-seven second process instead took well over ten seconds to accomplish.

Waking up, his systems returning to baseline operating condition, the small surgical droid began to pick himself up. Unplugging himself from the wall, the boy grabbed hold of his stun batons as he started out the door of the modest chambers that the Rangers had assigned him. A droid corral would have sufficed, but it appeared that appeasing the social norms of the Silver Jedi was necessary to a degree. Whether by design or simply human nature, there seemed a willingness to treat him as fully human even when such appearances were merely synth-flesh deep.

"Ranger [member="Willa Isard"], we have a situation," the droid transmitted wordlessly, the electronic signal routed through a remote slicer to the Antarian Ranger comlink network. One of the benefits of being a droid. BB didn't have to 'speak' to be heard over a comlink. And, technically, he was never actually 'speaking' even when vocalizing words for organics to hear. It was all electronic signals, organized and broadcast over various mediums. Either resonated as sound waves through air or as electronic signals.

As he made his way out into the temple, the droid was already interfacing with the security databases, recalling the file on a missing padawan from the Ziost mission. Nothing in the file indicated that there ought to be this level of alarm.

But then, nothing in the file suggested as to why a padawan who went missing on Ziost would suddenly be on Voss.

Security recorders were registering movement in the entry level of the temple. Near the courtyard.

Multiple individuals.

With the volume of people inside the Voss Temple, it would be difficult to identify a potential target from merely that rudimentary data. But, as the droid traced back the originating signal of Master Harrison's transmission, it also coincided that the Silver Shadow Master appeared to be headed for the courtyard as well. Stun batons in hand, the small Ranger proceeded through the temple toward what appeared to be the hot spot for the evening.

Or morning.

Or whatever time of day organics would refer to this as.

[member="Zatten Black"] | [member="George O Rourke"] | [member="Chastity Lunelle"]​

 

[Chastity Lunelle]

The woman stood frozen, locking eyes with the Jedi Master, an obstinate frown on her face. This was the man she sought, Connor Harrison. The incessant thrumming of pure Dark Side bloodlust pounded in her head, coaxing her to attack him. Yet, something stopped her. She wasn't sure what it was, but it strongly disobeyed the shrieking in her head.

Another figure appeared, slipping into the open door behind her, a pink-skinned near-human with the eyes of a Chiss. She swiveled herself so that she hugged the wall of the Temple entrance way and could face both of her opponents. Yellow eyes gleamed, her tainted irises a result of falling too fast to the Dark Side. Her Master would not yet know it, but there was powerful Sith poison in her bloodstream. Her arms were hidden by cloak and armorweave, but underneath they were riddled with track marks from a syringe.

Her head whipped back to [member="Connor Harrison"]. There was a suggestion that had been twisted into the woman's mind and made indelible by the influence of the toxins in her bloodstream. The dark urge bubbled up again, overtaking her self-control. Her lightsaber hilt snapped into her hand, and was ignited with a sizzling hum. With an animal growl, the woman rushed towards the Jedi Master, and using the abilities that he himself had taught her, she lunged forth with her red plasma blade aiming to eviscerate him without a care.

[member="BB-4001A"] [member="Zatten Black"] [member="George O Rourke"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Noting the new Knight entering behind her, a flicker of doubt crossed his mind as to why the complicated half-Chiss/half-Zeltron was around after not seeing him for so long, but possibly he had been drawn to the influx of the dark aura that was a security alert for any in the area.

Glancing over, Connor patted his hands down, a sign to stay there at the the door and be ready. As Chastity also stopped, Connor felt the conflict in her to do a great number of things, and all of them near suicidal in a temple of the Silvers. Surrounded by people far more powerful and advanced than her, it was clear her mind had been corrupted by someone...or something.

Taking a couple more steps down, he held his arm out, palm up, as if trying to tame a wild beast; slow steps down, calm in his emotion and no aggression on his face. He started to make out how much older she seemed, a new air of maturity about her that seemed forced, and that sickly glaze over her eyes. So easy to naive could fall. This couldn't be something he should blame himself for...he couldn't...could he? Disappointment didn't come close to how he felt.

As a few more figures came into view, and most backed away at the hostile situation, Connor felt the pull of the Force before be saw her hilt fly into her palm and the crimson blade snap into life. She was making herself an enemy, and now she was taking hostile action on dangerous ground. The Jedi Master turned sideways and pushed his feet down as he brought up his other arm as she ran and bounded out a wall of Force energy towards her, eyes furrowing with a new sense of determination and methods to avoid hurting her as much as possible.

The first thing was to knock her back and down, and disarm her - quick, before things started to get nasty and dangerous for everyone. Especially Chastity.

[member="Chastity Lunelle"] | [member="Zatten Black"] | [member="George O Rourke"] | [member=BB-4001A]

 

[Zatten Black]

Zatten's eyes narrowed as Harrison appeared, and then Chastity drew her weapons. Trying to corral her with Force blasts wasn't going to do anything, except maybe make her more aggressive. Not that the Zeltrochiss' plan was any better. Pinning her down would most likely require most of his strength, and he'd only be able to stop one hand from moving. Well, whatever works, right?​

​

With one hand, he drew his lightsaber without igniting it, and with the other he made a gripping motion towards the woman's lightsaber, intending to either pin her arm in place, or rip the weapon from her grip. He didn't know if it would work midair, but he hoped so, because it didn't look like she was going to stop.​

​

[member="Connor Harrison"] [member="Chastity Lunelle"] [member="BB-4001A"] [member="George O Rourke"]​

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

The courtyard was coming into view, as the compact Afro Ranger came sprinting from out of the guard quarters.

Already there seemed to be quite the commotion. A pink-skinned male with dark hair, whose physical characteristics matched the identicard data on file for a Zeltron-Chiss hybrid. Designation '[member="Zatten Black"]'. This man had his arm outstretched, his lightsaber at the ready, in a pose that seemed to suggest that he was using a Force ability of some kind against someone.

But who? Or what?

By design, the droid was programmed to assume all Jedi were friendly, and to act in support.

With that in mind, you can imagine that it was a little confusing for droid processors, which followed a set of programmed variables, to try and follow what was his visual scanners picked up when the small boy had stopped next to the Zeltronchiss. Jedi Master [member="Connor Harrison"] was making a series of nonverbal gestures, all of which were directed with what appeared to be the intention of calming Jedi Padawan [member="Chastity Lunelle"].

...who ignited a lightsaber and rushed at the Jedi Master.

BB was programmed to respond and handle people attacking Jedi.

BB was programmed to respond to known Sith or unknown Force Users attacking Jedi.

But... known friendly Jedi attacking Jedi? This did not compute.

"A little late for training, isn't it?" the droid vocalized, talking quietly up to Zatten beside him. Unless a Jedi declared Chastity to be hostile, then the droid's program demanded that he make no negative assumptions about the padawan's behavior - bizarre as it may be.

Still, he held the stun batons out in front of them. They would not deflect a strike from a lightsaber, but if the droid could get in close enough they would be sufficient to render the human unconscious without damaging any major organs or the nervous system.

[member="George O Rourke"]​

 

[George O Rourke]

[member="BB-4001A"] | [member="Zatten Black"] | [member="Connor Harrison"] | [member="Chastity Lunelle"]

As George sat crossed legged on the floor trying to figure out what it was that had disturbed him he heard noises coming from a room near by. As he stood a sudden chill came over him, something was wrong. As George quietly moved around the temple he could feel the disturbance in the force more and more, he could feel the dark trying to fight the light. However in a Temple of Light this would be an extremely large problem.

As he moved towards the room two figures could be seen at the doorway, what seemed to be a purple skin fellow and a short man with an afro. The little droid man. He though to himself recognising them. As George moved closer to the doorway he began to see the commotion that was unfolding. "Who is that with Maser Connor?" He whispered to the pair of them. "Is she a Sith? How did she get here?" He had more questions, but though now wasn't the right time.

 

[Chastity Lunelle]

As every tainted cell in her body urged Chastity to destroy her Master completely, two things happened to her. The first thing was a powerful Force repulse that burst from her Master's palm. The punishing wall of pure energy hit her square in the chest and sent her sprawling to the ground. The second thing was the pinning of her lightsaber arm to the ground, immobilizing it. A long animal hiss escaped her lips, and her free hand clawed at the ground. Her entire body pulsed with the Dark Side of the Force. Like a blot of ink in a clear pool of water, her aura yearned to spread through the Temple, and pervert the Light Side with its contagion.

At this point, a small crowd of Silvers had amassed. They might as well have been invisible. The Sith poison left her blinded by the hatred that trickled through her veins, and deafened by the thumping of her own black heart.

[member="Connor Harrison"] [member="George O Rourke"] [member="BB-4001A"] [member="Zatten Black"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

A perfect unison of Force energy from the Chiss-tron Knight and the Master took Chastity back, over and pinned down as he had wanted. The crimson blade was gripped in her palm, humming with a lust for death as much as her physical bucking and growling was. This girl was not Chastity.

Connor ignored the crowd, watching in fear at the apparent Dark Jedi. The Rangers were few in numbers thankfully around the situation, as it was something that could be contained, but confidence to the Padawans and Knights of the Order had to be maintained, and to show the temple was secure.

Moving fast, Connor didn’t see her as the girl he had fallen for, but as a dangerous enemy who had to be subdued. He ran around and felt her sickly aura emanating rage. Kneeling behind her, he cut his emotion and acted – wrapping one arm around her neck and holding her head with the other, he pushed forward in a tight grasp that would steadily cut off her air supply and render her unconscious in moments.

Chastity fought him, but he simply looked up at the water feature, ignoring everything and feeling nothing as he did what he had to do. She either killed herself and others in the process, or Connor risked anything from a seizure, a coma or death. It felt like minutes, but it was seconds, and her body went limp in his grip, and at that point Connor let out a breath and released her, laying her head back gently, taking in a face he had missed, but couldn’t connect with as it wasn’t her…was it?

"Zatten," he looked up at the Chiss-tron, "thank you. Get this place back to normal, thin the crowds and keep an eye out."

He caught the eye of the Afro Ranger. "BB, ensure there is no other unwanted presence outside of this Temple waiting for her."

Shifting his position, he took Chastity in his arms and stood, looking over to face he knew well. "George, if anyone asks, you don’t tell. I’ve got it under control and the less panic we can spread amongst others the better."

The three individuals would be remembered, and Connor knew they would be useful once he could find out who, and what, was behind the corruption of the Padawan he now carried to the restraining bay.

[member="Chastity Lunelle"] | [member="Zatten Black"] | [member="George O Rourke"] | [member="BB-4001A"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Connor Harrison"] [member="George O Rourke"] [member=BB-4001A] [member="Zatten Black"]

Being a stalwart wandering Jedi, Vassara found herself at the Temple of Light on Voss. What she was not expecting was the sudden burst of dark energies that washed across the place. She rose from her seat, and stretched. The Datacron she was reading snapped off and she returned it to the shelf before heading out.

The young spacers boots made a steady beat across the floors as she made her way to the source. following a bread crumb trail proved to be a little difficult but stern senses built up from year in the void aided her along the way. It was not long before she came upon the scene. Two or three people milled about. Master Harrison, some Padawans she had not yet met and there was an unconscious girl..

Slowly she crept forwards hearing Master Harrison speak. As he assigned the detail to BB she spoke up.

"I'll go with him. Could use a walk myself, besides company is always good."

Her hand strayed instinctively to her back, drawing her combat shotgun from its leather sheath and holding it with the muzzle to the floor. She didn't ask questions. One thing about growing up as an Outlaw spacer, was questions got you killed, or worse mixed up where you didn't belong.

No for now the young Warden would simply assist...

 

[Zatten Black]

"No problem, Harrison. Least I got some practice out of this mess."​

​

That might've sounded a little bit rude, but Zatten wasn't exactly the most respectful person when it came to authority figures. He was about to walk away, towards the security systems to transmit an all-clear, before he looked over his shoulder as an afterthought.​

​

"If you find something... alchemical, I'd be quite interested to see it."​

​

He began walking towards the security rooms, deactivating alarms and sounding the all-clear as he let the adrenaline drop away along with his Force Body transformation. His breathing relaxed, and his muscles felt stiff from the few short minutes of concentration it'd taken to pin that woman's arm down. As the others went away, he caught the sense of the Padawan passing him.​

​

"Hey, kid... Mind stopping for a moment?"​

​

[member="BB-4001A"] [member="Chastity Lunelle"] [member="Connor Harrison"] [member="George O Rourke"] [member='Vassara Raxis']​

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

The command from the Jedi Master was immediate cataloged and prioritized.

"As you wish," the droid responded, even as his remote slicer was already in the process of transmitting new directives out the security protocols and patrols that were already in place. It was some beneficial that the small Ranger was able to be two places at once. Fully in the present in his physical location, and simultaneously 'talking' to the security droids and Ranger comlink network.

Tucking the stun batons into their holsters on his belt, the boy prepared to take his leave. Turning back toward the Jedi, the small figure asked, "Will you require the services of a medical droid, sir?"

More than likely, the Jedi Master would summon one of the Silver Sages. But it would go against his programming as a medical droid to depart the scene without asking if any assistance was required.

[member="George O Rourke"] | [member="Zatten Black"] | [member="Vassara Raxis"] | [member="Connor Harrison"] | [member="Chastity Lunelle"]​

 

[George O Rourke]

[member="BB-4001A"] | [member="Zatten Black"] | [member="Vassara Raxis"] | [member="Connor Harrison"] | [member="Chastity Lunelle"]

As George watched on as the Jedi surrounding him managed to subdue the woman. As the situation was under control Master Conner being the superior started delegating orders. He said to George to keep it quite, and not to let anyone know what had happened. "Yes Master Conner." He replied as he moved away from the situation. As he left the area he heard a voice... Whos voice? He turned around to see purple Zeltron-Chiss hybrid. 'Yes, what can I do for you." He replied, slightly unsure of what has happening.