Private Don't Panic!

[Ordo]

The tear in the fabric of reality closed slowly behind them as He let go of the woman and let her drop. The tear stitched itself up like a slowly climbing zipper before it was just a memory for any who may have seen it, the universe pointedly ignoring that it had ever existed in the first place. The force was distant here. The suffusing engery of all things reluctant to pierce the bastion of sheer will that held sway in this place.

The walls were seamless stone, dull greys and mottled earth tones at first glance with the speckled facets of old granite. The high ceiling was nothing but a dark recess so far away the light from the dim sconces didn't touch it. The air was warm with a steady humidity and the smell of fresh turned earth that brought was more reminiscent of a farmer's field than a stone hall. The Mandalorian turned away to a raised throne and removed His helmet and sat it on a rack for its specific use. His gauntlets He removed exposing scar riddled hands and forearms and sat them on the arms of His seat before He settled Himself down.

He looked at the woman as she took in her new situation, distant grey-green eyes with a yellow sunburst around the pupils seemed to stare more through her than at her.

"What's your name girl?" He said as those hard eyes focused on hers, His voice the bass growl that filled the hall effortlessly. A simple question. That was all He offered.

Revna

 

[Revna]

Tags: Ordo


Reality returned to Revna almost as swiftly as it had disappeared, and she felt the strong grip that had been holding her loosen, dropping her unceremoniously. Her agility and reflexes gave her the chance to catch herself so she didn’t crumble to the ground in a heap, and instinctively she launched herself in a direction away from whoever or whatever had grabbed her, whipping around to take in her new surroundings: gray and earthen toned stone walls, a ceiling that disappeared into darkness, the scent of fresh earth that clung to the heavy, humid air, and the dim light that was provided by sconces.

…and of course the absolute behemoth of a man who was removing his helm and setting it away, before removing his gauntlets and taking a seat on a raised platform that Revna quickly realized was a throne.

Who the feth was this man?! Why had he taken her, of all people? In fact...where in the nine hells was she?

What…in the ever loving kark was going on here?

Revna studied her captor, taking everything in about him that she could. She noticed the myriad of scars on the visible skin that was exposed, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was staring down a warrior of unknown might and strength. A dozen thoughts went through her head, and she choked her storming emotions back by sheer discipline, even though she wanted nothing more than to shower this man with her Force lightning. Strangely enough, she noticed that the Force felt…distant here. Wherever here was. Like someone or something had put a blanket over it, blocking the majority of her connection to the Force. She still felt something, but she knew anything beyond the most basic of Force skills would be useless here.

Definitely a problem, but one she could deal with and handle as she had done so before throughout the many years she’d been a slave.

Eventually, her stormy eyes laced with the gold of the Dark side stared back into his own stony gaze as he appeared to stare through her. He was staring her down like one would a potential enemy, and she returned the glare fearlessly in kind. She didn’t know what was going to happen next, but she didn't want her potential last moments to be cowering away in fear.

The man on his throne spoke, demanding her name, his voice deep and growling - a sound that reverberated through her chest like thunder. She huffed sharply, still staring him down with a growing defiance that was rising up within her. No way in chaos was she giving this man what he wanted from her…not willingly, anyway.

“I’m not surrendering my name to you, boy.” She hissed through clenched teeth, taking a couple slow steps towards him, calling him boy in the same manner that he referred to her as ‘girl’ and not caring if it offended him or not. "Release me." she growled, still staring him down in an almost challenging way. She knew she was playing with fire; this man could probably crush her skull with one hand and without much effort...but she didn't give a crap about that in the moment. She didn't know if she was going to die here...and she would be damned if she was going to be a coward in the face of death. So she stood her ground, defiant and fiery, for better or worse.

 

[Ordo]

Revna

He sat watching. He didn't move as she built up to her decision about what she would say. He didn't interrupt as she let her anger and defiance build. She had chosen to die on her feet. Admirable. Stupid. But Admirable. He lofted one scarred brow as she spat her response. And pursed His lips for a moment before He nodded in resignation.

"That's fine, Dara." He said as He adopted an understanding tone, "I'll just be boy and you can be girl."

He slowly leaned forward and rested His elbows on His knees. His eyes slowly turned black and began dripping obsidian tears. As chains of beskar sprung like lighting from the ground to entangle her ankles, wrist, and waist before His eyes returned to normal and wiped His face.

"But no." He spoke again His voice echoing like the threat of a coastal storm, "No release yet."

He slowly stood. He was ready regardless of what she chose. Maybe they would learn the limits of her defiance together.

 

[Revna]

Ordo


Dara.

Revna blinked in surprise as coldness washed over her skin, chilling her to the bone. How in the feth does he know my birth name? She asked of herself in silence, uncertainty already trying to claw its way into her. She was stunned enough that she hadn’t really heard what he said afterwards…something about boy and girl.

Get your chit together. He’s just trying to get under your skin, echoed her conscience in the back of her head.

The look of surprise returned to that of stony coldness, her momentary shock reverting back to her former attitude of defiance. She watched the giant of a man lean forward, her fierce gaze never leaving his face, though she tilted her head slightly to the right at the sight she beheld a moment later.

A chill raced over her spine again, a distinct feeling that something was…wrong. Or about to go wrong. For her.

His gray-green eyes with the golden burst turned to pitch, and inky tears fell to the ground at his feet. And without warning, chains erupted from the ground around her, snaking towards her with lightning speed, faster than her own reaction time. She tried to avoid their grasp, but she knew it was all over when she felt the cold metal enclose around one wrist and ankle, capturing her and holding her as the others wrapped around her with a cold finality, pinning her in place.

It was like an antelope trying to flee from the leopard that was already slapping it into the ground.

Rage, undiluted, flooded every fiber of her being…the heat of it flashing away the icy chill that had draped itself over her just moments prior. Memories, trauma induced from her years of being enslaved, of being in chains…washed over her, and a deep hatred intermingled with the fierce anger she felt. She struggled against the chains, but they were tight and she knew she was only wasting precious energy in trying to free herself.

At least there wasn’t a chain collar around her throat…

The small Acolyte went still as a statue, the clink of and rattling of chains going silent as well, as she returned her fiery gaze to the man before her. He denied her demand for him to free her, as she knew he would. But she was quick to catch on to the word “yet”.

She watched him as he rose to his feet, and her heart started racing a bit faster.

“Dara is dead. She died a long time ago. So how did you come by that name?” she hissed again, trying to understand just how in the world this mysterious man had come across the name that her dead mother had given her.

But…she also had a feeling that the name was going to become the least of her worries here shortly. As it had in the past, her defiant nature was sure to land her in some deep trouble. She prepared herself, still unsure of what was to come…but she had to endure.

She would not bend, she would not break. She couldn’t.

At least…she hoped she wouldn’t.

 

[Ordo]

“Dara is dead. She died a long time ago. So how did you come by that name?”

..."Mark her, put her in a force collar, and have her sent to my chambers." The dark lord said as He taunted Ordo from inside the Mandalorian's own head about his intent, "I will follow soon."
'NO!' Ordo screamed from deep within his own mind as He watched the priestess of Vahl smile and move to obey...

"Dara? Elara's daughter?" He shook His head sadly, "That is a shame, Girl. I'm sorry for your loss."

He stood and gestured at the woman who now appeared in slave's vestments. He was surprised Himself she had taken to them so quickly.

"You do look like her though, so please, forgive my mistake." He took a step down from from the throne and for a moment He was framed by a battlefield, fires and smoke burned around Him and screams of friend and foe echoed through the chamber.

Another step.

Another flash of a dead comrade in His arms as He offered them the last mercy left for the slowly dying.

Another step.

Another battlefield.

More death.
More fires.

More...War...Unending War.

"Because I think, Dara Sharr and I could have had a conversation." He said as another flash showed a giant of a man stripped bare from all other than thick chains as He pushed a block of stone up a hill, "One former slave to another."

He lifted a collar that hadn't been in His hand a moment ago.

"She and I would have agreed that things like this don't belong on people like us." He let the collar fall at Her feet and roll to a stop, "But, Girl, who isn't Dara, seems to like watching my people be treated like animals, put in pens, right? Maybe, Girl needs to learn what Dara could have told her for free? Hmm?"

The collar was in His hand again.

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


How did he know of her mother?

Though the anger and the bitter hate she felt at being bound back in chains still boiled through her, a spike of apprehension needled through Revna.

“Who are you, to have come by the knowledge of my dead mother? Were you perhaps the one who forced her into slavery?” she hissed again, her lips pulling back slightly in a snarl that contorted her face.

The towering man began to move towards her, step by slow step, and an almost primal growl rumbled through her chest and from her throat. Her mind was screaming at her to…stop. To just be…compliant.

No, she retorted back to the voice of her common sense. She was angry; she was bitter; she was aggressive…she was…

Alone.

Those she knew, those she cared about…were not here with her. They could not help her. She was truly on her own right now to face this man, to face whatever he had planned for her. Would they come for her? Darth Malum of House Marr and her Mentor, Darth Strosius ? Her new family? Or would they abandon her here to her fate? If she wasn't strong enough to free herself from this...then was she even worthy?

He spoke again, his deep rumble once more vibrating her entire body, almost. His words brought the slight bit of a frown to her brow…what did he mean by this? One slave to another? Had…had he been a slave at one point in his life as well?

He lifted a giant hand, and in it sat a slave’s collar…one that hadn’t been there before. Her fury-filled eyes landed on the piece of metal in his hand, and her entire body went rigid. He spoke to her again, saying that such things didn’t belong on people like him and her, that her former self - Dara - could have perhaps had a conversation with him, come to an agreement.

The collar fell from his hand to hit the ground between them, coming to a stop at her feet, and her eyes followed it before she raised her face to stare at him once again, still full of fire. His words rumbled forth, and she snorted. She…liked seeing his people treated like animals? That she should learn what her former self could have told her?

Revna saw something in his hand again, and her gaze flickered to see the collar there once more. She stared at it hard, almost as if to wish it out of existence.

“I’m not a damn girl. I’m a grown ass woman. And I don’t know what you’re talking about; I don't even know who the feth you are.” she snarled icily. But despite the fiery rebellion she felt towards him for what he was doing in the moment…she still felt a tremble of dread ripple through her small frame, making the chains holding her rattle and clink ever so slightly.

“And you seem to like tormenting people for fun.” She spat on the ground at his feet. “Kark you. Your little game you’re playing won’t work on me.”

It was a bluff. The only thing Revna feared more than the pain of death, was the feeling of the cold chains of enslavement wrapping around her again, the loss of her freedom that came with the click of the collar. She would rather die than ever live through that nightmare again.

 

[Ordo]

“Who are you, to have come by the knowledge of my dead mother? Were you perhaps the one who forced her into slavery?”

CLICK

The clasp of the collar sounded between His thumb and forefinger as she began her show of defiance. Her stand against His attempts to rattle her. He would have just talked and asked His questions, but that defiance screamed at Him to establish an order to things.

“I’m not a damn girl. I’m a grown ass woman. And I don’t know what you’re talking about; I don't even know who the feth you are.”

CLICK

The collar opened and closed again as He looked deeply into her eyes. Their was no heat in His steady gaze. He couldn't even muster mock maliciousness. Her mother likely was one of the handmaidens that had served His former high priestess advisor, or even her grandmother on one side or another, if her apparent age was anything to go by.

“And you seem to like tormenting people for fun.”

CLICK CLICK

The collar opened and closed quickly as He waited for Her to run out of steam or pause in Her counter attack of wills.

“Kark you. Your little game you’re playing won’t work on me.”

CLICK

The collar opened and rested in His thick fingered hand as He stepped closer and looked down at her.

"Are you done?" He asked seemingly unfazed, "Last chance, Grown ass woman. Tell me your name."

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


The collar in his hand clicked open and closed, a sound that made her flinch slightly each time. Her captor continued to stare her down as she spat her venom his way before she fell silent, still glaring at him, her gaze occasionally flickering to the collar that he kept in his hand.

She was unnerved, she was angry, she was…digging herself a deeper hole, and she knew it. There was silence between them, between captor and prisoner, for a few heartbeats, before he stepped closer to where she was bound, staring down at her seemingly unfazed by her antics.

He spoke again. Was she done with her little rant? Force, no. He gave her a last chance, and demanded her name again. A last chance before…what?

Revna hesitated, the silence stretching on for a few more heartbeats. She weighed the choice before her: did she crack and give him her name? Or did she continue to test the limit of his patience?

So far, he hadn’t exactly done anything against her except bind her in chains and perhaps very mildly tormented her. She’d handled worse before…a lot worse.

The little woman snorted again and clenched her jaw, staring back into his eyes, his face.

“I’m not afraid of you.” she growled, a lie - mostly. “And I’m not giving you my name.”

Not willingly, anyway.

 

[Ordo]

“I’m not afraid of you.” she growled, a lie - mostly. “And I’m not giving you my name.”

He leaned down.

CLICK

The dim lighting flickered.

CLICK

"You could leave you know." He said as He leaned down by her ear, "You could answer a few questions, ask a few of your own, and be gone. Purely transactional. You could forget this like a terrible dream."

He leaned back and held the open collar in front of her neck.

"You have a companion." He began, "He likes history, very studious. Maybe, I'll just give you some of my history...to take back to him."

He touched the collar to her skin and she was feeling an old memory. A time when he was made to pay by a sith...

He felt the spike of red hot metal being driven through him burning him from the inside.

The big man pitched forward, emptying the contents of his empty stomach onto the ground as he clutched the duracrete. He felt his bones ache, his head spin, and he fought the urge to collapse. Veins, stood out like over stuffed sausage primed to burst on his face as it took on a dark reddish hue. His already thick neck strained, thick cords of muscle and tendon fought against the skin as he suddenly found himself clinging to life despite his earlier assertions of not fearing it.

In a moment that felt as if it were an eternity he found himself wanting to tell his family good bye one last time. The pain, and revolting muscles slowly gave way as the spike was removed. His head hung low as spittle and mucus hung in a string from his quivering lips...


He moved the collar away.

CLICK

"Name?" He asked again.

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


Revna stiffened as the towering man leaned down closer to her, the collar in his hand still clicking open and close in what she assumed was his attempt at intimidating her.

The dim lights within the chamber flickered, and her pulse picked up a bit more and her breath hitched slightly as brought his face close to her ear, telling her that she could leave if only she answered a few questions of his. He even mentioned that she could ask her own questions, a transaction between them.

He leaned back away from her, and brought the collar in his hand towards her neck. She tried to pull herself away as best she could, growling again in her chest - almost like some kind of feral animal - though she listened to his words as she had no other choice.

A companion? Someone who loved history? Was he speaking about…Malum?

The giant man said something about giving her some of his history to take back to her companion…and before she could truly understand what he was talking about, he laid the collar against her flesh.

Immediately, Revna was reliving a memory that wasn’t hers, and she felt everything as if it was being done to her. Agony rippled through her, and nausea consumed her. She suffered as he suffered, and it only grew worse as the moments passed. Dread filled her, and a desperate need to break free, to get away…overwhelmed her senses.

Darkness very nearly consumed her…before the memory faded as the collar was pulled away from her skin. Revna felt herself go slightly limp in the chains that held her up; she was breathing heavily, and she blinked as her senses returned to her, though the anger and the hate in her eyes was now gone, replaced by…dread.

She’d been physically tortured before; her body bore the scars of her punishments, her suffering as a slave…but this mental torment was something else.

…Now she had an idea of what her former slave-master Voss might have felt when she had forced him to relive his worst memories and nightmares when she had attempted to kill him to free herself of him.

The young woman was silent for a moment, though she flinched much more noticeably when the collar clicked in his hand again, and asked yet again for her name. Her eyes shifted from side to side, keeping her gaze averted from his. Was…was she cracking so soon?

It would be wiser for her to just…give him what he was looking for. She could be free from this if she only just told him her name, and answered whatever questions he asked of her. She opened her mouth slightly, almost as if to speak…but clamped it shut once more. Revna forced herself to look back at him, the dread in her eyes replaced again by a cold hardness.

“You would…let me go…if I answered your questions? For some reason…I don’t believe you.”

Her lip curled slightly, and a cruel glint danced in her eyes. “And if you had been stronger, perhaps you wouldn’t have had such a terrible memory to begin with. All I saw from that was weakness…pathetic.”

It was a mean spirited thing to say to the man before her; truthfully, she didn’t know the background behind why he would have suffered such things. He didn’t have to share it with her, to make her relive that memory, that pain…yet he had. Her words were nothing more than barbs, jabbed at him in retaliation to the mental torment he had imposed upon her.

“You figured out my birth name…surely you are smart enough to figure out my true name, you big bastard. Nice try though.”

 

[Ordo]

“You figured out my birth name…surely you are smart enough to figure out my true name, you big bastard. Nice try though.”

"More history lessons?" He asked as if she had asked for it, "As you wish. Maybe one about Carnifex? You should enjoy that."

He reached up and held the collar around her neck without locking it.

Rearranged in their proper configuration, the Emperor's scientists and homunculi worked tirelessly to prepare the bones for their intended purpose. Unable or unwilling to remove the Beskar coating, the scientists continued on as they prepared a great number of machines to reconstitute the fallen warrior's flesh. Over the course of many hours, Ordo was meticulously reconstructed with bio-organic muscle, organs, and skin, each layer being constructed one at a time over the Beskar bones. When all was said and done, the naked body of Ordo laid solemn and still on the slab.

Pain, that was everything. The cold hard slab against his skin was no more soothing than white phosphorus being pumped through his veins. Every fiber, every tissue of his body felt as if it was being simultaneously stabbed with searing electric pain to the rhythm of his pounding heart. Existence was pain. Pain was truth...

He didn't scream as he tried to open his eyes. His lungs felt like they would burst if he tried to do more than lay still. The dim light of the antiseptic clouded room was too much for his eyes anyway. His muscles twitched randomly as his mind and body tried to synchronize signals, and with each twitch the pain radiated through him more. Distant memories tried to come to the forefront of his thoughts each one dashed away by the agony that was being. Anger began then. Anger at the pain of existence. Anger at whatever caused it. Then hate bubbled to the surface like trapped gases beneath the boggy muck of his soul. With the hate came relief. A strange numbing as the rage cooled and the cold calculating hate solidified around his nerves. It was a skill a power he had once had, somewhere in the depths of his mind he knew this to be truth. But when he tried to grasp the memory it slipped through his fingers as if he was grasping at smoke.

He removed the collar. He wondered how she would handle the feeling of being rebuilt and having your bones filled with molten beskar? Would she even remember her name?

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


Her face drained when she heard the name of Carnifex fall from his lips. Were…were these two connected somehow?

She didn’t have time to process that information much further before the collar touched her skin again, and her existence became a living nightmare, induced through yet another memory.

This time…it was worse. And once again, she relived everything, and felt everything that he had endured. It was impossible to think or to try and understand what she was seeing through the agony that set her entire body on fire. She recoiled violently, trying to get away…but there was no escape from this. Not until he gave her an escape.

Revna was clinging to consciousness when the collar was mercifully pulled away, and the suffering faded. She trembled in earnest now as clarity of her situation came over her. This…this was true torture. And she’d brought it on herself. She was the only one to blame for this occurring to her. She was the one in control of whether it would continue…or end.

There was silence for a long time, as the small woman tried to wrap her mind around what just happened, what she had just seen. This man before her…he’d…

He had been dead. Yet now he lived? And…Carnifex had been responsible for this?

Despite her situation…Revna found herself rather…morbidly curious about how such a thing could be done. Surely the work of the Darkside…right?

The young Sith realized that she was way in over her head with this, and her defiant nature was only going to bring her to ruin. She felt sick; would giving in to what he wanted from her be a sign of weakness, or an act of belated wisdom on her part?

All this is happening because you won’t give him your name.

Names had power though. And she didn’t…want him to have that kind of power over her. And if he was connected somehow to the Butcher King then she sure as chit didn’t want him having knowledge of her name. But there was no way out of this, no way around it.

She shook her head, barely, almost unable to hold herself up on her own feet, and the weight of the chains were threatening to pull her down to the ground. Her head was bowed, haunted eyes staring at the ground at the man’s feet.

He’d won…for now.

“Revna.” She murmured, her voice toneless, giving him the name that the Voice of the Dark had given her so long ago. She still did not look up at the giant man before her. She couldn’t bring herself to do so.

She felt…ashamed…for giving this to him so soon.

But at least she had learned something for herself from this situation; she now realized just how effective psychological torture was against others. Definitely something she could utilize in the future for her own purposes.

If…she lived that long.

 

[Ordo]

"Revna." He said, His tone far softer. The beads of sweat that had appeared on His brow quickly evaporated with a briefly applied force of will. "Look at me, Revna."

She still did not look up at the giant man before her. She couldn’t bring herself to do so.

"Revna," He repeated as a scar riddled hand rose and pressed Her chin up lightly with a finger tip. "Look at me."

He looked down at her. He had felt the pain before. It was an old friend now. A constant reminder of what He was and what the sith were willing to do to a person if it benefited them. He felt sorry for her. His memory of the pain had dulled consciously. The grinding of the beskar still wrapped around His skeleton, hurt constantly but it was amazing what a person could get used to. He cupped His huge hand beneath her chin gently as He looked at Her. Maybe He would keep her. Train her Himself before she became yet another mindless follower clinging with giddiness to another’s robes. Maybe He would just leave her here. He wasn't sure yet. He waited until she met His eyes.

"You can ask a question now, Revna." He said calmly, "That was the deal."

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


He called her name. Told her to look at him. She heard him…but she didn’t respond. She didn’t move, not until a scarred hand reached up to take hold of her chin, forcing her head up so that she had no choice but to look into the face of her tormentor.

Her stormy-blue eyes with the starburst of gold stared back into his eyes, his face. There was pain in her eyes, the lingering expression of what she had just experienced through the vision. But the longer she stared at him, the more the familiar fire began to return, as if her awareness of where she was and what was happening was coming back to her.

Her captor seemed to be contemplating something as he looked down at her, and the silence stretched on for a few tense heartbeats. He was kind enough to let her know that she could ask her own questions of him at that point…that it had been part of the deal.

She jerked her chin out of his hand. “Touch me again and I’ll fething bite you.” she snarled, before she closed her eyes as if to will the recent traumatic memories away from her, blocking them out the same way she had hardened herself towards her torment when enslaved.

“What do you want from me? And how the kark do you know my mother? And what connection do you have with him…the Butcher?” she asked of the scarred warrior before her, her tone sharp and cold…demanding, even.

Like she was in any place to demand things from her captor…but that didn't stop her from doing so.

 

[Ordo]

He let His lips peel back into a rare smile as His eyes lit up with the fire of challenge. That unyielding spirit that got Him through so many of the tortures He had survived. The yellow sunburst around his pupils seemed to glitter with a metallic sheen for a moment in the light of the sconces as His grey-green eyes met hers. Like two pairs of lightning laced storm fronts on a collision course that could only end in a hurricane.

He moved.

His hand was around her small throat so quickly it left after images in it's wake. He held her for only a moment His smile still wide. He gave a small squeeze and let go.

"Good girl, Revna." He said as He turned away. His Armor seemed to lose cohesion for a moment before it seemed to be absorbed into the black armorweave undersuit. "KEEP THAT FETHING FIRE!"

His voice seemed to shake the very foundations of the place before He sat back down.

In a moment, a blink, a fraction of a thought they were seated across from eachother. The chains were gone. The throne was now two beskar chairs separated by a small stone table. He rested His thick forearms of the edge of the same sparkling stone as the collums and walls.

"Your mother died while I was in the Netherworld. I offered her Cin Vhettin then rather than destory her as I had to do to many lost creatures in that place. The rest was a damn striking resemblance and a very long memory." He said as if they hadn't been engaged in a battle of wills a moment ago. "She spoke of you, but she didn't mention you were a sithlette."

He leaned back slightly and rolled His shoulders.

"Butcher?" He said with a chuckle, "Carnifex, as you know him was a very ambitious Sith Knight when I first met Him and We have been fighting one another off and on for the better part of the last century. He brought me back from the netherworld, as you experienced, forcibly once to fight for Him. I came back this time willingly to help my people only to find your people have all but wiped them out. I'll kill Kaine someday and bring him back so we can go at it again, but until then we'll have our games back and forth."

He paused a beat.

"Tell me about Malum Marr."

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


She stared him down, fire meeting fire, storm against storm. He smiled, and something in the back of Revna’s mind felt…unnerved. The tension was thick, and a stray thought of her smashing her head against his face slipped through her mind, though she ignored it. That would be incredibly unwise of her…especially if his bones were made of or infused with beskar. She’d probably cave in her own skull in her foolish attempt at being a pain in his ass.

He moved with lightning speed, and one giant hand gripped her throat. Her heart lurched violently in her chest as a mixture of fear, surprise, then indignant anger filled her eyes, rippled across her small pale face. He gave a slight squeeze, just enough that she could feel and hear her pulse in her ears, before he released her.

Her face flamed hot and red with his words of ‘good girl’. She hadn’t heard those words, spoken like that, for months. White hot rage flashed through her again, but she exercised the lessons her Mentor had taught her and she brought it under control, willing that fury to bow and simmer back inside her soul.

Revna watched him turn away, his armor seeming to just…vanish as it was replaced by the black armorweave he wore underneath it, his thundering voice echoing through the chamber as he told…encouraged?...her to keep the fire that burned so hot within her. The whole place rattled with the depth of his voice, the loudness of it making her flinch slightly.

Suddenly, she found herself free of the chains. She found herself sitting on a chair, at a table across from him, though she never felt herself move and never felt the chains lose their grip upon her.

What sort of sorcery was this? She pondered to herself. Despite her circumstances, her hunger to learn new things desperately wanted to know how he was doing this. She wanted to learn this…whatever it was.

You would learn from your greatest enemies if you could…wouldn’t you? Can’t resist the taste of power…of knowledge…

The Voice of the Dark slithered through her mind, seemingly awakened from its rest within her spirit, coiling through her like some blackened serpent. She could always count on it being there, lurking within. She ignored it as she took in her new situation, only her eyes moving as she sat still as a stone in her chair.

The warrior rested his muscled arms against the stone table, and her gaze shifted back to his face. She was silent as she stared at him, unsure of why he had released her. She hadn’t been expecting that.

Truthfully…she didn’t really know what to expect, except perhaps death. And she had come to terms with that already. She didn’t…want to die, but she hoped he would at least give her the chance to die fighting if he decided her life was forfeit by the end of this.

Maybe she could see her mother again?

Revna, so small compared to the giant warrior before her, listened as he answered her questions. Though still stony and ready to fight should she need to, she remained respectfully quiet, letting him speak without interruption. He may be her captor, and she his prisoner, but she had some manners. Though as she listened to him her icy demeanor slowly gave way to one of confusion, of curiosity.

She’d never heard of the Netherworld before. And he’d met…her mother there after she died? She made a mental note to ask him about whatever this ‘Cin Vhettin’ was, curious to know what he meant by this.

Revna’s stony facade cracked when he said that her mother had spoken about her, though she wasn’t surprised to hear that her mother didn’t mention she had become a Sith…or at least was trying to become one. Pain reflected in her haunted eyes as she recalled those last memories with her mother before…

“She…died before I sought out the Sith. She tried to keep my…Sensitivity to the Force a secret.” Revna murmured, pausing a moment before a frown creased her brow. “What…what does that term you used mean? ‘Cin Vhettin’?”

The little paused a moment, her attention back on the giant before her as he continued, and she couldn’t help the slight sneer of disdain pass over her face at the mention of Carnifex. She could feign disgust, hate, and anger towards the infamous Sith Lord…but the truth was Revna was afraid of ever coming across him. She knew she would, one day…it was inevitable that they would cross paths at some point, but the idea truly unnerved her. Perhaps that was because she was a young Sith and though she may be a bit…stronger than some Acolytes in her Force strength, her abilities, she was nothing compared to the might and strength of a Sith who’d lived far longer than she had, who had pushed the boundaries of what a Sith could do with the Darkside. She was both afraid…and envious.

“Aren’t all us Sith ambitious to some degree?” she voiced quietly, reflectively. It came as no surprise to her to hear that the Butcher King had forced this man back alive for his own nefarious reasons. She made a mental note of the name ‘Kaine’, though her eyes narrowed when she heard that this man before her sought to kill him and would bring him back so that their feud could continue.

“Why bring him back? Just kill him and be done with it.” she muttered.

The man paused, and Revna waited to see if he would continue, which he did when he asked her about her newly found cousin, Malum.

Her stony expression returned, and her haunted eyes turned stormy and cold. Her jaw set as she clenched her teeth. She would not tell this man anything about her own flesh and blood. She would rather be tortured, broken, beaten, and any other amount of horrors before she ever considered betrayed her own blood to someone she considered a foe.

“No. You will get nothing from me about that. Next question.” she growled, her fiery and resistant attitude returning to her in a flash as she stared the man before her in the face. She wanted to make it very clear that Malum was not a topic she was going to discuss with him. Not willingly. If he wanted anything about Malum or any of her allies, her family, from her then he was going to have to take it by force.

A thought in the back of her mind told her she just might be throwing her freedom, maybe her life, away in refusing to answer him and give him the information he wanted about Malum, but it was a price she was willing to pay in that moment.

 

[Ordo]

His scarred face ran through a gamut of expressions as she listened and replied. His eyes animated as if He had to relive each answer before He could find it. Memories as vivid and real as the present flowed one to the next. Lifetimes in slow motion played acrossed His mind as He sat and listened to this defiant curious girl. Her hates and loves painted so plainly across her features, He may as well be reading her life story written by her own hand. The small muscular twitch at the corner of her mouth when she heard and spoke about her mother, there was myriad conflicting emotions there. The eye movement as she mentioned the sith as if she was trying to read a prompt about what she was supposed to be. He read the tightening of her shoulders and the involuntary sneer as she heard about carnifex and his brood. The idea that something more than her limited knowledge existing about who and what Ordo and Kaine were not even entering her thoughts. He read the way she shut down, and walled herself up in regards to the boy and his little band of nobles. She didn't fear him. She was protecting out of loyalty not terror or conditioning. Not a cruel man then. Someone she saw as strong and deserving of her emulation. All the answer He really needed.

"Cin Vhettin means 'white snow' it's a way to say something is made clean, an absolution of sorts." He said as He let His eyes bore into hers, "And when you have an enemy learning their language is good practice, trust me. I know war making better than most."

He sat unmoving as His body beneath the armorweave began to slowly unspool before He pulled His focus back undercontrol.

"Sith are ambitious, fear of being less powerful than others is the cause of that in most cases, some are ambitious for goals but it's very few and almost none of you have a grasp of what the force is and what it can do. For most of you its a list of powers in a book, or some deity that guides you. Narrow minded and weak thinking, but I can't say more than that, it would break some rules that I've agreed to follow here."

He cleared His throat and gave a half smile as pain lanced through his body. His entire skeleton aching all at once to remind Him that the force knew He had come close to saying too much.

"And very well, No Malum Marr talk. Tell me who the different Sith factions are. Do you know about the Iron Wolves Carnifex used against the Mandlorians?"

He waited calmly as if in an interview. And not a dungeon with the very real threat of her becoming a pet in a collar still a possibility.

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo

The warrior sat unmoving, though as she spoke she saw expressions cross over his features, just as her own expressions and emotions played themselves out on her face.

She was surprised he didn't press further about Darth Malum, despite her attitude towards him when he has asked her about her cousin. She wasn't one to betray her own blood.

Revna tilted her head as he indulged her question about the strange word he had used in regards to her mother. Instead of destroying her he had...offered her absolution? The little woman truthfully didn't know how she felt about that; she felt...surprised, thankful, somber...

That someone would do something that seemed merciful, even kind, for a strange soul in a strange land, made Revna pause and reflect for a moment.

Her attention went back to him as he spoke about his views on Sith ambitions, and she took note of what he had to say, whether she agreed with it or not. Perhaps there was something she could learn in his statements.

She frowned in curiosity when he said he could speak no further on the matter, especially as pain crossed his rugged features. She found this to be...interesting, and wondered what prevented him from speaking about the Force in this place?

The warrior asked about the Sith factions and about the Iron Wolves that had been deployed by Darth Carnifex against the Mandalorians.

It clicked in her head then; this man...he must have been a Mandalorian himself.

"Now that I can tell you. There are two major factions that I am aware of: the Eternalists who make up the majority of the Sith Order, who are led by the Dead God, the Sith Emperor, Darth Empyrean....and the Kainites who follow and worship Darth Carnifex and his ilk. There is a third, but it has been undergoing some...changes. The Tsis'Kaar...once led by the now slain Darth Ophidia, felled at the hands of both my...Mentor, and Darth Malum."

Revna paused for a moment, tilting her head in thought. "However...I must disappoint you. I know nothing about these Iron Wolves. If I did, I would tell you what I know. If they are connected to Carnifex then they are my enemy too. I have no ill will towards the Mandalorians. I see them as warriors, and I will only fight or seek to kill those who try to kill me first, or seek to harm what is mine."

 

[Ordo]

However...I must disappoint you. I know nothing about these Iron Wolves. If I did, I would tell you what I know. If they are connected to Carnifex then they are my enemy too. I have no ill will towards the Mandalorians. I see them as warriors, and I will only fight or seek to kill those who try to kill me first, or seek to harm what is mine."

He watched her carefully. His expression unchanging as He carefully watched her features. She was a liar for certain, but she wasn't lying now. A manipulator? Undoubtedly, but she had no leverage beyond the suspicion that somewhere He had a moral compass stored away for a rainy day. He could repect her stance. Her entire religion was terribly one dimensional, but that mattered very little to Him.

"Then, I guess," He began as He leaned back in His seat. His large scar riddled arms flexing as He pushed away, "There's nothing more to say."

He looked her in the eyes as He spoke. The room around them blurring slightly at the edges.

"You don't belong to Kaine, so I chose my target poorly. You aren't party to the genocide of my people, even though your Darth Malum came to save Kainite colonist on my clan's traditional homeworld. We'll attribute that to being young and foolish, I think." He said as the grand dungeon bled slowly into gray walls and bench seating of a starship's lounge, "I would remove the memories of my tortures that you felt, but that would be an insult to your strength and intelligence, that would be a step too far even for me."

He stood slowly as He pushed away from the Dejarick table they sat at and pointed to a room off to his right.

"You can clean up there, the galley is in the corner." He began walking toward a corridor away from her, "Don't jump out of an airlock without a suit if that's what you're thinking. We're not in the kind of deep space people get found in."

He waved over his shoulder as He headed for the cockpit of the old YT-2000.

Revna

 

[Revna]

Ordo


The giant man before her regarded her in silence for a few long moments after she had answered his last questions to the best of her ability. She felt no shame or regret in sharing that information with him, there really was nothing for her to hide with that particular topic. Information about the wider Sith Order and the Empire was fairly widely known, and sharing it with him was giving nothing significant away.

She just wished she’d had more information to share with him about the Iron Wolves. Anything to help see Carnifex - Kaine - whatever his fething name was, erased from the galaxy forever. She didn’t like the idea of Sith like him breathing down the back of her neck as she tried to rise within the Order itself. One less possible Sith to be beholden to, should she actually get anywhere with her aspirations and ambitions.

He leaned back in his seat, and his words caught her attention as her eyes flared with a spark of hope…before being clouded over with extreme caution.

There was nothing more to say here? Did…that mean she was going to be released back into the possession of her Mentor?

Or did he aim now to remove a possible future threat to the longevity of his people?

Revna watched the man warily as he rose to his feet, staring him in the eyes as the edges around the room they were in blurred. She stared at him, silent and unmoving, as he confessed that he had chosen her, his target, poorly. He’d assumed she had belonged to Carnifex…the thought made her shudder with revulsion…though she did find his words that her own cousin had liberated Kainites to be…disturbing.

She was going to have to question him about that later…if she lived through this. And…if he lived through trying to stop her Mentor from getting himself skewered on Darth Carnifex’s blade.

Her eyes shifted as their surroundings suddenly bled away and were replaced by the interior of a starship. It was still…unnerving…to see such things occur, as she didn’t understand how this was taking place, but she simply accepted it for what it was at the moment. The Mandalorian warrior mentioned that he considered removing the memories of his torture from her mind, but he felt that by doing so he would be insulting her strength, her intelligence.

She agreed with him. As much as the torment she had endured from him had sucked…it would only add fuel to the fires of her budding strength and power. A small price to pay in her desire to grow stronger in the Force, in the Dark side.

He pointed off to a room to their right, telling her she could get herself cleaned up, before he turned to head down a corridor away from her, cautioning her against jumping out of an airlock in a bid to escape.

The little Sith woman launched herself to her feet, questions firing rapidly in her mind.

“Hold one a minute…where the chaos am I? Where are you taking me? Who even are you?” she barked as she chased after the behemoth. She wanted answers.

“Why are you not taking me back to the arena? I’ve given you what you’ve wanted…yes? Why not just release me?”

What she really wanted to do was get back to where she’d been, to make sure her family was still alive, and her Mentor.

A grip of fear and uncertainty squeezed her heart. Her High Priest had gone to challenge Darth Carnifex…there was the real possibility that the stoic Sith Lord could be dead or dying at that very moment and she’d be unaware of that fact. She’d be…

...She didn’t want to return to Formos without him. The idea of that terrified her more than any torture she could suffer.

“I…need to go back. My Mentor, he was going to go fight Carnifex. I can’t just…”

What…exactly? Help him fight against a Dark Lord? She’d only get in the way.

“You want to destroy Carnifex…take me back and help us fight him then!”