Private Dragons of Atrisia

[Darth Themis]

Came to Atrisia in: Serpent Scale (Lambda Class Shuttle)

Armed with: Divining Rod

Lightning Rod (Pink Single Bladed Lightsaber)


Wearing: Armorweave catsuit


The Lambda Class Shuttle zoomed back into real-space close to Atrisia. The shuttle was covered in Black Chromium, with Red Viewports.

She had collected Alyosha Drutin on Odessan in order to train him in a more one on one manner, the unitial plan being to present him with a great challenge located in a quiet fishing village in the rural lands of Atrisia that would force him to draw on The Force more than his standard weaponry, as well as start spreading their still quite short tendrils of influence. She knew of some quite potent dangers in that place to test on her new Apprentice. But she didn't like where her visions were taking her.

She had been murdered on Atrisia by Darth Phyre, when she was still trying to be Moya De Lifte for her family. Her spirit had burned in agony within the lake of Black Fire for ages.

But she sensed something important was to happen here. She just didn't know what. But nonetheless, it was a good place to take Alyosha to train. Atrisia, despite the trauma she associated with it, was a place of great power and strength within the Force.

Themis, wearing a skintight reflective black armorweave catsuit had been quite silent on the trip. Mostly she meditated, her unease in the Force ever present. There was no point in trying to hide it. Alyosha would sense it eventually. The interior of her shuttle had once belonged to a Sith, but she had stripped it down to mostly Utilitarian features, gone was its opulence. Now it was filled with drawings. Drawings of people and places she had not yet seen and met, and might never see or meet.

Themis hadn't really spoken, the very knowledge she was going back to the place she had died bringing back all sorts of trauma and insanity she was having to fight down. She wasn't hostile or rude to Alyosha...that would have been simply counter-productive. But she simply wasn't able to bring herself to really speak beyond polite, if terse answers. The painful reminder of her family would always be tied to Atrisia.

She had taken over piloting the craft once it was in the Atrisia System. At last she really decided to speak up, her tone grim as usual.

"I dunno if you ever been to Atrisia, Alyosha. Beautiful land. Terrible secrets. A place of power...whose well you shall learn to draw from. Plenty of danger here. Shinobi attacks are fun though, easily worth a solid fifty experience points each." She joked in an almost mirthless manner, bordering on sarcasm but not quite.

"I'm just joking...they're worth a hundred..." she added dryly as the ship descended through the atmosphere.

"There are many places in this world to practice our will on. Nexuses, ancient libraries. The offices of its politicians...a little fishing village with a terrible secret...but first, I'm tired of the fething ship supplies and I want Sushi." The Sith muttered, trying to keep her mood from being overly severe as she landed the shuttle in the capital city on a landing pad she had rented out beforehand. A regular Sith would not have to worry about her mood affecting an apprentice. But being the kind of heretic she was took effort. More than you might think.

Themis rose, grabbing her nearby spear, hating to be parted from it more than she had to be, and departed the shuttle ahead of Alyosha to head to the customs office. The workers there struggled not to gawk at the shapely, youthful figure, her light-mutated bronze and green eyes narrowing in annoyance as they detected the weapons she and Alyosha had on them.

"You need to register these weapons before we can admit you two..." they said.

Themis flicked her hand lazily in front of them "No you don't." she chirped back not a second later, in no mood for red tape. She already regretted coming to this place.

"No we don't." They repeated mindlessly.

Themis didn't say a word further as they let her and her apprentice pass out into the still damaged city, which had suffered a horrific invasion by the Sith Lord Mythos. Some skyscrapers had not been fully repaired. That it looked even this good was testament to the rapid recovery ability of the economic engine. Enough so that a few restuarants had reopened. But the trauma was present on everyone's faces. The dark awfulness of it bled in the Force like a bad sore, bodies still being pulled from the rubble in some areas she passed by.

"Observe it all, Alyosha, for this is the Chaos I oppose..." Themis spoke, eyes swepping across marred streets and emotionally beaten faces. "This is the horror of The Dark Side. Perhaps you will come to understand why I oppose it."

Themis however spotted a Sushi bar and immediately broke into a jog for it, her stomach rumbling, much of the city looking like she felt on the inside as she went inside, bidding Alyosha to follow. The food would help distract all the bile from past trauma.

"I'm buying..." she said to him, still in that grim, terse manner. She hated not being able to be quite as friendly as she could when she had been a fake Jedi, but no matter how she tried, she could not quite summon even the ability to fake that level of friendliness. It was a fact that left her quite hollow and miserable from within, as Alyosha might have been the sort she'd have tried to recruit for The De Lifte Family. He likely had as many demons as she did. But the food would temporarily distract. It was probably the best way for her to actually even try to lower her guard emotionally around her apprentice.

The Sushi bar was clean and sterile, with wood furnishings and paneling everywhere, murals of ancient Atrisian fishermen on boats wirh spears thrusting into turbulent, churning waters. An ancient melody played on the speakers.

She ordered four plates of the most expensive Sushi they had, whatever Drutin ordered and had sat down down right at the counter and watch it be prepared by the chef on the other side when she heard a name that caught her off guard to her left.

"Moya?!"

Themis stopped, slowly turning to stare in confusion at the woman who had walked in.

She was dressed in black, spiky biker leathers, her raven black hair in a loose, messy, short cut, skin as pale as a tombstone, a beautiful sculpted face marred by shrapnel scars located mostly at the forehead.

"Howwz...howwz arr yooz..." the strange woman stuttered. But Themis had already put it together.

The pale skin was like that of her mother, who she had felt and watched die horribly at the hand of Darth Phyre, the same as her father had.

It was funny...not one moment of this had popped up at all in her vision, the great power of the spiky jacket wearing woman like a torchlight in the Force.

"Your name is Crownwraithe..." Themis said slowly. "Julia Crownwraithe..."

(Clip of Bond Theme plays.)

Themis, mentally unstable enough to detect the OOC music darted her head about in confusion for a few seconds, searching for the source before focusing back on the girl who had gone even paler than seemed possible at hearing that name.

"Whoo arrz yooz?" The woman spoke quietly.

"We would be honored...if you would join us..." Themis spoke.

 

[Kai and Gerda]

(OOC: Pay no attention to the new avatar, heheh...)

After making the trip from Odessen to Atrisia, Alyosha was glad to be planetside again. He had never really enjoyed space travel, mostly because there was so much technology involved that he didn’t fully understand and couldn’t bring himself to trust in completely.

Themis had spent much of the trip ignoring him. It didn’t bother him directly—he liked solitude, even preferred it—but something about her giving him the cold shoulder did start to wear on him. He was just beginning to get used to the idea of being trained again, especially in something which he knew next to nothing about. Even though it was frustrating to be back at square one, receiving lessons that were clearly meant to be taught at a much younger age when the mind was still plastic, there was a familiarity to the methodology which went all the way back to his earliest childhood memories.

He had learned the family trade from his stepfather, and he still remembered the exuberant joy of acrobatics, the possibility of performing when he grew up. Those dreams had been pushed aside when his stepfather died, and then they were ripped out of him and ridiculed when he was taken in to be molded into an assassin—a process which had been painful and full of bitterness, but rewarding.

At the same time, he was well aware of the fact that he had spent nearly his entire life under the thumb of someone else who had more knowledge, experience, and skill than him. Deep down he longed for the day when he could call himself complete, or at the very least not be carrying around the loaded label of padawan learner.

Point being, he resented calling Themis “Master”, especially when she acted like she didn’t want anything to do with him. He addressed her formally anyway, but only out of deference and respect. She was the master, he was the apprentice. There was no denying it, no getting around it, no skipping the tutorial to get to the game.

It didn’t help that he could feel the seeds of doubt being planted. He remembered how Lucien, the other one who had accepted Themis’ call, had abruptly disappeared. Lucien had already been taught by the Jedi. He had more experience. His instincts were better honed than Alyosha’s, and he had left… But then, there could be a myriad of reasons for that. Trouble at home, other business to attend to. It wasn’t like he was chomping at the bit to learn how to use the Force—he already had some training. Alyosha had nothing.

So maybe those doubts weren’t coming from him. Maybe it was Val transmitting ambivalence through their shared bond. He could sense the faint pings of uncertainty and concern from his brother every now and then, even though they were billions of light years apart. The situation with Themis apparently reminded Val of his own former master. But the Sith Lady had been a staunch traditionalist, right down to demanding Val kill her to fulfill the ancient Rule of Two. Themis wasn’t like that. She was unlike anything Val had ever encountered, and that only made him even more wary of her. Sweet kid that he was, he worried too much about his big brother. Even if worst came to worst, Alyosha could take care of himself.

Or maybe there was a hidden rebellious streak running through Alyosha, reaching deep into the core of his being and crying out “No! I have no master!” Either way, the loathing was always there, hovering on the edge of his consciousness.

Themis took over piloting the ship shortly after they arrived in the Atrisia system.

"I dunno if you ever been to Atrisia, Alyosha. Beautiful land. Terrible secrets. A place of power… whose well you shall learn to draw from. Plenty of danger here. Shinobi attacks are fun though, easily worth a solid fifty experience points each."

Alyosha kept his face carefully blank. “I’ve never been to Atrisia,” he said, as though he had no interest in what she was saying.

"I'm just joking… they're worth a hundred..."

It wasn’t a very good joke, but he didn’t say anything. He was leaning against the bulkhead behind the pilot’s chair, emanating the cool, casual air he usually used to hide his fear.

"There are many places in this world to practice our will on. Nexuses, ancient libraries. The offices of its politicians… a little fishing village with a terrible secret… but first, I'm tired of the fething ship supplies and I want Sushi."

His eyebrows rose in silent approval. Anything sounded better than ship rations.

When they landed and were heading through customs, Themis’ unusual appearance drew quite a few stares, and Alyosha, as her companion, also received some scrutiny. He didn’t like it. Even the obvious interest of an attractive female worker put him on edge. He had just removed the light spear he had constructed on Odessen, preparing to hand it to the lovely young lady in question, when Themis waved her hand and dismissed the officers’ demands.

The Jedi mind trick. He’d heard of it—who in the galaxy hadn’t—but he’d never seen it in action until now. It was certainly useful, but something about it didn’t sit right with him. He suspected it never would.

His feelings of unease only increased as they entered the city. Alyosha didn’t keep up to date with galactic events, but it was clear there had been a battle there recently. A big one. Much of the place was still in ruins, and bodies were being carted away from the rubble in some areas.

Themis took the opportunity to issue a warning. The Dark Side and the Chaos it represented were responsible for this, according to her. Alyosha frowned, his jaw tightening against a memory. Ichtor 8, the resort planet. He’d taken part in what amounted to a hostile takeover there. It had been nothing on this scale, but it had bothered him then too, falling down to the planet’s surface with guns blazing, taking orders from a powerful sorcerer who claimed to be a god…

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Everything bothered him. It was in his nature to be perpetually bothered. But all that mattered was that he did what he had to do.

Themis gesturing for him to follow her into a restaurant broke him out of it. He followed her inside, and for the first time since Odessen he sensed more from her than a mental block. It appeared very faint to him, with his underdeveloped Force sensitivity, but it was there, her emotions all entangled. Regret. Hollowness. Misery. Self-loathing. Something about this place, this planet, meant something tragic to her. It didn’t last long before she covered herself up again, but the intensity was enough to make Alyosha crave a cigarette to calm himself down afterwards.

At the sushi bar, he noticed she ordered not only four plates worth of food, but the most expensive dishes available. Since he was unfamiliar with the local cuisine, he asked the server, “What’s your specialty?”

Probably not a good idea, since Themis had already shown she had money to spare, but the server answered, “Spicy tuna.”

It was one of the cheaper items on the menu. He shrugged and ordered a plate.

Not long after they sat down to wait for the food, there was a commotion. Someone came up to Themis and called her “Moya”. It was a female voice. Alyosha craned his neck and looked the woman up and down. He wasn’t really into goth chicks, but this one had a lot of scars on what was otherwise a pretty face.

Her speech was slurred, possibly due to her injuries. Alyosha felt a pang of sympathy. He couldn’t help it—once underdog disabilities and hapless eccentricities were involved, his tough guy act melted away. The woman turned even paler as she got a proper glimpse of Themis. Alyosha could practically see the wheels turning in her head, the realization that she had made a mistake, and yet she couldn’t look away from that eerie bronze gaze.

Themis broke the silence by inviting the woman to join them. A good thing, too, because Alyosha was getting antsy, not sure whether to sit on his hands or take the risk of angering his master by showing kindness. He had feared she would use another mind trick on the poor girl to dismiss her.

“I’m…” he started to introduce himself, paused to think of a fake name he hadn’t already used, remembered that he was no longer a wanted man and didn’t have to lie, then finally answered, “...Alyosha. Pleased to meet you. Will you sit with us?”

Darth Themis

 

[Laertia Io]

Wearing: Hoodlum's Leathers

Armed with: De Lifte Crystal (Standard Hilt)

This. Didn't. Make. Sense.

None of it did.

All she had wanted was a little Sushi. The past weeks had been absolute hell. Her android Caretaker, Moya, had been found damaged and Laertia had been pretty much blowing her savings restoring her friend to working condition, which was still ongoing.

Between that she had been busy doing volunteer work for the Atrisians, directing cybernetic surgery for people who had lost limbs in the invasion, even performing a few surgeries herself for eyes and such. Personally, she was already making mistakes. She'd forget to eat or do maintainence. She had even mistakenly overdrawn her account and left a heater on by mistake and nearly caused a massive fire on her ship. The Brain Injuries made Moya a necessity in too many ways beyond having a friend.

But this stranger wore a younger version of her Android Caretaker's face. It was both mesmerizing and highly, highly unsettling, how beautiful the stranger was for some reason.

But those eyes, though also strangely beautiful, were highly unsettling as well.

Laertia's skin ran at the familiarity with which she used her actual name. It was a tone that implied long association.

It seemed an eternity after Themis offered her a seat next to them that Alyosha Drutin spoke, and broke her thousand yard stare on the Moya look-alike.

"Surrez. Naymez Io. Laertia Io. Nyce tuh meetcha."

(Clip of Bond Theme plays)

Themis flicked her head about with a look of pure bewilderment while Laertia went to order, studying Alyosha. It was the eyes that gave it away, more than anything. Laertia, having spent a good part of her early life on Nar Shaddaa, could always pick out trigger-pullers. She'd pulled more than a few triggers herself (Albeit for survival not money), especially after the invasion (She used a chainsaw. A. Chain. Saw.). She didn't sense hostility in Alyosha, and in fact sensed the Light in the Woman. But also conflict.

Laertia went to the counter, ordered two plates of Inarizushi, and a plate of vegetable futomaki with green tea and took a seat at a long wooden bench with a wide table, waiting for the order to be delivered.

Laertia tensed as she felt a slight headache, without the crystal in her lightsaber currently, she would be doubled over in agony. Her cybernetic left arm twitched as pain from the nerve endings made it feel like it was painfully cramped, despite being made purely of mechanical parts.

Themis joined her, scooting over so Alyosha could sit next to her, and minutes later, their food was delivered.

Laertia eyed The woman's choice of meal. Fermented Sushi, Locust and Honey Sushi, Sliced Atrisian Fugu, (Very deadly if prepared incorrectly: Laertia knew this because she had poisoned buckshot ammo with Atrisian Pufferfish venom, as taught by her Jedi Master Ursula.) and Raw, sliced horse meat with black tea. Alyosha's spicy tuna arrived but as Laertia battled her headache, she decided to play it cool for now. She tried to pick up her chopsticks with her good arm, but the suppressed seizure still messed with with her fine motor control, causing her to drop the chopsticks on her plate. Her hand kept twitching as she attempted to pick them up, but her finger spasms caused them to keep slipping out of her finger for the next two attempts. The woman drank her tea silently, observing as Laertia forced her hand to do what she wanted.

Finally, Laertia's hand obeyed and held the chopsticks. She took a bite of her vegetarian sushi, The Woman taking a bite of her Fugu.

"So, Alyosha...fyrst tymez onz Atrrizzia?" Laertia inquired, feeling the raw potential in him, but having difficulty judging its capacity for good or evil.

Looking at him disturbingly reminded the thirty four year old Laertia of herself once. Same cagey look at everyone and everything except Ursula. She didn't bother to ask if he was her apprentice-The Light-Spear he carried said it all.

"Caymez atz a badd tymez, tuh beez honnesst..." she added to Alyosha, drinking her tea. "Itz a fethhin mezz heerz. I'mz amazed annytingz iz styll runninz."

She glanced at his spear. "Don'tz seez too manneez ov dhoze. Gotz myy owwn inn faactz."

"I confess, that bit of your training, Alyosha, isn't just my tradition, but a leftover from my heydey during the Gulag Plague...a stick is not only good for pissing off traditionalists, its good for keeping the infected at bay." Themis said, sipping more tea before heating a piece of Horse Meat.

Laertia still held off on the most obvious questions, preferring to keep talking to Alyosha.

"I'mm frumm Narr Shaddaz, Alyosha. Frumm wherr dooz yooz hayle?"

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Laertia Io

Before taking a seat, the woman introduced herself, not as Julia Crownwraithe, but as Laertia Io. Alyosha raised an eyebrow. Had Themis also mistaken her for somebody else? Or was there another thing entirely going on here, a subtle interplay which he wasn’t privy to?

Silence fell as they waited for their food, and Alyosha felt Laertia’s gaze upon him. He still didn’t like being stared at, but given the situation it was to be expected. If the two women knew each other, then he was the only stranger here.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Laertia struggling. Don’t stare, he told himself, keeping his eyes on his plate as he tasted the spicy tuna. It wasn’t the sort of food he was used to, but it wasn’t half bad. Certainly preferably to the ship’s rations.

Despite his resolve not to rubberneck, it was difficult to ignore the whir of servos as Laertia attempted to make the metal fingers of her mechanical arm clasp the thin chopsticks. It was pitiful to watch and aggravated his impatience, but there was nothing he could do without offending her.

She finally got it and started eating. Themis likewise lowered her tea and took her first bite of one of the four dishes. Somehow it was that hesitation which tipped Alyosha off more than anything else as to the connection between the two women.

"So, Alyosha...fyrst tymez onz Atrrizzia?"

“Yeah,” he replied. “To be honest, I’d never even heard of this place until recently.” His tone made it clear he wasn’t insulting their world. He honestly had very little knowledge of other planets, if only because he hadn’t had any opportunity to travel before now. If anything, it just made him sound like a naive farmboy.

"Caymez atz a badd tymez, tuh beez honnesst… Itz a fethhin mezz heerz. I'mz amazed annytingz iz styll runninz."

“Well, I’ve seen worse,” he murmured. In truth, his experiences with war-torn planets had been much kinder than his experiences with crime-ridden cesspools like Nar Shaddaa. The people of such worlds couldn’t be held accountable for the actions of a conqueror.

Laertia’s attention was drawn to his new light spear, mentioning that she had one of her own. Themis took the opportunity to jump in.

"I confess, that bit of your training, Alyosha, isn't just my tradition, but a leftover from my heydey during the Gulag Plague… a stick is not only good for pissing off traditionalists, it's good for keeping the infected at bay."

Alyosha’s brow furrowed. He took this exchange to mean that Laertia and Themis had either trained together, or possibly Themis had once been Laertia’s master. But the Gulag Plague? Didn’t that happen hundreds of years ago? Well, he knew next to nothing about his master, so it was possible she’d had an unusually long life. There were people in the galaxy like that…

His thoughts were interrupted.

"I'mm frumm Narr Shaddaz, Alyosha. Frumm wherr dooz yooz hayle?"

Nar Shaddaa. Damn. Well, that certainly explained a lot. The last time he set foot on the smuggler's moon, he'd been ruthlessly chased through the streets by a Trandoshan bounty hunter. Bystanders got involved as soon as they realized there was a bounty on Alyosha's head, and several civilians had been killed.

“Corellia,” he answered. After spending a year lying about his identity to avoid capture, it was gratifying to be able to tell the truth again, even to strangers. He got the impression, however, that Laertia had already guessed a few things about his background, enough to give her reason to feel uncertain about him. Trying to lighten the mood—and humanize himself—he decided to go into a little more detail.

“I come from a family of circus acrobats. Goes back a couple generations, at least. They were locally famous for their act. Not so much anymore, since my dad died and none of us kids were able to follow in his footsteps, but there are still some who remember the name of Drutin fondly.”

 

[Darth Themis]

"Circus Acrobats?" Themis trailed, surprised. Her visions had shown her none of this.

(Batman TAS theme music plays for a few seconds.)

Themis struggled to keep her composure and not have her head dart about at the annoying OOC music. Being dead a few centuries had fethed with her hard.

His story however, was not unusual. The De Lifte's had taken in similar exiles as the natural blood waned, and even before the blood started to wane.

Finding such an exile threatened to remind the Sith of happier times, so she quickly clamped down on those feelings. Themis tasted the Fugu after dipping it in sauce So delicious. Chewy, but delicious.

She chewed thoughtfully, swallowing. The fact Alyosha Drutin had a family, once, somewhere, uncomfortably resonated with her. She dared not ask if any of his siblings were still alive, lest she drudge up some other sadness he was trying to forget.

"So few people in this business ever had anything even approaching normal before they were taken for training. I wish I'd had something like that when I was young. Might have kept me a little more grounded..." she said with a hint of envy, eating some of her locust and honey sushi. "I mean that. You know why you encounter so many fethed up Adepts who are so beyond salvage? This galaxy can be an awfully cruel place when you have that much power and no one worth sacrificing it for. It warps you. Makes you animalistic on the inside."

Laertia took a small bite of her own Inarizushi, essentially a ball of sushi rice concealed in a ball of fried tofu, and chewed slowly, eyes fluttering as another headache struck.

She finally managed to swallow her food when the seizure passed.

"I cannz attesstt tuh dhatz. Yoo duhvellupzz a harte ov stonne. Don't tinkz lonng terrmz. Dhatz howw yooz enndz uppz lyke dhis." Laertia elaborated, gesturing to her scars and cybernetic arm, which was mostly concealed by the spiky jacket. Her left eye, dark gray like her right, glowed a faint red at the center, revealing it to be artificial as well.

She took a sip of her tea, and with a flick of her wrist, produced a playing card with a jester face on it, showing it to Alyosha while pointing to herself in silence, then laying it on the table, tapping it three times with her finger.

The card vanished in a small puff of smoke, leaving behind a lightsaber crystal...

(Zelda Acquisition Theme Plays)

(Alyosha gained a crystal!)

Crystal: RUBAT

Spoiler

Once the crystal of choice in the Jedi Order due to its ability to sharpen the blade beam appearance, it was eventually supplanted by the harvesting of Ilum Crystals

Laertia flicked her organic eye's lid and teleported it by his plate.

"Don'tz beez a foolz lyke I wuz. Yull enndz upz a lott happierz." She said to him.

For just a second, Themis's profound sorrow at seeing who was essentially her grand daughter like this caused her emotional control to slip out close to Alyosha without meaning to. She clamped down on that barrier when she caught the slip in discipline. Laertia didn't notice due to her headache temporarily interrupting her connection to the Force. Her brain injuries were that severe.

"Don't forget him." Themis said in spite of it betraying some pain in her words at losing her own family she normally didn't display in front of an apprentice. "No matter how much it hurts, don't forget your father."

"Att leest yooz knowz wutz yorr fathurr evun lookedd lyke..." Laertia said quietly.

"I know what your father looked like, Julia." Themis added just as quietly.

And there it was. The tombstone skinned woman turned her beautiful but scarred visage on to Themis.

"Whoo arrz yooz?"

"That's complicated..." Themis answered casually, trying to keep her composure, to keep from breaking down just being next to Laertia. How seeing her mother's skin and her father's eyes drove a knife into her.

"To keep from ruining our meal, I'll keep the answer short. My name is Moya De Lifte. I am the one who designed the Android taking care of you. I was named your Godmother when you were born. I am also the one who sent you into this era. You were born during the Gulag Plague. I used some pretty sketchy sorcery to simulate a slow hyperdrive jump on the Dynamic Class Freighter you were on to send you hundreds of years into the future.

Laertia had gone bone white, staring into The Sith's mutated eyes as she spoke, not detecting one hint of untruth. Laertia was trembling, both from the seizure and the huuuuge info dump Themis had just given her.

Themis continued eating.

"Morris Crownwraithe was my Padawan Learner. I personally administered his final test, back when I was still a Jedi myself. Strong fellow. Loved to work with his hands. Accomplished engineer."

Laertia's eyes were glistening. "Myy muthur?"

Themis's answer made Laertia run cold with surprise.

"Lysandra Li-Ves, last living descendant of the Li-Ves Clan of Atrisia. Recruited into a seperate faction of Jedi from my own and single handedly prevented The Cult of The Brain Demon from destroying one of Alderaan's largest groundwater reserves with tainted blood. Met your father on Coruscant and married him three years later. I was the one who married them."

Laertia had stopped eating, something akin to shock playing out in her eyes. Themis dipped a piece of sliced, raw horsemeat into soy sauce and placed it in her mouth with chopsticks.

"Basashi was your mother's personal favorite. The Fugu though, that was your father's. I actually used to be paranoid about the stuff before he prepared it for me one day. That was also the same time he gave me a fascinating discourse on the Atrisian Puffer Fish. The skin, liver, and lungs are coated in Tetrodotoxin. When I heard how lethal that crap was I started a small fish farm to start harvesting the stuff. If you ever want pointers, Alyosha, do not hesitate to ask." She half joked.

Themis ate another honey and locust sushi. Laertia finally remembered to start eating again.

"I know you have plenty of questions but I will answer them all later, Julia, I promise. For now, I want to discuss why I am here. Far in the rural coastline there is a fishing village. It contains within it an ancient library. A cursed library. I intend to teach Alyosha to get past its defenses. I would like you to join us for the journey."

"Surez." Laertia croaked, eating the last of her Inarizushi.

Meanwhile...

Deep within the earth of Atrisia, close to the city of Jar'Kai, an ancient threat began to stir beneath the earth.

The slaughter of the past few weeks had fed it greatly, the mighty beast the personal weapon of one of Atrisia's cruelest emperors, which had finally been forced into a magical slumber by the ancient Jedi and forgotten after its master was at last butchered by an angry mob.

As the beast, whose hide was jet black and its eyes ruby red, stirred within an ancient cavern system in chains, the earth above, particularly the city, began to subtly shake...

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Clearly, he had caught Themis off guard by revealing his past. Alyosha permitted himself a small smile, enjoying getting a rise out of her. He never could predict how people would react to the revelation that he had been a trained performer long before he was a trained assassin. Some laughed outright at the first mention of “circus”, while others showed a sudden renewed interest in him, as if he were a sideshow curiosity or an eccentric celebrity. Very rarely did it inspire mere indifference.

But things quickly went south as Themis’ mood soured. Not that what she was saying wasn’t true—most of the violent psychos and scumbags he’d encountered all shared one thing in common: a rotten childhood. Alyosha’s youth hadn’t exactly been sunshine and roses, but he had always appreciated what he did have. The man he affectionately called “Dad” may not have been his biological father, but he had fulfilled the role unconditionally until the day he died.

As for the rest of his family… well, he refused to talk about his mother, and his sister Jolene was out of the picture, but what he shared with his brother Val was something special. Even if it did cause him a whole lot of problems…

Alyosha stabbed at his food, shoveling it into his mouth while Laertia gave her two cents. After swallowing his tuna, he shrugged his shoulders.

“A heart of stone can’t be pierced. You got nobody to worry about, nothing to lose—you’re unstoppable, fearless, virtually invincible.”

Deep down he knew all that wasn’t worthwhile if there was nothing to fight for, as Themis said, but he was still having a hard time admitting it. But that was fine. He rarely believed the words that came out of his mouth anyway.

The jester card reminded him of Val, though he supposed it was meant to represent himself. A fool, a performer—a pretender. Or maybe he was reading too much into things. When it turned into a lightsaber crystal and teleported next to his plate, he raised an eyebrow and picked it up to examine it.

A second later, Themis’ sorrow suddenly bled into the Force, giving her words that much more meaning. Alyosha looked away, pretending to focus on the crystal. His careful control over his expression remained intact, but he was still afraid that something in his eyes would betray his own lingering grief.

He had seen Dad die, watched his hand fail to grasp the trapeze, a second too late. It slipped past his fingers, sent him plummeting to his death…

Themis was revealing the truth about this little reunion. It served as a welcome distraction from Alyosha’s memories. Ah, so the two of them weren’t hundreds of years old—they had simply time-traveled from the time of the Gulag Plague. Well, he’d heard stranger explanations for simpler things. But Themis’ story just kept getting weirder, including a cult with a silly-sounding name, something about tainted groundwater, and what Laertia’s dead parents’ favorite types of sushi were.

Damn, this is heavy stuff.

Laertia was naturally shocked and upset by the news. Alyosha couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to be in her place right now. Themis’ attempt at humor didn’t quite land right, but that was hardly a surprise.

“I, uh, don’t really use poison,” he replied awkwardly. Had the circumstances been different, the situation more lighthearted, he might have cracked wise about how “poison is a woman’s weapon”, but he didn’t out of respect for what the two of them were going through.

When he saw a chance to change the subject, he threw himself at it.

“This ancient library—what’s inside it?” he asked. “And why is it cursed?”

He didn’t notice the ground beginning to shake—at least, not at first.

Darth Themis

 

[Darth Themis]

"You have not lived until you watched a Sith Assassin die from multiple snakebites in a briefcase." Themis said to Alyosha Drutin as she ate more Fugu. Laertia had finished the last of her Sushi, silent at his remark about a heart of stone giving invincibility. He was young. He would learn a heart of stone was no way to live.

They all ate in silence, Laertia's look as she gazed upon the Cat-suited Sith one of intense confusion and apprehension, made worse as her brain injuries kicked in, causing the scarred Jedi to become dizzy from slight pain in her skull.

But then they heard the screaming outside.

A vision in the Force made Themis go still. Laertia, still affected by her head ache could only follow as Themis slowly headed out of the restuarant. Watching people run. "Kaiju! Kaiju!" One of the locals yelled.

Themis stared at the monstrosity erupting from the ground close to the ancient city of Jar'Kai.

Darth Vader had battled a very similar beast once, supposedly. It had been called The Ender.

Its roar was deafening, even in the distance.

"Dhis damnz planetz can'tz caatch a breakz." Laertia whispered as she went outside, stopped and stared at the skyscraper height monster.

Another vision pierced Themis's mind, as she watched the direction the great and massive beast turn away from the city...

...and into the direction of the village they were supposed to go to.

"We have a problem..." Themis said turning to Alyosha, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

"Say, Alyosha...ever killed a Kaiju before? Wanna learn how?" She asked, watching as it swiped a few star fighters out of the sky. The rumbles it made shook the ground beneath them, the cloud of dust it had kicked up erupting from the very earth at last starting to descend. This thing was barely awake and already there were multiple dead.

"Its heading for the village we are supposed to go to..." she added. "I see it in my vision. Nothing in the village will survive if it reaches it."

 

[Kai and Gerda]

At the sound of screams coming from outside, Alyosha followed Themis and Laertia as they went to investigate. The assassin assumed all the ruckus was due to some accident or crime taking place. He was unprepared for the sight which greeted him.

A massive creature was erupting from below the planet’s surface, killing everything in its path. One of the locals called it a “kaiju”. He was unfamiliar with the word, but the beast was difficult to describe, much less classify, so he figured the native’s term would have to do.

Themis turned to him, and he knew by the expression on her face that this was not something they could ignore.

“Of course I’ve never killed one before,” he retorted. “I just got here!”

His fear was close to getting the better of him, but he was doing his best to counteract it by letting his anger and annoyance take the reins. The kaiju was headed for the village, cutting a path of destruction across the war-torn landscape; therefore, he would force himself to see it as only an obstacle to be overcome if they were to accomplish their mission on this world.

“Tell me what to do,” he snarled through grit teeth, hefting his light spear in his hands. “It’s only an animal, isn’t it? It can be gored like one.”

Darth Themis

 

[Darth Themis]

"Well, normally, you would be right..." Themis said to Alyosha Drutin as she turned to stare at the Kaiju...

"...however, I am getting a literal metric fethton of visions where that thing turns us all into runny toothpaste if we go at it directly. This, my Apprentice, will require timing."

Laertia was silent, pale as she stared at the Kaiju. Thankfully it was only tearing through parts of the outer capital that had already been decimated by the Invasion of the Sith.

"We shudz uze myy shippz.." the scarred woman said. "Itz closse byz. Followz meez!"


Laertia broke into a run, Themis following, gesturing with a nod of her head to Alyosha, and began running after her. The roars of the monster were almost deafeaning through the capital. Themis's heart went to her throat as she spotted the Dynamic Class Freighter on the landing pad. Laertia still had it. She had never abandoned it.

What sort of life had her rediscovered grand daughter led. How how she been so horribly injured?

Themis to this day despised herself for what she had to do to keep Laertia out of Darth Phyre's hands, throwing Morris and Lysandra to that beast to buy enough time to enchant the vessel properly. She would hate herself forever for it.

How could she tell Laertia she had sacrificed them to save her? Could Laertia forgive that.

Would Themis let her?

Themis dared not peak into their futures together: she was too scared to see all the possible reactions. Then there was the matter of Alyosha and Lucien. Themis took their training seriously as she did with all her students, but the truth was they were the closest thing to actual friends she had in this era: She wanted their respect, and they were basically her window into how the new era functioned, and she had discretely played catch-up a few times already with them when it came to subtly inquiring about how much the political and economic landscape had changed. She had also been stunned at the fact there were Alchemized items for sale in major companies on fething mail-order.

How might their opinion of her (whatever it was) change should all of the dirty, dirty things she had done during the Gulag Plague to make ends meet come to light? She knew her apprentices (Alyosha in particular) were not saints, but Themis was pretty sure whatever their sins, they couldn't hold a candle to hers, the weight of which made her wake up some nights in a cold sweat, and she had to spend the next hour trying to go back to sleep--or convince herself she didn't deserve to burn in hell for eternity.

She didn't want that to happen to Alyosha. Or Lucien.

Themis slowly, hesitantly followed Laertia up the ramp to the ship, trying not to hyperventilate as she came aboard, the day she felt Morris and Lysandra die echoing in her mind, Lysandra drained of life, Morris electrocuted, and both dismembered viciously by Phyre afterward.

She steadied her breathing, walking past the main hold, filled with posters of Laertia in very different attire, that of a female stage magician on the walls. It looked like a well lived in home, and Themis felt Io's presence everywhere, considerably less agitated here than outside.

"Uh...Moya?" Laertia called out from the cockpit.

Themis turned to Alyosha, "This ship as a rotating laser cannon turret on the top. This model of craft is ancient, so the controls should be extremely simple to work. I need you on it."

Themis then went to join Laertia, who was shaking from hot and cold flashes due to the Brain Injuries, huddled in the co-pilot seat.

"I...I can'tz leegully pylutz. Itz nott safez..." Laertia admitted quietly, humiliated.

Themis thought about reaching out to touch her shoulder, thought the better of it, and got in the pilot seat, activating the ship and flying off to try and get ahead of the Kaiju, and find some way to delay it while airborn...

 

[Kai and Gerda]

A year ago, Alyosha would have laughed in the face of Themis’ visions. But his experiences throughout the galaxy, encountering Jedi and mysterious sorcerers with uncanny mystical powers had taught him to respect the oracle.

He followed Laertia and Themis to the former’s ship, although considering the sheer size of the kaiju he wasn’t sure the old vessel would hold up against it if the monster headed their way.

Once inside, he glanced over the interior of the ship, pausing as he glimpsed the promotional posters on the walls. It was obviously Laertia, albeit dressed very differently. A magician, huh? Well, it wasn’t any worse than being a circus acrobat. Maybe the two of them could put together their own act. In spite of the danger they were in, he allowed himself to chuckle at the thought, releasing some of the tension.

But when Themis asked him to take the laser turret, Alyosha visibly tensed. A computer illiterate with a bias against droids, he generally didn’t like technology all that much. Unless the ancient turret had a very user-friendly interface, they were all screwed.

Themis had already headed for the cockpit to help Laertia, whom he heard admitting she couldn’t pilot the vessel. Well, since he seemed to be the only person left with functioning hand-eye coordination, he was just going to have to suck it up.

“Extremely simple controls…” he muttered under his breath as he climbed the ladder and sank into the seat.

He had expected the controls to resemble those in the cockpit, an intimidating array of blinking lights, buttons, and switches, the accidental activation of which could lead to death, injury, or at the very least an expensive repair job. Instead, the turret controls more closely resembled old-style holo game controls. Just looking at it, he knew exactly where to put his hands, where to position his fingers on the triggers, his thumbs on the left and right sticks.

This was not a computer—it was just a giant gun. He might as well have been inside a tank.

He’d always wanted to operate a tank...

Darth Themis

 

[Darth Themis]

She had been ripped from one misery and deposited right into another. Seeing her Grand Daughter like this was a knife in her heart. Seeing her at all was worse than burning, because she knew she would eventually have to tell her how her parents died.

Themis had bought this vessel as a wedding present for Morris, knowing his love of old ships. She could tell Laertia cared for this vessel the way her father had...she had something of his demeanor. She hid it well through the facade of someone who made their living on the street but she had the same dangerous intelligence Morris did, especially in the split second when she brought herself to really focus on something or someone. You could tell she was studying you.

Themis knew these controls. She could never forget them. Soon they were flying through the air, Laertia having recovered enough to stumble to the cargo bay looking for weapons to assist, while Themis circled the ship to the Kaiju, while keeping out of range, for the moments at least.

Laertia had scrounged up an old rocket launcher, and yelled at Themis to open the hatch while she attached herself to a safety cable to the floor. Themis opened the hatch and Laertia's eyes were greeted by the monstrosity.

Wasting no time, she fired a rocket at its face...the rocket hit but it only served to enrage the beast, which began to make its way to them, ignoring other enemies.

"Shoot it right in the eyes, Alyosha!" She called out to Alyosha Drutin "it should slow it a teeny bit!"

Themis sent the ship low, skimming the ground as the monster began to pursue, opening itself up to Alyosha's turret fire...

 

[Kai and Gerda]

As the ship lifted into the air, Alyosha swiveled the turret, pointing the gun in the direction of the Kaiju. His assassin training was in full effect, aided subconsciously by the Force as he took aim with pinpoint accuracy.

Themis didn’t need to tell him to shoot—the explosion of Laertia’s rocket in the Kaiju’s face was followed up almost immediately by Alyosha’s turret fire. Between the creature’s eyes, beady, ferocious, and now headed straight for the ship, ignoring all other potential threats.

The ship dipped low, the hull erupting into tremors as it scraped the tops of burnt trees and ruined buildings. Alyosha saw the Kaiju open itself to his fire, as if taunting him, daring him to take a shot. Between its eyes…

But hadn’t the rocket, aimed at its face, done nothing but anger it? He doubted Themis’ orders before remembering that she was from this planet and knew what they were dealing with far better than he did. Now was not the time to question her.

That split second of hesitation before Alyosha pulled the trigger was going to cost him.

The turret bolts hit their mark, but he couldn't take as many shots as he could have if he hadn't stalled while trying to think one step ahead of his master. The Kaiju roared and bucked toward the ship. It was indeed slowing down, blinded by pain, but it was determined to take its attackers down with it.

Darth Themis

 

[Laertia Io]

Laertia cursed under her breath as she saw it bound towards them. She attached a safety cable on her belt to the floor and grabbed a pilfered First Order Mega-Blaster she had scavenged from the battlefield, switched it to full automatic, and began firing at its its face, the heavy bolts from the BFG peppering its face. She aimed at its eyes, slowing it momentarily as it blinked to shield itself. Themis was leading it away from the city, over abandoned areas of the battlefield. The Kaiju continued to give chase as the ship dived between abandoned skyscrapers, anything to slow the seemingly unstoppable beast.

It lumbered through buildings with all the subtlety of a tidal wave to give chase, and to Laertia's frustration, she soon ran out of ammo for her weapon. She angrily tossed it aside, closed the hatch, and began searching for something useful in the cargo hold. She heard her bunnies whimper in their pens, felt fear for her pets and frantically searched for one of many BFG's she had scavenged during the recent invasion.

She finally found the absolutely gigantic Stouker Rifle and thudded back to the entry hatch, cabling herself to the floor and holding it steady as the hatch opened, switching it to its secondary setting and fired right at its eyes.

The recoil wad so immense it would have shoved her backward three feet if she had been of average strength. Instead, she was just barely able to hold it in place as she emptied the clip into its forehead.

The massive concussion blasts slammed into it, and finally seemed to stagger the beast, as it was momentarily swooned as though it had been punched, and hard. But it was not down for the count, not even close. The ship rounded a corner in the abandoned part of the city, dived low trying to evade it. It soon came to its senses and began resuming its hunt, looking for the ones who had attacked it, peering slowly between buildings. Themis had landed it in a toppled over skyscraper behind the monstrous creature, telling everyone to stop firing at it.

Themis got out of the cockpit, leaving the engines running to reach Laertia, who was reloading the clunky, ultra large rifle.

"Well, its still looking for us...and its not going for the village at the moment." Themis said as she tried to scan the possible futures for ways to slow it, calling Alyosha Drutin and telling him to stay in the cockpit.

Laertia in the meantime had fully reloaded the Stouker.

"Yuh haff tuh emmptee duh wholl klipp intuh itz buhfire itz stunnedz." Laertia spoke grimly.

Themis in the meantime finished scanning the possible futures.

"Its outer shell is never pierced in any future I can see...We have to stop it completely. Hobble it first, then kill it from the inside." Themis said.

Laertia grimaced. "I gotz a krayzee iddeaa."

Themis furrowed her brow. Then as the visions show what Laertia intended, Themis went wide eyed.

"It could eat you. Or crush you to paste."

"Iff it sayvez innocennt peopuhlz, itz a rysk I gotzta tayke." Laertia said grimly, deeply afraid the monster would hurt more civilians before they put it down. The roar in the distance made Themis sprint back to the cockpit while Laertia ran to grab all the illegal self built thermal detonators and the stouker she had and exited the ship as it lifted off to carry out her strategy.

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Alyosha kept firing the turret at the Kaiju, but the constant dips and turns as the ship scrambled through the ruined sections of the city and the limited range of the turret meant not all of his shots were hitting it. By the time Themis began evasive maneuvers, he was becoming frustrated, gritting his teeth and clenching the controls with a white-knuckled grip, when he heard Themis ordering everyone to stop firing.

The Kaiju was still looking for them. He could sense its predator instincts as it snaked through the rubble, searching for its prey. It was a sensation like being near a pot of simmering water that was just beginning to bubble, the clatter of the lid growing louder as it became more violent and tumultuous, nearer to finding them.

Themis called out to Alyosha, ordering him to stay in the cockpit. The assassin left the turret reluctantly. He wasn’t a terrible pilot, but he wasn’t a fearless flyboy like his brother either. Normally he relied on the piloting skills of his friend Theo Vathek, who was probably out joyriding in Alyosha’s freighter, the Harlock, at the moment. Part of Alyosha wished the Wroonian was here to provide some lighthearted commentary, though he wasn't sure if Theo could handle being chased by a monster of this magnitude. He would've been screaming his head off the entire time they were being chased.

Alyosha could hear Laertia’s slightly muffled, slurred speech coming from the other end of the ship, along with the lower, more precise tones of Themis’ replies. Laertia wasn’t as tightly wound as his master, and her emotions were brighter and more visible through the Force. She was grimly determined, while he could sense just a thin veneer of Themis' worry and alarm beneath the surface of her mental shields. Suddenly he understood what Laertia intended to do: sacrifice herself to kill the Kaiju.

“Wait a minute—” he began, getting out of the pilot seat he had been tensely perched upon. Themis ran past him as he did, racing back to the cockpit. Alyosha braced himself against the walls as the ship lurched into takeoff, Laertia jumping out as it lifted into the air.

Alyosha knew Themis probably wanted him to stay aboard with her, but turret notwithstanding, he felt useless cooped up in the ship. He was sorely tempted to hop out after Laertia, but he recognized that urge for what it was: simply a desire to defy the authority over him and subvert the expectations of those around him. The hot-headed young man in him wanted to impress, especially around attractive women. But by trying to seem clever, he would instead look foolish and reckless, rushing into a situation he didn't fully understand and wasn't prepared for.

He shook his head, trying to reorient himself and formulate a strategy. If Laertia was going to survive this, they were going to have to provide her with air support. Alyosha clambered back up into the turret and resumed his place at the controls, waiting for the signal to open fire.

Darth Themis

 

[Laertia Io]

Laertia made good time through the rubble, even loaded with the heavy weaponry. She could hear the beast rumbling, searching the streets. She made good time, teleporting between smashed and ruined buildings to keep up with the beast and out of its sight, until she picked a nearby rooftop that had to her disquiet a number of dead stormtroopers from the previous invasion attempt. A Sniper and rocket team, by the looks of it. They looked like they had been viciously ripped apart. There was very little blood. Laertia set down her rifle drawing her trench knife to examine the wounds. She felt the presence of The Dark Side below her.

While the monster smashed up a nearby skyscraper, Laertia spotted an open door, with a trail of blood leading in.

Keeping her eye on the beast, Laertia very quietly searched the bodies for anything useful, finding a silenced, pump-action scatter gun and ammo belt full of shells and went inside, as she was a Knight, and no true Knight could leave The Dark Side unchallenged, not even when there was a huge fething monster destroying the abandoned areas around them.

She smelled decay, death as she descended the staircase, coming across a door. She hit the keypad next to it on the wall and it slowly creaked open. Laertia entered what looked to be the hall of an apartment complex splattered with blood and viscera, the jagged symbol of a moon written in blood on the walls, the lights flickerring on and off occasionally. The smell was beyond horrible, but Laertia had literally ripped and torn so many times she was almost numb in the nose to such a stench. There was another staircase leading down, which was pitch black. Nore half rotted body parts nailed everywhere, with the symbol of the Dark Side traced in white blood on the floor.

Laertia tensed, adrenaline going up. Witch Den. Had to be.

She explored what looked to be a cleared out private luxury gym area, body parts hanging from the ceiling. She saw the skeletons of Men, Women and Younglings, burned and charred by some unholy ritual. There was a single family still allive, chained to the walls and gagged.

She spotted the Witch at the center, laying in a pentagram of blood. Its flesh shuddered like The Amalgam's did, and Laertia sensed the same magic. It was naked and its sloughing flesh looked slick and pulsing in the dim, flickering lights. Wisps of short blond hair danced across a constantly shifting scalp, and she could not get an exact idea for its true features due to its face shifting, melting, stretching, and sloughing off the bone in much the same way.

It didn't matter. Laertia carefully pointed her shotgun as it stood up to notice her.

"Such a scrumptious morsel..." It hissed, voice dry and cold.

With a hiss of absolute hatred it sprinted for her. Laertia leveled her shotgun and fired at it...

That was when one of the monster's hand ripped a gash through the building, by accident, knocking them both to the ground.

Laertia was the first up, looking for the Witch, cursing as it had already vanished.

Laertia kept her guard up, Adrenaline spiking. It could be anywhere now.

Meanwhile...

Themis had been keeping its interest on her for a while, diving, harrasing but always keeping out of reach.

But now as she dived frustrating an angry swipe, her vision showed her a point on its hide that was injured on its back.

She pulled the craft upward, gritting her teeth.

"Alyosha! Trust your feelings and Fire!" She called out.

Alyosha Drutin

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Darth Themis

As the Kaiju continued to pursue the ship sans Laertia, Alyosha did his best to keep track of the beast as they weaved between skyscrapers. It was extremely difficult, but then he hadn’t even thought to call upon the Force’s aid. What he wouldn’t give for a powerful rifle and a decent vantage point… and a shrinking ray, perhaps, to make the massive Kaiju more manageable.

The ship suddenly lurched upward, and with it Themis screamed at him to trust his feelings and fire.

He blinked, startled by this new command. Then his brow furrowed. He knew what she was referring to, of course—that part of the Force had been one of the first things he learned about, both from hearsay and from simply observing his master as she decorated the walls of her vessel with drawings based on her visions of the future. Alyosha himself had yet to have any such visions, but he knew about the feelings, especially the one colloquially known as “danger sense”. In his case, it tended to manifest as little more than an unusually strong gut instinct mere moments before disaster struck.

Loosening his durasteel grip on the controls, he tried to relax and let the Force guide him. The ship was rapidly turning toward the Kaiju at a nauseating angle. Alyosha closed his eyes, but he could feel the seconds ticking by, precious time lost, wasted on a vain effort. He couldn’t relax, let alone trust his feelings. He was Alyosha Drutin; he had no chill.

Blue eyes snapped open and honed in on the Kaiju looming before them. He did stretch out with the Force, but it was a deliberate action—he didn’t wait for it to take him by the hand and guide him. His mind traversed the length and breadth of the creature’s hide, looking for weak points, until he discovered the same wound in its back that Themis had noticed.

Taking aim, he commenced firing at the exposed, torn flesh, each shot as cold and calculated as if a computer had performed it. The roar of pain that ripped from the Kaiju’s maw brought him remote satisfaction, but that was all. They weren’t out of this yet.

 

[Laertia Io]

She had become exceptionally paranoid in the minutes since the Witch had vanished, and had immediately placed herself in front of the Imprisoned family. Her shotgun trembling in her arms. She was their only defense.

The Monster outside roared a loud, deafening roar that rattled the corrupted apartment complex as Alyosha Drutin fired on an exposed point. It knocked Laertia to one knee.

That was when the Witch came out of her cloak to attack. The red lightsaber was silent as it struck her black and green blade repeatedly, though Laertia only needed to use one arm to fight, the other was still holding the shot gun. She swung it around, trying to pepper her with buckshot. The Witch whose skin n everywhere constantly wriggled dodged the blast, retaliating with a slice she barely blocked. Laertia dare not teleport to get a better vantage. It would leave the family completely exposed.

Laertia called on The Force to try and slow her, but the Witch flesh wriggled harder in response, resisting it. Laertia soon gave up.

"The Mistress speaks much of you..." The Witch trailed as it backed away. "You are in her thoughts constantly...I frankly don't see what all the fuss is about." The creature hissed. "I sense you, broken and unfulfilled. Pining for the approval of a mere machine. Of a Master you have not lain witness to in years. You are pathetic."

Laertia refused to respond to the barb from the fiend. She backed up, internally wincing as she stepped on a small intestine by accident.

The thrashing of the beast from the pain Alyosha caused its arm to completely swipe the roof off, sending sharp fragments and splinters downward. Laertia suspended the fragments in air even as her saber caught a burst of intense red lightning. She flung the fragments at the Witch, who caught them with her own telekinesis and flung it back at her. Laertia batted most of the fragments aside with a brutal swipe of her shotgun, but some still embedded themselves in her shoulder and thigh as she moved to keep them from hitting the husband of the family.

The Witch hissed gliding foward to attack, but Io, was, above all things, a pragmatist in these situations. As the Witch sprinted forward, Laertia grabbed a piece of sofa. With her enhanced strength she swung it into the beast.

The effect was much like a squished cockroach. Rotted yellow innards burst from the impact as she was smashed into the floor. Laertia began cutting the Family free, desperate to get them out of here before the Kaiju came back.

An impact knocked her lightsaber, whose crystal suppressed the severity of her migraines away from her.

That was when the Migraine hit.

She collapsed to the ground, nearly helpless as the Kaiju's arm punctured the building. The wall holding the family cracked but did not give. But that wasn't her only problem. She saw the corpse breaking down into maggots, splitting into three different piles, each forming into the same identical, youthful blonde woman in a white catsuit, wielding light daggers.

Two approached her, while one went for the family, who screamed even louder than they already were.

Dark Green Lightning from the sky hit the Witch closest to the family, frying her corpse and causing it to burn up in a flare of purple to ash as Themis flew overhead, trying to once more catch the attention of The Kaiju as it it thrashed about.

Laertia barely able to move, managed to position the barrel of the shotgun at the last second towards the chest of one of her foe's as they leapt for her. The blast tore open one's chest and grazed the other, and Laertia struggled to move away from them weakly as they thrashed about in pain from their injuries. But the Migraine would not end.

The least injured witch got up, smiling wickedly at the near helpless Laertia. All it took was one look in the beast's eyes for Io to know it intended to cut her head off.

It got closer, raising its thin red shoto, flesh wriggling.

The creature, in the guise of a beautiful young woman reached out and clenched its hand. Laertia felt herself choking as well as near incapacitating pain.

Her mechanical arm clenched into a fist and, barely focusing she fired her hidden sword. The witch screamed as it went through her chest, unnatural, metallic sounds erupting as unholy shrieks from her throat as she stumbled backward, ending the Force Grip.

Laertia was coughing, still fighting the headache that refused to end, and forced herself to shakily level the shotgun at the witch with the torn open chest, firing as it tried to rise, and destroying her head in a shower of yellow gore.

The remaining witch, struggling to pull out the blade, didn't see Laertia crawl to one of her fallen foe's shotos, pick it up, stand up shakily, and just as the witch pulled out the sword, the shoto had already been thrown, cleaving into her brain from the side.

Laertia had no time to celebrate. Still with the Migraine, she struggled back to the family drunkenly through the agony, only able to think enough to free them.

But the headache still would not stop.

"Comez wit meez iff yooz wantz tuh lyvez..." she got out to them after the monster roared. Her vision was red at the edges as she led them down a half wrecked staircase, unable to access the Force as long as the migraine persisted. Her equilibrium was widely off kilter, remaining upright a herculean effort as she stumbled, nearly tripping.

The Kaiju's claw grazed the building underneath her, causing her to tumble down the last few steps, crying out in pain as she felt a rib break.

The Family members helped her up, her hand latched to the shotgun still.

The youngest member of the family, a teenage male with black hair and torn, bloody clothes screamed as he saw the maggots dripping down through cracks in the roof. She sent them all ahead downstairs, pulling out a small playing card and hiding it up her sleeve, forcing herself to think, slowly loosing the strength to stand due to the pain in her skull as the Maggots pooled a few steps abover her, reforming into a very elderly woman with bright, long, curly red hair in a long white robe with pale, sickly skin with black veins and sulphur eyes.

"Fool Girl. You think to deny our meal. Your soul shall fuel our ascension to greatness. We shall feed you the flesh of that family you have risked everything for."

"I ain'tz...ain'tz dedz...yetz..." Laertia got out weakly.

"Don't worry..." the Witch sneered. "That will soon be corrected.

The Witch raised her hands and red lightning erupted from shuddering flesh.

Laertia let it hit her spiked jacket, which had been designed for extreme electrical capacitance, feeling intense pain that brought her to her knee, but not the horrid, incapacitating pain it would have been without the jacket on. She had been forced to drop the shotgun, and the belt of detonators before the Witch had reformed, lest the current set off both. She flung her arm outward, the playing card throwing knife igniting as air friction reacted to the chemical the card was coated in. The burning card knife hit the monster in the face, setting it ablaze. The Witch screamed as it flayed about. Laertia staggered to her shotgun and slam fired all its remaining shells into the now completely bloody beast, massive chunks blasted off. She grabbed a thermal detonator and rammed it into the beasts destroyed mouth and armed it before running.

There were a lot of things that creature could heal from. A near universally illegal baridium based charge literally within it was not one of them.

Laertia barely cleared the blast, leaping out a second story window, hitting a ruined vehicle with her cybernetic arm and letting it take the worst of the impact as the blast went off, demolishing the building.

Still the Migraine would not end.

Laertia hit the street as she rolled off the vehicle, pain every where. Her head turned to one side.

Her lightsaber lay not three inches from her. She grasped it and the intense power of the crystal within dulled the pain. She managed to stand, and by will of The Force she spotted the Stouker Rifle fifty meters ahead, along with the family she had rescued fleeing into the ancient tunnels under the city.

Laertia, limped to the rifle, clipping the saber to her belt.

The Kaiju leered over her as she got in a few meters of the rifle.

She dived for it, picking it up and aiming right at its eyes as it rushed to chomp down on her.

One of its eyes exploded and it flailed backward into an abandoned building, writhing in agony, causing terrible tremors that tossed her to the ground.

Just then her own ship hovered over her, Themis leaping out to carry the weakened Laertia to safety, leaping back aboard with her and laying her on the deck rushing back to the cockpit to fly it out of the range of the monster.

"We needz a neww plannz." Laertia groaned.

Themis, as she flew over surveyed the damage done so far. The Kaiju had gotten up but was now half blind. She needed time. She searched her visions quickly, spotting an underground gasline in one.

She dove the ship, spotting it physically near the monster's leg.

She would require the most precise timing.

"Alyosha! The gas line! Fire at it!" Themis yelled.

 

[Kai and Gerda]

In the moments after he fired at the Kaiju, Alyosha lay open and exposed to the Force. He had yanked and pulled on the astral cord, bending it to his will, and now the Light Side pushed back, winding itself around him.

This is for the Dark, not the Light, it seemed to say without words. You cannot tread on a shaft of light! It will shine on you—it will burn away the shadows!

He squirmed, grappling with the power that now surged under his fingertips, fighting against his will. The image of Laertia fighting a monstrous hag in some gore-splattered dungeon flashed through his mind, followed by a searing pain in his temples. His mouth seemed full of metal and dust.

This is what the Light means. This is what you must accept. You must endure the pain of others...

Releasing his hold on the Force, he let the metaphorical cord slip from his grasp, leaving him gasping for breath in the turret seat. Thinking he might have bitten his tongue, he touched it, but his fingers came away clean. No blood. Yet he still tasted iron.

The enraged Kaiju had knocked the roof off the building Laertia had disappeared into. Alyosha leaned forward in his seat, peering out the window. He watched in horror and awe as she battled the monster he had glimpsed in his mind, then started to turn the turret toward the three witches—

Themis beat him to the punch. Green lightning flashed, killing one of the copies, then the ship tilted away from the battle down below as his master attempted to draw the Kaiju’s attention. Alyosha too focused on the beast, pinpointing the same weak spot on its back, taking aim, firing—

Despite their efforts (or perhaps because of them; he didn’t know how intelligent the Kaiju really was) the beast remained too close to the building for comfort. Its claw scraped the bottom of the building, threatening to bring the whole structure crashing down. Alyosha sensed distant pain and guessed that it was coming from Laertia.

He continued to blast the Kaiju, aiming between its eyes, the wound he had already exploited, any part of its body that seemed soft or vulnerable. The same feelings of helplessness and uselessness rose up in him like bile, bitter and burning.

And then…

The building exploded, blasted out from within. He flinched at the brightness of it, then grit his teeth. Laertia wasn’t dead—he could still feel the pain coming from her—

But then that too disappeared abruptly. He swore, not sure why this upset him. He’d only just met Laertia earlier that day. What did he care if she lived or died?

The smoke cleared. The Kaiju was ignoring them, it’s attention on a defiant figure down below. Alyosha gaped at the sight of Laertia, alive and on her feet, shooting into the mouth of the roaring beast as it tried to swallow her whole. That hit from inside caused one of the creature’s eyes to burst, leaving it half-blind and screaming. Alyosha could feel its pain too, loud and unhindered by human dignity. He blocked it off, annoyed by its lack of self-control.

From there things happened quickly. Themis hopped out and carried the injured Laertia into the ship, then raced back to the cockpit, drawing the vessel away from the wailing beast. Alyosha could hear Laertia groaning from where Themis had left her on the deck. Somehow he could tell she’d cracked a rib, just by where the pain was emanating from.

“Alyosha! The gas line! Fire at it!”

He jolted into action, aiming for the gas line and firing. It exploded, fire engulfing the Kaiju’s leg, starting a chain reaction. The section of the city that particular gas line ran through erupted in flames, further damaging the Kaiju’s body from below.

Darth Themis

 

[Darth Themis]

Darth Themis immediately begin searching for viable futures after the monster was set ablaze, getting well out of its thrashing range as she sought to find some future that would not put them all in horrific danger trying to kill the damned thing.

But there were not any futures where they got to hit the easy button. They wanted it dead, they had to put in the work.

The Kaiju snarled as it resumed pursuing them, the fires from the blasted gas line spreading across its whole body as it pursued them across the ruined city. She flew through two narrow skyscrapers, making it burst through them as it attempted to pursue, now completely on fire.

Themis flew hire than it could hope to reach, then she concentrated, stretching out her hand.

A massive, heavy bolt of dark green lightning thundered fron the sky, striking the shoulder of the burning Kaiju, and the beast roared as it fell over, crushing another building. A cry of pain from Themis, and another, super-heavy bolt of lightning blasted it in the head while it was down, leaving it temporarily weakened.

"That bought us a few minutes...fifteen at most..." she trailed, flying the Frieghter a fair distance to an abandoned speeder repair shop. Four or five blocks away.

"Alyosha, you can't do any more good in that turret." Themis called out. "Laertia needs time to recover. The only way we win is if we take the fight to that beast on ground level. We'll still need to destroy it from within, but between the two of us, we'll need to weaken it enough for the killing blow to be delivered. But we'll need stuff. We got twelve minutes before it wakes up."

Laertia staggered out of the cargo hold, holding her side as Themis came through to gather supplies.

"Wut duh hellz arr yoo?" Laertia asked quietly, her dark gray eyes piercing Themis's mutated ones, making the Sith blink.

"What the hell are you?" the ressurected Darth asked just as pointedly.

(Cutaway of The Predator laughing after the self destruct device is activated)

"I'mz a suhvyvorr." Laertia answered tersely. "Styll duzzint explaynez yooz muhnippulaytyng duh Foyce dhat wayz..."

"Laertia, I am working to the benefit of The Light Side. Same as you. I just have fewer silly hangups about how I do it than most. I don't even need the Force to look into your past...that face of yours? You've watched the life leave too many eyes, same as I. We're in the same business." Themis replied silkenly.

"Whyyz dooz I gotz suuch truhbullz buhleevyngz dhat?" Laertia asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Themis put her hand on Laertia's shoulder. Only the fact Themis wore a younger version of the face Laertia trusted most in all the galaxy kept her from recoiling. Themis was some sort of anomaly the cyborg realized. Something that was Sith-like, but with a focus on controlling the Light instead of The Dark. It was unnatural and distressing to Laertia to realize the Light could be used in this way.

With a start, Laertia realized only one other being she had ever encountered who was similar in their approach to the Force and Light in particular...

"I promise to tell you everything, Granddaughter. But that monster comes first."

The cyborg nodded, limping, clutching her ribs to go back into the cargo-hold, fishing through the dozens of weapons she had claimed as both useful back ups and outright trophies from particularly heinous and cruel Dark Siders or warriors of exceptional skill. (she dreamed of adding the purple saberstaff of her hated foe The Amalgam someday to this collection.) While she looked for something to aid Themis and Alyosha Drutin Themis's heart caught in her throat as she spotted a familiar Light-Spear, similar to the one she herself owned. Laertia had modified it however.

"You have your father's weapon..." she trailed, hands gliding over it. When she felt the chill from within, her eyes, which were already desperately fighting back tears, accidentally let a few escape, despite her most sincere efforts.

"...and your mother's crystal...how did you obtain it?" Themis asked.

"Laytuh. Aftuh duh monnstuh..." Laertia replied, finally fishing out what she had been looking for, two Defel Mimickers

"So yooz bothz att leest havvz a shotz att ruhmainin undeetektidz..." she offered.

Themis took the belts and proceeded to look for Alyosha to leave the ship and hot wire the two Speederbikes she had seen in her vision close by...

When she found him she explained her plan...constantly expose it to the most dangerous hazards they could to tire it out. Dangerous? Maybe. Stupid? Most emphatically.

Awesome? Oh, my, definitely.


"We'll have to have crazy dependance on the Force for timing our evasions. I strongly suggest centering yourself. We screw this up we're worm food." Themis said grimly. "Any questions?"

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Lightning bolts roped down, green as emeralds, and struck the burning Kaiju. Alyosha tasted Themis’ Force signature like smoke even as the ship sped away. She seemed to really like blasting things with lightning.

Once they had landed, Themis’ called up to him. He descended the ladder, coming face to face with both her and the wounded Laertia. The two women had a brief, somewhat hostile exchange—Laertia seemed to have only grown more suspicious of Themis, even though the woman had rescued her from a painful death at the hands of the monster. Alyosha didn’t want to get involved. He knew from experience that domestic disputes were stormy enough without a third party butting in.

Still, as the duo made their way to the cargo hold, he looked at Laertia’s departing figure as if he wanted to say something, then thought better of it and closed his mouth. What could he possibly say? “Thanks for risking your life for ours”? He hadn’t asked her to make any sacrifices on his behalf. She just did it, instinctively, without thinking twice about it…

Turning away from her, he breathed a sigh of relief. He was out of the cramped turret—free as a bird. Sure, he’d be more vulnerable outside, but he’d also be in his element. In a second skin of light, flexible armor, wielding a weapon he knew like the back of his hand, able to move and fight as he pleased.

By the time Themis found him, he was already standing by the boarding ramp, his Light-Spear in his hand. He listened as she explained the plan, then shook his head.

“No questions.”

He pressed the button to lower the ramp and started walking out even before it had completely lowered to the ground. She had suggested centering himself beforehand; right now he was drawn tighter than a bowstring. Nothing could calm him but the feel of the air’s friction against his body as he ran forward and leaped, miming bringing his spear down upon the Kaiju. Then he felt the Force flow through him—not with the violence he had experienced aboard the ship, but with the elegance and refinement of a well-executed dance.

Alyosha was in control at last.

Darth Themis