Private Dragons of Atrisia

[Darth Themis]

Themis fought brutally as the fight against the Fragments of Ersethy dragged on. Themis's grace was the grace of liquid, while Laertia had a mix of both savagery and grace in her blade movements.

She was more magnificent in combat then both her parents had been. Themis had never personally witnessed such grace in Form One. She hoped Alyosha Drutin was paying attention.

"Yess, Alyosha. Duh Lytesabuh Forrmz..." Laertia confirmed, gutting another with her blade as they pressed forward, not missing what Alyosha had done in the darkness...

She said nothing, of course. Force only knew how fethed in the head she herself was...

Themis in the meanwhile had started blasting the Fragments with Dark Green Lightning as they pressed forward, fighting their way into a chamber, making sure they never lost sight of Alyosha in the chaos.

Laertia found a chamber and retreated into it with Themis and Alyosha. Themis immediately shut the doors and sealed them with a spell, giving her time to think...

"Are you injured?" Themis asked her Grand Daughter.

"No..." Laertia answered quietly, shutting her saber off and going into a meditative position on both knees.

"Well, we've bought ourselves a breather. I can feel the source of the darkness up ahead. We'll need a better plan for up ahead. There will be more of them..."

She went up to Alyosha.

"You've done very well so far, my Apprentice. Rest now. Gather your strength."

Themis was genuinely impressed by Alyosha. He was Master material...it simply needed to be chipped away.

Themis had been so like him, once. Perhaps that was why she was taking his evolution with such pride.

"I owe you a lot for saving my life earlier, and the life of my only living family member..." she admitted. "And you are far exceeding my expectations. When we reach the end of this, you'll take your first steps into a larger world...and more challenging lessons will lay ahead. But if you can kill a Kaiju, you can pass those tests. I know it."

"Wee waitz fer nowwz..." Laertia said...we straatajyze, dhenn wee strykez..."

Themis meditated, closing both eyes, getting on her knees, and searching for what answers could be found...

"If we leave this place at any time before an hour mark, we'll be overwhelmed and killed..." She spoke..."When we leave we must all make a beeline for the piece of that witch causing this...its in the southwest...but that area I sense is also crawling with abominations...quite the conundrum..."

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Alyosha tore through the Fragments, his fury ignited by the taste of blood. He had not been this ferocious in a long time, as uncaring and driven as a predator in the wild. The butt end of his spear cracked bone, while the silver blade sliced through flesh, sending up sprays of warm thick liquid that splattered his armor and face.

He heard—or rather sensed—his master calling to him, coaxing him toward relative safety. Snarling, Alyosha whipped his staff against the gnarled face of a Fragment, then brought the weapon back down on its head, the blunt impact shattering the creature’s skull. Then he whipped away from the horde, following Themis and Laertia.

When the door shut behind him, Alyosha was covered in blood. It smeared across his face and caked his blond hair so that it looked black and matted. His blue eyes were wide and blinking against the trickles of blood-tinged sweat that ran from his temples, pale and ghostly in the dark.

He turned to look at Themis as she wove a spell to seal the entrance, barring the Fragments’ way. Then his gaze flicked to Laertia as she answered the question. He too was uninjured. None of the blood was his own.

Themis’ voice startled him. He turned to look at her, and saw her lips move, but it took him a moment to process her words.

“You’re welcome,” he said softly. “Thanks.”

Her suggestion that he rest and gather his strength definitely registered through the fog. His body was begging him to stop and rest a while. He walked to an empty corner of the chamber, where he sank to the floor, his knees bent toward his chest, and hid his face behind folded arms. Soon he was asleep—not merely dozing or meditating, but well and truly unconscious despite the awkward, stiff position he was sitting in.

Once more he dreamed. This time he was sitting at the dining room table of his childhood home on Corellia. His stepfather sat across from him, reading a newspaper on his datapad, while his sister Jolene sat to his right, picking at her nails, and his brother Val sat to his left, staring down at the wood grain of the table. Alyosha smelled something burning in the kitchen.

Jolene and Val were grown, though this was impossible, for their stepfather had died when they were just children. Jolene was clad in gray heavy armor. Her strawberry blonde hair tumbled freely over her shoulders, and her blue eyes were keen.

Val wore his armored costume, designed for the character Albrecht in the ballet Giselle, the black velvet and cotton retrofitted with shell spider silk and a layer of armorweave underneath.

“Are you scared yet?” Val asked suddenly, looking right at Alyosha.

Alyosha blinked, then shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t understand.”

“But you do.” Val turned in his chair, swinging his legs around so he could stretch them. His thickly muscled lower limbs were clad in gray tights, and black dancer slippers covered his feet. He looked like he was ready for a performance. “You’re really starting to feel it now. It used to be just a vague feeling. But now that you’ve taken your first steps into a larger world…”

He trailed off, looking pointedly at his brother. Jolene had also looked up at Alyosha. Their plain-clothes stepfather went on reading the newspaper, apparently oblivious to the strange appearances of his now-adult children. The burning smell was getting stronger.

“Are you talking about the Force? My training?” Alyosha asked. "Why would I be scared of that? I'm just learning how to use a new tool."

Val nodded. “But it’s gonna make you feel things, whether you want to or not. You’ll sense the emotions of others, too. No more being a glacier, all cold and remote.”

“Give me a break.”

“Yoshi,” Val said gently. “It’s not so bad. Maybe it will help you deal with this weird fetish you have for blood...”

Alyosha shook his head. “It won’t help. If anything, it’ll only make it worse. More difficult to control.”

“Then mention it to Themis. Tell her what you’re struggling with. She’s supposed to help you learn control.” When Alyosha didn’t say anything, Val straightened. “If you’re not going to say anything, I will.”

“What?”

“How else do you think I can talk to you like this so easily?” Val grinned. “I’m on my way to you.”

“No—Val, don’t!” Alyosha stood up. “Stay away! It’s dangerous where we are!—”

He awoke with a start, looking around frantically in the darkness. Themis and Laertia were both kneeling nearby, meditating. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out.

Rubbing his eyes, he sloughed off the drying blood caking his face and hair with a gloved hand, then stretched his stiff limbs. He could still sense Val’s presence, farther out, but getting steadily closer. It was apparent that there was nothing he could do to stop him from coming… but given what Val was, his meeting Themis and Laertia could prove to be a problem.

“Themis,” Alyosha began, clearing his throat. It suddenly felt incredibly dry. “Laertia... Somebody is coming. You might be able to sense him. He’s Dark, but he knows me and only wants to help. He’s… he’s my brother.”

Darth Themis

 

[Val Drutin]

Val Drutin arrived at the island amidst a spray of salt water and seafoam as he brought his skimmer to a skidding halt on the shore. He flicked a switch to raise the protective transparisteel bubble around him (he couldn’t afford to get his costume wet, it would ruin the velvet), then swung his leg over the seat and hopped out.

He had flown to Atrisia in his own vessel, the Stardust, and made his way to the surface through trickery and guile. Well, to be frank, the people in customs were probably still muttering to themselves and curb-stomping their hallucinations thanks to his uncanny ability to utilize Insanity. From there he simply needed to follow the invisible thread which bound him to Alyosha through their brotherly bond. So he stole a speeder boat from a woman whom he successfully convinced he was a merman on a mission (he certainly had the legs for it) and headed for the island.

The sand shifted under his slippered feet as he walked, lightsaber hilt in hand, toward the grass-covered stone dome at the center of the isle. He observed the bodies of Stormtroopers with a head scratch and a frown, then the bloody stairs with a groan. Pulling out a pair of rain galoshes (don’t ask me where he was keeping them) he pulled them on over his slippers and headed down into the depths.

The hypergem-locked door which Alyosha had opened still stood wide, and with each step Val took down into the darkness, the remaining Fragments seemed to react as if he were putting his weight on their shoulders.

Step.

“Oooooooooh!”

Step.

“Eeeeeeeeeeee!”

Step.

“Yoooowwwwwwww!”

“Will you quiet down?” Val snapped irritably. “These steps are slippery. If I fall and hurt myself, it’ll be your fault!”

The Fragments fell into confused, chastened silence for the rest of Val’s descent. When he reached the bottom, he found more blood on the floor, which annoyed him greatly—he had been hoping to take the galoshes off after he reached the end of the staircase, but nope. Fortune had not smiled upon him today.

Igniting his lightsaber, the violet blade lit up the room. Several Fragments snarled as the glow fell upon them. Val made a face. “You guys reek. Like, really reek. When’s the last time any of you bathed?”

The Fragments of Ersethy fell upon him. Val coyly met them on these terms, greeting the closest one with a nose-caving kick to the face. The Fragment howled in pain as its brethren continued to surge forward. Several were promptly fried by a blast of Force lightning that arced from Val’s fingertips, while more were gored by his saber.

Even in galoshes, Val was still a consummate danseur. He leaped away from them, landing gracefully on his feet, then threw his lightsaber into the group. It flew through the air, the spinning blade slicing-and-dicing several bodies before it returned to his hand like a glowing frisbee from hell. For the finale, he executed an elegant barrel spin over their heads, allowing him to decapitate the last of them.

He landed amid a veritable pile of smoking, headless, dismembered corpses… and yet there were still more coming to get him.

Alas, he didn’t have time to play around like this forever. Hurrying over to the sealed door which he knew held his brother, he raised his fist and knocked. “Hello! It's Val. I'm here now, Yoshi!" he yelled excitedly. "Sorry to interrupt your nap, but there are a lot of monsters out here, and I’m all by myself. Please let me stay with you until you decide to come out, and then we can all fight as a team. Pretty please? With sprinkles on top?”

Laertia Io

 

[Laertia Io]

Alyosha Drutin seemed to be dealing with some issues of his own. But when he explained his Dark Adept brother was on the way, Laertia simply nodded. Alyosha had nothing to prove to her. He'd risked his life for her.

"I wyllz dooz nuthinz. Yoo havv myy wurdz ov honuh az a Knyte." she assured him then went meditating with her Grand Mother. She knew how serious the situation was.

It was a numbers game. Always a numbers game in situations like this. Three might be overwhelmed. Four provided solid defense, and was fantastic.

(Cutaway of the Fantastic Four fighting Doctor Doom)

Laertia was breaking all manner and method of rules in order to advance. It had been truly a trauma to know a Sith had helped make her what she was. Only the fact Themis was part of her parents lives had prevented Laertia from obeying her training and trying to strike her down.

Laertia out of curiosity, twisted the Light to her will the way Themis had shown her, summoning the flare. Her organic eye turned that strange, mutated color that Themis had. She dispersed it. It still felt wrong to her to use the Force this way. It went against what she had been taught by Ursula.

How she wished she could call on Ursula for advice. She wondered how Ursula would react. Would she have rejected Laertia? She dreaded the very idea!

"You use my philosophy of your own will. Interesting..." Themis remarked as she meditated.

"I ammz huumurringz yorr poinntz ov veww, inn lyte ov kreeating Moya..." Laertia responded.

"Perhaps you would be willing to humor me further."

Laertia stared at Themis while they waited for Val Drutin .

"Wutz dooz yooz meenz?"

"I could teach you something else, grand child."

Laertia thought a moment. So many lines had been crossed that Laertia realized she was more of a rogue than even she had thought.

She had been having a crisis of faith for a while, she realized. Since killing so many during the Sith's attempted conquest of this world, she had woken up remembering the faces of those who died. Was there more she could have done? She simply wasn't sure. Themis had simply found Laertia at just the right time. Where she was essentially just starting a hilariously dark journey of exciting self discovery via ripping and tearing. Thus, she was more open to a different mode of thinking than she otherwise would have been.

Themis focused, and the shimmering green fiery aura enveloped her.

"Dark Immunity...provides near-total protection from The Dark Side for a short time...try it. You will immediately notice the difference when you have a chance...close your eyes, Julia...twist the Light to your will. Do not be commanded. Command."

"It styllz duzzint feelz rytez..."

"That's only a Jedi sentiment, a prejudice inculcated into you against perceiving the Force any way other than in one of subservience." Themis replied carefully. "As long as you do not sink to the depths of the Dark Side, then there is nothing inherently evil in imposing your will on it. Even the Jedi have used the Light for destructive ends...they destroyed the surface of Yavin Four with it during the war of Exar Kun, which I'm sure you will recall from your own Jedi study. That was just to keep his spirit from escaping. Make no mistake Julia...when the Jedi take off the gloves even they will mess up a planet or two. And even when they do everything right, never give in to temptation, cross their T's, dot their I's, they usually 'still' have four or five dozen dead to their name by the time they're old enough for a desk position. That's on the low end. None of it is natural at the end of the day. A Light Side Sith recognizes this, but chooses to use that unnatural aspect to try and bring order even as they try and crush the chaos of The Bogan, even if it means a few people have to die. Its like Triage."

"Dheyy calledz ittz murrdurr whennz I diddz ittz..."

(Cutaway of Riddick fighting the Night Monsters in Pitch Black)

"Murder is half the process, no matter the spectrum you fall on. Nothing meaningful gets done in our line of work without somebody getting an early dirt nap." Themis responded cynically but honestly. "You know that better than most."

Laertia looked within herself for the truth of Themis's words, and after a moment struggled, twisted and forced her will on the Light, putting all thoughts of self to the side, and focused solely on the necessity...

Dark blue flames sputtered around her for a few seconds. She coughed, winded from the exertion.

"Push past your feelings..." Themis instructed her Grand Daughter.

Laertia focused, forced her emotions into a seperate box and grasped the power of the Light forcefully this time, making it do what she wanted it to do.

The dark blue flames engulfed her body, the Light shrouding her from the evils of this place except very faintly.

"Do you think you are a villain now?" Themis asked.

Laertia shook her head hesitantly. She certainly didn't 'feel' evil...

Themis held out her hand.. Dark green lightning raced between the fingers.

"You try..." Themis encouraged, hoping Alyosha was observing the powers manifested.

Laertia focused, imagining the Ashla surging through her arm as actual electrical distortions...only for the dark blue lightning to violently erupt from her organic hand, blasting a chunk of stone as she struggled to control the direction of the unintentional discharge.

Themis clapped a bit in delight. "Very good, Julia!"

Laertia glanced at her hand, unsure how to take the praise...

(Plasmid Acquisition Theme Plays)

(Laertia learned new Powers!)

Power: DARK IMMUNITY

Spoiler

Forcibly twists the Light to provide near total protection from Dark Side Powers for a short time. As skill increases, the body becomes faster the more Dark Power is absorbed

Power: ELECTRIC DECREE

Spoiler

Extremely powerful version of Electric Judgement manifesting as Dark blue electricity. Capable of causing severe injury or killing Dark Adepts, and heavily stunning but not killing, Light Adepts, preventing them from using the Light for a short time after. Cannot affect non Force Users. Drawbacks is the discharge is difficult to control

"You've taken your first steps into a larger world..." Themis assured her. "Now rest. Gather your strength."

Laertia hesitantly meditated, deeply conflicted about what she had just done...

The hour seemed to go by rather quick, until they heard Val asking to be let in. Laertia, the mutated bronze color having stuck to her eye for the time being, making it look like that of Themis's eyes.

Themis whispered something and the door opened, letting Val in, shutting it and sealing it.

They were all heretics at this point.

Laertia stared at Val as she got up, went over...

...and held out her hand.

"Nyce tuh meetcha. Myy naymez Io. Laertia Io."

(Clip of Bond Theme Plays)

Themis darted her head in bewilderment, looking for the OOC music source...

"There it is again! What 'is' that?!" Themis muttered before shaking it off and rising up to meet Val. In the past, she would have been trying to convert or instagib him. But she had somewhat mellowed from those days. Not much, but enough. Besides, he was her student's brother. She knew the need for family.

"Hello Val. I'm Darth Themis."

(Shumacher Batman Theme Plays for a few seconds)

Doing her best to ignore the troublingly catchy music, Themis kept on point.

"We will fight our way right to the center of this place. Val's arrival caught them off guard. That is where the Fragment of Ersethy is. Once we get there, we seal it up." Themis explained, before opening up the door, and violently blasting one of the toothy abominations with dark green lightning as it rushed her.

"Hurry! Our window is closing! Themis spoke moving through the stone library shelves. Laertia followed, still not fully used to the idea of working with an active Dark Sider but adapting fast due to the seriousness of the situation.

Troublingly, in spite of as many Sith as she had killed, she wasn't horrified at herself for doing anything she had done. Her whole world was upside down. She was making it up as she went along.

"Remember, feel for vibrations or air pressure changes!" Themis warned, as the slaughter began in earnest, Laertia and Themis cutting through the rushing hoardes, Laertia slashing through them with a near dancer grace one handed, a tidal wave of doubt and uncertainty in her mind about everything, her own identity included...

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Acquiring new powers, right. That would take his mind off the impending arrival of his brother. Alyosha concentrated on the lesson Themis taught to Laertia. Dark Immunity was easier for him than Electric Decree, though he couldn’t quite say why—possibly because his own approach to battle was to absorb or deflect as much damage as possible, for as long as possible, and try to score a killing blow by getting in close and striking second.

Val used regular ol’ Force Lightning as a staple of his powers. His brother was all about showmanship. He struck first. It was in his nature, ingrained into him since childhood.

Their Force bond had meant that they grew up together and yet apart. Alyosha had seen… flashes, or glimpses of Val’s life with Zana Rukh, the Sith Lady who had saved Val from slavery and took on the role of an evil grandmother to the boy. Mostly it was only strong emotions that leaked through, but then Val was a very emotional person with a constantly fluctuating mood. The closer they got, the more Alyosha felt from Val and vice versa, until the connection was so well blended that it seemed as if they were one and the same.

But enough of that metaphysical crap. Val was here, and that meant trouble.

Alyosha watched in silence as Laertia and Themis introduced themselves to his brother. He was grateful, of course, that they were welcoming him rather than excluding (or worse), but he was also afraid of what this meant. A closer proximity to Val meant the greater the likelihood of an “episode”. Not to mention that Val didn’t need to be here. He had simply showed up out of the blue, insisting that he was there to help.

“Hi!” Val greeted the two women cheerfully. “I’m Val Drutin. This dummy is my brother from the same mother.” He pointed to Alyosha. “Hi Yoshi!”

“Hey,” Alyosha replied without much enthusiasm, wincing slightly at the cutesy nickname. He’d caught a glimpse of the carnage Val had left behind before the door closed, as well as the reinforcements arriving. Themis was already urging them to prepare for a full-scale assault, so they didn’t have much time to talk.

“Here, Val—you watch my back, I’ll watch yours,” Alyosha said, hefting his lightspear.

“You want me to scratch your back? Right now?”

“What? No, I—”

The door opened once more and Themis and Laertia leaped into the fray. Val followed them with a shout of “yippee!” Groaning, Alyosha tailed his brother, praying he wouldn’t get them killed.

They emerged into a sea of gnashing teeth as the Fragments surrounded them, trying to overwhelm the group. Stabbing and smashing his spear against the monstrosities, Alyosha lost sight of Val in the crowd, though he could still sense his brother’s presence along with those of Laertia and Themis nearby. They fought their way through the library shelves, pressing on toward the center.

Yoshi! He felt rather than heard the call in his mind. Turning, he saw the violet glow of Val’s saber coming toward him, along with a mental request. Boost?

Sighing, Alyosha shifted his spear to one hand, reaching out with the other. Val clasped his arm just above the wrist, and Alyosha did the same, giving Val the leverage he needed to launch himself through the air and at the horde, slicing and dicing them like a chef preparing vegetables for Ersethy Stew.

At last, the stragglers of the initial wave were gone. Detecting vibrations indicating that more were on their way, Alyosha made a break for the core of the complex. Val skipped after him, doing a cartwheel along the way for no apparent reason save sheer impulsivity.

Laertia Io

 

[Darth Themis]

Themis and Laertia mowed down the Fragments with liquid alacrity. Themis pulled the moisture from the air to form spears and daggers, that she hurled into the faces of the fragments, Laertia swiftly dismembering them with her blade, her organic eye still that mutated bronze and green.

Alyosha Drutin and his brother Val Drutin had both found her own equilibrium, and their natural synchronicity sent a small wound to both of the more experienced combatants.

It was discomforting to Themis to be reminded of the family like relationship in the Jedi Order she had founded. For Laertia, it was a reminder of how bereft of family she had been for much of her life. It brought the pain of not having a blood relative to the forefront.

Themis drove her spear through another set of abominations...and then ducked as her visions showed Alyosha giving Val a Fastball Special and destroying the remnants of the initial wave before making a break for the center, where Themis felt the Darkness was strongest. She started to run, sprinted really through the stone library along with Laertia, feeling the troubling stampede of fragments snarling for flesh on the ground, but unable to pinpoint due to the Darkness. As she got closer, she had to force the Light into her body, enveloping her in a shimmering green flame aura as they finally reached the central core, The Index Chamber. Themis felt Laertia stop, and turned. The tombstone skinned Jedi Shadow held her blade vertical in front of her.

"I havvz a grassp ov dhese kreechurrz nowwz. I wyll holldz duh lyne. Ennd dhis..." Laertia said quietly but firmly.

Themis knew it would be useless to dissuade her. So she nodded and sprinted into the chamber, sealing it behind her, filled from top to bottom with shelves of ancient, partly rotted away index cards for what was in the library. She was awash in a putrid Darkness that permeated the very air, she struggled to move forward as her flesh rippled, until she spotted it. The Fragment was a gob of pale, pulsing flesh that looked like hands writhed underneath as it squirmed in the center of a broken ward circle. Themis still wasn't sure what had happened on this island or this library during the invasion. She knew the red armored stormtroopers had fethed up somehow, but Themis wasn't sure she wanted the details.

"Alyosha! We have to reseal these wards immediately! Its the only way to kill all the beasts outside at once!" Themis said, flesh still rippling as she got into a meditative position, cutting open her palm and dripping glowing green blood onto the broken wards.

"Okay, start forcing The Light Side upon the fragment while I chant, Alyosha! Val! Please go back up Laertia! She's tough...but better safe than sorry. The tough get brought down all the time." Themis requested, knowing they had to seal this fragment now...

Meanwhile Laertia viciously hacked away during her You-Shall-Not-Pass on the fragments, BFG Division starting to play extremely loudly OOC as she began viciously hacking and pulling the snarling beasts apart...

 

[Val Drutin]

Darth Themis

"That's... unpleasant," Alyosha remarked upon seeing the pulsating, writhing Fragment. But he did as Themis asked, using the crystal in his lightspear to focus and concentrate his energies upon the mass. The Force flowed through him like a river rapid; he could barely direct the current, but he did the best he could.

Meanwhile, Val heard Themis shout his name. He was used to taking orders from powerful women and didn't think twice before obeying.

"Hi!" he greeted Laertia as he slipped through the door just as it sealed shut, yelling over the OOC music (which he could definitely hear, thanks to his madness). "I'm supposed to back you up!"

He took to this task with gusto. Val was a funny little thing, even shorter in stature than Alyosha and with more delicate features, but his small frame was densely packed with muscle. Especially his legs, which were overdeveloped to the point where he looked like a human grasshopper. He went into combat feet-first, jumping and kicking like a horse, then offset the brutality of this with the duelist's finesse of his bladework.

"Have at thee!" he cried, goring a fragment and decapitating the next. Laughing, he turned to Laertia. "This is fun! We should do this more often!"

 

[Laertia Io]

Laertia saw Val Drutin hopping around like a Grasshopper, and actually had to stop herself from laughing at his combat antics, even as she slashed apart more fragments, throwing her Lightsaber, controlling it telekinetically and turning it into a floating lawnmower against abominations. The sword on her cybernetic arm popped out, assisting her as she cut down the fragments, viciously tearing apart some that tried to close in on Val from behind. She cut away at them, ruthlessly, unthinkingly.

She strangely didn't see a heretic when she saw Val. She saw someone who had come because he loved his brother. She had never had a sibling and she envied him. She had Moya, but she had no Brother...or Sister.

Laertia cut through the abominations as Val suggested they should do this more often.

It was an entirely new experience, actively working with a Dark Adept for survival. Laertia didn't know how to feel about a man like Val: Just the fact he was aligned with the Dark yet unquestionably offered aid made Laertia question everything she had taken for granted about Dark Adepts.

If only our kind could team up more often to solve 'actual' problems...the Black Knight thought silently as they covered eachother.

She would have replied that the Order would have frowned on such things, but she didn't really feel like a part of them at the moment. She experimented again, unleashing a powerful, barely controllable bolt of twisted Dark Blue Lightning-like Light Side Energy at one of the beasts, absolutely destroying it through instagibbing. Laertia marveled at the ability. She felt guilty about using the Light that way. Twisting it to her bidding instead of being guided by it. But it was an emergency.

The Abominations surged on their defensive point, and even with throwing her full might into the battle she was realizing their numbers were creeping up dangerously high. They surrounded her to the point, even her Form One was having trouble keeping up . Themis had to end this, and soon...

Themis, for her part, was well underway isolating and reimprisoning the fragment, with Alyosha's help, directing the Light in a way that began to rapidly contain its intense Dark Aura. Themis's flesh shuddered as she processed the energy flowing from her, chanting as she bound up it evil in the very strongest of wards...

She thought of all she had lost, all Darth Phyre had taken from her because she had grown weak and actually started to buy into the Jedi nonsense. She forced her will on the Light, in rejection of that mistake. She had to, if she was to properly guide her Granddaughter.

The pulsating, writhing fragment they had entrapped petrified, turning to stone. As it did, her flesh ceased rippling and she collapsed, exhausted. The Abominations Laertia battled suddenly fell dead, burning to purple ash, like the ones trying to kill Val had.

Laertia, exhausted, shut off her blade...

"Wellz...dhat wuz unnpleasantz..." she remarked, heading back into the chamber to find Darth Themis barely waking up.

"Yooz okayz?" Laertia asked her.

"Fethin' peachy..." Themis groaned, pulling herself up like she was hungover.

She looked at Alyosha and Val.

"Great work you two. Now...let's get what we came for..."

Fifteen minutes later...

It rested on a pedestal.

It was amber in color, one of the few Light Sided products that came from Korriban, diamond shaped.

Themis walked forward and beheld the Light of The Sith, the powerful crystal shaped from the rays of Korriban's very sun. It pulsed unnaturally with the Light.

"A true Philosopher's Stone..." Themis remarked, using her dark green lightning to disable any magical traps surrounding it in the ancient library, before retrieving the stone.

Laertia was in one corner meditating, trying to wrestle with herself over the events of today...how it changed everything...everything she knew...

"Julia?" Themis called out gently.

Laertia opened her eyes.

"It seems we've reached the end of our adventure...and I'd like to ask...what will you do, now that you know who I am, and what I am capable of, and what I have done?" Themis asked. On this was a shatterpoint for all of them.

Laertia wrestled with herself a moment. She considered Alyosha's words about family, and how he had demonstrated that belief between he and his brother.

"I wyllz dooz nuthinz..." Laertia answered...

Themis smiled.

"...but I cannotz becommez a Lyte Syde Syth. I...I havv foughtz so harrd tuh beez a Jedi, evenn wun in poor stanndingz wyth othuhs becuz ov my approaach. But I wyl not rayse myy blaade aggainst yooz, Alyosha, or Val."

Themis hid her crushing disappointment. Yes, Laertia was definitely going to become a Light Side Sith alright...

...but now she was going to get to that point the hard way...

"Truce, then?"

"Truuce." Laertia confirmed.

Themis nodded.

"Thank you for your understanding and patience...now, I think we need to leave this place, but not before we snag choice reading materials...before you leave us, Laertia...perhaps you'd like to stay aboard my Praxeum for a few days...there are some things of your parents I think you should have."

Themis already knew Laertia would nod to this, and knew she would accompany her and Alyosha in her search for more genuine Light Side Sith. She had much to teach him still...and her.

She was curious...Themis could tell. Why say you couldn't join her, yet agree to a short stay in her school. She got it from her biological mother, Lysandra...

Themis smiled though. At least she and her only relative were not at each other's throats. That was a start...

OOC: Make the last post if you want. I'm gonna start the second part soon...