Private Escape from Azrael Asylum

[Danton]

Danton laid on the floor his cell, a still and silent corpse.

The torment of the last month had stolen much from him. His life, his power. Valery Noble had stripped him of the Force, peeled away his mind for information and left him to rot in a prison for the insane. She'd taken from him everything, and in the darkness of that cell, he'd found madness and pain. If his master, Darth Hakan, could see him now, he would only see a shell of a man, a broken husk unfit to be a Sith.

He would be looking at a corpse.

For the last hour, Danton hadn't moved. He was limp and motionless, his skin clammy and pale, and blood covered half his face. More had been smeared into the wall, where a head-shaped crater had been left, cracks spider-webbing out from the center of impact. To anyone looking, it would look like he'd smashed his face into the stone until his skull broke. Like he'd gone insane and finally ended his own life.

But that was far from the truth. Because as Danton laid there, his chest unmoving, he listened to the sounds of the prison around him—scurrying rats, inmates moaning down the hall, water trickling from the ceiling. And between it all, he heard the noise of footsteps, guards slowly approaching his cell.

His teeth clenched, almost in a smile. Let them come. Danton had a promise to keep, after all: to escape, to survive, and most of all, to kill Valery Noble.

Valery Noble​

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[Valery Noble]

Azrael Asylum

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Tag: Danton

"Get up and show us your hands!" one of the guards called out when they slowly and carefully entered Danton's cell block. Something had happened — they all knew it, and they all felt a sense of fear deep inside. Azrael Asylum didn't exclusively hold Sith, but every guard knew they were the ones to watch out for the most. The types who might never find a better way forward, and take any chance they find to attempt an escape.

An escape that would always be full of bloodshed.

"Get on your knees and put your hands up," Another echoed, hoping that Danton would comply and keep this an easy day at work. They all wanted to go home tonight, and some perhaps even believed in actually helping the people who were detained here. But right now, they just wanted this to be over.

"What did you do?"

 

[Danton]

Danton made no answer as they spoke.

Still, he laid on the floor, unmoving. Even as they brandished their weapons, their threats and their demands, he remained prone and made no reaction. He did his very best not to breathe nor move, the very model of a dead man. Part of him was sure the guards wouldn't believe a trick as simple as that, but they might at least buy into him either being unconscious, or just uncooperative.

Maybe that would be enough to lure them inside his cell.

Armed against stun batons or blasters, Danton wasn't afraid. Even if they came inside to beat or shock him, or his miserable attempt to escape ended in failure, he had to try something. The longer he stayed in this prison, the more he lost. His strength, his sanity. Madness was creeping in on him like a starving beast and so were the ghosts of his past. Voices of Darth Hakan or his baby sister, haunting him like always.

You are weak. You are nothing. You are ruined.

But as he laid there and waited for the guards, Danton answered those haunting voices with a sharp thought: I will show you how ruined I am. I will show you all.

Valery Noble​

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[Valery Noble]

Azrael Asylum

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Tag: Danton

"Do you think he's dead?"

The guards looked at each other and stepped closer to the cell, so they could see the dent in the wall, as well as the blood. It wouldn't be the first time that an inmate managed to commit suicide, but it was still possible that he was alive and just unconscious. If so, he'd require immediate medical attention before being transferred to a special cell.

The kind where he couldn't hurt himself.

"Only one way to find out."

The guard opened up the door of the cell, and together with one other stepped inside. Another waited outside the cell, weapon drawn and ready to use, but he looked like a rookie — someone they were still training. Even without the Force, someone, as experienced as Danton, could feel his fear.

"Just look at you now. How pathetic," the guard then continued, as he crouched down to check Danton's pulse.

His heart was still beating.

 

[Danton]

As he heard the cell door groan open, Danton felt his gut thrill. He couldn't believe it. They'd bought his little sham, and now, slowly, were inching towards him unaware of how close they were approaching death's door.

A shard of stone, which he'd peeled from the wall after beating his knuckles bloody into it for the last hour, was clenched in his right hand. It was the one weapon he had in a cell this bare, but it would be enough. Because as the guard knelt at his side to check his pulse, eyes roaming over his still face, Danton shot up like a burning geyser and plunged the shard between the crack of their armor, deep into their throat.

Blood sputtered out. He'd give the man no time to react or prod him with his baton, instead shooting directly for the kill. But even as he struggled or clawed at his savaged neck, Danton would grip him by the shoulders and with all his strength, pull him up, charging for the second guard while he used the man as a human shield. Not just a shield either, but like a battering ram.

He had no intentions of letting both men leave the cell alive.

Valery Noble​

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[Valery Noble]

Azrael Asylum

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Tag: Danton

As the shard of rock struck his throat, the man tried to gasp for air, but only blood filled his lungs. His eyes widened, and hands grasped for his throat, but it was all in vain. Before he could even realize what was happening to him, Danton had already gotten up and used him as a human shield to advance on the other guard inside the cell.

The guard, pistol drawn, froze. He couldn't pull the trigger against his fellow guard.

Their bodies slammed into each other, knocking back the armed guard until his body hit the metal bars of the cell. Because of the impact and being squashed between the bars and his dying friend, he dropped the pistol, and it fell right by Danton's feet. But while those two fell to the ground, the one outside the cell turned.

And began to run.

There was a panel on the wall near the entrance to the cell block. It would allow him to set off alarms and isolate this entire section, so no escape would be possible.

Would he reach it in time?

 

[Danton]

As their bodies crashed into each other, Danton released the guard he was holding and dropped it on the other man. Blood drenched his hands and the muscles of his arms ached, but he felt a thrill in his gut and adrenaline ran through him from head to toe. The sound of the man gargling on his own blood and the clatter of the pistol on the floor was like music to his ears. Finally, for once, things were going his way.

Scooping up the pistol, Danton whirled and aimed for the guard fleeing down the hall. He couldn't spare another moment and let him escape, else he risked the entire prison being alerted of his escape, and worse, alerting the Jedi.

There was a time when he wasn't afraid of them. When all he felt was hate and disgust at the sound of their name. But after his ruin at Exegol and Valery's humiliation of him, now part of him feared the thought of crossing paths with another Jedi, especially without the Dark Side at his fingertips. He was weakened. Damaged.

But that didn't make him powerless. Oh, far from it.

One eye closed, he focused in on the retreating guard and loosed four shots, if only to make certain they stopped him dead in his tracks, and to make sure he was dead before he reached the security panel. As long as he was handled, all that was left for Danton to deal with was the surviving guard in his cell, and after that?

His path to freedom would begin in earnest.

Valery Noble​

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[Valery Noble]

Azrael Asylum

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Tag: Danton

Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang.

Four shots were fired, and all four shots hit their mark. The guard was dead before he even hit the ground, and was given no chance to even scream or think about his last few seconds alive. It left Danton alone inside a now eerily quiet cell block, with only the whimpering of the guard that had been squeezed between his colleague and the metal bars breaking that silence. He already knew what was going to happen to him next.

He'd either be killed or used as a hostage.

So he decided to try the only thing that could perhaps save his life. "Y-you're not going to make it out of here," he said, clearly terrified. "The other guards will come. The Jedi lady..." he swallowed and looked at the cell. "If you stay in your cell and let me close it, you'll at least survive."

"Please don't do this."

He sounded desperate because he knew there wasn't that much standing between Danton and his freedom now. Sure, they'd go looking for him, but he had been a Sith Lord. It wouldn't be too impossible for him to hide away somewhere.

 

[Danton]

A ghost of a smile crossed Danton's lips as the fleeing guard dropped dead. Smoke wafted from the four holes in his back, which left him with only one more fool to kill.

Dark eyes turned to the guard trapped and moaning on the cell floor. His pleas and threats fell on otherwise deaf ears, at least, until the mention of 'the Jedi lady,' the woman who started this to begin with. Valery Noble. Briefly, Danton hesitated. Just the very thought of her brought on a wave of fury and, if the guard saw closely enough, fear. Because as much as he despised Valery, he was afraid of her just the same.

But the longer he stared, the more his anger began rise, swallowing up his fear and so, whatever morsel of sympathy that might've been left in him.

Danton leaned over and plucked a spare blaster pack from the dead man's side pocket, even as the other guard watched and begged, and he unloaded the magazine, the empty clip clattering on the floor. "Maybe," he said, before reloading the pistol. "Maybe not. I guess we'll just have to see, won't we?"

Danton raised the blaster at the guard. "Well, I will. You won't."

He pressed the trigger, shooting the guard twice in the face. Begging rarely worked with him, and he couldn't leave survivors now, could he? Better he left things as messy as possible, especially if it meant Valery returning to find him gone. A proper parting gift.

With that finished, Danton strode from the cell and made for the security panel, passing row after row of crazed inmates, spinning the blaster in one finger and whistling a tune.

Valery Noble​

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[Valery Noble]

Azrael Asylum

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Tag: Danton

"No, please!! Please don-" his pleas for mercy were silenced by two blaster bolts in the face. His body hit the floor, and smoke began to rise from his corpse, but Danton finally found himself alone in his cellblock. The way to freedom was still not an easy one, but the largest obstacle he had managed to overcome.

After making his way out of the cell block soon after, he'd encounter other inmates, and upon noticing that Danton was armed, they rushed into his cell block to collect the weapons of the other dead guards. One step at a time, chaos began to grow within the halls of Azrael Asylum, and that silence from before was gone once again.

That void was now filled with blaster fire and screams of those drawing their last breaths.

"No further!" a guard in armor called out, as he walked forward with some kind of vibro-weapon. Several other guards stood with him, but Danton was no longer along either. An army of inmates, armed with blasters or makeshift weapons stood by him, ready to attack.

At his command.

 

[Danton]

Upon opening the other cells via the security panel, and thanks to one of the guard's keycards Danton had so ruthlessly retrieved, he found himself eventually backed by a small army of inmates. Shouting, manic men and women who'd been committed to the asylum on charges of murder, arson, insanity, and most of all, for being Sith.

Very few had their Force abilities still left. That was no surprise. Valery and other monstrous Jedi like her must have taken joy in stripping them of their powers, thinking it mercy when it was, in fact, a driving point to madness. Oh, and by the Avatars, were they mad. Frothing mad. Danton could read it in their eyes, see the hate on their faces, and he recognized it because he felt the exact same, too.

At the hall's end, he spotted a bevy of guards armed with vibro-weapons and batons. There was a time when Danton might've winced at the sight of them, but not anymore. He had a blaster. He had company. And as he watched the brave and frightened faces of those soldiers, only one thought was on his mind, and as he looked over the inmates at his back, he only had one thing to say:

"Well? What are you waiting for? Are you going to kill them or what?"

Valery Noble​

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[Valery Noble]

Azrael Asylum

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Tag: Danton

"Well? What are you waiting for? Are you going to kill them or what?"

Without having to say or do anything else, Danton inspired the entire horde of inmates to charge down the hallway. It struck fear into the hearts of the guards, but they weren't going to run. They were now shooting to kill, and using any means necessary to stop Danton and his people from escaping.

But it wasn't enough.

As the clash began, it quickly became clear just how outnumbered they were, and with every guard that fell, another inmate acquired a new weapon. The balance was changing rapidly, but the path to freedom wasn't entirely open for Danton just yet. From his side, a vibro-baton was swung towards his face by one of the guards — one in actual armor, and one that looked like one of the officers.

He had identified Danton as the main issue, and targeted him with several more swings, hoping to keep him up-close for a fight he could win.

"Should have stayed in your cell!"

 

[Danton]

Danton casually strode down the hall as the inmates and remaining guards clashed. The sounds of fighting were like music to his ears, and from what he understood of the asylum, he was not far from the main hangar, where he might be able to commandeer a ship and escape this hell for good. Freedom seemed just within reach.

But he should've known breaking out would not be so easy.

A baton crashed into the side of his face. Hot, white pain flashed in his vision and he staggered away, his mind scrambling as he found purchase against the wall. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. Reacting quickly, Danton's eyes rose to meet his attacker—an officer, by the looks of it, dressed in full regalia and armor, with a weapon that nearly could've killed him. Call it luck or desperation, but he refused to die.

As the guard swung several more times, Danton struggled to dodge him. His balance was off and he could barely think. But one thing stayed on his mind, and it was the soul-crushing desire to kill this man.

"You should have stayed in your guardhouse. Now, I'm going to have to kill you like I killed your men. On your knees." Danton pushed off from the wall and spun, hoping to deliver a wicked kick into the officer's leg. It was going to take a lot to hurt the man, but he just needed to wear him down, to find weak points in his armor, and then? He'd deal with him like the rest.

Valery Noble​

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[Valery Noble]

Azrael Asylum

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Tag: Danton

As experienced as the officer was, it almost seemed like he enjoyed smashing his weapon into Danton's face. Perhaps because many of his fellow guards had been killed already, and this offered a feeling of revenge, but it also blinded him. After another swing, his baton struck the wall, causing him to bounce back under the weight of his own weapon. Danton used the opportunity to push himself off the wall and managed to land a kick against the side of the guard's knee.

It buckled, and without the support of his legs to keep up the armored body, he found himself greatly off-balanced.

"Ahh!" he yelled, but he was silenced as another inmate struck him from behind with a stolen baton, which got the guard's vision to blur as he stumbled towards Danton now.

"Kill the bastard!" One of the inmates called out.

"The way is clear!" they began to shout.

 

[Danton]

Dizzying satisfaction ran through him as his kick forced the guard off balance. As they staggered into another inmate, who beat him over the head with a taste of his own medicine, Danton spat out a wad of blood from his mouth and stalked towards the lumbering bastard.

With untold fury, he kicked the man a second time, hard against his other leg, intending to snap bone.

Once the officer was on his knees, Danton ripped whatever helmet he wore off and grabbed him by the scalp. Looking down at him, disgust and petty revenge laced into his every word, he gritted through his teeth, "I would ask you to leave Valery Noble a message, but your corpse will do fine."

He hurled the man's face forward to meet the tip of Danton's knee, which cracked hard into their nose. As he let the officer crumple to the floor in a broken, bleeding heap, he turned and retrieved the blaster he'd dropped from the floor, then fired one shot neatly into the back of his skull. Smoke and melted flesh filled his nostrils.

It wasn't a pretty sight, but it was a familiar one.

Walking away from the man's corpse and through the crush of inmates, Danton found the way indeed clear, staggering out into a modest hangar bay. Slashes of daylight cut inside and he shielded his eyes with one hand. It was his first taste of the sun in weeks—no, months—since his capture on Exegol at the hands of Jand Talo.

That was another Jedi he had on his kill list, with Valery standing right at the very top. All he needed now was a ship to escape in and he could finally get started on it.

Valery Noble​

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[Valery Noble]

Azrael Asylum

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Tag: Danton

Crack.

The bone in the man's leg snapped, forcing him down to his knees with a scream of pure pain and despair. All around him, fellow guards were brutally being beaten to death, and now he understood that his time had come as well.

Danton's hand gripped his scalp, forcing another pained breath from his lip, but unlike the other guards, he showed no fear. Only utter disgust for the Sith without the Force, "You're going to-" He was silenced by the knee that crushed his nose, busted his lips and left him a bloody mess on the ground.

"...survive."

Bang.

In an instant, the fight was over as no guards were left standing. The asylum had completely isolated the entire section because they didn't want to risk other blocks rebelling, but it meant this group of inmates would be able to reach the hangar.

There were plenty of ships to take.

Locks were busted wide open, engines were fired up and Danton would be able to choose his way out.

Finally, he was free again

 

[Danton]

The way was clear and Danton was hungry for blood.

As he entered the hangar, he shouldered past a near dozen inmates, shoving many aside who didn't move quickly enough for his taste. While there was a wealth of ships to pick and choose from, his gaze landed solidly on a sleek X-Wing starfighter, outfitted with the newest weapons and a dark matte finish. Now, that was a vessel worth escaping in.

Danton climbed the service ladder to the cockpit. Finding an inmate already inside calibrating the systems, he offered them one short grimace, then took them by the neck and threw them out. While there was plenty room for two men, he was not one to share, and these people? His fellow inmates? They didn't matter. All that mattered was Valery, and his dream of inflicting upon her a thousand agonies for what she did to him.

He flicked on the engine switch. With a whir and shriek, the X-Wing rose from the hangar floor and arced out into the open sky, leaving behind a trail of white smoke as he lifted into the planet's orbit. His heart continued to kick in his chest. He still couldn't quite believe he'd done it—and without the Force, too—but he'd finally escaped, and now the path to revenge laid open to him like a banquet table.

Don't do this, said a tiny voice in his head. Just hide. Be free. Find peace. But peace was a lie, and as his hand glided down the lever to hyperspace, Danton only thought of one thing, and he answered the voice with a low murmur, "No. Not until she's mine."

Then, he burst into light-speed, on the hunt for the Valery Noble.

End Thread.​

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