Private From the frying pan to the forge

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

Kyrilu barrelled into the open portal, flinging the door at his ship's end open with a twitch of his hand and a nudge of force even as part of the client's ship exploded behind him. He threw the portal closed, no idea if the client had been following him but using as much effort as he had left in him to tear apart the umbilical tunnel to ensure he wasn't followed. Her parting comments set his already rattled nerves alight. Deny who he was? He had never claimed to be anything, how could he deny that? She couldn't know anything of his inner strife, not just from a few minutes of short conversation and a quick scuffle, could she?

Sprinting for the cockpit, he felt his breath - already coming in heavy from the amount of force energy he had brought to bear - catch in his throat. Using his force sight, Kyrilu had been scanning the cargo hold, now partly exposed to the vacuum of space, to try find any trace of the client. She had put the fear into him well enough just in the brief interaction they had, but what he saw now chilled his blood. As he slammed into the pilot's chair in the cockpit, gunning the engines for a quick exit, he thought he saw her mouth something, indistinct as his sight was while his emotions were in such turmoil.

"What the feth..."


Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

The rush of a vacuum wasn't a familiar feeling, but at least she knew it wouldn't kill her now. Th side of her ship ripped open from the ensuing explosion, leaving her exposed to the lack of air. Atmosphere. Life. For all intents and purposes it should have killed her. It didn't, though. Motionless, floating through space, her gaze watched the vessel ahead of her as Kyrilu ran.

Annoyance filled her mind, but rather than express that she just smiled. Waved.

See you soon.

No sound existed in space, but she waved her farewells to the man as he fled. Then got back into her own ship with a push off of one of the broken sections. The Infiltrator would need repairs, but it could still fly. Better, she could catch up. Stepping back into atmosphere she nodded once to her Droid.

"Set a course. Cut him off. I want my Forge."

Taking a seat back down into the pilots chair, she watched the lines of hyperspace take over. She would get her forge back. And maybe something else.

Kyrilu Storm-wracked

 

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

One day later...

See you soon.

Kyrilu awoke, drenched in sweat, breath coming in gasps. He cursed, unable to escape from that woman, if she could even be described by such a mundane term, even in sleep. How could have survived being exposed to vacuum? How did she have the strength to rip up a grate from the decking with barely any effort? Whatever she was, Kyrilu wanted no part of it.

He had managed to give her ship the slip after a brief chase, found the nearest port big enough to hide in, then parted with the hefty cost of paying the dockmaster a hefty sum to keep his berthed ship off the books. He thought of messaging any contact he could think of that might be able to provide him with help, but had decided against it. He couldn't be sure his messages wouldn't be intercepted and traced back to him. He was alone.

"Nothing new there," he said to himself as he left the private hangar. He needed some proper food, and the chance to walk the crowded streets of the port city and get out of the ever-constricting confines of his ship would hopefully ease his mind a little.

It did not. He made his way back to the hangar, feeling full but strung out, his nerves shot with the constant tension he hadn't felt since the first few weeks after the murder of Master Valens.

The door to his private hangar slid open with a sharp hiss as Kyrilu took a drag on his l'ho-stick. He stepped through, looking up as the door whirred shut.

He was not alone.

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Told you."

There was a smugness to her tone. One she usually didn't bother to have, but how could she not? Hunting down her forge and the man that had stolen it from her was a task and a half. But she was here now. Sitting casually on the ramp to his ship. Waiting. Watching. The moment he left the hanger she had her Forge pulled from his ship. It was enough for her to leave. Let the nightmare fester further.

But she wanted to see his face herself when he realized he wasn't safe. She stood up, dusting off her dress before offering a fanged smile.

"You gave me a lot of trouble, little wolf. Now what will I have to do with you?"

Kyrilu Storm-wracked

 

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

Kyrilu supposed it was inevitable she would find him. She was clearly far more capable than anyone he had ever met before. Beautiful, too, from what his senses told him, but it was the cold lethality of a black hole. Impressive at a distance, but lethal up close. He would have to be very careful how he played this, or he might have just taken his last drag of a lho-stick.

He smiled, despite the fear seizing his chest, and flicked the butt of the lho-stick away, walking slowly, and what he hoped was casually, towards his ship. The fanged smile gave him pause.

"A cornered wolf is never more dangerous..." Ky said, resting a hand on the hilt of the vibrosword hanging at his hip.

"Who are you? Or, should I be asking, what are you?" he asked, clenching his fists, unable to hide his emotions as he readied his musculature for battle.

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"A lone wolf, no matter how cornered, is still just alone."

This time she moved. His hand settled on his blade and she was there, beside him. Too fast. She'd gotten what she wanted, the Forge. Her reason to stay was known only to her, and she wasn't about to let him spoil it by trying to lash out and attack. She'd go so far as to set a hand on his to keep him from drawing his blade. Not yet, no. They couldn't fight yet. "Little wolf, you know what I am. You knew the moment you found the Forge and killed all those people for me. I am Sith."

Her grin widened as her glowing eyes stared at the mask covering where he had no eyes. Could he tell? Could he see her thrill and cockiness in the Force? She was curious, but she bit back those questions.

"As you will be."

Kyrilu Storm-wracked

 

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

As she spoke the words, he knew she was right. He had known what she was. He had walked onto her ship, prepared for the worst, expecting to slay her and flee with the goods if she called his bluff.

Kyrilu, become sith? A nervous thrill coursed through his veins at the thought even as she blurred impossibly fast towards him, gripping the hand holding his sword's hilt. Intimately face to face, she radiated a self-assured, almost arrogant aura, like someone who always got what they wanted and had seen nothing to doubt that so far. Well, he would certainly not go down easy.

"Be careful, you who call a cornered wolf his captor."

Kyrilu tore the ramp off his ship with the force and sent it hurtling towards them both with a mighty squeal of metal. At the same time he outstretched his other arm, his lightsaber slapping into the palm of his hand. He did not ignite it. Not yet.

"You share that same corner."

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Her hand pulled away from his.

Just to reach back and catch the ramp in her bare hand. Her grin only widened. The grin of a predator looking at prey. Her hand closed, crushing the portion she'd caught in a vice like grip as she watched him. Waited, expectantly even. The ramp dropped from her grip shortly after.

"Show me what you can do then, little wolf. Fight, tooth and fang, to your hearts content. There will be no running away this time."

Kyrilu Storm-wracked

 

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

"Show me what you can do then, little wolf. Fight, tooth and fang, to your hearts content. There will be no running away this time."

She wanted a wolf. Then a wolf she would have.

Kyrilu snarled, feeling the anger, hatred and, most of all, fear, build up inside of him. He stomped with one foot, launching himself high into the air backwards. Incredible pressure like he'd never felt before infused his bones, surrounding him in crackling corposant. At the apex of his leap he paused, glaring down at his tormenter, gripping his vibrosword in his off hand and suffusing its entire being with the force lightning snapping around his form. He briefly registered the dark blue colouring of the lightning, rather than the green he was used to seeing, before he put all of his might into firing the electrified projectile towards the Sith.

He ignited his lightsaber with a growling hiss as he landed on one knee, snapping his head up before charging, fleet-footed, forwards. He threw up his now-empty offhand towards his still-descending, sparking vibrosword, which altered its trajectory mere metres from spearing her, into his waiting hand.

"Run!?" He bellowed, his fear fuelling his anger as his voice rebounded off the hangar's walls.

"Be careful what you wish for, Sith!"

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

She stayed where she was, her golden eyes watching him as he jumped back. The lightning crackled around him, much to her surprise. Was it fear that had him dive so deep into the power? It wasn't the same green it was before. Her grin only widened. Good. Good. "You certainly are a diamond in the rough, aren't you little wolf?" It was a compliment as much as it was an insult. The blade came, it's arc shifted. He came, charging forward with all his might and bravado. Everything that fit a Sith's mentality. If he was a Jedi, he wasn't any longer.

That's what she wanted to see.

Alina shifted her stance. Slid a foot forward. Brought her fists up. It was foolish to fight unarmed against a lightsaber. Alina knew that better than most. But this wasn't against just any lightsaber wielding foe.

The sword dropped in front of her. She didn't deflect it. Didn't seem to do anything to an outsiders point of view. But for a Miraluka it was clear as day. The Force simply ceased to exist around her. A void where no one could influence it. Feel it. Use it. The void spread rapidly, consuming the whole hangar. Then she struck. Her fist was launched in a single, powerful blow.

"You'll make a grand Sith one day."

Kyrilu Storm-wracked

 

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

No.

The vibrosword, once suffused with dangerous force lightning, simply vanished. Over the sound of rushing blood in his ears he heard a muted clang as what he assumed was the sword hit the ground. But he couldn't see it. He couldn't see her.

No!

All his fear, all his fury, the fire he felt powering every fibre of his being such as he'd never experienced before. Instantly lost. His muscles still forced him inexorably forwards, so intent was he on slaying the Sith that he could not halt his own momentum.

NO!

Kyrilu was left utterly bereft, blind in the darkest, most harrowing way possible. She had cut his connection to the force. That sense he had taken for granted his entire life, that constant companion that intertwined him with universe around him so completely. Just....gone. The only relief came in the form of an immensely strong fist crashing into him, knocking him off his feet.

"You'll make a grand Sith one day."

"N-nooo..." he tried to say, but what came out was nothing more than a groan. He slipped into unconsciousness, praying he would not wake up.

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina blinked, looking at the unconscious body on the floor. Right, that actually made sense. Without the Force, he was blind. What a difficult life it must be. She reached down, casually lifting him up, tossing him over her shoulder. "Poor little wolf. Rest well. We'll set you right when next you wake." She chuckled. Not in a cruel way, but more in a.. She got what she wanted sort of way.

Whenever he did finally wake up, he'd be in the medical wing of an unknown ship. A droid hovered close by, tending to the wound in his jaw. It's unblinking face stared once he did stir, then stood up straight.

"Ah, good. Little wolf is awake. I will go fetch the lady. Stay here. For your own good." Then it went to leave. Leaving Kyrilu alone in the room filled with just.. Normal medical supplies. A bacta tank, some high tech surgery equipment. A cooler was the only thing that seemed out of place. Everything else was open and clear on their contents. This fridge wasn't. Within, silver canisters. Bottles.

Of blood. Not in bags for transfusions, but in bottles as if they were there to drink.

It'd be a couple minutes before Alina would arrive. Stepping into the room in the most basic of outfits. A tanktop. Jeans. She looked more like a street punk than the monstrous woman that had been hunting him.

"Good morning. Sleep okay?"

Kyrilu Storm-wracked

 

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

Kyrilu's first sensation was one of pain, a pulsing in his jaw. Then came the subtle groaning of metal, a sound he knew well - he must be inside a starship. Whose, he could probably guess, but he was just as likely to have been sold to the highest bidder and was now lying in some dingy cell in a slavers' vessel. No, the room was too clean. Sterile, almost. A med-bay? He felt cool, recirculated air on his bare torso, but surprisingly there were no restraints leashing him in place.

Ky growled as the droid straightened and called him by the moniker she had used, but at least his suspicions- nay, fears - were confirmed. So, this ship belonged to the sith. It was only after the droid had trudged out of the room that he came to the realisation that he could only dimly make out his surroundings. The only sensations he still had full awareness of were his physical senses, but after years of relying almost solely on the force they were cheap, pitiful imitations, not to mention they helped not at all in allowing him to actually see. He tugged on that strand now as he waited for the sith to arrive, feeling a measure of his strength return but still it felt as if he were attempting to draw it from a distance as vast as the empty space between planets. A feeble image began to take shape in his mind as he explored the room he was in. General medical equipment, a bacta tank, a cooler filled with jars of...blood.

Well, shit. The surprises with this sith kept hitting him like a drunk, angry wookie who'd just lost a round of pazaak. He sat up, swinging his legs off the edge of the medical slab, hunting with his frail senses for anything he could use to defend himself should it come to that.

If I can't beat her with a lightsaber and my full connection to the force, what chance do I have in this state, with a pounding headache, a newly-scarred jaw and a scalpel?

"Good morning. Sleep okay?"

His head snapped round, but he made no other move. He hadn't sensed her coming, not due to that terrible power of hers but rather his own lack of strength. He could make out her form now, dressed casually like she wasn't coming to visit a former jedi she had so recently bested in combat.

"I've had worse hangovers," he lied, sliding off the edge of the slab. He faced her, attempting to portray none of the worry he felt knotting his insides. "What did you do to me, Sith?"

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Ah, hangovers. I haven't had one of those for so long." She hummed softly before scooting from the doorway. Carelessly turning her back to him, moving towards one of the containers. The blood ones. She drank deep from it. To most, it was her drinking blood. To a Miraluka that could see the Force. More specifically, see Anima, the living part of the Force, he could see it. The blood was filled with Anima. Force sensitive blood. And her body fully consumed every trace. Where her heart was, a seeming void that consumed life to fuel it through her body.

"I cut you from the Force. More specifically, I cut the flow around you. It's only temporary, you know." She paused her drinking, glancing to him with the briefest of grins. "And now you're on my ship. And I have my Forge. So, now you have a choice. For attempting to murder me and stealing my property after payment, I won't let you be a bounty hunter any longer. You are black listed. And, well. I can just kill you. I'd be justified, no?"

She lowered the bottle, turning to face him once again. Smiling a knowing smile.

"But you're strong. And I have a need for strong people. So, serve me. I will give you training. I will make you a Sith. Not some mindless monster Sith that slaughters people haphazardly while fighting tooth and nail to survive. You will earn your place, as any other, but I will give you the training, the tools, you need. Kneel, and I will use you to create an era where the common people can live in peace. Unaware of the monsters in the Sith that fight under my control to keep them safe. Peace is a lie, little wolf. But it is one we can make their reality."

Kyrilu Storm-wracked

 

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

Kyrilu tensed as she moved into the room, still weak, his nerves shot. He thought this woman couldn't terrify him anymore when she lifted a container of blood, and began to drink. He could have slapped himself for missing it before, but the realisation hit him round the back of the head regardless. She wasn't just drinking blood, as gruesome as that already was, she was consuming the Anima within it. Feeding off of the force-sensitive blood. To a Miraluka it was a sight almost too disturbing to bear, but he was transfixed. There was more, though. A certain...disconnect. Could she feel the force? She certainly had to have some deeper connection to be able to manipulate it as she did during their last fight, and Ky could now see the power coursing through her as she fed, but there was something awry about it.

Her words, uttered in between ghastly sips, filtered through the haze he had been under. A swirl of emotions flooded him as she spoke: guilt, at slaughtering for pay; shame, at trying to kill her and flee; embarrassment, at having failed in that. Mostly it was fear of this woman and the anger that swam right in its wake. Fear of how easily she could kill him, anger at his inability to stop her.

Serve her? Become Sith? He could not quite believe he was here, even listening to her offer, considering it even.

"What you did in that hangar...as a Miralukan, there is nothing I dread more than being severed from the Force, something I see you might intimately understand yourself," he began, hoping he hadn't touched a nerve as he took a step forward. "I learned at a young age that the Force does nothing by accident, and this moment is proof of that. I won't lie. You terrify me, Lady, but I am tired of running from my fears, from my emotions." Another step, and another. "I choose now to face my fear. If that means serving you, then..." He bowed his head and dropped to one knee, releasing the magnetic seals at the side of his mask with a thought as he did so. The plasteel mask fell into his open palm as he knelt before her, face down.

"I kneel, Master."

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina's eyes widened somewhat. Surprise. Surprise that turned to a curious delight as they returned to their normal, almost narrowed in focus appearance. The rumors of what a Miraluka could see weren't exaggerated, then. She kept her head high, just watching. Listening to everything he said. And when he knelt, her wide grin softened to a smile. Blood stained lips just pulled in a slight upturn in the corner of her cheeks.

"For now, you kneel. When we're done, you'll be standing on your own. Your first lesson?"

She crouched down, setting a hand gently on his cheek. Lifting his face.

"We do not serve the Force. It's will, it's want. We do not care. I do not care. It will fall in line. I will teach you how to use your hate and fear to make it yours. Come. We begin now." Then she stood, uncaring on just how unhealed his injuries would be. They should be healed enough.

"Do you know what it means to bleed a crystal, perhaps?"

Kyrilu Storm-wracked

 

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

Kyrilu felt cool fingers on his skin, angling his face up. Not since he was a child had anyone looked upon his bare face, and now a Sith was doing just that. A flurry of emotions coursed through him as he looked at his new master. Fear, yes, that was a new constant for him, but also a tremor of excitement as he took in her first lesson. He wasn't sure exactly how he felt in this moment, so convoluted were the thoughts in his head, but it was difficult to deny that undercurrent of thrill.

He smiled as she stood, locking his mask back in place as he pushed himself to his feet. "I have heard of such a practice, but only in passing. My former master described it as a perversion of a crystal's nature."

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"In a way, yes. To be Sith is to willingly perverse every aspect of the Force. But only because that's what people see it as. You bend the crystal to your will. Make it yours and yours alone. Or so they say." Alina couldn't say for sure which it was. She rounded another corner, leading them into a training room. A larger training room at that. Multitudes of weapons covered the walls, from simple blades to blasters of all kinds.

"Until you can bleed your crystal, you will not use your lightsaber. Willingly diving into the dark will have it resist and plague your mind with petty thoughts of redemption. There is nothing you need to be redeemed for."

She reached out, pulling off a rifle to toss Kyr's way.

"And until then, no Force powers either. Your training begins in conventional weaponry."

Kyrilu Storm-wracked

 

[Kyrilu Storm-wracked]

Kyrilu followed his master into a large training room, the walls decorated with a myriad weapons both melee and ranged. He didn't see why he couldn't use his saber, but his master no doubt understood the intricacies of being Sith and, if he was putting himself under her tutelage, he would abide by her instruction.

Ky smirked as he regarded the armoury hanging from the walls. He had always took pleasure in the simplicity of weapons training during his time with the jedi, even during his years as a mercenary he had relished any opportunity to fight. He found a natural affinity during his lightsaber training, earning him the attention of a renowned duellist Jedi Master. Standing in a room like this, Ky felt like a drunk in a bar.

He deftly caught the tossed rifle, but it sat heavy and unfamiliar in his hands. He had some experience with pistols, but very limited.

"I am to deny myself the Force? That will be a struggle finding my arse from my elbow, you know," he joked, examining the rifle as he walked towards his master. He brought the rifle to his shoulder, finger off the trigger, peering down the barrel at a target dummy across the room.

"Point and shoot, right?"

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"You know what I meant. No outward use of the Force. I can't have you get overwhelmed by your emotions so early into your training. You're not some tool to be used after all." Regardless, Alina nodded. Motioned towards the only target currently up. There'd be more, soon enough. Springing up every time one was shot down much like a shooting range. That was the point, after all.

"How much practical training have you had in your life? Do you know how to make a fire? Survive on your own in the wilderness? How to fight with blasters and such?"

Kyrilu Storm-wracked