Private Glued Together

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Wearing: Interceptor Gear

Armed With: Nathan's Saberstaff


Continued from Securing The Past


Earlier...

Syd Celsius flinched as Nathan went near her.

"If I wanted you dead, we would not be speaking." Nathan growled, running a scanner over her. She trembled, in pain and confusion as the man who had literally attempted to stomp her to death checked her vitals. She was still in the gold and navy blue catsuit she had been wearing when she had lost the fight to the Battalion.

"Who...who are you?!" Syd asked, not fully herself anymore, allowed to return to functional state only by merging with a Light Side Force Spawn from parts unknown.

"Like it matters. For either of us." Nathan growled.

"Well, Freak, your organs are all functional. The Brain's intact...somehow..." he observed. From anyone else, it might have been seen as humor.

But it wasn't. Not from him. And she knew it. He seemed almost disappointed by the observation if anything.

Nathan pulled back the scanner.

"What do you want?" Syd whispered, not taking her eyes off that perpetual Death Glare he had when staring at her.

"I have saved your life, Beast. That makes it mine." Nathan replied coldly. "In exchange, you will assist me until I release you from your debt."

"And why did you save it?"

Nathan leaned forward, scowling

"I wish the death of House Io. The death of your former Lover. The death of The Brain Demon, and the Cult that serves it." his words came out oily, and in a hiss.

Syd blinked in total confusion.

"What're they to you?" she asked.

Another scowl from him. "There's a hundred reasons to destroy them. Pick one."

"Are you a Jedi?"

"No." Nathan answered icily.

"Your hostility belies what I feel from you." Syd spoke, unconsciously gaining the questioning hawk-stare of the thing she had merged with. "I sense you are a servant of the Light. Whether you will admit it or not (KOTOR REFERENCE #432333239765!: 700 XP). A flawed servant...deeply flawed...but still a servant."

"What you sense doesn't mean jack fethin' chit." Nathan snapped quietly. "What you do is all I am concerned about. Now...will you assist me?"

Syd tilted her head, still in pain, still confused.

"If not for you, all of me would have been lost. Perhaps...I do owe you a debt..." Syd admitted hesitantly. "Who are you?"

"My name is Nathan."

"Nathan what?"

"Nathan The-guy-who-stomped-your-head-in-once-and-will-do-it-again-if-you-betray-him, Freak." Nathan hissed, eye twitching like Inspector Dreyfuss from The Pink Panther. "I don't care what you have to do to get yourself functional and ready. But you'd better do it quick, because I'm setting up an emergency meeting on Qi-Ko with some of your new co-workers."

Nathan turned to exit the med bay.

"Wait..." Syd spoke. "You merged me with someone. Who?"

"I found her trapped in the realm of another faceless Demon, different from the one you yourself once served." Nathan answered. "She's the part another Brain Demon Cultist cast out of herself. The Part that wasn't a raving maniac."

He tossed her a mirror.

"At least I don't have to stare at your old face when working with you." Nathan remarked brutally, leaving the med bay.

Syd caught the mirror and her new mouth fell open in shock as she stared back in shock, dropping the mirror. Tears welled up. She knew who it was. Knew it was a special sort of Hell that Nathan, whoever he was, had punished her with.

She knew that face. The Face of the woman who had corrupted, seduced, drove insane, and ultimately stole the Love of her Life away from her.

It was now her face. Her punishment not just for Laertia. But everything she had ever done in response. And everything before it.

Syd collapsed off the medical bed, hyperventilating as she slid into a corner, curled up into a ball, and began sobbing uncontrollably.

"Oh, God, Oh God, he turned me into her!" she screamed as she wept, wanting to tear her own face and hair off, clawing at her new features...

"STARRRRRRLIIIINNNNNN!" she cried in anguish, only barely able to discern how much the name meant to her, the holes in her memory like knife wounds. It was almost like she could touch the edges of memories with him, but not experience them fully, only vague, distinct impressions.

Syd went into a feral position as the full weight of what she had lost hit like the weight of a Hutt corpse that had started to bloat. She rocked incessantly, shivering. Nathan was aware of her pain but felt zero pity and did not check up on her while he piloted the ship to the Trade League's territory, informing his most pertinent allies as to what had transpired...


Later...

Nathan had landed the Bell Hop Freighter in the abandoned Monastery Village Moya had been using for years, surrounded by lush woodlands.

Moya Virtu , Vera Mina , and the Demon of Jedha ( Westenra Mina ) awaited. None of them looked all that pleased to see him as he stepped into the central chamber of the Monastery, all seated at an ancient table of natural stone, the cracked, half faded Jedi Order Symbol on its surface at the center. Soldier Biots in gold, reflective skintight catsuits waited at the entrance and we're guarding the perimeter.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Moya snapped, dressed in her usual outfit, tapping her fingers on the ancient stone table anxiously as he took a seat.

"Didn't have much time to think about it too hard. She would have died if I hadn't, or been rendered otherwise permanently incapacitated. Either way, she would have been no use to me. Or us. Nathan replied calmly. "Believe me, I ain't exactly thrilled with saving that schutta either."

Vera folded her arms, fashionably attired, as always "You confuse me, Nathan. What was the logic in merging Miss Celsius with The Amalgam's detritus?"

"The logic is that the Freak she merged with has the strength level of an unusually powerful Jedi Master, as well as extensive knowledge of the Cult. Combining that with an already heavily mutated Force Spawn's body and a still considerably massive chunk of Knowledge still inside that body? That is someone, I think, could destroy even the Original Darth Phyre, who has been reborn essentially. It's simply a matter of restoring her strength."

"And what if she becomes a new headache?" The Demon of Jedha snapped, dressed far less luxuriously than her own Sister or Moya.

Nathan shrugged. "She's my problem. Not any of yours."

"That's not the point, Nathan." Moya sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "When you described the Reflection to me, and I suggested seeking her out and explaining your situation, I didn't think you'd be willing to resort to such a drastic measure."

"It isn't as if I knew what would happen when I tailed Syd to Korriban."

"Wait. Wait a minute..." Vera interrupted, eyeing Nathan in curiosity. He hid his wince at her hungry, searching stare. The way her mouth curled upwards very very slightly in pleasure at seeing him made his stomach curdle in revulsion at the sight of her.

"How did you know she was going to Korriban? Were you following her?"

"No." Nathan answered flatly and did not bother to elaborate.

Vera raised an eyebrow but said nothing further.

The Demon of Jedha made him just as wary, but for different reasons. Of the three hyper advanced androids present, he felt she was the most dangerous...and also the least mentally stable of the three. She gazed at him often with a stare that came off as frustrated and embittered. He wasn't exactly fond of her either. Or Vera. Only Moya could he call an acquaintance. Almost a friend. But not quite. She had her excuses for Laertia. Legitimate excuses. But they were still excuses.

Nathan was deeply unsettled at the fact that in order to destroy House Io's gaggle of abominations he was essentially assembling his own in response.

It was almost enough to make him wish he was still in the Gulag Era. Almost. But the Gulag Era was so incredibly bad that nothing, not even his present situation, would make him wanna go back to that chit.

OMGFETHTHEGULAGERA, seriously.

Damned if it wasn't tempting to wish for though.

The Demon, however, actually had a point to make that made him go cold inside.

"Are you aware that this is almost exactly what Laertia did to Arianna Belasko?"

"I had. No. Choice." he repeated firmly, confidently.

The Demon's emotional analysis programs ran silently in her brain, as did the rest of them.

"I believe you." The Demon concluded after a moment.

"I believe you believe it was necessary." Vera semi-agreed.

Moya didn't seem satisfied.

"Nathan...if you knew where she was, where she was going, why did you not intercept her first?"

"Because I thought maybe she might have been smart enough not to fight the Battalion in the very heart of the Dark Side." Nathan snapped irritably. "I guess kicking her fethin' head in lingered."

Moya blinked. "You encountered her before?"

"Way before I met any of you." he answered. "Kinda had a psychotic episode when I saw her."

Moya sat back in disbelief.

"She murdered. My wife." Nathan snarled. "She seduced. My daughter. You couldn't possibly understand the flames in my brain when I laid eyes on her."

"Why'd you spare her the first time?" The Demon asked.

"Look, it doesn't fething matter why I spared her the first time. The point is, I'm doing it again. And it has to be done this way."

"Will you kill her, when her usefulness is expended? I recommend killing her." Vera advised.

"We're not killing her." Moya spoke firmly. "What's done is done. What's important is how we deal with it going forward. Now where is she?"

"Curdled into a nice, neat little ball in the med bay." Nathan snorted. "One of you can go and check on her, if you like. I don't wanna talk to that Freak until I'm good and ready."

Nathan stormed off to what passed for his own quarters, scavenged lights and Electronics and a mattress dumped atop a stone slab. He had a letter to write to her student...

The three Androids sat back.

"I don't wanna talk to her." The Demon grumbled, bloodshot eyes darting to the other two. "After everything she set in motion? And now she looks like The Amalgam? It'll end with me strangling that schutta. I know it. Don't leave me alone with her."

"I'll just start trolling her." Vera admitted with a cold smirk. "And we both know that wouldn't help."

Vera turned to Moya. "That leaves you, I believe."

Moya glowered at them but rose up and went to check on Syd.

Vera turned to her sister. She still felt the scratch on her cheek from Lynda's nails.

"How have you been, Sister?" Vera asked, as delicately and politely as possible.

The Demon glanced at her and rose up.

"Go to hell." The Demon replied very casually, and walked off. Vera felt very small suddenly and didn't like it. The answer from Lynda made her involuntarily wince after a few moments.

Meanwhile...


Moya walked aboard the freighter, and to the med-bay. She tensed, feeling the wave of pain and anguish and confusion from Celsius, who had basically come back from being essentially lobotomized by The Battalion. But the price for recovery had been so high...

Moya had never in her life been more glad to be nothing but a defective biot. She wouldn't trade places with Syd even if you put a gun to her head. Moya would have taken the bullet and been glad for it.

Syd was cursed. Damned to a life of loneliness and bad memories. To never be certain whether she was ever really herself.

All that power, and all it could do was bring her misery. Worse, it hadn't even been enough to save her in the end.

Moya, in spite of her own very ambivalent feelings about Syd, felt her heart leap into her throat when she saw her.

Syd had clawed her own face and hair off. The tissue from her face was mostly intact, with a few shreds at the edges. It moved, ambulatory, but without direction, little tendrils growing out of it, dragging itself across the floor, leaving a trail of glowing green blood and shredded muscle, mouth open and stretched horribly, it's slick surface bubbling.

Moya grabbed a pair of medical tongs and promptly picked it up, wanting to vomit as she dumped it into the semi-transparent incinerator, and turned it on full blast, watching the ambulatory face scurry around like a spider as it burned before it dissolved in a mix of burned flesh and fat, and then finally green ash. She swept up the torn off hair.

"I don't want to live anymore." Syd confessed in a whisper.

Moya sighed. "Can't say I blame you."

She took a step closer. "I can't imagine what kind of trauma you are going through. But I want to help."

"You can't help me..." Syd hissed, covering her blood-soaked exposed skull, with blood soaked hands.

"I don't have much choice but to try. You have to live. It sucks, but the Galaxy, The Force...it's not done with you yet. It will never be done, until you destroy that which you set in motion. You must help us."

"I couldn't help Laertia...I couldn't help Starlin...Starlin..." she repeated the name, the only solid mental anchor she really had at the moment being his name.

"What makes you think I can help you? I couldn't even help myself in the end."

"Maybe you can't do it. Maybe you'll fail in the end again. But damn you, Syd, you will try! (What does God need with a starship?: 90 XP)" Moya snapped, shaking her.

"And if you will not try...then Starlin Rand deserves to forget you!"

A blue eye fixed on Moya.

"Get out. I need to make myself presentable."

Moya nodded and left Syd huddled in the corner so she could recover from her self inflicted disfigurement.

"Still got it." Moya said to herself in a whisper as she exited the ship.

Meanwhile...

Nathan had just gotten finished transmitting his letter to Starlin when Vera knocked on the archway of his quarters.

"What?" he asked with a grumble.

"Nathan, far be it from me to tell anyone their morals, but you will have to play the diplomat going forward, if you want this Alliance to work, regardless of your morals."

"I think I've been fairly diplomatic so far with the three people who should have known better." he replied quietly but with an acid in his voice that rivaled hers on her best day.

Vera shrugged. "It won't just be three Androids with a guilty conscience going forward. Try behaving that way around her student and see if he doesn't decide you're as big a threat as Laertia."

"I don't care who her student is. I sent him the letter more as a courtesy than anything else." Nathan muttered, opening up a box of leftover Pizza from the fridge and biting down on a cold slice.

"You and I both know it won't end there." Vera snorted, heels clicking on the stone floor, black gown hugging her voluptuous frame as she planted herself in a seat across from him.

Nathan subconsciously scooted his own seat an inch back.

"Even I can see the stink of Destiny about you." Vera admitted. "You will draw others to your cause. And it will not end with the Destruction of your hated Cultists. But you will not keep allies if they feel unappreciated. Keep this attitude up and you will cause Syd to snap from the pressure, if she hasn't already."

Nathan went silent at this.

Vera leaned forward.

"Or is that exactly what you want to happen?" she asked, her intrigued smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Nathan remained silent.

Vera broke into a lusting grin.

"So much more interesting to psychoanalyze than your common rabble." Vera said, eyes studying his features, which pleased her.

"I don't like being a guinea pig for that wetware stuck in your skull, Vera."

"How about a guinea pig for how much Atrisian Cuisine you can stomach?" Vera wondered.

Nathan scooted his seat back further, looking genuinely freaked out by her smiling, gorgeous features.

"You did not just ask me out." Nathan said in a mix of surprise and mortified aversion, looking at her like she was some sort of bomb about to go off and kill him.

"Why not? Are you even enjoying yourself in this era? A good leader is a Leader who allows themselves to relax. High strung leaders get paranoid. They make mistakes. They act rashly. All work and no play makes for a dull person."

"You are aware that I am aware that you are a Humanoid Abomination, right?" Nathan asked, still looking absolutely mortified.

Vera blinked. "But you must admit, I am killin' it in this dress."

Nathan's stare was a blank look of 'Does Not Compute'.

"You played a direct hand in helping my daughter perpetrate a series of massacres. The Nuetralizers tech comes from Lynda and you."

"Nathan...so what?" Vera replied playfully, arrogantly in a way that infuriated him with a shift upward of her eyebrows. "You're on a vigilante crusade against a Sith Cult, acting without sanction and without knowledge by the Jedi Masters you serve in the daylight. And who did you turn to, knowing the Order would never support your singular Vendetta? The same people your daughter turned to for help."

Nathan went quiet.

Vera stood up.

"If you're comfortable enough to work with the same monsters your daughter did, I figure... what's to stop you from going further?" Vera wondered almost innocently. "Besides...what normal person would actually want you?"

Vera walked out. "Food for thought, as my Mother says..." she said with a wink of her eye as she left.

Nathan scowled at Vera's swaying hips and bit into his Pizza again.

"Yep..." he thought out loud as he chewed, his mental instability allowing him to momentarily spare a glance at whoever was reading this.

"I'm in a Lunatic Asylum."


12 hours later...

"Nathan!"

Nathan snapped awake from another nightmare of Lysandra being murdered by Darth Phyre. He looked up to see the Demon standing over him.

"Perimeter sensors just picked a fast approaching ship. Old HWK-290."

Nathan grimaced. "So he kept that piece of junk..." he growled quietly.

He got up. "Let him in."

Nathan was dressed in spare Civilian clothing as he walked out of the Monastery, the old Light Freighter perching itself upon an ancient stone landing pad. It was dawn. He saw Moya standing watch outside the Bell Hop.

Nathan's fists clenched as he sensed a familiar presence. A presence he had not felt since...

Zabka Bis'clavret , known to the Gulag Era as The Man in White , stepped off the ship in a white Nehru Suit that he had often worn during the Plague. Only this time he didn't have a mask. He had never seen the Man in White without the mask.

Zabka's mouth fell open at the sight of Nathan, who he knew as Morris Crownwraithe.

He approached in shock, not thinking.

"Morris?! Morris...how--"

Nathan clocked Zabka across the face with a left hook.

Zabka hit the ground.

"That, is for letting your fallen apprentice live." Nathan hissed as Zabka woozily got back up.

Zabka gathered his senses a moment.

"I'm sorry, Nathan. I couldn't have known what would happen. But what the hell were you thinking, sending your daughter into the future?"

Nathan decked Zabka's ass again with the same dull expression as when he had first struck him.

"To get her away from Phyre." Nathan replied icily as Zabka struggled back up, this time much more woozy.

"Where is she?" Zabka asked rubbing his jaw. "What have you done to her? She feels...strange..."

"I took a page from your book, Man-In-White: I performed an ethically dubious experiment on someone who was a lost cause, in the hope I might attain a 'positive' outcome." Nathan answered with the bluntness of a blizzard, and with the same degree of sympathy a blizzard would have: None.

"What did you do?" Zabka whispered, staring with a slowly creeping horror to his gaze.

"Only what I had to in order to keep her from remaining a lobotomized sack of flesh for the rest of her life." Nathan answered, grim expression freezing over as he tried to regain a sense of professionalism over the situation.

"Follow me. I'll show you. You're gonna loooovvve this chit..." Nathan commented, leading a hesitant Zabka to the Freighter. Moya waited outside.

"The Freak. Where is she?" Nathan inquired.

"You're not gonna get far calling her that to her face, Nathan."

Nathan shrugged. "I'm aware of that. But I'm not in her face right now, am I?"

Moya rolled her eyes. "She's... coherent. She's wearing a hooded cloak. She doesn't want to show her face. She's ashamed."

Moya leaned forward. "Between you and me, I think whatever you blended her with is starting to take. She's a lot calmer. Not happy, but calmer." she added in a much quieter voice.

"Is she willing to come out or do we have to go in?" Zabka asked.

"Who's he?" Moya asked, confused.

"The reason Syd Celsius was around to ruin my daughter's life." Nathan answered casually, expression still dull.

Zabka did not dispute this. It was the truth.

Moya scowled.

"I could choke you." she said flatly and without remorse.

"Please take a number and wait in the lobby like everyone else." Zabka replied with an abrasiveness that bordered on sandpaper, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"I'll go check." Moya spoke in sullen fashion, opening the ramp to the ship up.

Nathan impatiently tapped his foot and folded his arms.

After a few minutes, Moya came out, followed by Syd's gold and blue clad figure covered by a hooded cloak. Her face could not be discerned, only wisps of curly dark crimson hair.

"I'm told you wish to make a concentrated strike on House Io." Syd spoke calmly, but with an edge of hurt and bitterness. It was Syd's voice but there was a matter-of-factness to it, an almost disconnect that reminded Nathan of the thing he had blended her with. "Since I owe...this man...a Life Debt...I will assist you in any way I can."

"T'sid?" Zabka called out to her.

Syd turned to face Zabka.

"Do...do I know you?" she asked very softly.

Zabka hid his devastation.

"It's okay, T'sid... it's okay...I'll cover as much as I can later, I promise." he vowed.

"I told your student to meet us here." Nathan said suddenly.

"What?" she whispered, stepping back.

"I dunno when he's arriving."

Syd started pacing around.

"He can't see me like this. He can't see me like this..." Syd said in a quiet panic.

"He learned to trust one monster's face. He can do it again." Nathan replied turning to the Monastery and started to walk off.

"Why do you hate me?" Syd asked.

Nathan didn't respond as he left her.

 

[Milos Echo]

"Well, this is interesting."

The voice rang out in Syds room. Almost in a strange sense of magick unlike others in the Force, his aura shimmered to where it somewhat gave away his position...but it looked almost like feathers covering him up. When it finally ended, the feathers slashed downwards as a charcoal feather came floating up before being snatched by the human before her. Holding it up, he would slowly flip it around and place it into his more or less misshapen robes. The hair on his face had a distinct brown gleam along it, with his hair even showing as if he went through water for a brief period.

"Here I thought I was the most damaged. Then again, I seem to always encounter the most...troubled souls on my journey."

"Though then again...it is very rare for me to find an entire group of troubled souls...the most in unusual circumstances."

With both hands together, he had sat upon a chair nearby and puffed in his hands what appeared to be smoke. Pulling away, it had produced in the strangest way...a plant fiber that was smoking between his lips. Smoking for a moment, he would pull it away and place with each hand, an index finger and thumb over each end. Pulling slowly, he was a strong manipulator in the Force as it produced a flower on one end, slowly giving a glow from the end it was smoked. Producing a flowery end, he extended both his index and thumb out as it made what could only be described, as an extinct flower not seen anywhere else in the galaxy.

Placing the glow flowers end near his nose, he gave a small sniff to enjoy the strange aroma as it glowed upon his face...part of it seemed to be blue when placed that close. Carefully, he would lean over and extend over the flower as it glowed gently in the room.

"A flower to break the curse....a flower, to show the other side. Tell me...what is it you actually desire?"
Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

Wearing: 90 Suit

Hooded Cloak.

An ashamed Syd walked down the corridors of the Monastery, silent, brooding, and in pain.

So many holes in her head. Dates, events jumbled around. Faces mixed up. All except Laertia, Starlin, and The Amalgam.

Syd had left the company of the others, wanting to be alone, scared of when Starlin Rand would arrive, and how she would explain it. But how? How could she explain the monumental disaster of the past 24 hours?

How could she explain it while being merged with the castoff part of the creature that had been infected by a copy of her Sith Self? While wearing that Sith's face?

She had never felt more lonely. More abandoned. More hopeless.

The mysterious Nathan and his crew of obviously extremely troubled souls didn't help matters. Nathan seemed like he could barely stand being around her. In both cases, he had spent barely more than a minute in her company before walking away. The others, with the sole exception of Zabka didn't seem all that fond of her either. The Demon looked at her with about the same level of contempt Nathan seemed to. Vera eyed her with suspicion yet there was a hint of a bridge troll in that dainty smile she had given upon first sighting her.

Moya seemed the most reserved of the three Androids but even she seemed like she was clenching her teeth to be around her.

Syd had chosen a small room, deliberately away from the main chambers of the complex. It wasn't even a proper room. More like a repair bay that happened to have a bed in it.

The sudden appearance of Milos Echo startled her, but she was so burnt out emotionally that she didn't even bother going into a defensive posture in case he was a hostile.

Her hooded cloak hid her face and all but a few wisps of dark crimson hair, a hand covered in skintight reflective golden fabric saturated with choice enchantments, reached out to the glowing flower he produced in his magic act. It hurt her to see it, though she knew that wasn't his intent.

Her Lover, Laertia, had once been a Street Magician.

"Yes...quite the collection they seem to be. Three androids and two... whatever Zabka and Nathan are..." she said quietly, lacking energy.

"What do I desire?" Syd asked in response to his question.

"A quiet meadow, with sunlight, and someone who could love me despite what I am, what I was, and to die as a mortal." Syd answered after a few moments.

"But I will never have the first two."

 

[Milos Echo]

It was strange for a room to have what it does, more so was it strange to see what it truly desired out of a person. Startling others was something more or less, he been able to do since he learned some of the most ancient of Force Techniques. Being alive for a long period of time...and brooding over power does that to people. When the flower was taken into the golden fabric of her hand, he let her take it. It felt warm, it felt sincere and it felt as if powered by the Living Force itself, a strange set of circumstances.

Hearing that it was indeed androids, along with others...he started to piece together a bit of the crew. Knowledge was power and the more he obtained, the more he can assess strengths and weaknesses. He had a debt to Nathan but he did not wish to broach trust...nor did he wish to betray it. But learning what he can...will save himself a lot of trouble in the future. The request from her was rather strange, it perked a brow as he was not one to question what others desired...but the desire of...love?

Being a Jedi, he never even bothered with the concept, let alone cared to understand it. Only after Order 66 occurred did he have a fling with a particular nightsister...which ended rather abruptly with his first death. Since then, that thought had never even crossed his mind, only having been obsessed with revenge until very recently. Leaning back very lightly in the chair, he pondered over what she had said, each one being strange but the third was one she can have...the first two she cannot.

"Nothing so strange...for a lady with the hair of Sun Plumes of Geonosis."

Slowly standing up, he looked to the side of the cramped room with his left hand gently making a circular motion. Nearby, small little vines would grow before twisting around the hulls wall, flooring and ceiling as it became at first small vines...then small tree trunks, then flowers, then making soil around it. It seemed...nearly impossible but Echo was able to do all of this through his mastery in the Force. Turning carefully towards her, he gently let in the palm of his hand, create a small ball of energy. Gently, he moved it with his fingers and placed it right above near the strangely constructed meadow. It was finishing up, even making a small tree trunk like structure towards the corner of the room.

"A meadow, made with a little light...and quiet whenever the lady desires."

There was a soft smile, it was obvious he had done things like this similar before...in fact, this seemed effortless on his part. There was a bit of himself that would never admit where he was long ago, but part of him takes pride in still knowing how to do the little things. The flowers nearby would smell as if it was indeed a meadow, each little feel felt genuine, even the dirt beneath anyones feet felt real. Still, there was a bit of darkness still welled into his heart, something while he was ready to let go, would not fully leave. He seemed to be a person of good intentions though...at least, for now.
Syd Celsius

 

[Syd Celsius]

"Thank you. You're very kind. Kinder than I deserve..." Syd said, sitting down on an old seat, still not removing her hood, hating the Sith Face she was stuck with. The Face of The Amalgam, despite it's amazing beauty, had so much baggage tied to that appearance, been attached to a person who had caused so much pain, equal to or greater than even herself, that to be cursed to bear her appearance filled her with torment, knowing she could only think properly because some remnant of that monster (Whose motivations and thoughts mixed with her and felt alien in some ways, especially in how obsessed it was with Laertia and Maple Harte.). She didn't understand it fully yet, what had fused with her, or how or why it had become trapped in The Sword Demon's Realm, and she and what she had fused with were both uncertain as to why her jailor had released both her and Nathan.

She sensed Milos Echo had a bit of Darkness in himself. She made no comment on it.

"Do you...do you know anything about the leader here? The man called Nathan?" she asked. "He saved my life very recently...and...and..."

Syd went cold.

"I fear I may have hurt him terribly once. But currently...I can't remember...the circumstances of my rescue...drastic measures were required to save my life. Very drastic measures."

She gestured to herself.

"It cost me my old face. And now I am stuck with the appearance of someone...of someone who destroyed the life of another who was very precious to me."

 

[Starlin Rand]

"Aw, feth..." Starlin muttered, gazing at the message on his datapad. He didn't recognize the name of the sender, but it held dire news. Syd was in some kind of trouble.

To be fair, it seemed like she was always in some kind of trouble these days, but this sounded much more serious than usual. The wording of the letter was vague. She's alive... but she's lost large chunks of her memory. She still remembers you, to a degree... I had to do something drastic to preserve her life. Felt like I was slitting my own throat when I agreed to it. You'll recognize her, certainly, but she won't look the same...

Starlin had seen Syd take on other appearances. He knew that she'd suffered memory loss in the past. But this... what the hell did it all mean?

He had to see for himself. Lief would remain aboard the Bright Knight docked on Coruscant; he told Makko Vyres and Ceri Fraissi that he was going on a personal trip and would be gone for a little while. It was the truth. Anything to do with Syd would always be deeply personal for him. That and the incredibly dangerous people she tended to fraternize with meant that he couldn't justify bringing his Padawans along.

He took the Steward of Zeffo to Qi-Ko, not sure what to expect. So he tried to just be ready for anything...

Nathan Bloodscrawl

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"Do you have any idea what you've done to her?!" Zabka shouted at a grim faced Nathan observed his reaction impassively.

"You should have seen her before I went through with the process. You wouldn't question it if you had seen it."

"You blended her with that thing!" Zabka hissed.

"So you can rewrite her personality whenever you got damn good and ready, but I can't?" Nathan replied bitterly. "If there had been an alternative, I would have taken it."

"Would you?" Zabka accused. "Tell me, how long did you wait while Syd was being devoured before you intervened?"

"I resent that accusation." Nathan replied quietly, the frost in his voice dropping a few degrees in temperature. "As soon as I realized where she was, I was headed there. I had actually been pursuing the creature I merged her with to seek her assistance before I--"

"Before you what?"

"Look, I got there as fast as I possibly could have when I realized the gravity of danger Syd had subjected herself to. I simply wasn't fast enough." Nathan snapped in terse fashion. "As soon as I came upon her attacker, I attacked in turn, and stopped her from exploding Syd's body, which was very very close to occuring. You'd have put her down if you had seen her."

"But you don't know anything about what you merged her with!"

"I do. A light sided fragment of the one known as The Amalgam. Why do you think she hides her face?"

Zabka's mouth fell open and he took a few steps back.

"I did what was necessary to prevent all of her from being lost. There were no other means available to reliably preserve her life or heal her. I have no remorse."

"Clearly." Zabka responded, clenching his fists. "Works out awfully convenient for you though. After all, a mentally damaged Syd would be easier to kill once you've squeezed out every last possible use she has at killing the Cult for you."

"Pot, meet Kettle." Nathan replied dismissively. "If I was just going to manipulate and then kill her I wouldn't have told her student to come meet us here."

"If you think you can hurt her by hurting him--"

"I don't care enough about him to bother." Nathan replied. "And now that you're here, you can both keep her safe from any of my evil, evil schemes. Ooooo, AHHHHH..."

"Smartass." Zabka muttered in disgust, shaking his head as he went to leave. But then he stopped.

"That still doesn't explain how you knew where she was. I'm her master, and even I didn't sense where she was. How did You?"

"You had her in the palm of your hand, and you let her live. Everything, Zabka, everything would have worked out if you had done the sane, logical thing and just killed her when you had the chance."

"No, Morris. No it wouldn't." Zabka said sadly. "I've come to understand her through study. Your daughter, I mean."

A dangerous eye was cast in Zabka's direction.

"Did Syd's presence help matters? No. Absolutely not. But Syd, whatever her role, is not the sole reason for why Laertia turned out the way she did." Zabka argued, stepping closer to the stone desk Nathan sat behind, giving Zabka the Mother of all Death Glares.

"It was a combination of factors. You could take Syd, The Cultists, even Amalgam herself out of the equation in some form or another, and you would still have gotten a rebellion from Laertia." Zabka continued, trying to get him to understand it was unfair to place all the blame on Syd.

"Because more than any one factor you can easily point to and say 'there, that's your culprit', the prime factor was ultimately Laertia herself, and her sense of disillusionment."

"I've heard a hundred different excuses for her. Yours isn't the first, nor the last."

"How did you know where she was, Morris?"

"Get out unless you're going to ask something constructive."

Zabka stormed out of his quarters.

Nathan's chin rested on his hand.

He stared at the nearby fireplace and, hesitantly, waved his hand across the firewood.

It ignited.

After a while, another Soldier Biot he knew as Dulcinea walked in, distinguished from her identical sisters by the jungle camo pattern to her armorweave catsuit.

"Our long range sensors report some sort of Custom X-Wing moving in on the system."

"That's probably her student. Send out the beacon. Guide him to landing coordinates." Nathan muttered, deeply annoyed.

Dulcinea nodded. "Right away, Sir."

Nathan sighed and got up, walking out, and headed to Celsius's assigned quarters.

When Syd, sensed him, she tensed, and withdrew into her cloak.

"You're student is gonna be here soon. Prepare." he said simply, then noticed Milos Echo .

"Milos. Welcome. Good job getting past security. We'll need that going forward." he said to Echo.

Syd only huddled, refusing to speak, doing her best to hide any light from reaching her face. Nathan did not comment on her interactions with Milos. As long as he could keep her calm, that was fine. He didn't need her going psycho.

"In a short while, I'm going to call everyone to the main chamber to discuss what we know and our next course of action. Be ready. And thanks for agreeing to aid me."

Nathan left and headed to the landing pad to await Starlin Rand alongside Zabka. He said nothing as he arrived.

"My son is an innocent in all this." Zabka said. "Remember that."

Nathan blinked. "Your son?" he growled. "So not only did you feth up my plan, you got a family out of it for your trouble?! Oh...oh that's fethin' rich..."

He stared at the sky, waiting for the X-Wing to land.

"Figures..." Nathan spat. "That is precisely my luck..."

 

[Milos Echo]

Leaning gently onto the metal wall nearby, he listened and gave brief answer towards the first question, closing his eyes slowly.

"Nathan freed me from a hell I rather not ever be in again. To be truly honest, I think he resembles a little bit of me...though I fear just a little where it may go. We all do terrible things, we all live with it...myself, I done a great deal. I was stuck with a mask that made me think and do as my own mortal enemy would have done...memories, life and even mimic his face. To me, it never ended...be glad all you have is a face. There are far...far....FAR worse fates."

He heard someone enter as he just kept leaning on the wall. He saw how Syd tensed up, this kind of behaviour was not...normal. Blinking a few times on that, he heard Nathan welcome him and having a good job passing security. He gave a small shrug with his left shoulder.

"Not the one who left the airlock on top unlocked."

It was an actual honest answer, he can cloak and sneak around however he liked...but keeping an airlock open or operated from the outside was just a bad idea in general. Hearing they will soon meet in the main chamber, he nodded and looked back forward towards Syd as he processed the words he heard over her potential student. Speaking out as he made a hand wave towards Nathan.

"Not a problem, I owe you for it...now, what is this Student spoke of? Can't imagine anything else from a lady with-" He actually still had a hood for his cloak and kept it over his head just a bit as it was a bit forward to hide part of his face. "-a hood like this other than an Evil Apprentice, commanding with this-" Letting his voice get a bit lower. "-dark forbodding voice, trailing of those that followed in the great path!" Raising his voice back up, he looked up as if trying to lighten the mood a little. "But all joking aside, you trained someone?"


Nathan Bloodscrawl Syd Celsius

 

[Starlin Rand]

Not long after he entered the system, coordinates were transmitted to his X-Wing. Starlin set his course and took his time, landing smoothly on the designated spot.

Through the cockpit windows, he could see four figures awaiting him just beyond the landing pad. Two males, both unfamiliar to him, a woman wearing a hood and cloak which hid her form, and...

Dad?

Well, it wasn't too shocking. Zabka had been working with Syd for some time now. If anything, the presence of Starlin's father was proof that Syd really was here. Which meant that the hooded, cloaked woman was... Could it be?

Releasing the hatch, Starlin climbed out of the Steward of Zeffo and walked toward the group. He rested his hands on his hips, the pose more awkward than laid back.

"Hey," he greeted, nodding in the direction of Zabka. His gaze flicked briefly over the hooded woman, before he turned to the two strangers. "Which one of you is Nathan Bloodscrawl?"

Nathan Bloodscrawl Milos Echo

 

[Syd Celsius]

"I know." She said in a whisper to the first comment made by Milos Echo .

"I know only too well of your particular predicament." she said.

"I hurt people. I've done bad things." she said simply.

Nathan's presence made her shiver. But it echoed with a deep pain that she too felt. A pain deep in the Force.

Like a wound.

He never spoke in human terms. It was strictly business. No jokes, no change in expression. No warmth at all. Not malicious on its own (She could still feel a deep and seething contempt towards her from him, however). But it could easily become a malicious sort of coldness from him, as she herself had already experienced.

But she was on the verge of panic when he told her Starlin would soon arrive. Her brain began working on overtime, already strained to the limit.

Syd didn't react as Echo tried to tell a joke. The joke hurt her on too many levels.

"His name is Starlin Rand ..." she whispered. "He is a great Jedi...but more importantly, he is a good person."

Her head drooped. "He was the best Padawan a Master could ask for. But...I...I wasn't the best Master a Padawan could ask for. I failed him. But the failures are mine. Not his."

Syd stood up. It was inevitable.

"I am sorry Milos. I must depart. You may follow if you wish. I have to go see him...and I'm scared. Because it wasn't just a face I got..."

Syd left, heading outside to the landing pad.

Nathan refused to look at her, and unconsciously took a few steps forward as she got closer, and Syd was too ashamed to look at anyone. Her hood drawn tight over her head, crimson curls dangling from the outskirts.

She shuddered in fear as Starlin landed, took a few steps back as he asked who Nathan was.

Nathan Bloodscrawl stepped out.

"I'm he." Nathan said stepping forward almost mechanically. "Your Master was nearly killed in a duel with The Battalion, the wife of Laertia Io. Large parts of Syd's mind, including her appearance, was absorbed by The Battalion." He didn't bother to soften the blow. He knew no matter what he said, Starlin was gonna have a bad day.

Zabka stepped forward, far more sympathetic to his Son.

"This man, he got to her just as The Battalion was about to finish her off. He saved her life...what he could save anyway.

Zabka cleared his throat. Despite his own still mixed feelings on Syd, he knew Starlin cared for her immensely. He did his best to ease him to it.

"Starlin...the nature of the damage inflicted on Syd's mind left her effectively lobotomized..." Zabka explained delicately. "She was alive, but couldn't think properly. There was only one way to repair the severe damage done to her...but unfortunately...Starlin...it required finding someone as powerful as her to merge her with. Another Force Spawn. Nathan only had one person to call on. I wasn't there. Syd had closed her mind to me and I couldn't sense her until it was too late."

Nathan sat down on a nearby rock, perfectly, unsettlingly still.

"I had encountered the creature in some sort of dimension prison, controlled by an entity with a large sword. She had been there a long time. Called herself the Reflection."

Nathan rubbed the bridge of his nose. All this Sorcery Crap annoyed him off to no end.

"I do not know how it was made." he continued after a moment, daring to steal a glance at Syd, who remain hunched over, refusing to face Starlin.

"It's the remnant of a Sith's potential for being a Light Side user. It was cast out of this Sith after it lost the battle. This entity that rules that realm caught up these fragments, let it become a body, and then imprisoned it for reasons still unknown to me or it. But I had no choice. She would be dead or worse if I had not. I had no alternative." he emphasized.

Nathan stared at Syd.

"Show him."

"I...I'm scared..." Syd whispered. "I'm sorry...I...I can't...I don't want him to see it..."

"Syd..." Zabka called out. "You can't hide this from him. He has to see it. I know it hurts, but you have to be brave right now..."

Syd shuddered but lifted her hood up with a shaking hand, her back still towards him.

She turned around, slowly, hesitantly, wet blue eyes glistening with devastation and confusion. She couldn't hold his gaze, too frightened by the emotion she feared seeing.

"Forgive me." she begged quietly, tears running fast down her face...

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin listened as the strange man, revealed to be Nathan, stepped forward and explained the situation in blunt terms. Zabka was quick to jump in and elaborate. He was a little gentler about it.

For his part, Starlin found it a little hard to understand what they were telling him. Syd had been nearly killed, and the Battalion had partially absorbed her essence. But the joining they spoke of, with a “fragment”? That was harder to grasp. Nathan and Zabka didn’t seem to really know much about it either, admitting that they didn’t rightly know where the fragment had come from.

Only when Syd was forced to remove her hood did it finally begin to dawn on him. Her heartwrenching pleas not to be exposed were ignored; Starlin could understand why she hadn’t wanted to show him her new form.

“That’s…” Starlin sputtered, his blue eyes wide. “You’re…”

His mind flashed back to a time during his apprenticeship where he and one of Westenra’s sisters had managed to travel back in time. They had encountered an older version of Syd, along with her followers. Among them there had been a sweet young sorceress named Natalie, who bore the face of The Amalgam.

“Natalie?” he asked, wondering if she would recognize the name and confirm that the fragment was part of the same person. Then, his brow furrowed in realization. “Syd. I’m so sorry. I… Are you really still in there, master?”

Syd Celsius​

 

[Syd Celsius]

Syd snapped to attention at the name.

Natalie...

It stirred something in the part of her that was the Sorceress known as The Reflection. But neither what remained of Syd nor the Reflection understood. The Original Amalgam herself would not have understood why that name could cause such horrible disquiet in her.

"What's left of me..." Syd answered, averting blue eyes from Starlin Rand .

"I...I lost a lot of memories. The ones most intact are of you. But even a large chunk of those are missing."

In the Background, Nathan and Zabka observed quietly.

"I'm the one who should be sorry. I thought...I thought I was strong enough to fight the Battalion. But I miscalculated...badly."

Syd drew up her hood again, too ashamed to let him look at her any longer.

"Everything hurts now. My head. My mind. My cells..." she whispered, backing away slightly.

"It all hurts..."

Zabka went over to her. Syd flinched as he got close, barely starting to remember anything at all.

"She needs rest. Lots of rest." Zabka said, examining her with the Force. "Her mind is wet cheese. She's in no condition for any sort of serious discussion about the Cult."

Nathan's expression was as unfeeling as stone.

"If you say so." he replied calmly. He rose up.

"You and Starlin can see to her needs." he said, walking away to his freighter to do maintenance, and be away from everyone.

"Please don't make me take my hood off again..." Syd requested in a whisper before she began following Zabka towards the temple...

Milos Echo

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin should have been devastated, yet he was not. He felt a numbness, but he wasn't desolate. "You still remember me," he said, as if stating such was proof that not all hope was lost. "What about our first meeting on Zeffo? Or when you saved me from being tortured by that bandaged man on Yurb, do you remember?..."

He wanted to press her for more, to see just where her memories ended and this fragment's began, but he soon realized that she was in no state to be talking. As Zabka pointed out, she needed rest. Starlin felt a pang in his chest at the sorry state of his old master, a woman who had always seemed so remarkably strong and powerful. A giant even among the annals of the Jedi, she had been reduced to a whimpering, weeping, wounded woman, shrinking from the light, hiding in the shadows of her cloak.

He followed her and his father into the temple, finally taking notice of the building for the first time. "So these are the Jedi ruins," he remarked. "How long have you guys been holing up here?"

Syd Celsius