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Bella contacted [member="Laertia Io"] a few days later. The Rannon Temple had deciphered the compass and discovered something rather strange. Coordinates and a Force Vision about Kara-Shehr. More specifically, The De Lifte subterranean. An estate located in the Karsk mountain range. Home to little more than ancient drilling sites, deep asteroid impacts, and a secretive Miralian presence on-world. For all the answers the Rannon Seers were able to discern? Yet still more questions remained.
The reason Bella contacted Io was actually rather straight forward. The Rannon Seers had seen Laertia in their dreams. Somehow, both she and the estate, were connected. Now. Usually Master Dom would have handled any mission related to this revelation personally. The compass being an old toy of his. However, Master Dom being Master Dom? He was more inclined to let his underlings do the dirty work for him. Thusly. Bella returned from Denon for yet another, strange-strange Jedi adventure.
A boom shook the sky as her custom Interceptor broke low over the coastal mountain range.
"Io. This is Bella. I've just hit the coastline. Starting a search pattern now. How far out are you two?"
Her dart-like Travelsprite tore through the air like a supersonic spearhead. Covering insane ground. Flying far faster than almost any starfighter pilot would find imaginable. Her skill with the Force allowed Bella to achieve a pilot's rating unheard of by the Navy. Most pilots wouldn't be able to catalogue all of the visual data striking their eyes at this speed. She was going just too darn fast to keep track of all the detail.
Of course, revolutionary inertial dampeners helped too. Lulz.
"Still nothing. I'll let you know if the compass beeps or I find something on the ground worth investigating. Rimini out."
Arrived in: Blessing of Loste (Dynamic Class Freighter)
Five hours earlier...
"Wow, you reallllllly messed this thing up..." Moya remarked to Laertia as they surveyed the damage to Laertia's heavy power armor, the Juggernaut Chitin. There were still multiple heavy gaps and craters in the armor from her prior mission with [member="Bella Rimini"] and they still had not found the time or resources to do more than cursory repairs to make it walk. It wasn't even close to ready for combat. It had taken as much of a beating as it could take and still be salvageable. Laertia had been busy doing minor magic shows at birthdays, pulling rabbits out of hats, Moya being much closer by to make sure there would not be a repeat of losing one of her rabbits.
She had not made much except enough to keep the ship running and herself and the rabbits fed. Laertia did not mind this, conditioned to hardship as she was but that meant she would have to once more be reliant on medication, and Moya while they were on this world.
Laertia ran her hands over the the cracks on the armor and the damaged wiring. Reluctantly she took a pill for her Migraine, and immediately felt weaker in the Force, losing her balance a little. Moya caught her, careful to avoid the spikes of her black jacket.
"Sahry." Laertia spoke, catching her breath as Moya helped her steady herself.
"I can't believe they might have actually found it..." Moya said in regards to what she had been informed of. "The De Lifte Estate..."
Laertia nodded in agreement. Moya was a necessity in this case: On the (high) chance the security systems were active, Moya's resemblance to who she was created to draw fire for might help them get past certain headaches.
Moya was clad in cold weather gear, which was teal in color, concealing her curvy figure, though her gorgeous face was still in full view, silverly lightsaber clipped to her belt, her dark hair tied in twin buns to the sides of her head.
"There's a reason, Io. A reason for all of this..." Moya insisted as she watched Laertia take off her jacket, revealing a black tank top and go to the rabbit pens, removing an infant rabbit she had been rearing after a recent purchase. The rabbit, small and gray, huddled in Laertia's arms and suckled a bottle of liquid nutrient taylored to rabbits. She stroked its ears for a few moments before she put the now-sleepy rabbit back in her cage.
"I knowz...but we don'tz knowz wutz waytin onn duh uttha ennd..."
"You seem...different after your experience with Rimini."
Laertia shook off her memory of her battle with The United, unable to understand what about that mission had caused her to recall that horrific experience.
But now that she had the advantage of being an adult and not an unthinking teenager, she could look back and realize Ursula had to have known the level of foul evil inhabiting that lake and let her fight it anyway. It was another needle in Laertia's rose-tinted glasses when it came to Ursula.
"I juustt benn outta actionz too lonngz...I'll gettz back tuh duh swing ov tingz...promyse!" Laertia replied happily to reassure the biot that served the role of mother in all but name. Laertia did not like putting Moya in danger but in this case they had no choice. Moya was right. Destiny had a plan.
Moya frowned but then smiled. She knew Laertia well enough to know when Laertia was covering. But now was not the time to confront her. Laertia was so excited and animated, more excited and animated than Moya had ever seen her now that she was helping the Jedi again, or some form of it. She wasn't even this happy for her magic shows even. Some habits die hard.
Laertia put her jacket back on and retrieved her bread and butter weapons. One was Constant Gardener, the weapon she had made becoming a Jedi Knight. An old, double barreled shotgun whose significance she didn't know, and a double edged vibroknife with built in knuckle duster that she had used since childhood. She strapped on a belt of shotgun slugs and incendiary ammo, her lupara holstered and loaded with buckshot.
"Yoo redy?" Laertia asked her only real ally for the last few years. There were days that she regretted obtaining Moya and days where she could not bear to be seperated.
"I am. Its just you I'm worried about as always. And this whole thing with my creators has me on edge, I guess..." the artificial shapeshifter admitted.
"Wuteva iz waitinz fer uss, iff it layz wun hannd onn yooz, I'll crusshh itz." Laertia assured her. "Nowz...letz go meetz wit Bella."
The pair had left their home, leaving an old protocol droid to care for the rabbits and pilot the ship to safety for them in case she and Moya did not return, the old frieghter Blessing of Loste, parked in a nearby canyon on their way up to where the location of the Stronghold was estimated to be. The pair began a quiet walk, Laertia not talking much as she considered where she might be heading. Moya remembered her creation quite clearly but her memories of this place were hazy and it took her a while to recognize the signs she was on the right path.
The De Lifte Estate, home of one of the most active groups of light adepts during the Gulag Plague. Fierce warriors clad in power armor, roaming the lawlessness of the galaxy as the Plague killed and killed. Some evil cult had wiped them all out.
Laertia was not one who normally liked exploring ruins. Laertia had imposed limitations to her scavenging and thieving. This whole situation had the uncomfortable stink of grave robbing about it, which was an extreme taboo to her even before becoming a Jedi. It was an act done only in desperation, when the choice was literally that or starve. There had always been enough live people to fleece as a child that Laertia had not dared to take from a corpse, lest she incur the wrath and scorn of whatever Gods were watching. The same went with picking ruins clean. But in this case if they really had stumbled on to The De Lifte Estate then whatever was inside could not be left for those who would misuse it.
Their path on the mountain range took them higher, the rocky, uneven path becoming steeper, them starting to have to be careful in how they walked as the path they took led into the remains of ancient dig sites and ruins, in a gigantic cul-de-sac surrounded by giant rocky hills, the clouds overhead misty and gray. Bella's voice had just cut in when they started to cross the threshold into this area, past stone markers, the remains of a path of cobbled stone under their feat as they walked through the remains of ancient lodges and hangars, a great, rectangular palace-like building supported by segmented columns surrounded by a circular fort wall of durasteel with ancient, rotted turrets on ancient mounts at key positions on the fortress. It dwarfed every other ruin, and Moya spotted the remains of a shield generator.
"Yorr memmorreez wer onn duh munny, Moya!" Laertia said happily, comming Bella.
"Hold it!" yelled a green skinned man in black armor who came out from behind a collapsed pillar in this great basin with twelve others, all armed.
Laertia stared. Great. It was never simple.
Not wanting to start a fight without knowing who she was fighting, Laertia held up her hands, encouraging Moya to do the same.
"Who are you?" The Mirialan demanded.
"We could ask the same of you..." Moya replied evenly.
"WE ask the questions!"
"Sure you do, buddy..."
Moya's hands flicked and non-lethal, green arcs erupted from her hands, stunning everyone but not killing them and doing no permanent damage. Moya huffed and went over to search for information.
"I did not come here to reconnect with my origins just to get held up by the local welcoming commitee..." Moya grumbled, checking for ID's.
[member="Laertia Io"] and Moya were right on the money. Bella switched over to locating her by com beacon then followed the trail straight over the mountains.
"Roger Io. I see you. Bringing her to you."
A boom echoed across the sky as a tiny dart, Bella starship, flew right over Laertia's head. Soaring right across the fortress before turning about to come in for a landing. Swooping right down to the ground with an incredible swift flick of it's wings.
"Dismounting."
The canopy opened as the small Interceptor swooped right down to the ground. Barely beginning to hover as Bella unbuckled and stepped out of the cockpit. Taking a good look around before jumping down to the concrete below.
"I figured this place would have been a ruin!" She shrugged over the roar of her ship's engines, "Who are these guys!"
Bella gave a wave of her hand and her starship begin to lower it's canopy back closed and pull away from the ground. Then it rushed up and took to the skies again. Disappearing with another loud boom. Allowing the din of it's engines to escape with it. She could talk normally again.
Bella moved to stand near Moya, "...Friends of the family or..?" She peered up at the estate's wall, "...New residents eh? Hmm."
Figures. This facility would have made for a great base. Minus, the hundreds of years of decay of course. Bleh. Nothing was ever easy, was it.
Laertia gawked at the craft Bella rode in on, and cursed her condition again. She had used to love flying ships, but since her medical condition, she was forbidden from flying even her own craft unless in the most severe of emergency. Moya normally piloted. That she could not pilot her own home filled her with a feeling of inadequacy, and often.
Then again, she had none to blame but herself.
When Bella asked who the people who had attempted to ambush them were, Laertia could only shrug. "Moya?" She called out.
"No identification. Second hand military weapons..." Moya noted, having searched the unconscious people. "These could be the Mirialans that were mentioned in our briefing...but what would they be doing here? Scavenging?"
"Sueysyde." Laertia asserted. "I beenz tuh De Lifte Stashez. Onnlee duh vewy besst sekuritee."
"And it still didn't save them..." Moya grimaced, gesturing to the ruins.
Laertia looked around, and as she was an amatuer historian on the De Lifte's, she could spot the various Jedi Iconography in the ruins, fallen statues of men and women in senate-guard like armor lay strewn across fields of silent grass in the shadow of the mountains. It felt oddly silent, despite the gusts of cold wind that blew through her hair, revealing the trench wounds. She felt the subtle hum of the Force in her bones in this place. With more effort than normally required, she teleported to one intact statue about thirty meters away, depicting Moya De Lifte herself, who her biot mirrored in appearance. The statue depicted her clad in jedi robes, with a plaque underneath that read: "Built in memoriam for a great Jedi."
Laertia examined it. The statue was not the same age as the rest of the ruins. Having gotten good at pricing antiques as a thug in the streets, she would wager the statue was no older then fifteen years.
Laertia knealt down and touched the plaque. To her surprise, the plaque parted down the middle, revealing a small space behind it...
(Zelda Acquisition Theme plays)
...Laertia retrieved a small, silver key with very strangely cut grooves, and teleported back to where Moya and Bella were. "Yoo rekoggnyze dhis?" Laertia asked the biot.
"No...no I don't..." Moya answered, face scrunching together in confusion.
"Dhat staatuu cantz bee olduh dhan a fyfteenn yeerz...itz commpleetlee outta playce..." Io trailed, looking back at the ruined fort.
"Why make it so accessible?" Moya wondered.
A dark look crossed over Laertia's face as she stared at the fortress.
"Werr mizzin sumthin..."
Laertia looked back at the unconscious men, went over and smacked him awake.
"Dippstyckk..." Laertia muttered to him, lifting him up high over her with her natural arm.
The man fully awake, clad in combat armor, gulped at how easily, how casually she held him by gripping the bottom of his chest plate.
"Whatchooz doin 'ere?" Laertia growled.
"We...we're researchers..."
"Yooz packinnz purty gud fer reeserrcherrz..." pacing about casually, his weight nothing to her as she teleported one of the weapons he had into her hand.
"Kombat Enfoycerr...olld tek...donn'tz mayke itt nott solljuhh gwayde." Laertia observed, tossing it aside, sun glinting off the spikes in her jacket. "Wutz a meer reeseercherr doin inn a playce lyke dhis? Wut kynda reeseercherr arr yooz annywayz?"
"If you put me down, I can explain everything."
Laertia lowered him. "Sixxtee sekundz. Tahlk."
"I'm an archeologist. All of the people with me are archeologists. We're just scared. All of are just scared."
"Wutz tuh bee skayred ov?"
"A lot of my people have moved here lately. Its a beautiful world. I'm not with the local Mirialan presence in case you're curious but I have come here before on other digs and made friends with a lot of the locals. They're sometimes hostile to strangers in their territory, and with good reason...there have been attacks here lately."
"What kind?" Moya asked, folding her arms and getting closer, hoping her hyper-pheremones could make him more amiable to honesty.
"Isolated stuff..." the middle aged man answered, scratching his head. "People found without their heads. Or found with their heads but their brain cut out of their skull. Gruesome stuff. And it all happened in these sorts of areas. Locals whispered all the time about it. But it always occured around this area, and only in the last few weeks or so. There were rumors about ruins. We sent drones for aerial surveillance, and found scans indicating some sort of facility was here, drawing geothermal power from beneath the mountains." The man explained.
"And you led people here knowing brains were being literally ripped out of people?" Moya asked, incredulous.
"The attacks were getting worse, ARE getting worse!" The archeologist protested. "This place is so isolated that its actually pretty hard to get the word out. I only manage to know as much as I do because I travel here so often..." he answered, looking more scared by the second. "I wasn't incautious. I brought combat droids. Actually hired mercenaries. Everyone killed thus far as been simply a target of opportunity. I figured it was some strange predator or some lone psycho who just happened to pick this as their hunting ground. At worst, I anticipated a Sithspawn of some kind. I figured whatever it was, I could handle it. I even got combat armor for people and weapons. Worlds like this are dangerous, so even researchers have to know how to protect themselves."
"What could possibly be here that would make you go to a place where people's brains were getting pulled out? Even with all the protection you brought?" Moya asked.
"You DO see what's all around us right? This is an archeological treasure trove! Completely unspoiled by prior digs. People search their entire careers for such a find and are lucky to get something even a tenth this impressive." The man replied. "But we miscalculated the danger...no...'I' miscalculated the danger..."
"Wudja fynnd?" Laertia wondered.
"It was animals or nutjobs. It was soldiers. Soldiers in gray fatigues...no service patches..." the man answered. "We never stood a chance. We'd actually made good headway into the facility when they struck...Me and the ones you knocked out were in a seperate section when they struck. Saw it on a drone feed before they took it out. They were taking orders from a woman over a holoprojector..."
"Who?" Laertia asked.
"A woman. Cute, but she had these purple eyes--gave you chills when she looked at you..."
Laertia went very still for a second before approaching him.
"Black hair, light colored gear?"
"No. Black. Had a saberstaff...could not hear it over the feed but--"
"Go homez." Laertia ordered. "Waykey wayke yer frenndz upp annd leevz. Tings arr abowwt tuh getz nastee...annd don'tz evuh endannjur peopull lyke dhis againnz!" she warned harshly before turning to the others.
"Itz hurr." Laertia breathed, worry crossing her features as she stared at the fort. "Don'tz bothuh runninz...dhey knowz we arr heer..."
"Trap?" Moya asked. "How could that beast have known we were on our way?"
"Twapp..." Laertia confirmed, "Annd I donn'tz knowwz..."
Moya sighed. Great. Just great. She turned to Bella.
"There are people here working for a very personal foe of Laertia's. Her name is The Amalgam. She murdered Laertia's master, Ursula Sandraven. Now she wants something connected to my creators. We're in serious danger."
As [member="Laertia Io"] interrogated their wandering "researcher," Bella used the Force to probe deeper into the man's mind. She found he was telling the truth and, that he was very, very scared. Bella squinted her eyes and turned to the strange statue of a great Jedi. Quickly realizing that whatever was happening here was in course of fact, definitely connected to Io's destiny. Yes. Master Dom's mission. The vision from the Rannon Seers. They were both right. Pulling Laertia here, finding a familiarity in the villian, connecting it all to her past. ...So true. Bella was sure now. Nothing that happened here, happened by chance. This was a crux. This was a turning point.
Bella turned again as Moya sighed and introduced a new player. Amalgam. Saberstaff, black dress, and murderer of Jedi too. Typical. If Bella could have breathed the word with more disgust she might have.
"Well. I'm not sure this whole thing was originally designed as a trap for Jedi, but?" Bella shrugged and looked back at the walls, "If they know were coming. Like what happened to our friend here. It mostly certainly will be by the time we get down there."
She sighed and rubbed her chin. Soldiers she could handle. Hell, Io and Moya could probably massacre them all just by themselves. But a Dark Jedi complicated things. Especially if they were good.
"Anyway. We've come this far and, this Amalgam has yet to stop us from landing or dropped battle tanks on us yet. So, that's good. Means she might be just as strapped for big guns as we are. So yeah. Without war droids or a Sith Army backing her up, I'd say the odds are about even thus far. Hehe."
She smirked and shrugged again. Their just wasn't even info to make a big decision about leaving anyway.
"I'm confident we can investigate deeper into the facility. I'll cloak my Force Signature to keep their Adept from sensing me. Easy stuff. So, seems like a straight sneaking mission from here, eh?"
Bella was careful to sound supportive and kind. After all, this place was a Nexus for Io. A crossroads on her journey into the Force. So. Whatever happened? Destiny wasn't coming for Bella. Oh no. Destiny, was coming for Laertia Io.
With: Soldiers of The Moon (Eternal Empire Royal Marine Corps members in training.)
It felt so good, teaching again.
The Amalgam did not realize how much she had missed it, finding the diamonds in the rough, cutting them and shaping them, and then unleashing their glittering brilliance on an unsuspecting galaxy.
The Amalgam still felt a great, intense disquiet as she stared at Laertia Io, still having great trouble getting past how similar they were in their backgrounds. As her memories from her time while asleep came back, she had more and more embraced the idea of Laertia as her daughter, though not to the degree she had with Uri. Uri had that wonderful madness in her like the Shi'ido did. Laertia had one of those minds that, no matter how fragmented, she refused to break completely. The Amalgam was well aware of her dependence on the Biot both emotional and financial and for a moment felt that uncomfortable guilt of not being able to go with the instinct to comfort her rather than the need to push her through brutal trial after brutal trial.
Not for the first time, she wondered if she should have just stayed asleep to be happy. But power is not without it compensations. Even Laertia could not deny what power had given her.
So it was with the Amalgam. And if she played her cards right, both of her daughters would share in that glory she and the Brain Demon prepared the way for. The Way of The Dark.
The Amalgam watched the three through her scope from a nest she had set up on a ridge above them, hiding her presence. She had been surprised by Io that first time on Canto Blight, too exhausted physically after fighting Darth Shojo. And that disgusting biot with her had helped. The Amalgam was not certain what the Biot was to Laertia but she was willing to wager they were friends. It would be easy to snipe the biot, shower her daughter in its brains but that was too easy. She was still not entirely comfortable trying to break Laertia into the fold but her allegiance to the dark and a corrupted, dark heart that still, oddly, could feel and a twisted morality that believed she would be saving Laertia if she did demanded she try.
But not like this. The biot's death would need to be horrendous
The Amalgam didn't know much about [member="Bella Rimini"] (Beyond the fact she was rather cute) but decided it would be better to kill Bella off early so Io would not grow too attached. It would spare Io the pain of losing her had they grown to be genuine friends. But Moya Virtu's death would need to be special.
Admittedly, the biot was a threat...she hadn't anticipated Laertia bringing her. But she could adjust.
"Headmistress to Obsidian Claw..." The Amalgam said softly into her comlink as the scope focused on Bella.
"Acknowledged. Awaiting orders." Came the electronically disguised reply from a man in a purple, armorweave BDU with a jagged black crescent wearing a gray-white trenchcoat with his face concealed by crimson bandages like the rest of his comrades, both men and women, observing from a separate nest on the cliffs directly above the Fortress Mansion.
"It seems our guest bunnies have taken the carrots...give them the five star treatment once they cross the threshold...they deserve your respect...and it will prove yourself worthy of serving as a Royal Marine of her Majesty Kay Arenais..."
"Order Confirmed, Headmistress..." the bandaged soldier replied, hefting his accurized Mandalorian Rifle. He sent the electronic signal to the ones inside, who had their own scopes trained on Io as she slowly walked to the Fortress-Mansion. Inside, soldiers all dressed the same as the ones on the mountain began arming the traps and securing their hostages. The Headmistress had flat out told them most of them would not survive.
But it was essential. All of it was essential to putting Io on the trail of The Shrodinger Box.
"Hurry along my wayward soul..." The Amalgam whispered to Laertia through the scope, knowing she could not be heard.
"Hurry along..."
Meanwhile.
Laertia was not looking forward to this. She knew she had caught the fiend on an off day before. No way she could fight with anywhere near the abandon she had had in their previous duel. But Bella might give them an edge. Plus, she was friendly and Laertia was desperate to develop more friends besides Moya or her rabbits.
"I knowz yer rytez buhhynd meez, Bella..." Laertia said with a shy, friendly smile. "Annd weez appreshheates ittz...letz go ruinz a Bogann luverz plannz..."
Laertia Io then started walking calmly across snowy grass, her sawn off shotgun out. She felt no threats. The wind blew in her hair as the fortress loomed like a rotting sentinel. She was glad Bella was here. So willing to help, not stuffy. Not at all. Io could not hide her signature, nor Moya, so her being able to sneak around while Laertia and Moya played out the time honored tradition of 'drawing fire'. Laertia wished she had thought to bring bubble gum, for some reason.
She knew they were waiting for her, her instincts as a criminal told her this. The question was why they had not attacked already.
The former shadow spotted a small bird buillding a nest in a nearby ruin of a Jedi chapter house. She noticed a piece of ceiling material slowly coming loose above it and its eggs. Without thinking Laertia teleported and dashed as the piece of drywall came down, catching it. The bird was startled angrily squaking at her and flapping its wings, and Laertia quietly teleported away and dropped the fallen piece of ceiling and continued on her path.
"Laertia..." Moya called out as they walked. "There's something I've always wanted to know..."
"Yeahh?" Laertia asked gently.
"...Where did you learn to teleport?" the biot asked.
The question made the shadow freeze a second.
A magnificent cadre of men and women in knightly green armor, riding down from the heavens on winged horses towards her, their golden power lances glittering in the sunlight to a small, frail child who had just found a spiky black jacket to use as a blanket. The clouds shown brighter, the sky bluer than she thought possible on Nar Shaddaa, gathering behind the magnificent emerald riders.
She heard the whispers, thought it was a religious experience. Were religious experiences like this? The small girl in the tattered clothes of a homeless shelter was not sure.
"Julia..." they whispered. "Julia Crownwraithe...you are worthy..."
"I don'tz wanna tahlkz aboutz itt..." Laertia replied softly. Not abrasive. Not rudely, but with enough gravity that it was clear, especially with the shellshock like stare she gave Moya as she gave her refusal, that she would speak no more on the subject.
Moya nodded, though internally she was flustered that though she 'knew' Laertia, she did not know 'everything'.
Laertia reached the great front gates of the fortress, statues of Moya's namesake acting as structural support to the gate frame. She took out the little silver key she had fownd and stuck it in the lock in the middle.
Bella stood three paces from the opening gates. Carefully taking the time to check her suit and her gear. She knew combat was inevitable and that now was the last free space to make sure everything was in order. Which it was, thankfully.
She reflected again upon the vision of the Seers. How they had seen Io and this place. Beacons together. Yet, they had not seen Bella. Nor Master Dom. Nor any other Jedi of any kind. It made Bella wonder for a moment if her presence here was more of an interference than a help. Destiny had a way of being very specific after all. So perhaps she need not worry about it either. After all, most of her missions centered upon herself. It was kind of nice to realize that this objective, did not. Victory or defeat was very much, not, resting upon her shoulders alone. This was Io's game. Bella was just a wildcard.
She took a deep breath and immersed herself in the Force. Shrinking her Force Signature down to the size of an atom. Making herself invisible to Force location, soul targeting, or mental scrying attempts. Now at least. Bella some freedom of movement against magic.
Alas. Poor Io had already frozen at the threshold. Something traumatic had already triggered within her. Memories again. Shutting her down. Thrusting daggers out from within the hidden subconscious mind. Trading present tense for past danger. Damn. Damn. Bella sighed and looked out toward the courtyard again. How she wished they could have gone about this whole thing differently. Taken just a week or two to get Io back to the Circle of Healers on Kashyyyk. Given her at least the full body treatment and taken away her physical pain. Done a soul scan with the Crystal. Something. Something. Anything. To keep her mind from shutting down like that.
"Moya dear." Bella smiled and coo'ed softly, "Let's save the soul searching questionnaires for after the Dark Jedi encounter, yes? I need Laertia focused only on the present tense. And so does the Force."
Bella turned to Io. Her voice changing to something sharper. More focused. "Stay focused Io. Stay in the present. The past isn't what can hurt you here. The future is not our concern either. Only, the present. Your power, your protection, and your victory. Are here. In the moment you control the sharpest. Right now."
It was one of the oldest Jedi meditation lessons. Anxiety is in the future. Depression is in the past. Control, her control, is in the present. Staying focused. Staying in the present. Stay in the Force.
Good. You're there.
Now. let's go get that son of a betch.
Bella smiled again and walked through the front fortress gates like a phantom. [member="Laertia Io"] was right behind her.
Moya realized her error when [member="Bella Rimini"] made her gentle suggestion. Moya nodded graciously. She had psychology programs running, but with making her the way she had been made, there were occasional run time differences in her alchemized, pseudo-organic brain that resulted in little errors in judgement.
Laertia for her part was slowly shaken out of the start of a 'very' unfortunate recollection as Bella's words called to mind Ursula's teachings. It helped calm her but just knowing that fiend was here still had her on edge. She hadn't felt that kind of writhing corruption in a long time. The only other creature that caused that kind of seething dark she had personally encountered was The United.
Bella took the lead in walking past the gates, letting Io collect her thoughts and up to the stone front doors, stone sentinels guarding both sides depicting the same type of armor Laertia had worn during her previous mission.
Laertia spotted the keyhole on the front door and teleported the silver key to her hand, approaching and inserting it...
(Zelda Unlocking Theme plays)
The stone doors creaked as the mechanisms hidden underneath slowly pulled ancient stone doors open. The main foyer looked oddly primitive, as Laertia expected it to. Cut from solid gray from floor to ceiling, carvings of the ancient Ashla symbol at the center of the walls and ceiling, stone sconces holding ancient, glowing green and blue kybers that provided the light for the interior, strategically placed to provide the most lighting. The chandalier above was also filled with blue and green kybers.
The pillars were primitive, rectangular and faceted, three on each side, massive and holding the domed ceiling above, which contained clusters of kybers.
The main staircase at the end was splashed with the blood of murdered researchers, some of it used to draw a great, jagged crescent on the wall behind that staircase. Statues of men and women in Laertia's power armor were guarding all doors, also splashed with blood. Laertia spotted an ancient computer recessed into a stone casing and headed over to it. She tried to use her Ionize abilities but felt a strange disruption and stepped back.
"Allkemyzed surrkutz." Laertia said.
"Let me try..." Moya offered, going over and typing what security commands she remembered.
"Emergency override accepted. Warning. Severe Darkside contamination detected..." the computer sounded in a synthetic baritone.
"Contamination...I think of it as sprucing the place up.
Laertia and Moya turned around as a full color hologram of The Amalgam came into view at the center of the pillars.
Laertia took slow steps forward as the Amalgam waited, with hands behind her back, image flickering, smirking.
"Laertia! So good of you to drop in. I would have cooked your favorite but I can hardly be responsible for being a poor host when you show up unannounced. However, my attendants should be along shortly to see to your needs. Shall I have some tea prepared. A cola, perhaps?" The Near impossibly beautiful woman in the skin tight light colored catsuit asked, sarcasm spreading her grin wide.
"Wherr arr yoo?" Laertia grunted.
"Oh, deeper in this little haven. With a few researchers still alive. My little chicks have some too, but I have most of them..." the Amalgam explained patiently, almost...gently. It only served to repulse Laertia though she didn't show it.
"You won't get the first piece to the Shrodinger Box before I do, Io. I'm too far ahead...and what makes you think you would be worthy anyway?" Amalgam questioned.
"I..." The Amalgam trailed, still holding that smirk, as her holographic hand reached out to mock-touch Laertia's face.
"...ate her..." the Amalgam finished.
Smoke traps were sprung. The image cut but the woman's dark laughter remained as the Moon Soldiers, armed with vibro rapiers, attacked from every direction.
Bella was knelling down near one of the blood covered statues. Trying to use her Force Sense to gain some knowledge about what happened here. Yet, when the computer barked something about contamination, she turned with a squint towards the holographic woman who had just appeared. Ah. Good. So at least they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt now. This whole place really was a trap.
"Mmm." Bella bladed her eyes towards the ceiling as Io and the Dark Jedi talked. There was something up there. A hidden door maybe? She didn't have time to tell unfortunately. The quiet clicking sound of smoke grenade hidden behind the statues took her full attention,
"Mines!" Bella shouted as she shielded herself in the Force.
Then, with a pop and a bang. She was wreathed about in black smoke. Ah! So not a energy grenade? Well. That wasn't so bad.
"Yarg!" Came the roar from above. Sure enough, something had been hiding up there. Soldiers.
"Damn!" Bella dropped her shield and grabbed her sword.
She then began the dance of death with their new arrivals. Thrust, parry, repoiste. Then a giant kinetic wave to the face. Smack! Bella sent the poor soldiers flying a dozen meters through the air. Then, Crack! As their broken bodies smashed into the walls, the candles, the pillars, and the statues above. With every wave of her wizard's hand. More soldiers were caught up into the air then blasted into oblivion. The black smoke churned and tumbled as the Force caused the wind to rush throughout the room.
Alas. In all the chaos and darkness. Bella could hardly tell if Laertia and Moya were having any trouble. She was too busy blasting mooks back into the kyber-encrusted ceilings. Oops.
Laertia's green blade was out before she realized it, blocking and parrying tight, vicious thrusts and swipes. The men and women struck at them with a practiced, deadly experience. These were people used to being outnumbered, outgunned. Outmatched. They gave as good as they got, and despite Laertia's own considerable skill, their numbers and tactics soon had Laertia on the defensive. This was not helped by the meds in her body, which, while suppressing the migraines, dulled her reflexes slightly, as well as her connection to the Force. Already, their blades had gotten too close. Already she had been forced to block with cortosis plates hidden in the sleeves of her jacket--
Laertia gasped as the tip of a vibroblade got past her guard, slicing open her left shoulder, Laertia snarled past the pain, parried the next attacks from three different people, her green blade dancing past chops and slashes at her neck to find theirs. The first head came off, but then an ultra fast swipe from one of the men caught her by surprise on the thigh, and she went to one knee, unable to focus enough to teleport as she parried the next set of attacks from four different people. It was at points like this that the differences between her and Jedi such as [member="Bella Rimini"] began to be noticeable. Bella rightly did not hesitate to use every advantage the Force gave her within reason. That blast of wind helped Laertia out considerably, blowing the smoke aside and allowing her a better view to defend. When you can't quite attack with the Force, as Bella could, all of your Jedi stuff becomes harder. Considerably so.
Moya was doing better but not by much. Her mastery of Ataru and her black and green blade allowed her to evade most of the blows, though in one case she deliberately let herself get impaled through the torso, to open up her opponent to a decapitation strike, and when she spotted the three bearing down on Laertia, Moya let the electric judgement fly from her fingers, hitting and stunning them. This distraction cost her, as four of the moon soldiers impaled her from the sides, spilling glowing green blood. Moya only coughed off once before stunning them all with the green lightning, flinging them backwards--
A large caliber bullet from a moon soldier's pistol blasted half of Moya's head off and she fell stock still where she stood. Laertia let out a snarl. One of genuine fury. If Moya was dead for real she...she didn't know what she would do.
She teleported five meters behind Moya's shooter with great effort and closed the distance, deflecting his rounds with the plates in her sleeves as her blade went through his skull.
Her sawed off came out and two bought it in the face when they tried to swarm Bella. Laertia then focused...and her lightsaber moved of its own accord.
Laertia could not attack with the Force like Bella...but she could still attack. She was not completely without options.
The croos guard moved swiftly through the air, dueling the moon soldiers it came across, and not constrained by the movement of someone holding it, danced around guards that would have been otherwise too tight, slicing through them with a practiced casualness. The saber sailed through the area, attacking from normally impossible angles as Laertia grabbed one man who slammed his sword down on her armored sleeve and lifted him by the neck, breaking it and flinging him into another. Her saber landed in her hand and she waded into battle at full Djem So, smashing her saber down on everyone in front of her that wasn't Bella or the fallen Moya. As her falling avalanche strikes cut down and smashed the defenses in front of her she tried not to think about the possibility Moya was actually dead. She couldn't.
Her blade finally cut down the last attacker and Laertia immediately made a bee line for Moya, turning the inert woman with half her head missing, tears streaking her eyes, preparing for the worst as she shined the light of her saber on the devastating head wound.
"Iff dherr iz annyting I evuh donez fer ya Ashlaa...dhenn yoo knoowz yoo owe mee..." Laertia said as she checked the glowing green insides of the blasted open skull.
To her strange, yet nauseated relief, she saw a good size chunk of brain still intact and partly attached to the spine. It was sprouting fibrous strands...
Laertia gently laid the body down, reloading her shotgun.
"Givvz hurr a mynyte..." Laertia told Bella, looking for any more threats.
The hologram of The Amalgam appeared again, this time right over Laertia as she cradled Moya.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you at some point not to treat your toys as people?"
Laertia didn't reply to the barb for the first few seconds, only shooting her a glare.
"Moya. Iz. Nott. A. Toyy..." Laertia growled. "But all dhoze fethhs yoo gotz wurkinz fer yooz...dhey myte az well bee..."
"I dunno, Laertia, you seem a little rusty. I think all those years of pulling rabbits out of the hat has cost you your edge." The Amalgam smirked. "Dare I say it...you've become a homebody..."
"Yes, yes, lovely. Yes. Homebodies..." The Amalgam snidely replied. "Well, I'm in this big bad home away from home. What would be the fun in just going to greet you? Besides. I have hostages...have a go at them first. Cut your teeth a bit!" The shi'ido joked.
"Rotz inn hell..." Laertia snapped.
The Amalgam's irritating chuckle came off as slightly forced.
"We both did that, my dear..." the Amalgam responded, blinking dead purple eyes as the hologram reached out to mock stroke Laertia's face, who recoiled in disgust despite her not even being there.
"My hell was called the Underworks..." The Amalgam explained calmly. "And we both know the name of your hell was Nar Shaddaa..."
"Iff yoo tinkz fer evunn a sekund yoo annd mee havinz it ruff maykez uss annytingz alyke, dhen feth yooz." Laertia snapped.
"Oh Laertia..." The Amalgam replied in a wistful manner. "You would be completely right...if the similarities ended there...come find me...I have to be somewhere in this building, after all...first hostages are in the east wing. I might even have sandwiches prepped if you're early!"
The hologram vanished just as the last of Moya's head and face finished rebuilding itself. The biot blinked her eyes, wiping away glowing blood from her face.
"What'd I miss?" Moya asked.
Laertia, too relieved that Moya's design was so resilient, could only hug her a few seconds and not say anything.
"Hostygez..." Laertia answered in a whisper. "We goez fer duh hostygez..."
Moya looked around. "Its been a long time...I'll try and recall what I can from my memory banks but no promises...did just get shot after all...but I'll try and guide you over comlink, Bella..." Moya offered, the flesh on her face still wriggling every few seconds due to the recently repaired trauma before it settled and she turned to Laertia.
"There was an old security office about a floor up..."
"Leed mee..." Laertia told her. Maybe the cameras were still working in this place. "Bella? Annyting yoo need?"
[member="Laertia Io"] and Moya made it through the scuffle mostly intact. However, the biot woman had managed to regrow a little brain matter too. Which was... Unexpected. To say the least.
Bella stood in the far corner of the room. Turning over the crumpled bodies of the soldiers one by one with her foot. Examining their faces and their gear. Using the Force to probe their bodies for weaknesses, poisons, and other alchemical alterations. Anything that could tell Bella more about this strange Dark Jedi woman who taunted Laertia so.
"I'm good. These ones seemed more interested in you two then poor little ol' me."
She turned over another body with her foot. Nothing interesting.
"As for scouting. Fair enough. Though I doubt I'll go unnoticed for long. This place has eyes and ears all over. Pity."
Bella had already noticed that this ambush was made possible mostly by luck rather than skill. These soldiers had taken advantage of the layout much like foreign raiders would have. They weren't actually familiar with this place. They just picked the best kill box they could.
"The circuitry in this building seems to be mostly friendly to Lightsiders. I recommend we make an effort to cut off our hostess from the electrical systems as we go. She may control the room when we enter? But, I'll bet we can block her from accessing them before we leave."
Indeed. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to turn this dark dungeon back into a fortress of light as soon as possible. They could use all the advantages they could get.
"Anyway. Yes. I'll cloak and head deeper inside. ...Moya? If you where keeping prisoners in the east wing? Where and why would you consolidate them there? Do you remember anything specific about the layout that could give me an idea of what our hostess has in store?"
Bella moved to a nearby console. Stepping over bodies as she went. Searching the computer screen for any sign of log in access.
Laertia agreed with [member="Bella Rimini"] on the fact she would not be able to remain hidden for long.
"Dhese fethz arr no joke, Bella. Don'tz tayke no channcez."
At Bella's question about the east wing, Moya, her memory databases fully recovered, begin to think out the question.
"East Wing...oh chit!" Moya swore, heading over to the computer. Her databases searched for the file containing that old emergency pass word...a sort of skeleton key.
"Excuse me, Bella..." Moya said worriedly, typing in the password 'UMBRABANE' into the keyboard after feeling for an old hidden switch underneath to bring up the log in screen.
"Wut iz itt?" Laertia asked.
"East Wing. It has these Force Canceling cells for holding highly dangerous Sith for interrogation. It's got extremely dangerous security. Sonic blaster turrets, Refurbished B2 Super Battle droids...and Magnaguards..." Moya said, bringing up a floor plan that strongly resembled a dungeon with numerous barracks, armories, and security chokepoints. The screen displayed numerous power failure designations at certain points.
Moya had soon uncovered Administrative command for the Foyer itself and immediately locked it down.
"We now have full command of this small area. I've locked her out of this computer and the functions it controls. Unfortunately this was never meant to be a computer for sensitive tasks, more like a way to track registered inhabitants. We can keep them from getting into the Foyer... but not much beyond that. On the other hand when you type that password into any locked doorpad it'll unlock. Don't try and cut through it with a lightsaber...the doors have cortosis weaved into them and you'll cause an alarm, Bella." Moya warned. "May the Force be with you...and watch out for the mausoleum on your way to the east wing...don't ask why, just...don't go into it. I myself was warned of that when I was created. I don't know why they were so explicit in their warning. But I always took it seriously. Always."
Moya looked around on the schematics. Her brain's hueristic algorithms spotted a flaw.
"There is a generator room in the south east section of the floor below us. I read two heat signatures...if you disable it, you'll cause a temporary fifteen minute window where most power in the east wing stops functioning. But you will have to be very fast. Just Recon it, come back and meet with us. We could get a lot of innocent people killed trying to rescue them solo."
"Agreedz" Laertia chirped, heading up the grand staircase. Moya followed.
"Good luck, Bella." The biot called out as they went up.
"Wull keepz inn tuuch onn kommlinnk!" Laertia assured. It was not long before they were out of Bella's sight. The upper floor was the same stark stone desogn, lit only by irregular kyber growths mounted at key points in multiple colors. The doors were metallic with deep blue holographic interfaces.
Laertia was the first to spot signs of violence, then bodies. The remains of a scattering of B2's also littered the passage. She stepped forward cautiously, her unstable green blade activating.
"This monster is actively trying to corrupt this place. But the cuts...they're ritualistic..."
"Sheez preppinn a spelll." Laertia said out loud. Only the worst of Dark Siders engaged in magic that required such depraved, beastial acts of murder. Only a life on the street prevented her from vomiting.
Laertia looked, felt out in the Force for traps, and felt nothing. She bent down to examine the bodies. These ones had been made to suffer. She dared not remove their personal possessions and violate her code however.
"Letz keep goinz..." the ex shadow muttered quietly, starting to look for the security office. She instead stopped at a door labled 'ARMORY/REPAIR BAY 1'
Laertia typed the skeleton key pass word into the pad. The door slowly creaked open receeding into the slot below the arch.
The armory had a clean, modern look, with durasteel shelves, cabinets, and displays. Most of the weapons were gone, however. The rest were still in relative mint condition, as the chamber had been vacuum sealed.
The ex-shadow approached some of the shelves, noting a nearby workbench and repair bay. Most of the weapons were stuff she wasn't good at using. Rifles and such.
Some pieces caught her street-eye however. Laertia removed a vintage Baragwin stun ray from a shelf, still in its packaging.
"Oooo..." Moya mentioned, spotting a thermal capacitance belt.
Laertia in the meanwhile had spotted other weapons worth examining, and had taken them to the work bench, removing her jacket and exposing her cybernetic arm. She had built it to be modifiable, able to hold or mount any one of a dozen different weapons, though not too many at once. Same went for her eye.
Laertia began breaking down the projector frame, removing the essential working components, her hard won, self taught engineering skills allowing her to graft the ancient tech to her arm's innards, skillfully attaching its emitters to key points on a robotic palm. She wasn't done yet though. Next came the old, off brand wrist laser she had found. That was integrated into the wrist rather neatly with the aid of the preserved tools.
Laertia then removed her cyber eye and fiddled with the optics of an old Light-Scan visor she found, delicately changing out the software.
"You need help?" Moya asked, still looking over a collection of old personal energy shields. Most had enough for about two to three charges.
"I'mm fynez, but thankz..." Laertia responded in a reassuring matter, not wanting her only companion to feel useless.
As Laertia worked, Moya could only look around and try and recall the scant amount of time she had spent here. She had never known this place's exact location because she had spent maybe four hours here and she hadn't even been fully programmed yet. She also suspected it had been a security measure.
"Never thought I'd be back here..." Moya said softly, trying not to distract Laertia too much as she set what she had gathered down on a nearby work table, removing what charges were salvageable from which shield emitters.
"I think The Amalgam knows you. And not in a 'Studying my enemy' kind of way. More like 'knows you-knows you'. Get what I mean?"
"I nevuh met herz, I swearz..." Laertia spoke as she made power checks and adjustments.
"The way she addresses you..."
"Sheez fethinn wyth uss, Moya. Dhey all dooz itt. Onlee diffuhrynce iz duh degreee. But...yer ryte. Itz creepy."
"She likes to get into your personal space too. More likely she is using the hologram as a sort of psychological distance, so she doesn't have to actually feel whatever emotional disturbance she would feel if she ever actually reached out to touch your face."
"Yoo sayin' sheez...obzesszed wyth mee?" Laertia asked, looking over the new software she had installed in her eye.
"She is highly sadistic but her feelings towards you are extremely complicated...almost maternal...but too possessive to actually be so." Moya assessed. "Professional diagnosis? Total Fruitcake."
Laertia chuckled, reinstalling her eye, flexing her arm...
"Redy tuh rollz!"
(Plasmid Acquisition Theme plays)
(Upgrades received!)
Upgrade: BARAGWIN STUN RAY
Ancient stun ray design developed by The Baragwin. While allowing for near indefinite use feeding off a power supply, it has limited range and may take a few hits to actually down someone, but is highly accurate.
Upgrade: WRIST LASER
Miniature laser weapon built for personal range, but can be also used to cut through light materials in an emergency. Highly accurate.
Upgrade: CYBER-EYE
Basic cybernetic eye with basic targeting and low res thermal vision, now upgraded with basic night vision
Five minutes later...
Laertia and Moya came across more bodies, Laertia taking the lead, her shotgun out as she approached the old security office at the end of the ancient hall of stone. The doorway had been ripped open by an explosion of some kind. But it seemed the battle had happened and concluded long before they had gotten here.
The brown and white Magnaguard stepped out of the wrecked entry way, a blue, long bladed lightsaber in its hand. Its blue photo receptors fixed on them both, but particularly Moya.
"Alert canceled. Facial Recognition scan of Moya De Lifte confirmed. Welcome, Master De Lifte." It said.
"Its gotta be malfunctioning. No way it would have made such a mistake when I was created." Moya explained.
Its photo receptors turned red.
"Alert. Unauthorized military grade android and unknown intruder. Surrender, invader." The Magnaguard commanded, angling its saber at her.
Moya sighed.
"I just 'had' to open my mouth..." Moya muttered. "You want this one?"
"Shurr..." Laertia acknowledged, activating her green blade. She faced down the Magnaguard, who went into a Shien ready.
Laertia charged, their blades soon clashing and lighting up the stone passage. Laertia maintained a one handed stance as she counter attacked in Form One. It tried to use its height and strength to its advantage, and Laertia was surprised as she actually had to exert more strength than normal, then a lot more, until she was using both arms to hold off the droid. She heaved it away with all her might, trying to use Ionize to reprogram it, and almost lost her hand in the attempt. They had alchemized the circuits on these things. She had no power over them, they were pretty well programmed AND they were strong.
Laertia began to be pushed back by the Magnaguard's strikes and swipes, her own natural reflexes barely matching it, and more than once its tip got too close, forcing her to parry with the plates in her sleeve, feeling the heat transfer of the blade through the sleeve, wincing as she felt the burn. Plus the medicine was not helping. She could not focus as good as normal.
The truth was neither she nor Moya should be out here, but they were, and now they had to deal with it.
Laertia was forced back again, feeling her arms get tired for the first time in years, its ruthless programming intent on decapitation. It struck relentlessly, at one point driving her to her knees.
"IO!" Moya shouted.
"I gotz itt!" Laertia assured her, struggling back up and heaving it off just long enough to press her own attack, striking at it with a flurry that blended every style she knew in one long dizzyingly complex sequence that the droid withstood for about thirty strikes, its precision engineering allowing it to parry attacks that would have crushed lesser, organic duelists, but eventually, its programming was overwhelmed when a feint in Juyo transitioned flawlessly into a thrust from Makashi, impaling it through its head.
Laertia was breathing heavily. Too close. Way too close. Even with all the knowledge at her disposal, that thing had STILL almost killed her.
Moya went over to her. "How bad? I've never seen you struggle like that in a duel."
The door slide open and Bella's shadow fell across the grated metal entrance. A dark silhouette in the doorway.
~ "...Bella? Yooz dhere?" ~
Quiet static. Almost lost in the background.
Bella's eyes moved across the dark chasm that was the mausoleum's entrance. The only light was behind her.
"I read you. Still searching here. Will chime back when I have something. Over."
She released her com and bladed her eyes. Searching the darkness before her.
Bella took one step into the room. Letting the door slide closed behind her. Enwreathing her in pitch blackness. She tried letting her eyes adjust but, for some reason... Nothing came. As if the whole world itself had just, fallen away.
A brazer of fire slowly flickered to life. It burned a white orange color and seemed to be coming from much further down a stone passageway. Bella raised her hand to shield her eyes against it's strange glare. Even from so far away, it seemed jarring. Aloof, and far, far too old.
She traveled down this long abyss. Moving from one sudden brazier of fire to the next. Each time she moved to one, another one would alight further down a crooked path. Leading her through the pitch black hell that was this eternal, never ending fortress.
Bella in her wandering passed was seemed to be wall after wall of open sarcophagi and murky ashen vessels. Illuminated only in the faintest tease of unholy light between flickering sconces. She stopped between corridors to look deeper inside one of the vessels. Only to find it empty. Much like the next one. And the next one after that. ...Wall after wall of empty sarcophagi? But...
"Where are the remains?" She mused with distaste.
Suddenly, as she turned to center on another flaming brazier, a whole new room jousted, and appeared suddenly before her. Cold stone walls choked with ash vines. Dangling from a tall ceiling and six yellow braziers, all summoned into a circle. Then. Something terrible. Horrible. Like bodies amassed in the center of it all.
"This... This isn't real."
Bella squinted harder against the darkness. The terrible scene amidst the foreign light. Visions of horror and death seemed to push in all around her. Muddling her vision of the stone room and it's yellow circles. Choking her eyes with suggestions of gritty black smoke and hands burning.
"This... Isn't real. This is a curse. This isn't real!"
Yet. Almost as soon as she said those words. The darkness abated, and her own vision returned. The dim orange braziers all were washed away and she returned to a vast darkness, and an empty doorway in front of her. A familiar stillness she quickly welcomed back into the present.
She pushed the keypad in the dark and the door swung open just as before. Almost blinding Bella as she stepped back out into the light of a modern crystal-illuminated corridor. Back into the present. Back into the light.
"Was that... Did I just?"
She turned around and noticed the door closed shut behind her. An endless darkness void lurking with visions and madness back there and within. Indeed. Chasm of darkness averted, she noted that she had just passed through the whole mausoleum in little more than a few moments. Time had almost stopped back there in the dark. Like that place wasn't even real. Like her whole journey had just been some grand madness or some black illusion.
Bella took two steps backwards away from the door. Openly aghast that she had so easily been enraptured about by such a beast. Such a simple trap of nothingness. A black crypt filled with empty vessels. And perhaps a cage too.
She touched her com as she steadied her breathing,
"You were right about the mausoleum, you two." She turned to mind the lighter corridor ahead, "It's a ghost town in there. Ugh. ...Anyway. I think this whole building is more corrupted than we thought. I'm seeing visions. Empty coffins and yellow ritual circles. Not sure what it means but... Well. I'll let you know when I find the hostages. Seems pretty easy to get turned around in here. Stay frosty and stuff. Over and out."
She released her com and steadied her breathing. Damn. She hadn't noticed how scared that strange tunnel back there had made her body. Something about this whole fortress was seriously, seriously not right. Even the walls had a mind of their own now. Bleh.
Bella turned her attention back to the more modern corridors ahead. Well. At least the crypt back there had been a good short cut anyway. Now all she had to do was find the hostages and not get sucked into another black nether realm of whispering spirits again.
Easy stuff.
Well, probably.
Hopefully the other two were having more luck than she was. Bleh.
"Thatz not gud..." Laertia replied to [member="Bella Rimini"]
"Wull keepz a lukowtz, Bella!" Laertia said, as she typed the password into the console, gaining total control of the computer. Moya began checking the other sections of the old fortress. Most of the screens were static, one seemed focused on a chair in a bare room with a puddle of blood with what looked to be a man in winter gear standing the corner and facing the wall, shaking. There was a lightbulb on the ceiling. When it flickered, Moya saw shadows of people who were not there flickering against the wall, getting ever closer to the man in the corner. The image went to static for a second and when the feed came back the man in the corner was gone. There were other feeds, each showing a different section of the Fortress. Laertia spotted a high security turbolift that led to the Fortress engineering section. She grimaced as she saw a number of innocent scientists stuck in black, spherical cells with golden force fields. She didn't see any of The Amalgam's soldiers. But that did not mean that they were not there. But the stasis pods containing the magnaguards and the sonic blaster turrets were intact.
"Bella, be real cautious, you are coming across the prison block now." Moya said. "We don't see any soldiers...they might be stealthed. As for the Amalgam, all the cameras on the subterranean levels have been taken out. Those must be where she is located. There's all sorts of things down there we don't want her getting her hands on. The treasury, the kyber storage chamber, chemical labs..."
"Expearymenntuhl Wynng iz allso no onn camyruhz. Wutevuh iz goinz onn haz gotzta bee immportanntz."
Moya began to look at other view screens...and then the views cut, switching to the Amalgam's face.
"So sorry to cut you off from Bella but I just thought you might want to see something..."
The camera panned to a gigantic, golden vault door.
"Do you know what's behind that vault door?" The Shi'ido asked. "Its the first piece to fulfilling your promise to Ursula. Part of The Shrodinger Box is in there, Laertia. And I am this close to getting inside...unfortunately for you..." The Amalgam trailed. "I've locked down the lower sections. No way you can get in now...and if annnny of my men spot Bella? Wherever she is? I have the oxygen removed from the cells the hostages are in. You'll watch them suffocate. Shhh! Don't tell Bella! You warn her over comms, I suffocate them!"
"Oh, Laertia, still trying to pretend she has a moral high ground. How many thousands are dead at your hand? Literally?"
"That's different. Everyone Laertia killed tried to kill her first." Moya insisted.
"An academic distinction. When it boils down to it, Laertia you are as much a butcher as I am. You belong with people who understand. I mean, look at you...you're not like Bella. You're no Jedi. You don't bring any peace. You've never brought peace." The Amalgam insisted. "You would be so much happier with the darkness. No weakness. No doubt...no time left before that little surprise party looking for Bella comes knocking...and of course..."
Laertia heard a beeping, rushed to Moya and grasped her arm, teleporting out just as the oncendiary device went off, melting almost the whole room. Thermite. That was a thermite reaction. Simple aluminum and rust. Dirt cheap. The Amalgam was a guerilla fighter. The realization troubled Laertia, because there was something deeply familiar about this one attack, but for the life of her she could not place where she had seen Thermite used before...
The lights cut, and the passage was lit only by Io's lightsaber.
"I know her..." Laertia said under her breath as she led the way to try and reach Bella. If they spotted Bella, those hostages were dead. Laertia needed to draw their attention somehow. For Laertia that pretty much meant 'Time to start breaking chit'
"Letz getz too one of duh areaz werr duh camyraz don'tz worrk...annd startz rippin annd tearin!" Io exclaimed, her damaged brain suddenly making her not as appreciative of the horrible, horrible danger she was in as she really should have been. Moya was jumping at every shadow and they hadn't even left the Foyer.
As they walked away, they did not notice the flickering shadows of people who were not there against the walls...
Bella stood outside the prison block door. Suddenly cut off from comms with Moya, she wondered what on earth was going on back there?
"Well." She grimaced and removed her finger from her ear piece, "I'm sure they're handling it. No problem."
Then she took a big breath and pressed the green switch on the door panel. Letting the massive gate slowly open to reveal the metal fortress within. Another ethereal dungeon. This one however, had turrets.
~ "Target sighted" ~
They chirped with a single red optic. Then turned their guns on the door, and Bella.
"Why. Hello there ladies." Bella winked right back at the static guns, "Shall we say hello?"
* * *
The broken lights flickered all about the tall prison block. Half illuminated in darkness and black flickering shadow. Most corners of the room were now covered in plasma cuts and soft burning electrical fires. Tiny lights burning in the dark. The molten husks of turrets and static gun emplacements lay scattered about the half-dozen walkways. Up and down. Broken machines still smoldering hot with searing orange plasma cuts. Bella's Lightsaber had really dazzled them deathless.
Still.
On the lowest catwalk. Shrouded in near darkness and flickering broken lights. Stalked two Magnaguards with their pulsing hot electro-staffs. Searching through the darkness and around every corner. Their weapons held at the ready. Yet, both seemed to be lost. Caught unaware of the location of their prey. But how? She was just here. Their companion robot was just fighting her all the way down here. They'd seen it.
Quietly stalking through the dark walkways. The two guards turned a cell bank and looked down a tight shadowy corner. Sure enough. Damn. Their fellow Magna robot was smoldering and burning right down to his core. Just off in the corner there. His head torn completely clean off.
The lead Magnaguard turned around suddenly only to find himself face-to-face with his headless compatriot. What!? Somebody had just smacked his head completely off!
~ "What the..?" ~
The guard spun around and swung his weapon at a soft noise behind him. Swish! Nothing there. The guard's furious red optics searched frantically in the dark for any sign of his would-be attacker. Meanwhile, his headless friend had just come toppling down to the ground. Smash. Bang. While his head was still rolling around somewhere in the metal grating below them.
~ "Where are you!?" ~
The Magnaguards vocabulator screamed in agony. As if robots could feel fear.
*shhh*
What!? A whisper!?
The guard looked up suddenly. Just in time to see the waiting metal spike drive it's way clear into his head cavity. *Crunch!*
There. That was the last dead robot guard. Good.
Bella stepped out from the shadows on the highest level of prison block. Still holding her hand open to the telekinesis move that had destroyed both waiting robots below. Poor suckers. But, even for a robot deathguard. I guess you just can't kill, what you just can't see.
Mm. Bella touched her ear com once more. This time, was a hint of sorrow in voice too.
"Io. Its Bella. I... Chit. I couldn't get to the hostages in time."
She looked through a nearby cell block and past the golden energy shield within. Inside lay only stillness.
"I'm not sure I could have saved them either. This Dark Jedi woman. She's playing with us. ...She's playing with us and it's really starting to piss me off too."
Bella snorted out her nostrils and looked down at the devastation of the room below. Cuts and plasma burns and broken machine parts too. Even with all her skills and telekinetic powers? Damn. She still hadn't been able to fight off an army of Jedi-killing robots and save the people at the same exact time. She just couldn't have done both.
"Anyway. Look. I've found a keycard hidden on one of the scientists. I think it's something we can use to get past our Demon friend's security. Let's meet up soon, okay. I'm..."
She turned to look back at the bodies in the cold sterile chambers. Her eyes cold and unwavering. Tinged with guilt and maybe a little rage too.
"I'm gonna need some payback for all this. Bella out."
Laertia and Moya had been running to another section of the fortress to try and get some sort of attention on them and away from [member="Bella Rimini"] when they felt the Amalgam cruelly pull the plug. The wave of death in the Force affected both of them. Though it affected Moya more than Laertia, as she was unused to being in such a violent situation, and dropped to her knees in pain. Laertia, having FAR more familiarity with murder and its effects on her, only shuddered a little.
But then the pain started...
Laertia clutched her head and fell forward. The meds had worn off early. It had been an increasing problem, the medicine, as of late...her body had built a resistance to it.
Laertia clutched her head in pain. Moya fought off the psychic pain from the deaths of the scientists. The Amalgam's voice speaking to her mentally in her agony.
See where being a hero leads? Pain. Suffering. I can feel your agony. Embrace it. Feed off of it. You could be so much more than some Jedi Lackey.
Even in spite of her agony, Laertia was horrified by the familiarity of the Amalgam's mental tone. This was not like any Dark Adept she had run into before. The United didn't count. The United had been some seething, unnatural miasma with the sentience of a fiend. The Amalgam was more interested in turning her than killing her...but why?
Even what intel Uri provided didn't shed light on this. The Amalgam was just...obsessed.
"Laertia! Focus on my voice...chit!" she whispered as she heard footsteps. She dragged Laertia into a nearby study, with shelves of rotted books, then got out her lightsaber as she heard the footsteps of the soldiers. Its black blade with a green aura sprouted, as she dragged the incapacitated Laertia behind a fallen shelf, and waited, her artificial brain tapped in to the Force. She charged as they breached the door, the bandaged soldiers opening fire the second they were inside. Moya landed among them, twirling like a ballerina as her blade rushed through flesh. She managed to get the ones with the rifles and shotguns, but the moon soldiers were quicker than she gave them credit for and she was soon on the defensive, her Ataru not suited to fighting in such an enclosed space. As she defended against aggressive, ruthless attacks, she grew alarmed as she detected the chemical warning signs of imminent overheat. She fought harder, knowing that if she fell now Laertia would be at The Amalgam's mercy.
The thought of losing its pseudo-daughter terrified the Biot. It had been bad enough not being able to fulfill her original purpose, but to actually fail at its new purpose would be hell. Moya bashed aside a thrust, feeling her insides start to heat. Not long now. She had to end this fast. She parried a thrust from another, the sword managing to slice open her stomach, causing it to leak glowing green blood and leaving a hideous gash that exposed now sparking, glowing red innards letting off steam as the internal situation grew worse. That would have floored an ordinary person. But Moya didn't feel it at all, instead using the opportunity, as her foe's sword passed by her and at the wrong angle to parry, to behead him, letting off a blast of electric judgement at the other who tried to take advantage. There now remained only two, each armed with Sith Tremor Swords. That's when Moya started shaking, vomiting glowing green blood as her skin turned red while she spasmed, small, pig like squeals occasionally eminating from her malfunctioning brain. Still coherent enough to feel shame at her failure, Moya vainly reached out to Laertia's place behind the fallen bookshelf as the soldiers moved towards her as she dropped to her knees, the overheat process making her constantly shake and vomit her own blood.
Laertia rose at the last moment, before they could behead Moya. Her sawn off hitting them both in the face, Laertia was then at Moya's side, cradling her as Moya's form stopped shaking and transformed into a gray, featureless humanoid with insides that flashed red occasionally. The devastating wound slowly sealed up on its own.
Laertia felt a mortal fear at losing her Pseudo-Mother...fear she knew The Amalgam could exploit. Would exploit...
She had become so dependant on Moya. Dependant to a level that creeped her out sometimes. But the thought of losing Moya nevertheless brought deep panic. Most of it was because Moya had provided a parental affection she had never gotten from Ursula. But the other bit was more materialistic concerns...
Who could she ever trust the way she could trust Moya? Laertia had spent her childhood stealing from ordinary people, or killing them if they tried to kill her. Trusting an ordinary civilian not to ditch her was a fool's errand. And trusting more competant people meant having to pay...and not one of them would truly be a help if the Sith sent an assassin after her. Laertia was too scared to live anywhere permanent. No. Losing Moya would not just break her heart, it would be personally catastrophic.
Laertia's damaged brain caused her to drift a bit...
Years ago...
Day one after acquiring Moya...
Laertia awoke to the smells of eggs and vegetables.
She was still exhausted, and nervous after acquiring the biot from The Master Shaper. She was not sure she had made the right choice in doing this. Would not a protocol droid have done virtually the same job?
A protocol droid would not be able to defend her from a Sith Assassin if she was having a seizure. A protocol droid would not be a parent to her. She needed safety. The time of war was done. Or at least, suspended.
She certainly didn't intend to stay like this forever. Certainly a medical treatment would be developed. The Force had failed her, certainly. Laertia secretly feared it was she who had failed the Force, and that the Gods were surely punishing her for some infraction of arrogance. Rising in her bed, in a pink and polka dot colored personal quarters, Laertia put on a simple blue dress that went down to her ankles and covered part of her arms and all of her neck.
Laertia cautiously ventured out, nervous to her core. They had not had much chance to talk after a particularly brutal migraine had caused Moya to put Laertia to rest early. Her brain had needed the sleep. Not so much now.
Laertia followed the smell all the way to the main hold. She found Moya in her black dress having set up a plate at the table. Moya saw her and smiled.
"Morning sweetie!"
"Hi..." Laertia replied, albeit not too cautiously. No need to give Moya the impression she was scared. Even though she was.
"I made your favorite..." Moya explained, gesturing to the plate. Laertia glanced over at the sunny side up eggs and grilled vegetables.
"Howwd yoo knowz?" Laertia asked quietly, stunned. The spices were exact. The purportions were perfect. But she had never told Moya this.
"I did an analyses based on receipts and contents of your pantry..." Moya trailed. "Your medical records also provided a clue."
Moya was her physician as well as manager and bodyguard, so Laertia was not creeped out by this. If anything, she was impressed at the deduction.
"Thanx..." she responded, awkwardly moving forward and sitting down at the round table. Moya sat across from her. Laertia took a bite. She perked up. It was delicious.
"Itz gud..." she admitted.
"You're nervous." Moya noted, smiling a warm smile that seemed to get past Laertia's armor, not realizing the biot's hyperpheremones were already in effect. Laertia relaxed when she saw that smile. No one had ever made her food except Ursula.
"I'm so glad you like it!" Moya replied with enthusiasm. "I also have a present for you."
Something very delicate within Laertia went still. That cruel tug of wanting to matter to someone making her now hang on Moya's words.
The biot produced a small red box, and Laertia opened it, her eyes falling on a heart shaped gold necklace with a viridian kyber in the middle.
It had no function. No real street value. Best she could have gotten for was a enough creds for a cup of coffee.
It was the most precious gift anyone had ever given to her. More precious than Ursula's shoto, and she never thought she would say that about anything.
"I luvvz itt!" Laertia exclaimed.
"It was given to me by my creator, now I am giving it to you..." Moya explained, Laertia completely "without armor" in how she sensed a space where there was no need to act tough and just smiling widely now.
"Its not much but once we get you up to speed I'll be able to actually buy nicer things...speaking of which..." Moya slid her a contract. Laertia picked it up, her eyes widening further.
"The Tonitra Staydium Conntrackt!" Laertia exclaimed in surprise. "Iddz been tryinz fuhevuh tuh sekurez a gigg att dhis playce! Howw...howw didz yoo getz itt?" Laertia asked in fascination.
Moya simply smiled again. "You just have to know how to negotiate. One of the owners happened to be on Naboo. I found out, flew us here and had a nice long talk with him over holocom. Even managed to convince him to give you the better cut."
Laertia was so fascinated by the necklace the contract almost didn't matter. She had already put it on. She expertly hid how much she held back her tears of joy. She absently signed the contract, thumbing the necklace. She felt pathetic on the inside.
Moya watched as Laertia ate her food. Laertia didn't notice, but some minor em field from one of the engines caused her face to glitch, making it pull and stretch to one side, going back to normal only when whatever had been going on with the engine stopped.
"I was thinking we could go into the capital and pick you up another rabbit. They seem to be excellent therapy animals for you." The biot suggested as its brain returned to normal.
The biot had completely analyzed her by this point. It made the programmed, motherly affection for Laertia all the stronger. This was a woman who had only ever wanted normal and cruel circumstance had gotten in the way.
Moya, even if it had not been preprogrammed, would protect Laertia with her life. She would have her own life, but Laertia was part of it.
"Shall we get ready?" Moya asked. "Would you like to change?"
Nah. I'mm drezzed..." the ex Jedi answered, losing herself to the situation. "Letz getz outta dhis joint annd lookz att flowuhz..."
Moya nodded, and as Laertia went to get her knife and her shotgun, the intense emotion Moya felt towards her pseudo daughter caused her brain to glitch, making her face stretch a bit on one side behind Laertia's back as she followed her down the hatch to explore the naboo wilds...
Bella Rimini's voice over the comm telling her what happened snapped Laertia out of her recollection.
"It wuzzint yer fault Bella...nutthinz eider ov uss cuda donez..." Laertia said solemnly. But then Laertia heard the rage in Bella's tone. Laertia was hardly one to be talking but Bella wanting payback...
"Don'tz lett herr uze dhat angerr againnst yooz, wutevuh yoo dooz..." Laertia said as gently as she could. "Bella dhis creep...sheez not gonna stopz...shee wantz uss tuh suffuh. Shee wantz mee tuh suffuh."
"Oh, only a little..." The Amalgam proclaimed over the fortress wide intercom. "Really, I'm all about the enlightenment part in all of this. I'm trying to help, you, honest...its just that...enlightenment...requires cruelty. Normally this is the part where I would cue the evil laugh, but...there are things you do not understand, Dear Laertia...head to Moya De Lifte's personal quarters if you do not believe me...okay, now I can cue the evil laugh..."
The laughter that erupted was sickening, deep, and demonic. It made Laertia grab her shotgun, load it, and blast the speaker in the room.
Just then, the organs under Moya's currently featureless body glowed as she rebooted, and her body took on the figure of a curvy, muscular woman with light olive skin and light red hair. She blinked eyes on a statuesque face of harsh perfection and looked up.
"Almost..." Moya said, rising up. "But you know I'm right..."
Laertia nodded, but hesitantly. She rose with her, getting Bella back on her com link.
"Bella, Yoo cantz doo anny morr good ovuh dhere,, so bryngz duh keyy annd link upz withuss at De Lifte's qwartuhz. Moya, yoo ruhmemmbuh where dhat iz, ryte?"
Bella released her ear piece and stepped over another sparking, dismantled robot body. She took a deep breath and centered herself in the Force. Reminding herself that the rage and failure she felt over the death of the prisoners was not her's to channel. She let it pass through her and out of her. Resting her mind in the white currents of understanding. Letting her body rest from the battle behind her. Letting her body ready for the battle ahead.
Strangely. The kyber crystals used to light the hallway outside the cell block began to flicker in attunement with her meditation. As if the building itself was beginning to remember. Remember.Remember.
Then Bella passed out of the cell block and more towards [member="Laertia Io"] 's side. And the alien lights returned to normal.
* * *
"Key card. As requested." Bella smiled and held up the disk, "I think we'll find many of the fortress doors much more collaborative now."
She turned to Moya and tilted her head too. Um... New look maybe?
"I like the new you Moya. But... Um. Did I miss something?"
Bella wasn't quite sure a trap-filled dungeon merited a change in haircut. But then again, her old team often said the same thing about her own fashion sense during combat operations. Meh? What's a Jedi fashionista to do. Go with the flow, I guess. They still had a Dark Jedi in need of some serious, serious justice, after all.
And Bella was all to eager to show the Amalgam the pointy end of her sch'tick.
The journey through the fortress gave rise to more bloody sights. It was clear The Amalgam had been using researchers for her blood rites. Moya's form glitched, the flesh on her face rippling as it neared micro-nexuses of Dark Side Energy in slashed open and defiled bodies surrounded by runes. Laertia got concerned, knowing all about Moya's weaknesses as a prototype. But she seemed stable for the moment.
[member="Bella Rimini"] returning with the card key was a welcome sight, and three against one made for much better odds, especially in case Moya malfunctioned.
Laertia went ahead, a flawed shield in a fallen fortress, her green blade shining a light on the gore ahead, searching for Moya De Lifte's quarters. The Moya next to her now looked nothing like the woman who once controlled this Fortress, her figure twitching and jerking occasionally as they walked past the rune sites. They had not been doing this an hour ago, so whatever it was the Amalgam was doing, it was getting stronger.
The trip so far had been remarkably free of enemies...Laertia didn't like it. Were their positions reversed, Laertia would be stepping up the attacks. Not holding back. It didn't make sense. Was the Witch that obsessed with her so-called 'Duty to Enlightenment'?
Laertia was not sure...she didn't really have a good strategy beyond cutting or fighting her way out of situations like this. But The Amalgam had directed them to those quarters for a reason.
Finally, they came across what was clearly Moya's quarters, given the door was guarded by statues of people in power armor like what Laertia had worn on Tattooine.
Moya took the pass key and inserted it into the read slot. The door clicked open and Laertia and Moya felt the intense light nexus within. Moya stiffened a little, a faint trace of green energy traveling up her veins under the skin and all the way up to the brain, which lit up. Laertia hesitantly acknowledged the lights presence in the room and in herself, and beheld its source.
It was a glowing blue box, in which glowed an inner light. Not a holocron. A box, a box, always a box, Laertia privately noted., gilded and with green and pink engraved flower motifs. But despite the power of the light that it practically dripped with, that was not what held Laertia's attention for long.
What got her attention were the paintings around a sparse, minimalist, but vast chamber of stone lit only by blue and green kyber crystal sconces. De Lifte's ancient bed was simple, circular, and recessed into the floor, led into by stone steps. A still bubbling fountain, of glittering, circular brass lay to the other side of the bed. It was all quite spendid, but it was still the paintings that had Laertia's attention. Because they told her life story. And then some.
Some displayed her in her earliest days, a mere beggar child , others showed her being beaten for what scraps of food she could hoard in dark alleyways. Another showed her first acquiring the jacket she was now wearing as a youth whose orphanage had just closed, and dozens of green armored men and women riding six winged horses that descended on her from the sky. The incident Laertia never dared speak of.
The largest one depicted a teenage Laertia receiving her strength blessing in the strange fountain chamber from the feminine Water Spirit. Another thing she had never dared to speak of. All her secrets, laid bare.
Laertia felt very small suddenly, very awkward. Hardly any of the images were good memories.
"Laertia...my creator...she knew about you over three centuries before you were born." Moya spoke, utter surprise on her face as she went forward to examine everything. She took note of the largest painting. "Who is this you are talking to, in the painting?"
"Duh watuh speerit." Laertia answered, hesitantly stepping forward, creeped out beyond all words at just how much Moya De Lifte had forseen. She had read that De Lifte was an extremely accurate seer. It had never occured to her that she might be the subject of a vision. But why so constant a vision? It terrified her beyond words.
The box glimmered now, and Moya's skin rippled as she got closer to it, feeling every cell in her artificial body get stronger.
"Wutz in ther?" Laertia asked, finally tearing herself away from the paintings laying bare all her deepest, darkest memories to look at the box now. All her life, it seemed to be boxes that brought her the most trouble.
A beautiful Red Sapphire that dripped with the light greeted their sight. Its asterism gleamed in the light. Inside was both a letter and a golden, antique key of chromium.
Moya took out the letter, opening it.
"Laertia..." Moya read the letter out, going pale. "I'm sorry. I really would like to give this to you. But I can't. I have to entrust it to Bella. You have something else waiting for you deeper within my home. You will understand when you reach the vault. Take this little silver key and find the passage hidden in the medical wing. Its a backdoor to the vault. But go expecting danger. Bella Rimini must bear the dubious honor of being the keeper of The Red Ankarres."
"Wut iz itt?" Laertia asked.
Moya dared to lift the crystal out. She shuddered as she grasped it, green arcs of energy traveling up her arm as she actually malfunctioned, in spite of being aligned to the energy in question.
"Whatever it is...I'm not surprised The Amalgam couldn't get near it. I can barely hold the damn thing and me and it are on the same side..." Moya explained. "It looks like an Ankarres. But its got way more juice than any Ankarres I've ever found...too much juice..." Moya said, her flesh shuddering as she passed it to Laertia, who swooned a little but had nowhere near the reaction Moya had suffered. Laertia felt invigorated, healing, but much to her disappointment, she did not feel the damage in her brain disappearing. Even this thing of light could not undo her hubris.
Looking at it a moment, Laertia sighed. Such a powerful object, and still it was of no real use. The Gods had cursed her truly.
She handed it to Bella. "I donn'tz knowwz wut dhis iz...but cayrefull wen yoo holdz itt...itz got a kick..."
Bella held out her hand. Gentle waves of light seemed to pass into her as she received the strange stone. It came with understanding too. Not spoken. But understood. Bella knew the Seer had foreseen much. And prepared her warrior's accordingly.
"Thank you."
There was reverence in her voice that Laertia had never heard before. Not even in the heart of the Jedi Temple did she use these words. For sound alone was not sacred enough to commemorate such a moment. No. Those words must be spoken upon the heart.
Bella closed her palm around the stone and closed her eyes. Then she opened them again and nodded. First to Laertia, then to Moya, and then to the paintings scattered about the walls.
"I'm ready Laertia. To stand by your side."
She reached out with her left hand and touched Io's shoulder. So softly.
"Why do you think she kept seeing you in her visions?" Moya asked, her now muscular form pacing through the entire room after [member="Bella Rimini"] had accepted the mysterious crystal whose function they still did not know. Bella's assurance that they were all there for her was semi comforting, but it in no way reduced the nightmarish nature of the scenario.
"I don'tz wantz tuh evunn tinkz abowtz itz...letz leevz..." Laertia replied anxiously as she stared at the portraits showing all her worst moments and memories...
Her eyes fell on one though, one that confused her. She had no memory of it, yet it clearly showed her after she had built her first lightsaber, sitting in a black room with red floral print that reminded her of the interior of Uri's craft, The Silent Erika.
The Blessing of Loste had been her home for years. She had never abandoned it, but she could not help but be self conscious piloting an old replica of a long out of date and inferior Starship. When Uri had brought in The Erika, and Laertia's eyes had fallen on the black chromium J-Type 327 Nubian, she knew her vessel would never compare, that hers was a joke compared to a craft only a millenia behind the times. It had drawn Ursula's attention to Uri all the more. But why was the interior of whatever ship she was on in the portrait like Uri's?
Laertia spotted another figure in the painting, one shrouded in shadow. It was sitting across a table from her, but she never recalled an incident like this...not ever...
Laertia approached it, hesitantly. Her fingers reached out to touch the frame for reasons she did not quite comprehend...
Laertia Io, newly minted Jedi, stirred awake in the seat she was tied to. Her head didn't feel right, and it wasn't until she saw the I.V. drip.
A deepening sense of fear, which Laertia did her very best and failed to settle with Jedi calming techniques gripped her.
Laertia was across an elegant table, she noticed through melting, blurry thoughts. Across from her sat...'something'. She could not make out anything but a humanoid shape.
"Wh...whoooz...arr yooz?"
"You did so beautifully, killing the creature in the lake..." the shadowed monster on the other end rasped, its voice dark but feminine. "I just 'had' to look upon you...with my 'own' eyes..."
Laertia tried to move but she was restrained in magnetic cuffs attached to the arms, designed to restrain someone twice as strong as she was. The arms themselves had been heavily reinforced also.
"I haven't poisoned you...not with anything lethal, that is. Some muscle relaxants, tranquilizers, a few euphoria causing drugs, with amnesiac side effects. You won't remember any of this, trust me..."
"Wutz...wutz yoo wanntz?"
"You frighten me..." the monster in the darkness across her said.
"Wut...fer?" Laertia asked, confused.
"Oh...you and I...we've wallowed in the same filth. Killed the same. Starved the same. The only thing that seperates you from me is our weapons, our species, and the planets that shaped us. Though I am pleased you think unconventionally, what with the quillions and all..." it hissed sliding her weapon, The Constant Gardener forward.
Laertia tried to summon it, move it...but her concentration was too broken by the drug combinations to use the Force. The monster across from her chuckled and something else slid across to Laertia. It was a glass of blood red wine. Laertia's minor experience at killing sorcery using opponents told her it had been tainted by Dark Magic.
"I wont'z drinkz itt..." Laertia got out.
"Drink? Oh, no, no no, you have it 'all' wrong. I'm here to celebrate something with you."
Laertia grew even more nervous. This was NOT typical Dark Adept behavior. Not in the slightest. It felt too...personal.
"Wutz duh okkashun?" Laertia struggled to say.
"Your knighting, of course..."
"Whyz doo...yooz cayre?"
"We are equals."
Laertia felt her spine lock as she saw a glimpse of what was sitting across her. Humanoid, but lumpy and misshapen with skin clammy and filled with black veins, pale as a tombstone. Laertia squirmed in the seat as its horrible lamprey mouth was revealed, rows of teeth fluctuating as it gave a dark chuckle.
"You should be honored, Laertia. I don't show my true self for just anyone."
"Tru...sellf?" Laertia called out weakly.
The mishapen monster lurched over her, almost emaciated, dipping its fingers into the wine glass.
Laertia, as she squinted at it, stared in growing recognition.
"Yoo...yooz wuz dhere...wenn I foughtz duh Unitedz...yoo warrnedz mee..."
"You're welcome..." it hissed, tracing a crescent on her forehead with the tainted wine. Laertia flinched at the horrible monster's finger touching it.
"I cannot put you under the aegis of the unholy spirit as I would like...but this should serve as a sign of my own favor all the same."
"I'yll...nevuh...turrnz..."
The hideous creature knealt dow, the corpse breath from its lamprey mouth making her nauseated as well as disoriented her.
"I wonder...why didn't you go over the edge, take the plunge? Was it because you had more advantages? Was there just...something different about you personally, as opposed to me?" It asked. "We were born in shadow, you and I...perhaps with a less malleable form came a less warpable mind."
"Styll...wrestlinz wyth a cuppul a streetz atrocyteez, eh?" Laertia asked quietly.
The monster did not answer, instead dipping warped, bony finger into the wine goblet and tracing some strange text onto her exposed arms.
"I suppose I could take the opportunity to try and convince you to join the Dark Side...but with someone like you..." the monster hissed circling her in the chair. "It is best to let the reality of following the light do the convincing for me. Ursula will disappoint you, I think."
"Ursy iz Ursy."
"Oh, such loyalty! Why couldn't 'I' be the one to reach you first?" The monster hissed in introspection. It stroked her face lovingly and Laertia flinched again as she felt its clammy skin brush up against her cheek.
"Wut arr yooz dooin tuh mee?" Laertia whispered.
"Conveying my personal blessing. Its not what my chosen will get, certainly--but I dare say you will benefit all the same. But don't fret...this is a celebration, as I said..."
"Leave...Ursy...alone..."
The monster snickered hideously.
"Touching..."
"Wut?" Laertia asked a little quieter, deeply confused.
"It'll all make sense someday, little one..." it snickered in an unnatural, gutter-like growl, tracing more magic on her arm. "I'd love to show you so many secrets. Of murder. Of torture. But my time surfacing is so limited. It takes so much strength. And the lie is so insistant on being in charge. Not that I blame it...so I am afraid this is the best I can do for now..."
The sudden blur of its hideous frame let her know it was right behind her.
"For your eyes only..." It hissed..."Only for you...you see what no one else can see..."
Laertia flinched as it's emaciated, deformed hand touched her shoulder.
"I sometimes worry there is no way you could ever understand me...and then I remind myself how your hands are as soaked in blood as mine. I wonder how moral you really are...are you moral simply because Ursula found you first, preventing the path I took? Would there ever have been a point where you would have snapped? So many questions that we will never know the answers to, conveniently. But at least you have someone who understands you..."
In spite of the deadly situation, Laertia could not help but be curious.
"Dyd anny kyll evuh keepz yooz awayke?" Laertia asked.
The monster was silent for a moment before answering.
"It was the first time I killed in anger. Not for survival."
Laertia said nothing for a second after. She had no reason to respond, but, assuming the monster was about to kill her, regardless of its words, she saw no reason to hold back anything.
"I wuz 007, duh foist tyme itt happenedz. Kylled sumwun inn angurr..." she admitted. This earned a nasty chuckle from the monster.
"Do go on..."
"Itt wuz a blaztur I'd fylchedd...gud proffitz, but I'd beenz incawshus. I'd foughtz truu a gontlut dhat dayy so...mayybee I wuz morr irratuhbul dhen norrmallz. Duzzint matta howw duh fyte stahrtud...itt enndedz wit mee lookin intuh hiz eyez. Nevuh fergotz dhat look...nevuh..."
"When the light left him. Fascinating, was it not?" The Monster asked, surprised she would let something like that slip.
"I diddintz sleepz fer a week...diddintz evun uze duh munni."
"Didn't sleep for two after my first anger kill...see? I told you we would understand each other."
"Doez itt evuh skayrz yoo? Not feelinnz nuthin wen yoo kyll?" Laertia asked, again in spite of the deadly situation.
"It...used to scare..." the monster admitted. "But you should merely see that it is a sign of strength, to accept the slaughter."
Laertia noticed the monster had not removed its hand from her shoulder.
"I don'tz feelz nattrull wythoutz wepunz now. I uzed tuh. Buhfore Ursy. Noww I needz wun jusst tuh sleepz."
"Revel in your greatness...strife grows you, and kills the weak."
"Wud yooz evuh givv upp all yer powuh tuh bee happy?" Laertia asked, trying to figure out the creature's angle, but only to a degree. The newly knighted Jedi still didn't know how to feel about her abilities, whether they were good for anything but murder. But then again, what could she do when killing was so ingrained?
The monster seemed intrigued by this question.
"The age old debate. Power or...fulfillment. Y'know, I've asked myself that I dunno how many times...at the end..." the monster said, leaning from behind the chair to look at Laertia. "I say power 'is' fulfillment. But if I had to seperate the two...fulfillment would tempt me badly...would you give up your power to be happy?"
Laertia's eyes locked with the horrible lamprey face.
"Yess..."
The Monster seemed amused, though she noticed it took a little bit before it finally spoke up. "Oh, we have time to work on that sentiment. Plenty of time! But for now...let's celebrate your knighting..."
Something slid across the table. It took Laertia a few seconds to register what it was.
It was a slice of carrot cake.
"Your favorite..." it hissed. "Don't worry...I've done 'nothing' to it."
The monster used telekinesis on the fork to cut a slice off.
"I would let you eat it yourself, but I think you would try to kill me the instant I released those restraints..." it hissed, the floating fork with the cake slice hovering in front of her face.
"No...I wuddintz..." Laertia said quietly. It was the truth. Even without the drugs, Laertia would not have been interested in killing it, not just because a part of her had been discovered to have a disturbing ambivalence to her own survival, but because she...for reasons she was not able to articulate, even to herself, she believed this creature when it claimed they were alike.
"Undo duh clampz...won'tz tryy nuthinz...skoutz honuh..." she said, the drugs making her see things...bad things...out of the corners of her eyes.
The monster was silent at these words, the smell of its corpse breath the only sign it breathed. But wordlessly, after a moment, a flick of its misshapen hand undid the clamps. Laertia's arms were wobbly, but not enough to not grasp the fork in front of her. If she was going to die, it would be on her terms.
She tasted it, looking for signs of taint or poison. There were none. It had been telling the truth. She cut another piece from the slice.
"Wanna knowz a sekret?" Laertia asked in the near silence of whatever vessel they were on as she took a second bite, staring more at the cake then the monster, which was truly hideous and frightening to gaze upon.
"All ears..." the lamprey-mouthed abomination hissed.
Laertia paused. "My reel nayme iz Crownwraithe. Julia Crownwraithe."
The monster said nothing at this at first. Finally after a moment of silent breathing, it asked. "Why tell me?"
"Cuz I haddint herdz itt inn yeerz...wantid tuh heerz itt wun morr tyme buhfore yoo do wutevuh itt iz yoo gotz tuh do."
The monster snickered.
"My name...'was' Leejun. Leejun Forrwiirmeni..." it said in a bemused fashion. "That is a name I haven't heard in a long, 'long' time..."
Laertia ate another piece, chewed slowly, not taking her eyes off a monstrosity clearly toying with her, and not sure why she was going along with it.
"I wayke upp att nightz, sumtymez, annd I wundur wut duh pointz iz..." Laertia whispered. "I wanna helpz Ursy...I dooz..."
"But?" The monster hissed.
"I sekretlee tink she duzzint apprisheeayte mee...sumtymez annywaay..." Laertia admitted, in spite of knowing how terribly dangerous it was to give the creature any insight at all.
"This is why being around you discomforts me so..." it said back, in a barely audible rasp. "I had to work up the courage to be around you like this."
"Dhen whyy dooz itt?" Laertia wondered, taking one more bite. How did it know her favorite type of cake? She hadn't even told Ursula that.
Just how long had this creature been watching her? And from where?
"Because I can't let a little thing like that get in the way of celebrating your knighting. I 'won't". It hissed, lamprey mouth undulating disgustingly as it chuckled, watching her eat.
The pair said nothing else as Laertia ate in silence, judgement clearly impaired by the drugs in her system, watching the monster watch her back. But even if no drugs had been present, Laertia would still have chosen not to attack it, for reasons not at all clear to her, or, clearly, to the monster, who gave the impression of having been surprised that no escape attempt even seemed to be contemplated, despite an otherwise unreadable face.
There was just her, and it, breathing in the darkness after Laertia had finished eating. The pair stared at one another for a long time.
"So, iz dhiz duh parrt wherr yoo kyllz mee?" The young knight asked.
The hideous, hissing thing leaned forward.
"I 'never' felt...until I looked at 'you'. No. Not today, perhaps. But if I do, it will only be because I cannot save you from the light."
"Yoo still havvint saidz whoo yooz wuz..."
"All things in time..."
A flick of the monster's wrist increased the drugs from a nearby machine into her I.V. feed. Laertia began to get drowsy.
"For your eyes only..." it whispered as the world faded. "Only for you...you see...what no one else can see...
Whoo...arr...yooz?" Laertia gasped as she got weak and leaned back in the seat.
"I am something that is afraid of you..."
"Whyy?"
Because you make me wonder if I made the right choices..."
These were the last words Laertia heard before she fell asleep...
"Enjoy your sleep. The mixture I gave you should help you rest comfortably...for a change."
Laertia backed away from the frame in horror. That memory had been erased. Somehow. She didn't want to think how.
And just what the hell was this blessing?
Laertia clutched her head a magical scrawl written on her forehead which should have triggered long ago had not the powerful Force Blessing she received in youth not slowed it, delayed it, until the sudden rush of memory could hold it back no further, nor the coming of a new blessing. An odd one.
As it did, knowledge she had not known before erupted unbound in her head. She stumbled to the floor.
Laertia! Moya exclaimed, sprinting over with a mechanical precision that gave away her artificial nature.
Laertia struggled up, shaking her head, feeling a surge through her body...
(Laertia has leveled up!)
(New Force Powers learned!)
(Blessing obtained!)
(Skill learned!)
SKILL: SHIELD FIGHTING
Imparts the skill to use shield of all sorts, including stances and counter attacks with one. Shields can be thrown depending on size, shape, and balance. For honing one's inner Cap.
POWER: MAGIC SIGHT<br>
See what no one else can see. While power is active, can see and access doorways or pathways hidden by magic that would otherwise be hidden to Force Sight alone. Can also see magical texts that would also be hidden.
POWER: MAGIC RESISTANCE
While power is active, become more resistant to the effects of magic for a short period of time. As skill increases, so can the level of magic that can be resisted.
BLESSING: RODENT BLESSING
This Force blessing came from an unknown monster that seemingly kidnapped Laertia once and erased the memory of the encounter.<br>
This blessing confers special control over rodent type creatures (Such as directing large swarms of them to attack), allowing one to remote view through and control such creatures. Consuming rodent blood is not harmful and functions as a pain suppressant and antidote to mild disease and poison. Rodent flesh now provides five times the sustainance of regular food. The five senses are increased in the presence of rodents.<br>
"Laertia? Moya called out gently.
"It wuz hur..." Laertia gasped, overwhelmed by the sudden info dump.
"Duh Amalgam...sheez dhat ting inn duh pikchur ovuh dhere..." Laertia got out, clearly disturbed but glad Bella was here as well. "Shee...shee kyddnappedz mee aftuh I wuz knyghtedz. Didd dhis too mee..."
"What did she do?" Moya asked, clearly horrified at just how long The Amalgam had been stalking her. Uri herself had given some details.
"Shee wrotez sumthin onn myy hed wen I wuz yung. I gotz foyce powuhz noww dhat I don'tz ruhmemmbuh lernin. Annd a blessin'. Lyke Duh Watuh Speerit but weirdz..."
"Are they dark sided?"
"Nott shurr. Don'tz seemz tuh need anguh orr hayte..."
"That makes no sense..." Moya frowned..."Why would a dark side witch use imprinting magic on you and not try and give you something Dark Side related?"
"Duh freek called hurrself myy muthur..."
Moya raised an eye brow.
"In duh memoree...shee called hurrself myy muthur-inn-duh-dahrk..." Laertia said, flinching as she recalled the hideous appearance the witch had taken back then. "Annd shee sayd shee wuz afraydz ov mee."
"Who the hell is this witch?" Moya asked, now very confused. "No dark sider behaves like this..."
Moya saw more insight into the Amalgam's psyche, and it was not at all pleasant.
"My creator had to have known this would happen to you, just as she knew Bella would be her. Maybe it serves Moya's purpose to have you know whatever that fiend gave you as much as it serves the Amalgam's..."
"Whyy wud shee tink sheez myy muthur?" Laertia wondered.
"It implies possessiveness...and outright familiarity..." Moya trailed. "Did she know things about you?"
"Shee kneww tings aboutz mee no wun ellse didd att duh tyme..." Laertia answered, not going into detail on what, exactly, the Amalgam had known, as well as whatever Laertia had told the then-unknown monster in a fit of ambivalence.
"Well...I still think we should head to the Medical Wing..." Moya spoke...
Laertia blinked, deciding to test one of the new abilities. She focused hard, not noticing any need to connect to the dark side.
Her cybernetic eye did not register the change, but her real one did. She saw a glowing green scrawl on one end of the room in the shape of a door. She walked up to it, knowing with deep certainty Moya De Lifte planned this, planned all of it.
Laertia reached out...hesitantly...and touched the scrawl...
The stone wall seemed to split open at her touch, revealing an item that had been shielded by the magic, encased in a small metal safe that slid open once Laertia easily overwhelmed its circuitry, retrieving the crystal and other item within...
So Moya had not intended she leave this room empty handed after all...
Wrist weapon seemingly tailor made to be integrated into Laertia's spiked jacket, slotting neatly into its wrist mounts with wide variety of ammunition types.
"You can see magical wards and barriers?" Moya asked. "Why would The Amalgam impart such a thing? It doesn't help her at all."
Laertia did not voice the slowly growing suspicion that whatever that monster had done, it had been intended, in its own twisted way, as a sort of 'Birthday Gift'. It said far too much about precisely 'how' the Amalgam was messed up that this sent another shiver through Laertia.
But how messed up was Laertia if she had been willing to tell it so much back then, even without the drugs?
"Letz hed tuh Medykall..." Laertia grunted growing more disturbed as she went for the door, though not before clipping the new wrist launcher she had found to her jacket sleeve, noting how it clipped perfectly to the mounts, as well as the other strange crystal she had obtained. But why had Moya not bothered to mention them?
Meanwhile...
"Headmistress?"
The Amalgam broke out of her meditation in a cold sweat, her memory having been triggered at the same time Laertia's had.
A lot of things clicked into place for her in regards to her reactions to Laertia, in particular why she was so entertaining the idea of Laertia being a daughter like Uri (Though Uri was the daughter the Amalgam ultimately favored)...because she had entertained it before.
She didn't always 'remember' things when emerging from her own...slumber...she must have put that blessing on Laertia to make herself subconsciously hesitate while her memory caught up, just as she had with Uri.
A twisted, possessive affection that had shown traces of itself in prior encounters began to grow a little in the Amalgam. She was overjoyed. Laertia really WAS part of the plan! Rather than just the Amalgam making her part of it on whim! What a relief!
The insane monster rose with a feline grace turning to the soldier whose face was wrapped in red bandages, hands clinging to the lapels of his duster.
"Yes?"
"We've lost twenty three so far, but we still maintain close to full operational strength in the area surrounding the vault. Round the clock efforts are being undertaken to breach the electronic security but our software seems to be repelled by something we can't explain.
"Alchemized circuitry. Don't bother. You'll just burn batteries. Are you preparing another ambush?"
"Of course. We have the three of them on IR sensors. They are heading to the Medical Wing, as you predicted."
"Hmmm...get your men ready. Lets see how much my daughter remembers..."
The soldier nodded, not blinking at the implication they were fighting someone who was close enough to the headmaster to be considered such. He marched off to carry out her orders...
(Take us to the medical wing in the next post if you want, Bella)
