In the shadows the darkness plays

[Kenrath]

He turned and look at Lucia standing there............his eyes bore into hers. The air around him began to crackle with energy. His hands spread out to his sides as more and more energy started to crackle around him. His body slowly levitated an inch or two above Gorda's head. Vengeance's eyes began to glow first yellowing, then turning orange, before starting to glow into shades of red. All around him in a complete circle bolts of lightening seemed to come out of nowhere. Coming down from the ceiling, shooting up from the ground, and one or two seeming to radiate out from both of his hands. A storm that threatened to consume everything around him. Electrocuting anyone caught in it''s path.


The entire time his gaze.............his piercing gaze never wavered from hers. It was as if he was daring her to challenge him, to make good on her threats. To try her luck against a man literally killing every last being in the room. The storm would last for only a minute or two before it subsided and he was once again standing on Gorda's head. His eyes still alight in a sea of red, darkness emanating from him he slowly walked down Gorda's corpse towards Lucia. He moved methodically until he was a only a few feet away from her.

His eyes remained locked on hers not saying a word. If there was ever a moment for her to sign her own death warrant now would be it. He had shown her mercy but it could quickly change. What she failed to realize lost in her hatred from him was that if he wanted her sold into slavery he would have simply just kept her for himself.


[member="Lucia Nox"]

 

[Lucia Nox]

Lucia could do nothing but watch as Marcus' eyes smoldered from yellow to red. Lightning shot out of his palms, and soon it poured out from the ceiling and the floor, too, converging on the den and killing every remaining sentient lifeform in one fell swoop. Some of the bodies still convulsed with the shock of electricity, but soon they all fell silent and still. The storm disappeared back inside Marcus' hands, but his eyes still burned red as he moved like the basest of predators down Gorda's long, sluggish corpse. He was coming for Lucia.

"You monster," Lucia breathed, voice barely above a whisper. She disengaged her lightsaber and threw it down, rising from the ground like some sort of fallen angel in the hellscape. She was no longer afraid of Marcus, and that's what scared her the most. In some horrible, thrilling, excruciating way, she was starting to understand that a small piece of him was apart of her now--he had crawled inside the shadowiest, most taboo and raw depths of her soul and lit it on fire. It both repulsed and emboldened her, and for a moment, she no longer cared whether she lived or died.

Lucia walked directly toward Marcus as he advanced on her now, meeting him in the middle of the carnage and drawing herself so close to him that only a scant few inches separated her heavy breathing from his. She tilted back her golden head and looked up at him from beneath his chin with those clear blue eyes--they were not red like his own, but they burned just the same. "Why?" She asked, voice pushing past the swell of her lips in a low growl. Blood still stained her chin and mouth, vampish against the white of her skin--from that close, he'd be able to smell it on her. "Did you bring me here for slaughter? For sport?" She paused, never once breaking that burning gaze even as her voice fell to a murmur. "What more do you want?"

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

Marcus looked at her..............well through her was more accurate as she spoke. He reached up his hand running his thumb brushing through the blood on her mouth and chin going across her cheek. At the last second roughly yanking a hand full of her hair. He voice practically a growl.

"I already told you.........to show you the truth............the truth about the Galaxy you live in. To open you eyes to the ways things actually are."

His eyes traced down her form as if to say in that moment her eyes were not the only thing he wanted to see opened. Finally letting go of her air he reached out pulling the holodisks from off the ground to his hand. He looked them over taking a half step back. All but one of them was still intact. Not knowing for sure what was on them he shrugged not really caring about the damaged one.

"Once you see what is on the disks you will understand. You may still not like it but you will at least understand."

He glanced around the room before looking back at her.

"There should be a terminal in the next room to view these on. With any luck there may be some other stuff to shed a light on."

[member="Lucia Nox"]

 

[Lucia Nox]

When Marcus brushed his roughened thumb against the full bud of her lips, smearing the blood artfully across the curve of her cheek, Lucia swore she felt electricity course hot within her veins. It made her skin crawl and filled her belly with some sort of deep-seated, molten emotion that she did not, and could not yet, understand. Adrenaline rose and fell heavily within her chest, and she realized that she was still trembling.

All at once, Marcus reached out a masterful hand and grabbed a fistful of her blonde hair, yanking her head back and drawing her closer to him in an instant. It was so like him, Lucia was beginning to realize, to be both tender and grotesquely violent within the span of seconds. From where he held her curls captive in his grasp, tilting her chin up toward him, she saw him for what he was: a volatile man one breath away from destruction or greatness. It was terrible and intoxicating.

"I already told you," He was growling now, and she could feel his voice as it rumbled low beneath his chest, pressed firmly against hers. "To show you the truth . . . the truth about the galaxy you live in. To open your eyes to the way things actually are."

He looked at her like a hungry wolf as he spoke, but Lucia had shed her sheep-skin long ago. She returned his devouring gaze with proud, defiant eyes--sharp, feline, and brilliantly blue--the eyes of a would-be queen, never a wilting flower at his feet. "Show me," She breathed as he released her at last. "Show me everything. I want to know."

Lucia would move to begin following him into the terminal, but not before giving one last look to the dead men whose mangled bodies littered the den. Men who had been alive not minutes before, drinking, singing, arguing, making bets. Horrible men, but nonetheless men who had lives that Marcus had stolen. And for what? Something inside Lucia lurched, and for a moment, she faltered. She desperately wanted the truth, and there was no going back now. Without further thought or hesitation, she called her lightsaber back into her palm, stepped over a corpse, and plunged forward with him into the night.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He smirked as he made his way through the trail of bodies through the next room.............the room with most of the cages. Luckily most of them were in a row. Flipping his saber he angled the blade raking it across the locks as he walked past them. He never said a word or even looked in their direction. After the last cage he deactivated it and tucked it away.

In the next room was the terminal he was looking for. He turned and looked at Lucia.

"Have you ever stopped to wonder how groups like these seem to prosper and flourish? Even in places like this the crown jewel of the Core...........the capital of the Republic for thousands of years?"

He didn't wait for her to respond. He simply took the first recording and placed it in the terminal. Pushing play he took a step back so she could see the recording. This one appeared to be a gang leader talking to a finely dressed man. They were discussing the bribes paid to the finely dressed man to look the other way. It was not clear which Senator but that the man worked for a senator.

He glanced at Lucia before switching out the current recording for a new one which including different people but followed the same format as the previous one.

[member="Lucia Nox"]

 

[Lucia Nox]

"They rule through violence and fear--not unlike you," Lucia remarked, raising an eyebrow and shooting Marcus a pointed look. The little blonde had a mouth. No sooner than she looked at him, however, her gaze appeared to pass directly through him, clear blue eyes seeming to gaze at something far away and unseen. "I know because I lived it," Lucia said quietly, more to herself than to Marcus. She knew he didn't care. "This is where I grew up."

Static and fuzz sputtered from the holo, and Lucia snapped to attention. She watched as the scene faded into view, and for a moment, she couldn't believe her eyes--couldn't believe her ears. The projection of the little blue figures was faded from time, but the story it told was clear: here was a galactic politician accepting bribes from the men who ruled the streets where she had lived in fear as a child. Lucia shook her blonde head, lips parting fractionally. "No," She murmured, furrowing her brows. "It's not true. It can't be."

All at once, Lucia snapped those fierce blue eyes back to Marcus. "Show me another," She demanded, the low, quiet purr of intermingled anger and denial--at odds with one another--rising in her throat. "Show me now."

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He looked at her.

"Calm yourself Jedi................."

He pulled that pad out and inserted a new one. It showed a public address condemning the actions of criminals. That was not the fascinating part about the recording. Directing behind the speaker was one of the Senator's aides from the previous video. Beside that man was a Jedi pure as day. Each showing support to the speaker. Marcus seemed unmoved by the sight. He let the recording continue until the end. He hesitated before playing the last recording in the batch.

"Corruption is everywhere child. From the halls of the Republic Senate to the corridors of the Jedi Temple. Your Masters knew what was happening and what was going on. Yet they did nothing to stop it..........but let it happen and then condemn Sith like me for those deeds."

Marcus paused pulling out a personal data pad of his own. And sliding it in the terminal.

"Don't be confused I am not taking the moral high ground here. I have done plenty of despicable things in my time."

Hitting play a news report popped up showing a guy who looked exactly like him committing whole sale slaughter of the inhabitants of a three square block radius before snatching a young woman up into his arms a leaving.

"A Jedi Padawan and Princess. Yes she is alive and yes she is back with her family. However I guarantee you she will never forget the time we spent together."


[member="Lucia Nox"]

 

[Lucia Nox]

"You're a liar," Lucia growled, stepping closer to Marcus. "A liar." Lucia wanted to pounce and show him exactly how wrong he was, or at the very least, to wave away his words as if they were so much smoke dissipating into thin air--all cruel magic and jaunty mirrors--but the images on the holo were starkly real. The truth rang out into the night as clear as a bell, and it tolled heavily in Lucia's heart with hideous clarity. " . . . I don't want it to be true," She murmured, sharp blue eyes melting into temporary softness, and in that moment Marcus would know that he had won.

"How long have you known?" Lucia asked, but Marcus was already inserting another data pad into the terminal. She watched as a new--but familiar--image sprang to life. The hologram of a dark, masterful figure rained death from the sky, obliterating what Lucia recognized to be civilians, just before sweeping a woman up and away into his arms. Lucia listened to Marcus' words as she watched the nightmare unfold, horrified and entranced, the layered implications of his words slowly, steadily creeping up and under her skin. "What is this?" Lucia breathed, furrowing her brows and snapping her blonde head around, blue eyes narrowing as beauty looked upon the beast. Disgust, exhilaration, and fear were melting into the pit of her belly now, burning heavy and hot, and Lucia suddenly felt quite vulnerable. It made her angry. "You're sick," Lucia murmured, standing her ground before him with those piercing blue eyes, even as the full, lower swell of her lips began to tremble. "Are you proud?"

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He shook his head.

"Nobody does anything for pride. I show you this not to impress you child. But to show you the truth I promised you. Not just the truth I want to but the whole truth."

He pulled the data pad from the terminal.

"I could have only shown you the crimes of the Jedi and there Republic but it would not have been the whole truth."

He turned towards her. He crossed his arms leaning against the terminal. He looked at her for a moment letting her process her new outlook on the Galaxy.

"I have known for a very long time. Many unspeakable acts have been committed in the name of the Republic and the Jedi. From A Republic Supreme Chancellor who murders her own people..........rumors are she was also a Jedi, a Republic Supreme Commander who murdered innocent Mandalorain women and children, and even a Silver Jedi accused of murdering an entire cities worth of inhabitants."

He sighed.

"All you have to do is browse the holonet...............specifically the section involving Bounties. Then you will see those crimes your Masters have tried so hard to hide. Feth I even have a price on my head.........from those very same Masters who allowed or activity participated in the same types of activities."

[member="Lucia Nox"]

 

[Lucia Nox]

Something in the atmosphere changed as Marcus spoke. His voice had shed the cruel, vengeful arrogance that Lucia had come to associate with his tongue, adopting a tone that was wholly novel for what she perceived to be his natural predatory character: it was calm, wise, and inexorably sincere. He spoke with such solemn transparency that Lucia felt her guard begin to lower and then half-crumble, cooling the fire within her belly and bringing something akin to steady acceptance deep into the blue of her eyes.

"I want to know more," Lucia murmured after a moment, venturing toward him like a willing angel into hell. The line between Jedi and Sith was beginning to blur to her now, and with every slow, steady step forward, she walked a thinner line. "Will you show me more?" She asked, nearly closing the space between them, only stopping to look up at him from beneath his chin with clear blue eyes. Slowly, steadily--and for the first time all night--the tug of a small smile pulled at the dimple of her cheek. "I'll keep it a secret," She whispered to him, blonde curls moving gently as she shook her head. "I won't tell them. They'll never know."

All Lucia knew now was that she wanted the truth. Marcus had it.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

Marcus looked down at her and smirked.

"What makes you think you are worthy of what I have to show you."

His hands moved up one on each side of her face. He didn't touch though they simply floated back and down passing over her shoulders. They passed down her arms and slightly forward finally making contact on her hips.

"Secrets are death child. They will eat at you until you are nothing more than a shadow of your former self."

He leaned in and down to whisper in her ear.

"You lack the self control to comprehend much less understand and control what I could show you. Go home child. Go home and meditate on the swirling emotion clouding you mind. Then when you are ready to not just know the darkness but touch it. Then come find me."

He paused there for a moment before he slid by and past her towards the door. In a flash he would be gone leaving her there all alone to not only find her way out but to process the Galaxy in a new light.

[member="Lucia Nox"]