Injustice [Velok]

[John Harrison]

John felt cold and irritated. Sitting upon a worn rock, overlooking the valley of the Dark Lords, his head resting upon his fist, he felt cheated, robbed of all that he deserved. He was destined for greater things. He could not spend the rest of his life wallowing in hatred for his sibling, for that what he could not touch, that taken by time.

Why had he loved, held above the common man, while John was forced to lie in his shadow? He grew angrier as he knew he could never touch him again, never feel the warmth as he spilled his blood. He would have laughed at the sheer prospect, had he not been alone. He knew he had some basic control over the force. That he had confirmed by crushing the possessions of his brother many years ago without touching them. They just crumpled under his rage.

The light side was no use to him. It's teachings of peace were useless and idiotic. How was he to channel his "inner peace" when he felt such passion, such emotion? Passion was the emotion that spurred progress. That he knew, as he sat, the sun setting over the horizon and the cold darkness of the night consuming him. He craved that which he could not have. The most dangerous thing for a man is the thought of what could have been. And he was consumed by it.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"To sit, to focus, to regain a truer perspective -- these are all good things."

Wheezing from the climb, a gigantic old Whiphid sat down on the rock beside John. Sweat stained his ragged Jedi robes, and damp spread out from the place where his hidden nephrostomy tube drilled into his kidney. To look at him, one would never have thought that he had torn down entire Sith regimes, or called a Force Storm to break an army on the plains of Gand.

"Seething, brooding, this is all well and good. You must understand the texture and heft of your emotions if you are to use them. But there is a time when you must come down off the mountain and commune with your figurative gods through action. What will that action be? What will you seek to accomplish? And why?"

 

[John Harrison]

@[member="Velok"]

"I seek to destroy that which I cannot." John turned to the Whiphid, and tried his best not to gawk at the odd creature. He felt an aura of power emanating from the creature, and not the sort of power that is found in most. With his teeth gritted, he tried to swallow the anger. "I was meant to kill him. Instead time claimed him." John was aware he sounded like a madman, but he didn't care.

"All I can do is destroy loves he held." he stared deep into the eyes of the Whiphid. "The Republic. The light side. Coruscant. I must burn them all. Then he will be forever screaming from whatever afterlife he rests within." Now he really sounded like a madman. "Can you help me?" he was shocked at himself. He was far too proud to ask of others. But he had nothing, and so his pride was irrelevant.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Velok whuffled in amusement. "I can do better than that. I can give you the keys to unlock his prison and bind his soul to you, to serve you forever. I can give you the means to take what he knew, if he knew anything useful, and make it your own. And, in the meantime, while you learn the necessary power, I think we can accommodate your other goals, yes.

"How smart are you, son? How bright, how patient, how willing to play the long game?"

 

[John Harrison]

@[member="Velok"]

"I am willing to wait forever." John was growing angry, the rims around his eyes growing red. "I slept for eight hundred years, the thought of his suffering trapped within my mind as I slumbered." Swallowing in an attempt to stop himself from growing tearful in his self-pity.

"I will do whatever is necessary to torture him as he tortured me. I will watch as he ever loved and cared for burns. I must." He clenched his fists to restrain his anger. "You will help me?" He stared back across the valley wherein many had lived and died.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"I will. But first, you will tell me of your enemy. And your abilities."

 

[John Harrison]

@[member="Velok"]

"My enemy is a rather obscure one, in that he's dead." John hoped that wouldn't overly complicate things. "One thousand years dead, in fact. He also happens to be my sibling, although I prefer not to think that we share common blood. I know he can see me. I know he's out there, watching from whatever hellhole he was cast into upon his death."

Raising a hand, he examined it to see if the darkness he felt was corrupting him. Such an occurrence would be a great offense to his vanity. "My abilities? It depends what kind of abilities you mean, be it my force powers, of which I know not of, my combat skills or my mental abilities, of which there are many."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"All of the above, son. Power has many facets. Explain your skills, your talents, your specialties, your weaknesses."

 

[John Harrison]

@[member="Velok"]

Holding back his overblown pride, he spoke. "I am a fine warrior, master of many weapons. I can construct grand schemes to eradicate those I deem worthy of my cleansing, and murder who I please unnoticed, be it with a sniper rifle, knife or blaster." Very happy with himself, he turned to his weaknesses, pausing slightly as he wondered if they would make him sound weak.

"I cannot use the force with any degree of control. Nor can I control my anger, when it overcomes me. I am deemed radical, and even insane by most, ergo I have few allies. I am a stranger to this modern world, a thousand years of my life spent in stasis." Deciding that was enough for now in the eventuality that the Whiphid tried to murder him, he stopped.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"Well, then, it seems we have our work cut out for us. You must gain control over your anger, and you must use that to touch the Force. There is no other way. Break that mental barrier, cross that mental bridge. And do it...now."

His gigantic three-clawed hand grabbed the man's upper arm, and, with the Force as his ally, Velok threw him down the mountainside.

 

[John Harrison]

@[member="Velok"]

Nodding as the Whiphid spoke, he was about to open his mouth as he was hurled down the steep cliff-face by the large creature, screaming in brief terror before he regained his senses. Had this been a trap? Had he been so foolish as to trust a stranger, only to have them murder him?

He could not die now. He was yet to march upon the burning remains of the Republic, to tread upon the smoldering ruins of Coruscant, and to know that he was the victor. He would live as he had for a thousand years, watching the galaxy crumble around him.

Summoning the darkness within, he channeled all of his energy upon keeping him in one piece. Picturing himself landing softly upon the dusty rocks below, he used all of his strength, all of his anger for his brother, all of his anger for the Whiphid, all of his anger for the galaxy that forgot him and used it to slam down upon the ground, a fist slamming into the sands and a storm of dust enveloping his figure.

Staring through the dust, he looked upon the Whiphid and processed his final words before he was thrown. Then he realised. This had been a test, a chance for him to display his abilities. He had a feeling he had succeeded.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="John Harrison"]
The old Whiphid began walking down the steep slope, a process that took him quite a bit of time. It was a lesson in patience; he intended to see whether Harrison would wait for him, come up to meet him, remark on his slowness or lack of visible power-

Well, he intended to see more of Harrison, anyway.

 

[John Harrison]

@[member="Velok"]

Reveling in the fact that he had not been obliterated or had his legs crushed into a bloody mess, John spent a few seconds quietly processing the past few seconds. He knew that he could be more. He could feel it. Perhaps the Whiphid had more knowledge to depart.

It was then he realised that he should probably head back to the Whiphid, lest the creature leave him for dead. Shaking off his legs before he ran, he set off in to a brisk jog. He would have sprinted was it not for how tired he felt after the fall. The force was certainly exerting.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="John Harrison"]

"A man unwilling to wait, but unwilling to sit and seethe in frustration. A man of straightforward action. This is the man you are becoming."

He paused and sat on a mountainside boulder, half-way to the floor of the Valley.

"Harrison, the Force takes its toll. There is always a price. You can attain substantial power, and the price for that power is always proportional. The law of the harvest -- you reap what you sow.

"Before I begin your full training as a Sith, I have a question for you. I could make your skills generic -- telekinesis, physical enhancement, lightsabre combat, things of that nature. Or I could make something new out of you, give you powers that nobody else has. I've travelled with the Aing-Tii, the Zeison Sha, the cults of the Unknown Regions, the Sorcerers of Rhand, the Bando Gora. If I take you down the fringe paths of the galaxy, you'll never match other Sith for the core powers, but you'll be able to gain remarkable insights. The choice is yours."

 

[John Harrison]

@[member="Velok"]

Pondering the question silently, he spoke. "What insights are these?" He was unsure of the reliability of the Whiphid's words, or even the sanity of the Whiphid himself, but he felt a strong power within the creature, a power masked thinly behind the somewhat eccentric mannerisms of the creature. "What benefits do they offer me?" John was eager to learn of what he could become.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="John Harrison"]

Velok shrugged. "The Force is infinity. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations. You can pull knowledge from the ether by instinct, or glimpse the past or the future. Consider this."

He pulled a small, locked box from his pocket and passed it to Harrison. The lock was digital, with a miniature keypad.

"Now, to rip this apart with the Force is simple enough, but one can't rip apart a database with telekinesis. Stretch out to your feelings, and see if you can sense the appropriate combination. Your fingers may move of their own accord. Knowledge by instinct. It's the key to...well, many things."

 

[John Harrison]

@[member="Velok"]

Raising an eyebrow as he looked upon the box, he passed it from hand to hand in silent confusion. He closed his eyes, for he knew of the deception they could provide. He realised the doubts in his mind were but hurdles blocking him from the force.

Searching through his feelings, he knew that within the fast plains of anger there was the combination, he just had to connect fully to the force, to accept its infinite knowledge. Drifting through the endless pathways of truth, he felt it.

Without knowing quite what he was doing, he had entered the combination, only realising the actuality of his actions as he heard the box open. "That felt... unusual."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="John Harrison"]

The box contained candied mealworms, a Whiphid delicacy. Velok devoured them with visible enjoyment.

"As well it should," said the warthog-faced Dark Lord. "You've effectively reached into nothingness and snagged ahold of something that nobody knows. The combination is randomized. I use this box to keep my instincts sharp and accessible.

"Now let's turn this skill to, say, shooting. Or slicing. Or blaster deflection. Or prophecy. Instinct is everything, and I just taught you the seeds of greatness. You now know every password in the universe.

"You see what I mean? By focusing on skills other than the core powers, all sorts of possibilities appear. Again, this is your choice. One path, or the other, or a workmanlike balance of both."

 

[John Harrison]

@[member="Velok"]

"I seek to learn a balance of the two, for then I am equipped for many a situation, yet never overbearingly so." John hoped this wouldn't be needlessly difficult for the Whiphid to teach. "But before we go any further, I pose a question. What is your name?" He needed some kind of title to refer to beyond 'master.'

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="John Harrison"]

"I've had innumerable names, son. Call me Velok."

The old Whiphid rested his elbows on his knees. "Now stretch out with your instincts, and let yourself float free from reality, or from the present. This is very hard for a trained Jedi or Sith to do, but for a raw new talent, still totipotent -- in biological terms -- well, you may well see what I'm about to see. Aing-Tii Monks call this flow-walking."

A vision opened before them, as if they stood on the edge of the ancient Valley of the Dark Lords, when the statues were being built.

"By yourself, you'll only be able to see back, oh, hours, maybe days. But this is a place of power, and I'm possibly the only Sith who can do this. I've taken you back to catch a glimpse of the height of the Sith Empire. Behold -- and know what the Dark Side can do."