Languid Elagabalus of the Tombs [Evelynn]

[Darth Carnifex]

The shadows receded back into the Emperor, and the room regained some semblance of normalcy.

Morrow remained suspended above the ground, her strength sapped and subdued.

Carnifex took several steps towards her, reaching up to grasp her face by the chin to look into her face. Then he let his hand fall, turning his back towards her to now stare at his daughter; gripped by madness. "This farce has gone on long enough, I shall suffer no more distractions." Evelynn would find herself shoved against the table, her limbs pulled in all directions as the magnetic cuffs activated and restrained her against the cold cruel metal. The table elevated and tiled down until Evelynn was nearly parallel with the Emperor, who had approached and was now manipulating the various tubes that surrounded the chamber. All of them were tipped with sharp needles, each one digging into Evelynn's flesh and burrowing deep.

Soon enough over two dozen tubes had been inserted into Evelynn's body, many around the spine and the base of her neck. Her chest had been laid bare, a metallic apparatus descending from the ceiling armed with many sharp appendances. Those instruments now dug into Evelynn's flesh, cutting through skin and muscle while nimble digits peeled back each exposed layer down to the ribcage. A circular saw cut away the bone, another appendage prying it free to expose Evelynn's still-beating heart. Another limb came down to cut away the organ from the body, lifting it up as another came to replace it. This arm held a crystal outfitted with intensive cybernetics, which was then placed inside Evelynn's chest and reconnected to her circulatory system.

While the chest was being stitched back together, rib cage welded back together and layers of flesh placed gently back, another series of appendages descended down next to Evelynn's head. Another circular saw began to cut away at Evelynn's scalp and cranium, precise enough to stop before cutting into the brain matter, while another fingered appendage removed the now disconnected skull cap and scalp. Evelynn's living brain was revealed, to which another appendage descended and began to deliver a series of electric shocks to certain portions of the brain.

Evelynn's previous brain patterns had been uploaded to a large central computer, all of her inadequacies laid bare as data and sterile code. Now that same computer was working to reprogram Evelynn's brain and eliminate those traits that the Emperor found unbecoming. When that was completed, Evelynn's head was returned to its original form as a laser re-knitted flesh and bone around the circumference of her head. It was at that point that the green liquid, previously stored in large tanks around the room, began to flow through the various IVs imbedded into Evelynn's body. The Emperor reached out with the Dark Side, reaching into Evelynn's soul and stripping away its mortality piece by piece.

"Give into the Dark Side, Evelynn. Open yourself fully! Be reborn again!"

[member="Darth Morrow"] | [member="Evelynn"]​

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Chaos.

It devoured the sanctum, offering naught but pandemonium towards split souls and fractured minds alike. While prideful possessions were thwarted, emeralds stared at the sword left upon the ground. Wouldn't it just be so easy. Spill a little more crimson. The broken finger thrummed alongside an ever-growing pulse. Such a sweet rush. There was nothing purer. This was why she had been born.

Amusement gleamed within the girl's eyes as she observed the Sith Lady defeated and broken, a mere fly caught in the spider's web. Nothing but suffering and vulnerability. Oh how it must have felt. But wait, she already knew what that was like.

I've been you.

A blanket of pity smothered pain-fuelled delirium slowly but surely, her own madness seeming to be quelled in the defeat of another's. The mania drained, sharp features softening as she observed her Father's helpless apprentice before her. The throb of her finger no longer a source of ecstasy but instead distressing reminder of her own failures.

Time for consideration and contemplation was now up as suddenly her limbs were drawn to her alter, the purpose of her restraints finally made clear.

They were here for a reason.

Dread returned, howling to the forefront of Evelynn's mind as there would be no further disturbance to stall the grim task at hand. The unknown loomed before her now in the shape of the patriarch.

Needles.

Pain.

Not a pain that fed desires but a pain that hurt the mere girl suspended before them. She yelped, and fruitlessly struggled against her bonds as every single needle pierced the flesh. Thoughts racing, mind swirling. A vortex of fear. A part of her core taking deep pleasure but the rest of her resisting but remaining hidden once more. What were the tubes for? What was he doing to her? This process alone seemed endless.

It hurts.

Then it came. A hideous machination descending from the ceiling, its prime objective laid before before her terrified eyes. It was made to cut, but cut what? What part in repairing her mind involved the rending of her flesh.

“F-father? What? I-I don- wait, please,” came suddenly her protests that only grew more insistent as the apparatus came ever closer, “wha-what is this? W-what are you doing to me?! Please! NO! FATHER!”

A terrible scream erupted from the clone as the first methodical slice was made into her exposed chest as all she could do was watch. Her attempts to break free from the restraints were utter futility, her limbs taut with exertion as she struggled without managing to move a single inch, held in place as she was mutilated in such clinical fashion.

The moment that Evelynn Zambrano laid eyes upon her own heart plucked from her chest gave way to terrible new dread. Her screech harrowing, speaking of more than just physical agony but of absolute horror.

She had submitted to him and in turn he was transforming her into a monster.

It was too much. By the time the saw kissed her scalp she had become completely overwhelmed, nothing but animalistic howls leaving her juddering maw as the Emperor's daughter was dismantled before them. Wild eyes darted everywhere and anywhere as her chest was reassembled and repaired, the horrendous sound and pressure of the circular saw another voice in the bedlam of her mind.

Then it changed.

Rampantly crowded thoughts were thinned out, one-by-one. At first not noticeable as agony consumed her body and terror stood at the forefront of everything. The smallest notions in the very depths began to disintegrate.

A timid and weak nature

A lack of impulse.

A need to please others.

An absence of loyalty.

A deprivation of pride.

As the process continued more and more of what made her who she was vanished into the ether, never to be felt or considered by her again.

A want for self-destruction.

A slave to desires.

A hope for a peaceful future.

A sense of fear.

It seemed that everything changed in a single moment as her terror evaporated in the face of all logic. Her face softening as ragged and raw breaths still came forth, struggles dying down to a whisper as limbs still twitched in response to the physical trauma.

The final part of the process began as her body greeted the oncoming tide of bubbling green liquid. Pain had shifted now, returning once more to the side of pleasure but this time it was different. Before she had been lead by suffering, her one true Master that had been taking her to an early second demise, but now, now it was subdued, controlled. Oh, she still relished it much like the embrace of a lover but it sat before her, conquered by a newfound will never seen before in her entire existence.

His commands boomed, graciously accepted in kind as Evelynn shut her eyes, and submitted fully to the Dark Side. What was left of her now flowed freely, running rampant throughout body and soul as her Emperor willed. Anger. Hatred. Aggression. Passion. That which remained. Frailties shed. Humanity spurned. Mortality discarded. All that was left of her being handpicked by her Father, her Emperor, her one true Master.

This was who Evelynn Zambrano was meant to be.

And so it was done.

Her bonds were released and stood before them was an entirely different being, volumes spoken by the expression locked upon her face as she sought to catch her breath. Pain was now a constant, existing in every corner of her being, granting a sense of tempered masochistic pleasure and causing a wry smile to tempt the edges of her lips. A dark gaze filled with focus and purpose as it looked first to her discarded heart upon a small table.

Hesitation gone as she approached the organ, once the core of a creature now gone. Plucking it with little care, Evelynn tore into the heart with a newfound viciousness, not an ounce of thought given to a broken finger. Fingernails digging, hands pulling and mangling what once sat instead of her chest and represented so much weakness. Hands stained now with her own crimson the Emperor's Daughter discarded the organ upon the floor with little care before attentions turned to her Emperor.

“I am free.”

-

[member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Darth Morrow"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

A smile finally graced the Emperor's visage, the Dark Side swelling between father and daughter.

"At last, you are completed."

From a broken child, to a defect, and now she had at last grasped the destiny he had forseen. But the jubilation between Zambranos was short-lived, as the Emperor now returned his gaze to the woman bound in energy at his back. Turning slow, the Emperor manipulated the energy webbing to release Morrow and let her fall straight down to the ground. She was now at his feet, crumbled and suffering from the pain inflicted on her during their brief scuffle.

"And you, my treacherous apprentice, have a great of explaining to do."

Oh, how the tables had turned for Morrow. Once she had held the power over Evelynn, but now it was Evelynn who towered over her. Through the Emperor's machinations, Evelynn was freed of her crippling defects and was free to pursue her father's will without hindrance.

"Let us start with where you acquired such a pernicious phantom."

[member="Darth Morrow"] | [member="Evelynn"]​

 

[Darth Morrow]

The woman hung there, still, silent. The feeling of being severed from the force one she hadn't ever truly felt, yet had done to many others. Her strength had withered, all pulled to the webbing as her larger form was held by nothing more than what seemed like strings. Without the capabilities of her healing she felt blood slowly pooling in her insides from the several hits against metal walls. The only thing she truly felt was humiliation and pain in that moment.

Released like a toy from a now bored kath hounds mouth the woman fell to the floor with a thud, her powers not returning soon enough for her to even think of catching her. Hands barely pushed her torso up as she glanced to her master staring down at her broken form through a wild mess of white hair. Pale eyes glanced over the two before her as she struggled in the moment to even hold her upper body a foot from the floor.

"I visited her tomb on Lah'mu... The notes from Imperia's former master gleaned on a source of power somewhere in the mountains..."

A bit of blood dripped from Morrows black lips, her insides now ruin in the light of her so recent beating. Bruises had formed around the waist of her new outfit now torn to bits like the last, dark colored pooling around her stomach and waist.

"I didn't expect to find anything there but... I found the tomb still inhabited..." The woman trailed off, glancing to Evelynn for a moment before her arms buckled ever so slightly.

[member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Evelynn"]

 

[Beatrice Govan]

A lingering moment was spent as the girl considered the mangled heart in her hands, now caked in the blood of symbolism. Memories still remained, only perspective having shifted as she looked down at the organ. A scoff, disgust visible in a snarl as she considered the deceased dream of wishing to be spirited away to a peaceful existence, the very notion giving her cause to drop her former-heart and grind it beneath her boot.

Pathetic.

Her foot trailed blood across the floor as she walked towards the downed form of her Father's Apprentice. Emerald eyes studying the broken woman with clinical consideration, a silent smirk within her mind but with nothing appearing to say otherwise.

There was a temptation within Evelynn to plant her foot upon the Sith Lady's back so that she could have ground the woman into the floor. A small measure of payback for how their first encounter had gone. The temptation, however was swiftly shoved aside in the face of a smarter kind of thinking, not based upon ridiculous impulse alone. The clone may have been reforged into something much greater, but she had yet to be fully tempered, still an Acolyte in terms of ability and power and Morrow, while vulnerable then was still a force to be reckoned with.

Perhaps one day. Yes.

A slick smile came to her face alongside her thoughts as tales of tombs and spirits came to light, their eyes meeting for a fleeting moment. At the very least her temporary superiority could be savoured.

“And then you were inhabited,” Evelynn added with little hesitation, the death of her meek nature enabling her to do so with confidence, “how unfortunate.”

[member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Darth Morrow"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Unfortunate, indeed."

The Emperor now fully understood.

His apprentice had dabbled in ancient tombs and paid the price for her meddling, becoming the puppet of an ancient specter and forced into doing unthinkably heinous acts. Though she had risen a hand against him earlier, he knew that it was an action not taken of her own volition. She had been coerced by a petulant spirit into taking arms against him, her will entirely subdued while the ghost took full control. So, instead of the Emperor meting out what justice might be appropriate for someone who attempted to harm the Emperor of the Sith Empire, he instead decided that such justice had already been dispensed by the exorcism of the spirit from Morrow's being.

"You will learn how to resist such intrusions, apprentice. I have teachings that would benefit you greatly, but know that should this same scenario happen again... I will not be so merciful." The Emperor meant every word, his voice laced with cruel finality that brokered no argument as to whether or not he intended to keep his promise. "Now we must return to the surface, Evelynn will help you to your feet if you lack the strength to stand."

[member="Evelynn"] | [member="Darth Morrow"]​

 

[Darth Morrow]

"You humble me... by sparing my life, My Lord..." The woman pushed herself to stand, arms shaking as she managed to land her footing and pull herself up. Her powers slowly returning to her and the discoloration of her center beginning to fade ever so slight, though her head still felt like it had been crushed under a ton of rocks. Eyes blinking a few times she spared a glare to Evelynn as her father turned his back.

"Unfortunate trying to save your broken mind was part of the reason this happened..." The comment was cut off as Morrow subserviently began to follow the Emperor back to the lifts, her sword launching itself to her back as she passed it in some sort of bond it shared with her being.

"I truly cannot express the guilt I feel My Lord, the spirit has been tame for near a decade now... I never would have intended this to happen. You know I have always served you faithfully and would never betray your rule..." The color slowly began to return to her sheet white eyes, the sclera itself beginning to change in hue back to volcanic orange, though it would take some time.

With what little dignity the woman had left she did best to cover any tears of her robe as she trailed behind, her form not a secret to some in the room, though to others she'd rather remain a mystery. Though as Evelynn followed she would note the tear in the back of the woman's robe revealing a symbol similar to the one across her fathers forehead, though instead across Morrows entire back in black; a stark contrast to her porcelain white skin.

"I deserve some punishment, if not to truly punish me than to show my forgiveness of sorts and acknowledge I have done you wrong, even if not purposefully. I am no match for your power, though surely lashing out is a usually unforgivable crime..."

[member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Evelynn"]

 

[Beatrice Govan]

On the surface a charitable smile was offered to the Sith Lady, an expression more than happy to help the woman back to her feet, of course, beneath it dripped with malice, daring the weakened creature to strip her pride and accept her aid in standing.

Naturally such a thing was rejected as Morrow decided to stand on her own volition, offering Evelynn's own former-failings as an excuse for her own poorly attempted treason. A pity. It gave cause for the clone to bite her tongue, as devolving into petty squabbles in front of her Father was not how the girl was planning upon playing this came.

Perhaps were you more capable it would not have happened at all, was what she thought.

“Ah, then we can rest assured knowing that my broken mind has been mended so you will not be having this issue again,” was what she said, voice thick with pleasantry and that generous smile unmoving as her thoughts pointed to the contrary.

Grovelling then ensued, the Emperor's daughter being forced to live vicariously through her father as she spewed forth wretched platitudes. The woman was just one step away from getting down upon her knees and kissing his feet. As the word punishment was offered, a great deal of malicious ideas formed within the clone's mind, some humiliating and some more torturous in design, these notions would keep her fed until she found her own miserable wretch to beg at her own feet.

Then, an idea.

“If I may be so bold, Father,” Evelynn began rather helpfully as they continued their journey back to the surface, “I do still require adequate training, my past failures have left me terribly inept. Perhaps Lady Morrow can atone for her sins by guiding me in the ways of the Sith.”

Voice constructive.

Mind venomous.

-

[member="Darth Morrow"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The trio ascended onto the lift, the mechanical courier lifting up into the air and returning them back the way they had come. He stood in silence as Morrow groveled, admonishing herself for the transactions of her body against his divine presence, while Evelynn reveled in her newfound confidence and control. It was amusing, to say the least, the sharp change in the dynamic between them was virtually night and day. Evelynn stood triumphant where before she had been lorded over by Morrow, and Morrow was the one now begging for a reprieve from the Lord of All.

"An interesting suggestion, my daughter. Perhaps in time you will benefit from Morrow's tutelage, but for now I would prefer you heed my teachings as you adjust to your renewed existence."

From here on out, it would be the Emperor's word that would shape and mold Evelynn into something that could be considered a Sith. Not his brother, not his apprentice, no one else. She was his daughter, spawned from the generosity of his loins, and begat by a sorcerer of exceptional potency. She had that potential lurking inside her, but she would never be allowed to reach that power if she was constantly being beaten into nothing more than some meek pet.

"And as for you, my apprentice, there will come a time where you will submit to the power of my judgment and suffer penance for your transgressions, but for now I grow weary of your presence in mine own. When we return to the surface, you will depart and return to your duties. I will call upon you when I am suitably ready, and not a moment before. Do I make myself clear?"

[member="Darth Morrow"] | [member="Evelynn"]​

 

[Darth Morrow]

The woman silenced her groveling as the man began to speak, her eyes now returning to the same volcanic tone as they once were. The darkened patches now fully faded from her pasty white skin and she listened to his command in quiet. Looking up to the man before her she felt her pride withering in her chest.

Meanwhile the violent thoughts of his daughter crept into her own mind unwelcome, the cruelty she sought to inflict seeping into the air for the mind reader to hear without any intention of doing so. Eventually they began to taunt her own mind and drowned out her own thoughts ever so slightly before she spoke up.

"You are very clear, My Lord." Biting her lip for a moment a darkened eye would peer over Evelynn, the reverb of her ungratefulness now coming to bite her in the butt.

"If I might be so bold, my Lord. I would like to suggest you teach your daughter to suppress her own thoughts of malice; they are loud enough to fill the space that I can hear them without trying, and perhaps teach her respect for her betters. So wonderful when someone damns themselves to help another and the acolyte would be ungrateful and even spiteful of the two there to only help her growth." She glanced to Evelynn. "My power may not be at full potential at the moment, though you should still have some respect. Hide away those violent thoughts against your own father too. They will do you no good."

Darkened lips pulled into a thin line as the lift came to a pause, the woman stepping off and then bowing to her master slightly. "I apologize again my Lord. Do look over your troublesome girl, her thoughts are filled with your demise."

After her bow she began to walk to the door.

[member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Evelynn"]

 

[Beatrice Govan]

“Of course, Father. I am humbled that you would offer me your precious time, I have foolishly wasted so much of it already.”

A small pity really, the very idea of forcing Darth Morrow into the position of her teacher was a delicious morsel for mind's eye to devour, if not an altogether petty morsel at that. At least the both of them would have this brief moment in time to savour, one perhaps more than the other.

In a sense of practicality, there was no better to learn from. One did not rise to the greatest height of Emperor by being second best. In both ruthless efficiency and need to further herself was he not the only acceptable teacher? Accept no substitutes. Brow furrowed for a moment as she caught her own mind's arrogance in action. No, there would be others to learn from, specialists in their craft. That would all come later.

Of course, any and all future planning ground to a halt as the defeated Sith Lady chose to speak. Chose to speak out against her.

Features grew still, a small tilt of the head for curiosity's sake as the wretch revealed her rampant voyeurism. Spilling the contents of Evelynn's own thoughts and weaving them amongst treacherous lies that only sought to harm her, if not lead to a second demise.

How long had she been peering inwards, prying at her soul? Since their first encounter? The merest curl at the corner of her lip was exchanged in their glance. I shall remember this. However beyond that thought nothing more was said until the Sith Lady had parted ways from father and daughter, and in the instant that the door shut behind her came a curl of the lip, and a twitch of the nose. A quiet snarl in Darth Morrow's wake.

“You know that is untrue, Father,” came her quiet unwavering tone as she continued to stare at the door, her words nothing but a deadly shade of serious in the face of such a devious lie.

“I have submitted all that I am to you and I have been reborn to your exact specifications,” came that same grim voice, her head turning and neck craning upwards to look the Emperor directly in the eyes with the utmost severity, “if you hold even a shadow of a doubt towards my loyalty to you then you may strike me down here and now."

-

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Emperor watched as Morrow departed, the large doors that served as the entryway to the throne room shutting behind her as her form faded from view. Father and daughter were left alone, alone save for the silent Crownguard who seemed to always be present in the periphery of Evelynn's vision; always watching and waiting.

"The veracity of her statements are irrelevant."

Carnifex looked down at his daughter, truly drinking in all that he had wrought upon her being. She was now truly as he had envisioned her, a perfect instrument that could be used by deft hands such as his own. Gone is the meek worm who he tormented relentlessly in his impulsive youth, now there stood a woman who was finally grasping the potential that lurked within her cells. Someone who was on the cusp of being worthy enough to carry the mantle of his name.

Gone was Dorn.

All that remained was Zambrano.

"You witnessed it yourself, daughter. Even if you did harbor dark plots against me, they would amount to little. All that would be forfeit would be your own life." He placed a large hand on her shoulder, guiding her towards one of the ancillary doors that bordered the throne room. "And now your training shall begin."

[member="Darth Morrow"] | [member="Evelynn"]​