Private Needing A Hand Or Two

[Alina Tremiru]

"I likely always will be. You should use your other powers that I can't to keep up." There was a playful smirk cast Darth Strosius 's way before she pulled her attention back to their surroundings. As stress relieving as the fight was, there was still the fact they were in this bone pit. Her eyes narrowed to try and make out anything of use.

Only to be interrupted by another voice.

"Interesting.. Perhaps you could be of assistance?" Alina's eyes narrowed immediately as she pointed her saber towards the source. A figure was chained to the wall. Faintly glowing red eyes looked back, watching the two acolytes. Who ever the figure was, they were naught but skin and bone. They offered a weak, fanged smile.

"I don't bite, promise."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri looked as if he was about to retort, but instead simply rolled his eyes. A small smirk did tug at his lips though. He knelt down for a moment to check one or two of the husks for anything useful, quickly finding that they had nothing but their cloaks and skin. As he pulled the cloak from one of the husks to examine it, and potentially take it for himself, a new voice spoke.

He spun around, glancing at Alina Tremiru and following her sabre to the figure chained to the wall. Huh, how did we miss that one before? Quickly, he returned to his friend's side, nudging her to get her attention before he spoke. "I have found that chained animals are often the fiercest." He muttered under his breath before turning to the captured figure.

He tucked the black cloak under his arm and took a step forward to address their 'cellmate' as it were.

"You. Who are you and why are you down here?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina nodded swiftly to Darth Strosius . She certainly kept her distance from the figure, letting her friend take the lead. The figure, though, didn't move too much. He was bound, arms and legs chained to the far wall. "I am, or was, the lord of this coven. One of my.. Associates decided that they would make a better lord. I bet you met them. His.. Punishment as been making watch my own become mindless monsters. The ones you so quickly dispatched, actually." There was a light chuckle from the figure.

"I must thank you, for putting them out of their misery."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri glanced back at the bodies that they had left piled behind them, a small wince was the only thing that he spared for the dead. Better to have them at rest than whatever they were before he and Alina Tremiru had cut them down. "I suppose I'm sorry for your loss then." He spoke, looking over the withered form of the figure once more. "So you were once the lord of that...coven up there. That means you must know your way around the building yes? So how do we get out of this strange place then?"

He idly gestured up to where he assumed the dining room was. "If you help us get out of here, then I can promise the death of all those that betrayed you. How does that sound?" The acolyte noticeably steered clear of any mention of potentially releasing the imprisoned Sangnir. After all of this so far, he didn't trust them, and he knew firsthand that anyone drunk off of a desire for revenge was too dangerous to keep around for too long.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"I care not for revenge. Only freedom. Though I imagine there's little I can do to earn such a thing from you two. No matter. If you cut them down above and kick their bodies into this pit, I will eventually be able to free myself. That is all I ask." He didn't wait for an answer before his gaze drifted from the pair of acolytes to something above that they couldn't see.

"There's a ladder there, just out of reach. You need some way to bring it down."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

A small look of surprise crossed his face at the Sangnir's words, glancing at the chains that bound him warily. Alisteri knew all to well what it was like to long for freedom. He supposed that a part of him could unserstand that, the desire for freedom over revenge. That wasn't the path he had walked to achieve his own freedom however. He had desired both freedom and revenge, and he had been robbed of that revenge.

Perhaps that had been a blessing in the end.

His gaze turned upward, holding his lightsaber up to try and search for the ladder that was above them. After a moment though, there was one question that nagged at him. "So when you are eventually free..." He spared a glance at Alina Tremiru then back at the Sangnir. "What would you do?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Rebuild. Probably leave this terrible world. The meals were easy enough to get, but not enough for this treachery." There was no reason for the being to lie, and it certainly seemed like he was telling the truth. Alina was staring at the figure suspiciously, but once the mention of the ladder was brought up she'd begun to try and look for it herself. Once she did find it, she jumped. Matukai made it easy for her to reach it. She scanned along it until she found the latch, then severed it with the saber. The lower half landed into the bone with a crunch.

"There. Just remember to toss the bodies down when you're done. Though, you'll have to cut through the floor. Good luck."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Hm. I suppose that's fair." The idea of another coven of Sangnir popping up somewhere did not sound too ideal, but he supposed that was just their way. The life of a Sith probably seemed equally destructive to an outsider, he supposed. Alisteri glanced up to see Alina Tremiru just as she dropped thw other half of the ladder, idly stepping aside even though he wasn't directly under it. Can't be too careful after all.

"Thank you for your help, I hope that you find a good place to rebuild." He paused, gripping the ladder now as he was about to begin climbing up it. "I do hope your next meals are...deserving of their fate." With a final nod to the Sangnir he began climbing up, quick to join his friend again. "So what's the plan then?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"We kill them all, then chuck their bodies down here. I bet they're still laughing. Cutting the floor open won't be too subtle, but at least we might be able to surprise them enough to get the edge." Alina climbed the ladder till she was just under the panel of the false floor. She looked back to Darth Strosius , giving a small nod. Now or never.

She brought her blade up, cutting right through the floor in a flash of light. Brighter than it should of been for cutting through durasteel, but she didn't linger on it. Soon as it was gone she was out of the hole, rushing through as fast as she could. The surprise made it easy for her to rip through three of them before one finally brought out a vibroblade to catch her saber.

"How dare you! You don't know what you've done!" The figure, a humanish female of pink skin, screeched in anger at Alina. She pressed back against the young Sith's blade, but Alina proved far stronger. She knocked the blade away then cut the woman down. The others finally brought out their weapons. Blasters and blades. There was still a fight to be had.

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Ah, a perfect plan." If there was only one thing that Alisteri had grown to appreciate, it was simple yet effecient plans. Especially when those plans involved killing their way through the problem rather than going around it. He returned the nod and gripped his sabre tightly, eager to charge out into the fray right after Alina Tremiru had. And sure enough, that was exactly what he did.

Not soon after his friend emerged and began fighting, Alisteri leapt out and almost immediately decapitated one of the surprised Sangnir. He managed to plunge his sabre through another one before the surprise had worn off and they began to fight back. He blocked a couple of shots that intended to strike him in the chest, deflecting the last one back at the shooter before rolling across the table to cut down another Sangnir that was taking a shot at his friend.

He had to admit, he was enjoying taking revenge on thse Sangnir far more than he had any right to.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina completely trusted Darth Strosius to have her back, and likewise she had his. Even though the Sangnir realized the threat and were now fighting back, they didn't stand a chance against the two acolytes. Or, at least, none of the ones around the table that had laughed before. It was when most were dead that the master finally rose from his seat. He raised his hands, one for each of the acolytes. Nothing happened at first, but Alina found herself unable to move.

Her blood froze in her veins. Literally. "Now now, you've killed so many. If you want to become Sangnir, this isn't the way to do it."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Of all the struggles and fights that Alisteri had taken part in, this was the first where felt almost comfortable. He didn't fight alongside others like he now did with Alina Tremiru . In the midst of battle he was rarely alone of course, but working together in tandem with another acolyte was something new. He enjoyed it, but whether that was because it was efficient or due to the fact that it was with her in particular was up for debate. A debate for later of course, as the pair was preoccupied for the moment.

His little killing spree alongside his friend was cut short of course, him freezing alongside her as the Sangnir raised his hands. This feeling was an odd one indeed, with all of his muscles refusing to move at his command. He quickly decided that it was a feeling that he hated with a burning passion. Even more so, he hated the person causing it. The only response that he could manage at the moment was a strained growl.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"You see, now I have to replace them. I do enjoy my company, and they were quite hard to vet properly given the circumstances. And now that you've discovered us, it'll be even harder to scour through the masses unhindered. I could make you into my thralls, but you've killed too many to accept that. So I suppose I should drain you both d-"

He had stepped over to the pair, his unnatural ability moving them close together so he might properly inspect them both. But he stopped midsentence, eyes suddenly widening with fear. From behind him, the pit Alina and Darth Strosius had cut open, another figure emerged. The blood spilt by the Sangnir that had been slain pooled, floated. Circled the figure as he stepped onto solid ground.

"Now now Atheus. Your fun is over." With a slight move of his hand the Lord before the pair of acolytes crumpled inward. An impossible force broke his body, crushing him into little more than a ball of blood, bone, and flesh.

But it wasn't just him. All around, the Sangnir that had made up this dinner party received a similar fate instantaneously. The only two spared were the two outsiders who had been thrown into the pit to begin with. Yet they still could not move. The gaunt figure fleshed out, absorbing the blood around him to replenish his form as he stepped towards the pair.

"You have done me a great service. I know what it is you want. You shall have it." The figure reached out both palms, now a healthy hue of pale skin, and the pair was finally dropped. Elongated claws stabbed into his palms, causing his blood to drip into a pair of chalices.

"All you need to do is drink."

 

[Darth Strosius]

A grunt escaped Alisteri as the Sangnir used his strange power to move him closer to Alina Tremiru , struggling to try and move anything in an attempt to somehow escape from his hold. Nothing seemed to work, no matter how hard he fought to regain control of his body once more. Of course, his struggles ceased as he noticed the expression on their captor's face. Is that...fear in his eyes?

Sure enough it was, his thought being punctuated by the Sangnir before them suddenly becoming little more than a pile of blood and bones. The same fate spread to the rest of the Sangnir, but Alisteri was too preoccupied with still trying to find some way out of his imprisonment. The release only came from the once gaunt Sangnir however, the acolyte gasping in surprise as he felt his body move again. The first thing he did was turn to stare at their savior in astonishment, glancing over his restored form in confusion and awe.

Suffice to say, he was impressed by the Sangnir by now.

His gaze landed on the now slightly filled chalices, surprisingly not recoiling at the sight of their savior bleeding a bit of himself into them. His hand almost reached out to take one of the chalices, but he hesitated and glanced at his friend. "Alina...are you sure? About this? About becoming a Sangnir?" The doubts that had been swirling in the back of his mind arose again.

Seemingly the regeneration of the Sangnir had truth to it, the one before them being evidence of that enough.

It was the cost of said regeneration that concerned him.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina glanced between the cup and Darth Strosius . She was just as nervous as her friend, but as she lifted a hand, her resolve hardened immediately. This was her chance to get rid of these cybernetics before she was forced to get used to them. No more hesitation as she downed the drink. Her gaze shifted to her friend. She didn't expect him to do the same, but she was curious.

So was the figure, who waited patiently.

 

[Darth Strosius]

He watched Alina Tremiru down the chalice with a mixture of surprise and wonder. He could almost admire her lack of hesitation, the surety in her actions. Alisteri's gaze soon returned to the other chalice, his eye narrowing slightly as he watched the blood within. To say that he had his reservations would have been an understatement. Alisteri had left everything behind to become a Sith. His home, his planet, his chains as a slave, all of it had been cast aside to make way for what he was now. In that regard, leaving his humanity behind wasn't all that much of a stretch.

After a silent moment he reached forward to pluck the chalice from atop the table, and drink all that it contained with only a small wince. It was too late to turn back down, the slave boy back on Kessel was dead. Now, he was a Sith. And something more as well.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"A wise choice, the both of you. Now, you must sleep. I will be gone, when you awaken. I am too weak to stay here." Alina went to protest, but the lethargy hit her hard and all at once. Within seconds she was fighting to keep her eyes open, trying to speak to this man. To learn what happened next. But instead, nothing. Just sudden sleep. The figure turned his gaze to Darth Strosius , offering him a slight nod. "Sleep, and awaken Sangnir."

For Alina, there were no dreams. Just the blackness of sleep. Death, almost. When she did finally awake, she was in a soft bed. Slowly she tried to push herself up, to look over the room.

Only to find she couldn't push herself up. In her sleep her cybernetics were removed. She had no idea how to feel, staring blankly at the ceiling. It'd be minutes before she finally rolled out of the bed. Her arms, or what was left of them.. No. There was more. Looking at them she could tell something had started to regrow. But only a little.

Then the hunger. Like she'd been without food or water for months. And it hurt. Alina stumbled out of the room, more kicking open the door so she could get out of the room. She needed to eat something. Drink something. It wasn't hard to figure out what she was hungry for, given what she became. Did she actually change? Asides from the hunger and the slight healing, she couldn't tell.

"A.. Ali..?"

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri felt the persistent pull of sleep quickly, almost right after the last little droplet of blood had slid down his throat. He blinked as the Sangnir spoke, feeling his eyelids seem to grow heavier with each word uttered. The last thing that he saw before sleep finally claimed him was the nod from the figure, his words barely reaching his ears before everything went black.

Restful sleep did not come to Alisteri all that often, but this sleep proved to be a silent one.

When the urge to awaken did finally come in the form of a door being kicked open not too far from the room that he was in, he almost didn't want to get up. As usual, his one eye slowly blinked to life as a yawn left his mouth. He sat up then, stretching and letting out a small groan at the feeling of his joints popping. His left hand rubbed the sleep from his eye, glancing around the room and noticing that it wasn't the dining room that he had fallen asleep in.

Out of habit, he glanced at his right hand to ensure that the mechanical joints hadn't gotten tangled in the sheets. Again. However, he did not find a mechanical hand there. Instead, he saw the nub that was what was left of his right hand. Unlike before, the burned skin had healed and began to seemingly start forming into what would be a wrist.

He recoiled at the sight out of sheer surprise, his breath leaving him as his hand came up to the left side of his face to check for his eye. Instead of the cool metal that he had grown used to feeling over the years, he was met with healing flesh. The mere feeling of it caused him to hyperventilate for a moment. It was working... His eye hadn't come back yet of course, but he was sure that it would return in time.

"Alina! Alina it worked!" For a few moments as he slid out of bed he was ecstatic, but that feeling was soon replaced by a sudden wave of hunger and thirst. He paused, leaning against the door for support for a moment as he winced from the sensation. His throat felt dry, his stomach felt empty. He needed something to sate it, but there was nothing in the room.

Finally he opened the door, finding himself across the hall from where Alina Tremiru had exited from her room. He shot her a small smile, even as the hunger gnawed at him.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

She blinked as she saw Darth Strosius . His cybernetics were removed too? She didn't hide the surprise in her face as she stepped over to him. "This is.." There was a lot she wanted to say, but nothing came to mind. All there was was that hunger. Then she smelt it. Something sweet. Her head turned as her eyes widened, scanning for whatever it was that smelt so good. Then she wandered off, following the scent without a word.

The hunger had completely taken her. That red thirst. The first time that mind numbing hunger overtook her. The smell was close. Outside the warehouse. Just someone passing through. Someone unlucky. The figure turned to her, smiling kindly. Asked if she was alright. A good person having to survive in the underbelly. She didn't hesitate to bite into their throat and drain them of every ounce of blood.

Without hands it should of been hard, but she was faster now. And the hunger compelled so much.

Now, coated in that fresh warmth of blood, she looked around. Still hungry. "Ali?" At least her mind was clearer. Her yellow eyes glowed with a dim light, scanning around. Only now realizing she had left her friend behind.

 

[Darth Strosius]

Seeing Alina Tremiru without her arms, cybernetic or otherwise, was a little jarring. Had he not been trying to stave off the incessant hunger, he might have been fussing over her. He winced as a particularly strong hunger pang wracked through him, his arm wrapping around his stomach as he suppressed a groan from the feeling. Why the feth am I so hungry?

He hadn't thought that he slept for that long.

When he looked back up, he noticed his friend wandering off down the hall without a word. "Alina? Where are you..." He trailed off as he realized that she wasn't responding, his eye narrowing slightly in confusion. Something smelled very good, very sweet and very tempting. It also just so happened to be in the direction that she was going. It was almost an intoxicating smell, he could feel his mind grow a bit cloudy at just the scent. He did his best to shake off the hunger, instead following her out of concern.

The hunger was very persistent however, and it was getting harder to ignore as he stumbled ever closer to the source of that scent.

By the time he managed to get to the exit of the warehouse, still struggling against the urge to run to try and sate his hunger, his friend had already made quick work of a passerby. His eye widened at the sight of her, covered in fresh blood and standing over a drained corpse. Then the hunger finally took hold of the usually-masked man, soon finding himself next to his friend and trying to wipe the blood off of her with his hand only lick it off his fingers once he had captured some.

Oh that is divine...