O' Dark, Dark, Dark

[Lassiter]

They usually were, Sena just wasn’t a tactician. She might have applied more brains when fighting, but that wasn’t groupthink. There was just her and her target, nothing less and nothing more. To have to consider all these variables, to command others to perform difficult tasks or jobs wasn’t something she did, yet neither was it her thing to follow orders either. In short perhaps the easiest way to sum up the Sword was to state the obvious. She was selfish with a great need for independence. It was this fact alone that made her feel naked and vulnerable in the company of certain others, but that was hardly something Joycelyn of all people had to know. All Joycelyn had to know was that her Master wasn’t a particularly brilliant strategist. She was in the seat that she was solely based on the fact that she got the job done. Something that she now seemed to share with her student.

“You would be surprised how many of us do.” Sena laughed at the comment about rolling over in fear. There was still a lot of anger in her apprentice, Lassiter could feel it. One errant twitch... “It’s what separates the likes of you and me from the average. We don’t let the fear paralyze us.” Anymore. “We merely use it, empower it. It’s what makes us who we are. Keep fighting despite the fact that we are bound to lose.”

The small hint of a smile faded from Sena’s lips as she put her hand behind her back.

“Because you weren’t going to make it out of here while yet you were conscious.” it was time. Sena withdrew the real artifact from behind her back. Exposed it to her student and let Joycelyn take in the evident betrayal. “The game was rigged from the start.”

[member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

For a moment, Joycelyn had almost felt some form of kinship to this woman. For one moment, she had let a smile pull on the corners of her cheeks as The Sword of Vahl recognised her as something more than the common rabble. 'we don't let fear paralyse us'; we. It blinded the tall girl for just long enough to not become suspicious of the way she hid her hand behind her back; a sure sign of treason if ever there was one. And then she had to show her the truth.

In time, Joyce would come to appreciate it. However, in this moment she felt nothing, but the fog of confusion and the sting of betrayal. She saw the trinket in Sena's hand, and everything went dark. The sting of betrayal had pushed the acolyte off the edge. Her earlier fighting had been impulsive and driven by adrenaline; this was something entirely different. The light faded from her eyes, removing the purple glint in her brown irises entirely. Her presence in the Force flared up as she entered a rage.

"The game was r-"

Joycelyn pounced with everything she had. Her meaty hands gripped after Lassiter's clothes, and her head came swiping down quicker than one would expect from someone of such size. Joyce was presenting her forehead in a general trajectory towards the Sword's nose. Her force-rage empowered her body in ways she didn't understand. However, at the cost of extreme exhaustion and unknown long-term effects.

[member="Lassiter"]

 

[Lassiter]

Lassiter had predicted this. Her student was on that very brink between a full-blown Force Rage and a small shred of respect for who it was that her master would appear to be. Sena despised the woman in front of her but she was still an asset. For the sake of the Ember it was all about the greater good outweighing the own personal feelings of a Sword with inferiority complexes and a constant need to deep down please whoever held the chains that bound her. Which at the given moment and time was Darth Isolda and in turn the goddess Vahl, masters that she served by choice and by indenture.

The hit connected. Sena pushed her hands against the chest of her apprentice to let off a telekinetic blast and free herself of the grip around her shoulders. She stumbled on forward. A hand reached up to wipe away the blood trickling down through her lips. Her tongue extended itself to wipe away the first wave and a bitter look went out for her apprentice.

“You don’t think this is the first time you will get betrayed, do you?” Sena cried out in anger. “Everyone lies, everyone will betray you at one point or another.”

The master kept a hand by her nose creating a slope for the blood to pour down as her other hand reached for the saber hilt by her hip.

“These hounds would have killed you if I gave them the order, I trusted them too much when you did not and that was my mistake. I trusted them.” It was a mistake Sena had come to avoid once she had truly become part of the Ember. Trust was a luxury she afforded the few. “Everyone lies, everyone betrays you!”

The saber was withdrawn from her belt and she held it on the ready for her student’s imminent retaliation.

“So come on! Show me what happens when you cross an Agent of Vahl.”

[member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Joycelyn did not do any heroic flips and graceful three-point landing as she was thrown back by the far more experienced Knight. Rather she flew backwards, ploughing through everything in her path before crashing and skidding along the floor like a rag-doll. Lassiter's blood trickled down her forehead and kissed the root of her nose. She pushed herself up with a groan and stared at her master. Her teeth were clenched so tightly one would almost think they were about to shatter.

It was true: Everyone would betray her. -except one- Alone, she was stronger. She would stand or fall by her own power.

Of course, while raging, these thoughts did not step much into effect. While standing up, she reached out in the direction of the lightsabre Sena had given her earlier. It shook, then flew into Joyce's hand. Catching it, she thumped the activation button and let the blue blade emerge in a furious hiss. Then she charged. Joycelyn was strong and quick, good at using her boody, but against a more experienced fencer or someone with greater knowlede in the Force that could easily be made nil and void.

Yet, she flew at Lassiter with her blade, bringing it down in a diagonal arc to cleave the treacherous woman from shoulder to hip. Or, at least to start the engagement of blade to blade combat, unless the Sword had something more interesting up her sleeves.

[member="Lassiter"]

 

[Lassiter]

All that unkempt rage, the way it didn’t just radiate but reek of off her student. Sena knew it, had tasted it once involuntarily when escaping her slave pit, but ever since then had little to no interaction. Force Rage was a power, it was a tremendous power but it came at a cost. Depressions, physical weakness and more. As much as it might have seemed like an ability that would be a boon to complement the weaknesses that Sena already had she had scratched it off of her list once she remembered how weak she had become when the escape was over.

It made her feel worse, but to envision Joycelyn not as the woman that she was, but who Sena was back then, made the whole thing just a little more unsettling. In this very moment she was the childhood tormentor and abuser; the man who had tried to sell the young Sena Lassiter into more than just slavery, more than just dancing. The man that had...

No. The same fire that was there in her student’s eyes lit up behind the green hues of Lassiter’s. They were both projecting everything they had onto the other. Their fears, their hate and anguish, nothing was held back anymore.

Her student went on the diagonal, Sena deflected it away from her.

“That’s more like it! Show them the fury of Vahl. Make them taste their own blood before the goddess!” The master growled like an unnatured beast before she initiated her attack. Two stages. One low for the shins, another shortly thereafter as she used the momentum of the previous attack to rapidly divert any and all power in a diagonal going up to cut her student in two or hopefully catch her in the air.

“MAKE THEM SUFFER.”

[member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

First blow deflected, and Joycelyn could sense where Sena was going next. Unlike many force users, Joycelyn had never picked up the penchant for areal acrobatics. She rather preferred to keep her feet on the ground as it allowed her to react more quickly. In hand to hand, there were uses for jumping attacks, but when deadly glowsticks were involved, she preferred to keep in touch with the floor.

Not fast enough to move out of the cut for her legs, she swung her blade down with both hands and met the cut with her own blade. She hoped her own swing was powerful enough to bat Lassiter's blade back for a moment. If it did, then she would return with a horisontal cut at the Knight's midriff. If not, and the blades ended up in some form of stalemate, then she would try to push it back against her opponent while letting out a growl from deep in her throat. Her bladework was inelegant, that was sure, but it's simplicity was powerful in its own right.

The Vahlacanthix could see the Sword's eyes alight and feel the anger focusing on in on herself. Their fire and their rage, one fuelled the other. Lassiter's rage filled Joycelyn with a greater sense of fear turning to anger. No doubt, Joycelyn's anger fuelled Lassiter as well. Joyce's blood felt as though it boiled in her veins, her breath felt like fire running over her lips.

Oh indeed, she would dish out some suffering.

[member="Lassiter"]

 

[Lassiter]

She hadn’t jumped, both attacks were parried with a power that Sena had only tasted in a few. The two blades interlocked, a weak and frail woman against a towering hulk yet with the poisonous rage flowing through either body they managed to find a middle ground. Both growling like hounds at each other as the two blue blades sparked. Had Joycelyn been stronger in the force the victor would have been certain. Sena would become increasingly thankful later that she wasn’t.

“You will fail.” The redheaded fake-Vahla growled “Everyone around you will die, every last one of them.”

“Friends, allies, ...” Sena pushed herself onto her blade, trying to force her apprentice’s blade to cut into Joyce’s shoulder. “Your sister.”

“Family is a lie! Family lies and family abandons! Family holds no meaning and with time even you will come to learn this. Family is a weakness!”

Mention of Evaelyn was a direct taunt and yet a thing that made the Master envious beyond what her apprentice could comprehend. To have family, to have someone who was there. She had known it once, for a week, until the galaxy tore it away from her again. Sena had sworn off of it. The Ember was her family now. The Ember and the goddess was everything she had until she met Ameli, and even then she held herself reserved for what could happen. Ameli was a weakness, something that could be used to gain the upper hand. Someone who could tear her down and the only person in the galaxy who would be allowed to stab her through the heart.

Lassiter was a fool, and she knew it.

“You only have us now. The Ember all you need, and the sooner you accept that the better.”

[member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Joycelyn couldn't push through, her opponent pushed back and they were deadlocked, if not pushing back at Joyce. Lassiter's words bit into the acolyte's mind like vipers, inserting a venom of doubt that whittled down her strength. However, when Lassiter mentioned her sister, the anger sparked up. There was only one person in the whole of the Galaxy Joyce was protective of, one who meant more than any. Now this schutta before her dared bring this dearest person into the conflict, if only by mention.


"If you mention her again, I will skin you!"

As Lassiter pushed, Joyce pivoted and shifted the pressure of her blade to meet Sena's pressure perpendicular. Thereby, she hoped to physically unbalance the Knight much like she had unbalanced Joyce's attention. To cover herself from a retaliation, she brought her blade around in a diagonal cut aimed at what would optimally be Lassiter's upper back.

The rage was searing, but she needed to focus it. Joycelyn bit the inside of her lip so hard she could taste the blood in her mouth. She wanted to beat this woman for her insults, for her betrayal, and to prove herself. At the same time, it was the Sword, and the Sword had said that the Ember replaced all family. Would she have to choose? To choose between Evaelyn and Vahl; impossible.

[member="Lassiter"]

 

[Lassiter]

Rules of engagement, never turn your back towards the enemy. Lassiter wasn’t the one to leave herself exposed for any longer than she had to, at least not if she could help it and to make the same mistake as she had with the insolent boy on Ord Mirit wasn’t something she had planned on doing, she wasn’t going to let someone like that get the upper hand again. And when she felt that same stumble again, while she did struggle for a few seconds, she ultimately managed to turn herself around towards her student. The swing was powerful, nearly knocked the blade out of the knight’s hand, but Sena blocked it. She was still in control.

“Oh please, family is nothing but a hollow word. Something strangers hide behind, to trick you into a false sense of security.” She called back at her student’s threat. “The last person you can trust is the one you let under your skin. Not once has that ever worked out for anyone.”

And no, Joy would never have to pick between family and the Ember unless she had no other choice. Sena’s nerves were the first to wind down. Short bursts with major impact, she wouldn’t be a happy camper once the day was over. The only question that remained was whether or not that would be because of the Force Rage or any potential injuries.

It remained to be seen.

“Joycelyn, you aren’t the first to assume your sister will always be there for you.” Sena lowered her saber ever so slightly without letting her guard down. “You may think yourself knowing that, but you will never know what tomorrow brings.”

A hand moved up to wipe away the continuous flood of blood streaming down her nose.

“Her death, your death. Betrayal, all these things that will get in the way.” Sena was letting up that facade. Quick emergency rebuild! “I betrayed you, but I will not be the first. You always have to consider the possibility, no matter how painful the mere thought is.”

“That is how you survive.”

[member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

What Joycelyn and Evaelyn had was more than just family. Their father, their mother, the innumerable bastards who shared their blood, they did not matter; it was only Evaelyn. For all others, she would agree with Lassiter's word. Family were a liability, ties that could not be severed would be a liability, but she would carry the liability of Evaelyn for as long as she lived.

"I will not let that happen. She is mine."

Obsession glowed in her eyes even as the burning light behind them subsided. No matter how much Joycelyn wanted to continue the fight, she could feel the anger cooling. The slights and the hatred did not go away, but the immediate fire calmed. She could now feel how hard her heart beat in her chest, how rapid her breath was. Her vision grew foggy and her limbs grew rapidly heavier. She took an unbalanced step towards the Sword. Her sabre-hand shook, now more out of exhaustion than anything else.

"No one will take her away from me, not even death."

She was still angry with Lassiter's betrayal, but she understood her lesson. Punishing was still on, but it would have to be better planned. Joycelyn was not the greatest genius in the Galaxy, but she was no idiot. A fool, maybe, but no idiot: Flaying was still on.

[member="Lassiter"]

 

[Lassiter]

There was a difference between despising someone and hating them, or so Lassiter would like to tell herself. She respected Joycelyns unwillingness to stand down or take smack from just anyone, they were two traits that would help her with her future in the Ember. It was a future that was still shrouded in clouds and mist, but to think she was going to be just another ember amongst the many would be an insult to both Joy and her Master. She wasn’t sure why they had given her Joy as an apprentice at first, she would admit to that, but as the two of them ‘bonded’ -- if such a thing could even happen -- it wasn’t hard to see why.

The apprentice limped on over towards her. Lassiter heaved as she turned her saber off and pointed at her student.

“You are persistent.” She huffed. “Eager, perhaps a bit too eager.”

“You remind me of myself.” Oh that must have stung. “Only difference is that my sister died long ago. And unlike you the Ember is all I have, and I am better off for it.”

Sena sighed. “What I am trying to say is this: Distance yourself from family, Joycelyn, but do not let it go.”

[member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Why had she been given to The Sword to be trained? She didn't know. She didn't even know if it was Lassiter's choice or not. Sena had a terrible ability to both confuse and infuriate Joycelyn. How dare she compare them, yet at the same time Joyce felt quite proud of being likened with the Sword of Vahl. The conflict was real. At the corners of her eyes, the dark closed in. It was not the empowering sense of darkness that surged through one's body and granted power beyond ones wildest dreams, this was more like the darkness that ate everything.

"I.."

There was a determined look in Joycelyn's eyes as she took another step towards the Sword, clutching the sabre in her hand. However, when she put down her left foot, she never felt it connect with the floor. Instead, the floor rather quickly jumped up and kissed Joycelyn's entire face. The moment she was about to step up to Lassiter's extended finger, the legs gave out beneath her and sent her tipping forward like a log.

The blue lightsabre extinguished, but remained firmly in Joyce's grip as she lay there on her stomach, driven to the brink by the previous Force Rage. She had never used such an ability before, and now she tasted the blowback of the power she had drawn from.

[member="Lassiter"]

 

[Lassiter]

Those black figures at the corner of her eyes weren’t something Sena was used to, but it was something she had expected to be there. Entering a state of Force Rage was tiring and mind numbing. The first time it had happened to Sena she had collapsed on the spot only to regain her senses once the day had already come to pass. As Joy faceplanted the ground there was little her could do to prevent it. Not that she really wanted to either.

The master huffed on more time and withdrew her datapad.

>>------------------------------------------------
>> Subject: | RE: Joycelyn Zambrano |
>>------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Despite my initial reluctance on the matter
>> I have come to change my mind.
>>
>> I will do as I’ve been asked. Joycelyn will
>> remain my apprentice and with it I will help
>> forge a new sword.
>>
>> For the goddess.
>>------------------------------------------------

Her hands motioned for the hounds to pick up the fallen hero on the ground. One step towards the exit and suddenly everything felt real. The world started spinning, eyelids weighing heavy on her... No. Quick headshake and she was able to stave off the worst of it.

When they were done, Joycelyn would share a lot more with Lassiter than either of them would like.

Though hopefully that would exclude the dead family part. For Joycelyn at least.

[member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]