Operation Double-Edged Sword (SJO/CIS Mission)

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh wasn't surprised that she didn't seem to know of any way to restore their stamina. Josh didn't use stims, and it looked like neither did she. But she did seem to have an idea. Scherezade would begin to go on about seeing through the illusions, if she could use a certain spell. When she would ask if he knew how to use illusions, he nodded his head.

"I can use them, yes. But..." Josh would trail off, scratching his head. "Scherezade, there's something you need to know."

The Jedi Master would take a deep breath, not realizing until now she had thought this.

"There are no illusions. All of those things are real."

He stared at her a moment, letting it all sink in. "I'll explain how I know later, but... There are no illusions here. We haven't seen one since the castle appeared from it's hiding place. The fact is... All of these most likely are the villagers that the Sith Lord has been kidnapping since the wars started on this planet. I've been trying to get a good look at their faces since we started fighting... Many of them have the same skin pigmentation and rugged looks of the other villagers. They're definitely all the same race.

But if we do get to the Sith Lord..." He trailed off. "There's a chance that this could be useful. But for now... We have to figure out how to get past what is virtually a small army."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade looked at Josh, the disbelief all too easy to see on her face. She shook her head. "You can't be right," she whispered, "this is a backwater planet with villages that can barely hold it together. Where would he get so many thralls? Some of them have to be illusions, good illusions that look like locals. He couldn't have taken hundreds of men without the rest of the crappy villages here noticing."

No. It was impossible. Maybe the illusions were great enough that Josh didn't feel them. Maybe this wasn't even Josh.

Still, he did not seem to be against the idea of her creating a spell.

So Scherezade sat down, leaning her back against the wall. She wished now that she'd had the time to learn the Spell of Focus. Extra focus would've definitely helped.

Instead, she just closed her eyes, concentrating. She had to get the words right. Not because the actual words mattered, but the meaning you poured in them, the way they shaped the Force to bend to your will. That was what made it work. That was how it happened.

"Mother nature, heed my call, shield my sight from those would manipulate it," she said. It wasn't the spell. Not yet. It was just a first attempt at constructing it. Quickly, Scherezade shook her head. That wouldn't work, not with how she used spells. "Mighty spirits..." No, that would not work right now either. That was more of a Dathomiri way, and to check if the Mandragora way worked now that her back and body were entirely absent of the Jart's claiming mark...

"Mother nature," she went back to the start of her first attempt, and shook her head again. There was no mother nature. Her mere existence went against everything and anything nature had to offer.

"The Great Web," Scherezade decided, "your daughter needs you. Protect and shield my eyes from those who would show me false visions. Remove the false strands and leave only the true."

Okay, that sounded better. Some adjustment was required though.

"Cast your illusions, Josh," she instructed him.

"Great Web, I need you," Scherezade finally began to cast her spell. The Force rose around her, an invisible mist that gathered around her body and face, covering her like a soft blanket. She could feel her spell working, "Remove the false strands that others try to make me see. Shield my eyes and show me what is true."


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh stared at her a moment. "They called it a town. Now it looks more like a little village. Use your head, Scherezade" Josh would answer. "The reports did say as well that the planet has been in the crossfires of several wars for years now. Odds are they were much larger before this. What we saw there... That was all that was left.

Odds are, they just thought that those he'd kidnapped were people killed in the crossfire, and hadn't started noticing them genuinely disappearing until the fighting had died down."

She didn't seem deterred from trying either way, so Josh just let out a sigh and nodded his head, letting Scherezade go forward with her plan. Maybe it would help protect her against the Sith Lord when - if - they got to him. Once Scherezade would cast the spell after a period of time and a lot of trial and error. She would then command him to cast an illusion of his own.

Nodding his head, Josh would begin to tune into the current and held out a hand. A bunny rabbit would materialize in thin air and begin to dance around them. It was an illusion, of course. A harmless one.

They could still hear the sounds of the footsteps from the thralls, searching for them.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade felt the tingle of the Force at work. She was certain that the spell she had cast had worked. But still, some QA was needed, to make sure it did. The problem was that even if it did, it left them with no window as to know how long it wold hold. How many illusions would be flung their way before the spell fizzled or had to be re-cast. All of this, everything, they did, it was just a huge risk.

And for what? The mission wasn't worth it. The people's lives weren't worth it. Josh had a different set of morals that demanded his presence here, but Scherezade? There was little to nothing keeping her here, except... Except for concern for her friend. Despite her demands and despite his promises, he'd wiggled his way into one of the people she'd protect.

But later, when it was all over, when they they were both safe, she was going to claw his face out for it all.

"Josh, I asked you to cast your illusion," Scherezade said, looking around. She couldn't see anything, "you're usually much faster than this."

Did she expect to see the bunny? No, not really, she expected the spell to work. But she hadn't felt the Force flare up on his end either, which was what made her think he hadn't cast it at all.

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"The illusion is literally right there" Josh remarked pointedly, a bit annoyed as he would point at the bunny that should be floating in front of her vision should she still be able to see illusions. "Look, I'll even make it dance" He spoke as the bunny would start to dance over her head. He had been trying to mask the amount of presence he was exuding as much as possible so as to continue to hide their location, thus the smallness of the illusion. "Maybe that means your spell is working?" Josh would then suggest quietly.

He also didn't know if there was any presence coming from what she was doing. This spell of hers. What did it feed on? Was it the Force? Or another kind of magic? Could that in itself be sensed? If they were not careful, this may all be for naught and they may soon after be overwhelmed by the approaching hordes.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Josh claimed the illusion was right there. Scherezade blinked, looking again. She saw nothing. If she hadn’t been so tired, she might’ve smiled. Yes, it meant that her spell had worked. Now the only danger was in finding its limitations while actually being in combat, but given how it came to be, there was little either she or Josh could do about it. For better or worse, this was something they were going to have to work with to get through this.

“So we have a way to deal with illusions,” she confirmed out loud, “but that doesn’t solve our need to rest and I think writing another spell is too high of an order right now.”


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

The two were in a bit of a pickle. Sure, they had a way to deal with the illusion problem now that Scherezade wasn't susceptible anymore... But that didn't mean they were out of the woods either. Actually her solution was completely useless if they were exhausted by the time they reached the Sith Lord - if they reached them at all. They still had an entire army to get through. But of course, Josh had come in knowing that this was very likely...

"We need to rest" Josh spoke flat out. "The question is how, when odds are they'll find us soon enough. Hmm..." He mused aloud as he would think it over. "Welllll..." Josh would trail off as he would go through his pack. "I suppose I can at least buy us some time" He spoke as he would pull out a detonator. The Jedi would stare at Scherezade a moment as he would place his finger near the button.

"What did you think I've been doing while I was following you around in stealth with the Current, before I decided to join up with you?" Josh would ask, shooting her a cheeky grin in turn.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade stared at the detonator, trying to figure out what Josh was going to try to do with it. Blow them up? Sure, that was a way to get rest, but eternal rest wasn’t what they were going after. They needed to replenish their strength, not snuff themselves out entirely.

“Wasting your energy, looks like it,” she shot at him, no amusement in her features. Her eyes drifted back to the detonator. “What are you going to blow up? Why will this buy us time?”

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh didn't answer. He only grinned at her.

And then he pressed the detonator.

Charges that had been placed all throughout pivotal points on the structure of the floor would suddenly explode, causing pillar after pillar to go down. The ceiling would suddenly come down. Luckily, the two of them were already buried in rubble, and Josh would wrap his arms around Scherezade as he would begin to project the Force into a protective barrier around them. This was going to be a very rough trip. As the structure would come down around them, only supports outside of the structure kept the entire castle from coming down. But the ceiling - the floor on the second floor - had come down completely on them and the unsuspecting thralls, many who likely were blown up by the inner pillar-placed explosives.

Josh would throw off enough rubble for them to breathe before breaking the shield, moving a hand to shush Scherezade.

"Keep your signature down still" He would whisper as he would hide his presence again. "It's going to take forever for them to find us now, amongst all of this."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Why was Josh grinning like that?! Scherezade was just about to snap at him again when he hit the detonator. She could feel the explosions before she could hear them, the vibrations coursing through the ground and into her body. Sheer terror kept her from screaming out and revealing their location to the thralls. Scherezade was accustomed to being in situations where things around her went boom, but she was also used to being in charge of these situations and knowing exactly where and how much boom to expect.

Josh’s arms were around her now and she wanted to protest, but she was too damn tired and using too damn much energy to muster as much as a shove against him. Another harsh sign that she needed the rest and was far from being in any condition to battle either the thralls or the Sith Lord. She shut her eyes, not wanting to see things explode, not wanting to see the rubble, not… Not wanting to see her and Josh being buried alive.

It was only a forever later that she dared open one first and then the second, the gentle glow of her eyes illuminating the near darkness they were in. She was still covering her presence as instructed, but she didn’t know if her spell was still in effect.

Nodding quietly, she realized the downside of cloaking her presence; the thralls were invisible to her through the Force as well. “Are… are they all dead?” she found herself asking, her voice just above a whisper, “why didn’t you do this sooner?”

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"Wasn't the right time" He answered quietly. "I planted them for an advantage in the case we needed it, but I also couldn't do it during a time where they might damage us too. This way, it only really hurt them, and was only a minor inconvenience for us. And, no. Definitely not dead. It might have killed a good amount of them, seeing as while they have the capabilities of their master to a degree... Their minds are far more degraded, and as they're being controlled like puppets, their cognitive thought isn't going to be as stable when he's trying to balance it between so many. Which means a lot of them were probably completely lost as to what to do and were swallowed by the rubble. But definitely not all of them. Regardless, the main goal here was to give us time to rest."

With that, he would relax and shut his eyes. As they could now breathe, he wanted to get some rest. Not sleep, per se. Just rest. Relax. He would lean against Scherezade, preferring her comfort over leaning against the rubble. He hoped she didn't mind.

It would likely take the thralls forever to find them now. Josh had made it like finding a needle in a haystack. In the background, he could hear them starting to throw rubble around with the Force... The search had begun.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade listened as Josh explained why he’d waited until now. She still frowned though, couldn’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t have been smarter to do this sooner. It was a shame that he couldn’t confirm that they were all dead, though she supposed there were at least enough dead to make their odds of escaping alive much better.

And now they were supposed to… Rest. Scherezade didn’t really know how to do that, not when she couldn’t sleep, not when she dared not sleep, not in general, and especially not in a place such as this. Josh didn’t seem to have any qualms about it though and before she could blink, he was leaning against her.

Scherezade glared, but didn’t move. She’d kick his butt for this later.

She wanted to check how many of them were around, how many were breathing, but she couldn’t. Not without giving up her own concealment.

There was nothing to do but keep glaring until Josh said it was time to move on.

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He figured she wouldn't be happy with him about all of this, but well... They needed to rest, and Josh had bought them the time to do just that. So for now, he would rest. He didn't know why, but he would trust Scherezade. She'd earned that much. It was clear she cared. He just hoped she didn't make him regret that trust, for him to have his guard down even a little around her. But eventually, the time for rest would come and go by. The Jedi Master would open his eyes and sit up, slowly beginning to unmask his presence. It would be Scherezade's only warning that he was about ready to strike.

Josh would push the rubble off of him completely before standing to his feet and immediately beginning to charge a fireball with both hands. The sudden charge of energy would grab the attention of the remaining thralls, who had been searching tirelessly through the rubble for the two, but they would not be able to reach them in time before Josh let out a cry and launched the large fireball their way. With their skins long thinned and fragile, being no better than undead, the attack would melt the bodies of many of the ones they contacted, as robes would fall everywhere alongside piles of ash.

But more would be upon them. With his strength restored to a degree, Josh would grit his teeth as his eyes began to glow a crimson color, as the Jedi tapped more and more into his pyrokinetic abilities... Fireballs beginning to appear all around them. The Jedi began to levitate off his feet as more and more appeared...

One thing was clear... He'd finally started to cease holding back. This was the real Josh.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

This wasn’t her idea of rest. She wanted to go back to her ship. Take a shower. Sit down wrapped in fluffy towels while she drank and sat in front of the air vent. Sitting under a bunch of rubble with Josh leaning against her wasn’t rest in any kind of a way. But still. If he was rested, maybe they stood a chance at making it out of here alive.

She felt his presence coming out of its hiding and did the same, her Force Presence spreading out like a nuclear bomb. There was only so much self-containment that Scherezade was able to do. Passionate. Impulsive. Words that had been used against her.

As the rubble was cast away, Scherezade’s knives slid from beneath her clothes and moved round her like a fan, pointy ends ready to introduce themselves to any thrall that got close enough. Josh took care of many of them from the distance, the scent of burning flesh spreading around the entire area, bringing a hungry smile to the Sithling’s lips.

She tapped into his own presence, the back of her mind set to follow to where his fireballs were and weren’t, and she jumped forward, her knives flying around her a she worked with the lightsabers in her hands, her movements resembling a lethal dance that, while aware of her surroundings, she danced alone. It was a sharper version of what Josh had seen on Zeltron. A deadlier version. And by all accounts, a version that was out to get more blood.


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh knew how much energy this was going to take, and he knew he would need to limit himself before they faced off with the Sith Lord, but it wouldn't mean anything if they didn't take out this miniature army first. The amount of fireballs began to increase and odds were Scherezade was going to need to duck around them to avoid getting smoked herself. The two would find themselves surrounded, but the numbers were less than before... Josh could deal with these odds.

Josh held out a hand and the fireballs would charge forward at high speeds, taking the thralls by surprise and pelting them with firey projectiles. With their flesh already sensitive to flames, the thralls would begin to go down one by one - not something that would be done this easily had this been an army of living people - but Josh continued launching more and more of them until there were no more. Josh would land then, and would immediately move to the next phase of his plan. He supposed they could rest once the thralls were dead, then... Not that they would have a choice.

Josh's eyes would return to normal as he would begin to focus his energy. Scherezade would feel something dripping onto her... Raindrops? Yes, raindrops and then a full surge of pouring rain began to fall down as clouds were created from the ceiling using Weather Manipulation. With many of the thralls being soaked, Josh knew what needed to be done now. As the clouds would disappear, Josh would hold out his hands once more and launch Electric Judgement, the electricity arcing around the field as he would strike thrall after thrall before they could reach him. With them being soaked, they would be very much vulnerable to being fried far more heavily by the lightning, which would take them down far quicker. This went on until some would finally reach the Jedi Master and he would be forced to end the attack. But this didn't deter Josh as he would draw his lightsaber. Some of the thralls were using Force Speed, which would explain how they had gotten around the lightning.

Some of Scherezade's opponents would turn to using Force Speed as well, while others would begin to surround her from behind and fire arcs of Force Lightning her way. Not Master level, but definitely high Knight... If not for the lack of coordination due to the Sith Lord's mind being divided into so many thralls, the two of them would never have survived this long.

Josh would disappear into the White Current again when he would find several lightsabers being brought down on him. Ducking down to avoid them, he would use the opportunity to roll behind them and fade out of the Current. Instinct alone had saved him, but this problem of speed was going to be his downfall if he wasn't careful.

Josh would activate his second lightsaber then, a trick that would likely surprise Scherezade but it would explain how he knew the style that he had taught her, so well. Activating Force Speed, Josh would move to match them mono e mono, blocking a slash aimed for his head at the last moment.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

She ducked, all right. Ducked, jumped, rolled, everything it took not to end up being shishkabab'd. She figured Josh wasn't trying to actually hit her, but there were moments in which she wanted to give him a few vulgar gestures in response to how close he'd actually gotten to setting her on fire. She knew spells that made arrows come out of the fire, but she had nothing in arsenal to actually put fires out.

And suddenly things were getting… Wet? Scherezade blinked as the rain came pouring down, drenching her entirely. Not for the first time in the past few weeks, she felt like a soaked sewer rat. She turned around and glared at Josh. And suddenly… Electrocution.

Scherezade couldn't keep from screaming in the heartbeat it took her to realize she was not going to be hit by it. Alongside a lack of tools to put fires out with, she couldn’t really shield herself with the Force either. Once she realized though, she took a few deep breaths, the glare returning to her face, where it stayed while those who weren't fried by Josh began to surround her.

She didn't see him disappear into the White Current thing as she was busy herself, her knives and lightsabers flying with flurry, her body singing to her as she danced the dance of death with the thralls.

And now, it was dragging on for too long.

Scherezade closed her eyes, allowing her presence through the Force to spread around them in a wide diameter. Dropping to a knee, her eyes shut even tighter as the last of the thralls were removed, their bodies Combusting one by one around them, blood and internal organs splashing everywhere.

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

It was done. It was over and it was done. Josh would fall to a sitting position as the last one fell. He needed rest he knew if he was to take on the Sith Lord. Not knowing how long they were going to be before the Sith would show up, Josh would let out an exhale, deciding to just take the moments of rest while he could without overtly letting his guard down.

"So... Hah... Hah... Still think... I'm a fake?" Josh would joke between breaths. "Maybe the whole army... Hah... Was an illusion and I'm just waiting to trick you" Came the next bit of bullchittery. "WoooooOOOOOOoooooo, scary fake Josh illusion ghooooost... I'm going to trick you into doing..."

Josh scratched his head a moment as he tried to figure out where he was going with this.

"... Something."

But he stopped dead when he looked around him. Looked around at the bodies. They had incurred a mountain of bodies, and robes without anything in them, just melted skin and ash... The sight and the realization of his responsibility caused him to bring a hand to his mouth and do everything in his power to resist the sudden need to vomit. After a few moments, Josh took a deep breath and sat down, cross-legged and closed his eyes as he brought his hands together in prayer.

"Force take these souls, tortured and pained to their peaceful rest, where they may not be harmed any longer... Force grant them safe passage to the next world... And may the Force be with them."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Did she still think he was a faker? Scherezade looked hard at Josh. She didn’t even have a clue. For all she knew, all of it could have been the Sith Lord trying to take her mind over, trying to create a version of Josh that she would trust, teaching her something new so that she would think less about gutting him once she was face to face with the butthole.

With a glare, Scherezade cast her dispel illusion again and stared at Josh. Nope, he was still there. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t an illusion. Either that or her spell sucked, which was also a possibility.

And then he sat down to… Pray.

Yeah, definitely Josh. Another reason to roll her eyes. There was no compassion in her for the thralls, and they’d already been told that the original people in those bodies weren’t there anymore. Why waste time on prayer? But frak it, she wouldn’t have prayed even if they were still themselves. Scherezade didn’t have that respect for life thing going on that Jedi seemed to suffer from. If she didn’t like them and they weren’t beneficial to her, they could rot. Some of the people she liked could rot as well.

“Come on,” she sighed, holding a hand out to Josh, “we’re on borrowed time before we both drop from exhaustion. Let’s go and get the butthole, kill him, and get the krak off this planet.”


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh didn't normally pray. But by what he knew about those abilities... The souls, the consciousness, they were still there. Barely there, but suffering. They were needed to make the thralls work, after all. They were faintly there, watching themselves inflict pain, and feeling every bit of their own pain. It was horrible, awful. But at this stage, there was no way for them to regain their bodies, for too much of them had deteriorated at this point. The fact remained though, that Josh had killed these people. Those bodies were by Josh's hand. And the look on his face said that it mortified him. Mortified him into the solace of prayer. It had freaked him out that badly.

Taking a deep breath, Josh would steel himself and take Scherezade's hand, letting her help him to his feet. "Have I told you that you're cute today? Looking at your face reminds me that I haven't" Josh would joke, trying to somewhat keep the mood light. With that though, it was back to business as Josh began looking for a staircase. "We need to find a way to the next set of floors" Josh would point out. Much of the ceiling had been destroyed, so they would have a difficult time getting to floor 3, but if they could find stairs, or an elevator...

"What are the odds we find an elevator?" Josh asked as he would fish out his canteen, taking a long swig of water to try and keep hydrated and restore some energy. Afterwords, he held it out to her.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

As soon as he was up, Scherezade immediately pulled her hand back. She was getting pissed off about him constantly touching her. Sure, it meant nothing, and she didn't think for a moment that this was something beyond casual, and yet she loathed it too. The next time he tried, she decided, she was going to attempt to cut his hand off. Maybe then he'd learn.

"Stop it!" the groaned when he said she looked cute that day. Another thing she hated that he did. He deserved a punch right in the middle of his stupid face, and if they weren't in the middle of trying not to die while dealing with someone obviously much stronger than them, she'd have delivered it without thinking twice.

When the water was offered, she shook her head, taking a gulp from her own bottle instead, the one that had… Well, part of it was water. The rest was liquor, obviously.

Scherezade looked up. Sure, the ceiling had been destroyed, but that didn't mean they needed a staircase or an elevator to get up there. "Don't need it," she shrugged, and lifted both herself and Josh into the air with the Force. Third floor. Easy peasy. Telekinesis didn't require actual concentration for her at this point, never felt like an energy sapper.

It was seconds before she dropped down at the edge of the third floor, where much of the destruction they had caused reigned as well.


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]