Private Original Sin

[Resh]

Resh's head hung low, "They killed the others didn't they?"

"Yes. Slaughtered them like animals," Varick replied matter-of-factly. Something about the wording made Resh grimace. Varick had described some of the cult's murders in a similar manner.

"Like the people we've sacrificed?" Resh suddenly said.

Varick shot him an angry look— Once more the child was speaking back to him, "Do not presume to judge me, Dark One. All that we have done is in your name. For your glory," He stepped forward now, Resh's accusation striking a nerve in him, "Do not throw away your grand purpose because of some childish tantrum."

Resh stepped back in response, until he was impeded by a wall. Or… not a wall. The sound of the impact was hollow, like glass. A pale light suddenly burst to life above him, revealing new shapes in the corridor. He turned around slowly to see a human sized tube, filled with viscous liquid, but otherwise seemingly empty. A panel on the front flashed new information: it showed a microscopic view inside the tank, revealing that there was a gestating cell within. Beside it, was the letter "Senth". Another light shone down on a tube right next to it. Then another, and another. And along the other side of the wall as well. Shen. Trill. Thesh. Usk. Down the line. "…W-what is this?" Were there more? Had there been more? He walked back from the initial tube he had found, to find another one, but this one was empty. The panel said "Resh".

He spun around, "What is this?!"

The sound of approaching footsteps did not register with him now.

Kassogtha Cthylla - Jasper Kai'el - Kahlil Noble​

 

[Kassogtha Cthylla]

Jasper responded by ripping the door off the wall. "Works for me," Kass remarked.

Kahlil led the way down the passage. Kass slithered along, managing to keep up with his running despite her lack of legs.

They finally reached the heart of the facility. Kass could sense quite a few life forms there, though most of them were small and faint, like tiny blips on her radar. It reminded her of... Well, she certainly hoped there were no pregnant women involved in this...

But no—the smaller presences were inside what appeared to be several cloning vats. What their purpose was, she did not know, but they could presumably be dealt with later. The only two potential threats she registered in the chamber were a man and a boy, the latter of whom was standing near the tanks. Thinking that perhaps the boy, who looked quite young, was being held captive, she immediately seized any weapons the man was carrying with the Force and yanked them away.

"Don't move," she ordered them both. "Surrender now, and you won't be harmed."

Resh Kahlil Noble Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant
Tags: Kassogtha Cthylla , Kahlil Noble , Resh

​

"Surrender now, and you won't be harmed."

"Easy," Jasper muttered. "I don't know if he intends to hurt the kid."

It was pretty clear now that this was the individual that the cult was centered around. This kid, a Sith Pureblood from the looks of it, but not filled with darkness from what he could tell. The man with him was the real mastermind here. He looked around, frowning at the cloning vats. Jasper held a special distaste for those who played with the laws of nature. His own creation was something he greatly disapproved of, even if he held value of his own life. One shouldn't toy with lives in such a way. They weren't science experiments.

Kass may have taken his weapons, but he could still be dangerous if he had the force.

"Alright, let's work something out here," he began, stalling for time. "I'd much rather we all walk away from here alive. Especially the boy. So lets go about our next moves rationally."

At the same time Jasper would discretely flick his wrist, loading his last crossbow bolt.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Clones.

The other two had already realized it as they approached what felt like this final confrontation. His gaze focused on the distance, though. He wasn't listening to the conversation, wasn't paying attention to the mad cultist who's weapons had been stolen. Instead he focused on the vats. On the boy who looked identical to his brethren sealed away. He lowered his blade, let out a sigh. So this was the goal. What they were doing.

Worshipping a self made god.

The other two already said what needed to be said. So for now, he just watched the boy. What happened next would change his life forever.

Resh | Kassogtha Cthylla | Jasper Kai'el

 

[Resh]

Varick was caught now. The trio of Jedi caught up quickly, and though the path continued down into darkness behind him, he wasn't a fool. Running from these Jedi would be futile. He looked to the attackers, then to Resh, "They are you. Or at least, they would be."

"How?"

Varick chuckled grimly, "Come now, Resh. Don't hide behind your shock. They are clones. And so are you. Darth Bael was an ancient Sith Lord of untold power. Slain before his time. Before he could share his vision of peace.

Your vision of peace."

Resh shook his head, "This isn't my vision. This was never my—"

"It was! You shirk destiny on some childish impulse. What then? The Jedi here care not. Your kind are one with the Dark. It is a part of you."

"I don't believe you," Resh looked to the Jedi, conflicted and fearful.

"Accept what you could be. What you truly are. A savior. A messiah. And purge these heretics before they can take another step."

"No!" Resh tried to step back, but Varick grabbed him, holding out the boy in front of him as a shield, wrenched into a headlock, "W-what are you-?!"

"Don't move, or the boy dies," He looked to the Jedi with an animalistic glare, "I lied, Resh. You're not irreplaceable. You're not even the first. It took us ages to master the cloning process for a Force-sensitive. Apparently, we still haven't. Don't worry, the next one will be better."

It wasn't his threat that the Jedi would need to act on, however. Because Varick's grip on Resh began to steadily loosen. He watched in surprise as his own arms outstretched, one of them suddenly twisting downwards and snapping violently. Then his whole body was lifted into the air. Resh's expression turned cold, and his eyes gleamed with sinister intent. He looked up at the man who had betrayed him, falling under the influence of a storm of emotions that he could not fully comprehend. And if left to fester, could bring about exactly what Varick wanted.

Kassogtha Cthylla - Jasper Kai'el - Kahlil Noble​

 

[Kassogtha Cthylla]

Were they interrupting something? It seemed like they were interrupting something.

As the young man grew furious with the old, he lifted him into the air with a sudden surge of dark power. Whatever was going on here, that certainly wasn't good. Kass seized control of Varick with the Force and plucking him from the boy's grasp. He may have been naturally strong in the Force, but she was a Jedi Master.

She left him up there, spinning slowly, while she slithered in front of the boy. "That's enough," she said, in a gentle, maternal tone utterly at odds with her monstrous appearance. "It's all over now. What's your name? Are you hurt or injured?"

Kahlil Noble Resh Jasper Kai'el​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant
Tags: Resh , Kahlil Noble , Kassogtha Cthylla

​

"I think his name is Resh, yeah?" Jasper noted, gesturing to the tube the boy was standing in front of. He gave a warm smile, well aware that Kass being the first to speak could cause a little confusion. "It's... weird finding out you were born in a tube, huh?"

Jasper sighed, turning to the test tubes with a solemn look on his face.

"I know how it feels," he assured. "You're not expendable. Every person has value, even if they copied from a template."

He turned back, his warm smile returning. He could sympathize with the boy, mostly from personal experience. It was good that he had chosen to join this mission. Perhaps hearing he wasn't alone in his condition would help the process of coming to terms with it all.

"Name's Jasper," the knight greeted. "It's nice to meet you."

Behind his back, in view of Varick but out of the boy's line of site, Jasper's organic middle finger would be up. He would make his distaste for the cultist very clear, though subtly.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

The leader was restrained, and Jasper seemed to have a handle on Resh, so Kahlil stepped past them all into the room where the cells remained. The fasniation of the Sith and immortality was starling. Not even just the Sith, which was possibly the craziest part of it all. This was dangerous. Not just for the people of the Galaxy as a whole if the cult picked up the pieces to try again, but to the boy.

So he lit up a different rune in his palm. A sequence, and one that utterly erased everything within it in a simple flash of light.

"We should leave."

Resh | Kassogtha Cthylla | Jasper Kai'el

 

[Resh]

Varick was yanked away from the boy's control, which only made him more upset. Then, in rapid succession, Resh was accosted by a horrific eldritch monstrosity, some guy acting like any of this was normal, and another guy apparently wiping all the tubes from existence. Whatever their actual intentions, it could be described as overwhelming, at best, "S-stop!" The Pureblood recoiled, stumbling as he tried to back off, "Get away from me!"

"Finish them, boy! Fulfill your purpose!" Varick cried from behind the Jedi.

"Shut up!" Resh clenched his forehead, which pounded under a hundred different stimuli. One of which, though he had not fully registered it yet, was the growing swarm of presences coming from the dark end of the corridor. All the chaos had awakened something buried deep in the recess of the Undercity. A veritable army of Cthons, scurrying through the warren of tunnels in search of fresh quarry. Any Force-user worth their salt would be alarmed by the encroaching threat grating against their sixth sense.

Kassogtha Cthylla - Jasper Kai'el - Kahlil Noble​

 

[Kassogtha Cthylla]

"I think his name is Resh, yeah?"

Kass shot an odd glance toward Jasper. Certainly the cloning tubes were given letters of the aurebesh alphabet to differentiate them, but surely that didn't mean the boy's name was a letter, did it?

Despite the Jedi's best intentions, the young man was clearly not taking any of this well. But they had stopped him from harming the old man, at least. Unfortunately, now it seemed they were under attack by yet another pack of Coruscanti wildlife.

That was it. "Sleep," Kass commanded, stunning the boy with the Force. She scooped him up in her pseudopods before he could fall to the ground and headed for the exit, dragging the floating old man with her.

Kahlil Noble Jasper Kai'el Resh​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant
Tags: Resh , Kahlil Noble , Kassogtha Cthylla

​

"Okay," Jasper sighed, drawing his lightsaber.

That had been a disaster. So much for trying to ease the boy's concern. Jasper wasted no time beginning to fend off the incoming Cthon as they moved towards the exit. He certainly wasn't done talking though.

"We need to have a serious examination of our methodology," the knight continued, "Cause pretty much everything that happened in that room didn't need to. If our intention is to keep someone from reacting out of fear, Kahlil, doing strange stuff with the force that they don't fully understand really doesn't help. It just makes them more confused. And Kass, I know you're a lovely and charming woman but not everyone does, and putting them to sleep is only a temporary solution. It causes way more problems down the road when you have to explain what happened."

He was effortlessly cutting through the horde of Cthon as he said this. His reflexes were at least honed enough to get by without trouble.

"I just... we need to be better," he reaffirmed. "There was a way that all played out way better."

He turned, glaring at the cultist.

"And I do not even want to hear a word from you," Jasper added. "So keep shutting the hell up and being a coward."

Jasper needed a day to just sleep after all of this.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"Anything you do with the Force will freak people out." Kahlil paused, glancing to where there had been things inside of a room. And nodded slowly. ".. But I see your point."

His blade flashed to life shortly after, passing through one of the goblinoid creatures as it leapt towards his back. It seemed their antics had called a horde to them. .. Or at least his. Right. Less big, flashy things in the future. He let out a sigh before letting his blade pass through another, then reached out to send a scattering wave of the Force into the coming wave of foes.

"I'll watch the rear. Get the boy to safety. That's our priority right now."

Kassogtha Cthylla | Resh | Jasper Kai'el