Partners on Malachor V [Emertius Industries]

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Enigma"] | [member="Jentara Vel"] |

Emertius Industires, formerly known as Subach-Innes Corporation, was an infamous company on many worlds. In it's rich history, two Sith Lords would gather on Malachor V, to bring Emertius back to the former glories it had once enjoy as Subach-Innes.

Darth Ayra wore a dark robe, with the cowl raised over her head. The transport that her master had arranged to pick her up from Sojourn closed. Yellow eyes surveyed the area, a landing zone open to cold winds and a dark day. Absent minded, the Sith rubbed the bump on her stomach as she waited for Pandeima to join her.

 

[Onrai]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

It had been some time since the previous ritual that Circe had seen her apprentice, and she was still unsure as to what sort of consequences the ritual would entail. But right now, there was another thing to work with - Ayden Cater, Circe's partner in Emeritus Industries, was gone. He had become a pariah in the Omega Protectorate over actions Circe herself was unsure about, but which ensured that he was not going to be around anytime soon. In order to advance Emeritus, though, she needed a partner she could trust.

Someone like Alicia.

She stood here in the Malachor lab, waiting for her apprentice's arrival.

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Enigma"] |

The flight of stairs leading down into the Malachor lab illuminated above her. Artifical light flickered on for every three steps before turning off, so the Sith Lord could navigate her way down wards. Above, the doors closed shut thus sealing master and apprentice together for their meeting. The buldge on her stomach was small, but a sign of what was to come. A standard month had passed by since Darth Ayra has fallen pregnant to the hands of Darth Pandeima and her schemes. She would be the vessel that carried the Dark One, as her master had called the being growing inside her.

Ayra finished her descent and stepped into the lab. Her hands lifted to the cowl of her robe and lowered it from her head. She tucked a strand of dark blonde behind her ear before allowing the hands to drop to her side. Her eyes searched for Pandeima.

 

[Onrai]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

She watched as her apprentice slowly stepped down the stairs, the taint of the Dark Side permeating her very essence. And it was much stronger too - a sure sign that the Dark One was growing within her. Its taint likely strengthened her own darkness, and Circe herself could only imagine what new power must've been at the command of her apprentice. Stepping over to her and sliding behind Alicia, she smiled, giving the woman a kiss on the cheek. "It's so great to see you again, darling. And I see our special little creation is doing well too." She gave the small bump a light poke as she proceeded onwards.

"I have ended up in a situation that is... most uncomfortable to say the least." She sighed. "The individual I was working with as a part of Emeritus Industries has disappeared. Protectorate has a bounty on him, and he's left the company. I want you to take over his stake in the corporation."

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Enigma"] |

"Yes... I have been keeping us healthy." Ayra slid out of Pandeima's grasp, taking a step forward. "I have dreams. I think I see the future." Her gaze lowered slightly. "I have a bounty on me as well. Rave Merrill still haunts us."

 

[Onrai]

The leaving of Circe's grasp was, to say the least, very unusual, so far as Circe had experienced from her apprentice. She frowned as Ayra recounted a feeling of having been bountied, though from what she remembered, neither of them were being hunted at the moment. "What you're likely seeing in your dreams is one of many possible future. Time after the present is fluid - it can be changed." She smiled, giving a soft grin as she turned to look back at the woman she had studiously trained.

"Don't worry about that sort of thing... Right now, here and now, I need you more than ever to help me by assuming the role of the second shadowy personage leading Emeritus." She got close to Alicia once more, gently resting a hand on her shoulder.

"This will be the second biggest undertaking of your apprenticeship to me."

[member="Alicia Drey"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Enigma"] |

Ayra cleared her head. She needed to focus. "No master. You misunderstand. The entire business with Rave Merrill. The duel that we had... She placed a bounty on me. As far as I know, that bounty is still running to this day. She has not been seen in public for years. Rumors are that she died."

Her gaze turned to Pandeima. "My identity as a Sith Lord is exposed. If the Republic or other entites learn that Alicia Drey is I, Darth Ayra, then our plans for the Republic is at risk." Her eyes lowered to her stomach. As she looked down, she said. "Of course, I will fulfill whatever position you require of me. What of DataTech and the recent aqusition of Hudrel Robotics?"

 

[Onrai]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

"I understand, my apprentice... But why would someone attempt to go after a bounty that is of dubious payment? I know Rave well enough to know that she would pay for this sort of thing personally. If she is dead, then you have nothing to fear."

Pandeima slowly looked over to her student, gently embracing her once again. The Republic will not be finding out anytime soon... I happen to have some information on the newest of the Supreme Chancellors, information that could easily devastate her." A further thought strayed to the other companies that her apprentice had forged. "Perhaps we can place them cumulatively under an overarching banner, forming a megalithic corporation comparable to some of the greats. But right now..." She smiled, giving the woman a kiss on the cheek.

"Right now, I want us to talk about personal matters. We've been so busy with planning that our individuality behind the Dark Side has begun to fade. Are you doing well, Alicia? Is the child doing well?"

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Enigma"] |

"It has been a month since... You..." She found it difficult to describe. "Since I fell pregnant with the child. My powers have been different. I find it difficult to sleep and concentrate. When I do sleep, I have bad dreams. I see you in a lot of them and what happened on that ship. It's like I relive the experience that I went through. Where my skin body felt like it was on fire. When I felt like my head was going to split in two. That I was dying."

"I've found myself standing on the highest tower at the Fort. It's the home I made on Sojourn. I find myself standing there at night, watching the sky and forest. I find myself thinking about my life. The way I was when I was a teenager and when I met you at the Hanna City carnival."

"I've been thinking about my family a lot since the conception and how much I realise that I miss them. My mind wanders to the conception itself and everything that has happened in between." Alicia turned to look at Circe. Her eyes locked onto hers. "I've heard so many things about you since I became your apprentice. The experiments you conducted. The creations you've made and how so many governments tried to push you out of their worlds and systems. I often think about Operation Weedkiller. So I only have one question..."

"What am I to you, Darth Pandeima?"

 

[Onrai]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

A pause, so silent a pin could be heard dropping, would come over Circe as she looked into the tainted yellow eyes of the one she had taught. Circe had been responsible for all of this. The impressions of pain and suffering that she had brought to Ayra were her own doing - and yet Alicia's decision had been very much like her own. Both of their had been raised in an environment that did its best to neglect them, to behave as though they were unimportant. And in some manner, both women had disposed of their family. One through the blade, another through running away. She admitted to herself that Alicia had shown more courage than she.

"I'm sorry that your parents had to be removed from the equation. It's not something I enjoyed ordering, but it's something that had to be done. As for what you are to me..." She smiled, slowly moving forward to give the woman across from her a soft kiss on the lips. "You're a lover to me. An apprentice. A friend. You are everything to me, and just as you have a tremendous amount of devotion to me and my cause, I am devoted to being with you and protecting you from harm. And to protecting your child - our child - from harm."

 

[Darth Ayra]

[member="Enigma"]

Her eyes become unfocused. They were looking beyond the frame of Pandeima, instead into the past. The same memory that she had dreamt of for so many years. Darth Ayra could still recall the hum of the Lightsaber. The screams of her Mother. How her Father had shouted. Her siblings, a brother and sister, had not suffered. Her body shivered as she recalled the snapping sound, as their necks had broken under her invisible influence.

It was the source of the unadulerated rage Darth Pandeima had gifted her apprentice. She who had seen the beast inside the child called Alicia Drey and named it Ayra. Fueled by her own desires and that of her master, she had faithfully served the woman stood before her and continued to do so. For all the rage that she felt for the Jedi, the Republic and the galaxy that she sought to take, it was love that kept the two women binded together.

The perfect Rule of Two that Plagueis failed to install with Sidious, one that Pandeima consistuted with Ayra.

"We have eight months to work together. After that time I will be distracted. I will have to raise this child. It will be two decades or near enough to that time before she or he can join us." Ayra took Pandeima's hand, eyes burning a malevolent yellow as she looked upon her Sith Master. "Eight months to resurrect Emertius Industries and prepare for the coming of our child."

"In this year, we must purge the mistakes that we have made together. We cannot leave no stones unturned. The bounty on my head must be removed. By the time I give birth to this child, we must be ready to become obscured. So that we could build Emertius, DataTech and other corporations we will takeover to further the goals of the Sith."

"By the time this child joins our side as an adult, we must have everything in place so that the rest of the Sith can be purged, so that the three of us can make this galaxy the way it should be. We must have the Republic by the throat and the Jedi joining the Sith in the grave." Ayra's other hand lifted to Pandeima's face and cupped her cheek. "We must make it so that the Sith that exiled you, the Jedi that tried to kill you and the governments that tried to usurp all pay for what they have done to us and this galaxy."

 

[Onrai]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

"Eight months is more than enough time for us to rightly and properly expand Emeritus into a multi-power corporation, something far beyond what its predecessor organization had ever been. And this will be a long time coming." She smiled, giving Ayra's hand a soft squeeze of excitement. All her hard work over the decades was finally coming to fruition - and once it was said and done, the time would be right to bring pure darkness into the world.

"I suppose this may mean I'll have to cleave a bit more ardently to my persona as Silara's daughter, but that is something I certainly can do. The bounty on your head, being that made by a dead woman, should easily be removable if I may say so. Furthering the goals of the Sith is something I look forward to doing - not to mention furthering my relationship with you." She gave a soft smile, moving forward and giving Alicia a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Our revenge will be soon forthcoming. Make no mistake."

 

[Darth Ayra]

[member="Enigma"]

They began to walk. The Trayus Academy had been resurrected by Pandeima for her experiments, among other things. As they explored the building, Ayra's eyes observed the various technologies that her master had aquired over the years. It was here in buildings like this that Pandeima had perfected the science behind the creation of the being that was now growing inside the Sith Lord.

Ayra's hand rubbed her stomach as she said. "Daemos, or Northstar is dead. He was the one who betrayed us to Merrill and how she learned of the connection between Alicia Drey and myself. I remember when we met on Sojourn before the Fort was constructed. You told us that you wanted an other space drive created. Perhaps this could be our first joint effort in Emertius Industries?"

 

[Onrai]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

It was hard to believe that the Trayus Academy had once been the center of an empire, what with the copious amounts of modification given to the walls, floors, and ceilings of the former Sith academy. And yet still it resonated with the power of the Dark Side, something that always resonated with Circe at heart. Quietly, she walked with her apprentice through the Trayus Crescent, walking by the Vinithi bodies entombed in stasis, for use whenever they chose to utilize them.

Circe gently brought her own hand to Alicia's stomach as she smiled, rubbing it gently as to not upset the child growing within. "The taint grows ever stronger in you." She gave a blessing. "May it further enhance your beauty. As for Daemos, he is worthless. Not to mention the Otherspace drive is... An interesting concept to say the least. I would love to create a stable rift into the area."

 

[Darth Ayra]

[member="Enigma"]

As they passed the Vinithi, entombed in stasis, Ayra wondered if this was the place in which Pandeima had unlocked the secrets to moving from body to body. It was a technique long thought to be lost to the Sith, when a Sith Lord turned to the light side and destroyed the secrets in his madness. "I feel myself growing weaker everyday, whilst the child grows stronger. Do you think it's possible that it could be sapping my powers?"

 

[Onrai]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

"Though I pray that it is not so, it may be draining your power in the Force - perhaps your very life. I do not wish to see you die, though - you have been a loyal companion, a true lover, and someone so close to my heart. If you die..." A tear came to her eye as she clung tightly to the other woman. "If you die, I'll never be able to forgive myself for losing you." She frowned. "I have to keep you alive, even..." She looked down.

"Even if that means I must use my power to preserve you."

 

[Darth Ayra]

[member="Enigma"]

Ayra lifted a finger to Pandeima's tear and wiped it away. She said. "I am not going to die. This child is a blessing. It is the culmination of all of the work that you have done." Her hand gestured to the Vinithi bodies that stood idly by, encased in the stasis tombs. "I have seen first hand that you have conquered death. You look different from when I first met you all those years ago, but I know it is you." Ayra's hand lowered to Pandeima's on top of the formers stomach. "Now you have created life. Someone that will one day bring the grand plan to fruitition."

"Let us make my becoming your partner in Emertius offical. Isn't there something I have to sign?"

 

[Onrai]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

"Indeed. And yet I worry that you may not survive creating and releasing such a bundle of dark power - though I must say," she smirked, "your motherly figure is even more beautiful than your normal appearance. So much darkness..." She couldn't help but give a soft grin. "Once you and I sign the papers to formally transfer control of Ayden Cater's fifty percent of the company to you, perhaps we should commemorate this event." She paused, thinking over her former beauty.

"I look different, but always am and will be the same." She smiled, slowly raising a datapad to Ayra's hands. "Just sign here."

 

[Darth Ayra]

Alicia took the datapad into her palm. She took the holopen in her other hand and wrote her signature down onto the paperwork. She passed the device back to Circe and asked. "How do you plan to celebrate?"

 

[Onrai]

[member="Alicia Drey"]

Circe gave a soft grin, placing the now complete datapad to the side before gently embracing Ayra, giving her a lovely kiss on the lips. Her smile grew as she further embraced her apprentice cautiously, slipping behind her to avoid squishing anything precious.

"What do you think?"