Wearing:
Resistance Epidermis
Armed with:
First Degree Burn
Skin Shears (Purple Split-Saber)
Objective: Murder the feth out of Jedi
007 hours earlier
Golbah City, Geonosis
Maple Harte
, fresh from cashing in another small time bounty, found The Amalgam waiting outside her black chromium, J-Type 327 Nubian The Silent Erika on a docking pad in the heart of Golbah, smiling in that flesh colored skintight catsuit with long white gloves and boots.
("Love Is Thicker Than Water" by Andy Gibb Plays)
Maple pulled out her pistol and pointed it at the murderous SithSpawn who was also her former mentor. Maple's sulphur gold right eye twitched, her black biker leathers scuffed and showing signs of wear and tear. Her long, chocolate brown hair was tied in a loose ponytail.
"Nice to see you too, Daughter!" The Amalgam gushed. "I've missed you
so, so much since Kar Shian--"
Maple's hand was on a grinning Amalgam's throat, pistol jammed against her skull.
"Daughter,
must I remind you of the stakes against The Bryn'adul? Of the fact we all have to Unite to survive? Of the consequences of you blowing away a member of the Saaraishash on official business while our two governments play kissy-face?"
Maple snarled in frustration and hatred, releasing her grip.
"What official business?" Maple snapped, well aware of how low-rung she was in The CIS.
"Oh, nothing really, I just had to contrive an excuse to go into temporarily allied territory and recruit for the defense of Korriban."
"Just because I'm CIS doesn't mean I have to help save Korriban." Maple replied coldly, not taking the aim of her pistol from the Amalgam's head.
"Actually...I specifically requested a member of the Knights Obsidian and put forward your credentials. Think of all the good standing you'll have in The CIS! They'll actually notice you. Anyway they were
very prompt in getting back to me and were positively enthusiastic--"
The Amalgam was quicker on the draw than Maple was using the laser bolts from her own pistol to successfully deflect the bolts from Maple's.
"Now now, we
have to set a good example for our governments. Think about it, more influence means more resources to murder me later!"
Maple looked at her former mentor/ Arch Enemy with undisguised loathing...
...and holstered her blaster.
The Amalgam pranced to her, circling her and wrapping her arms around her...
"Ohhhhh, we're gonna have such
fun!"
"I hate you." was all Maple said as she walked across the docking pad to the ramp of her ship, pulling out of The Amalgam's grasp. The Amalgam skipped behind her onto the glossy black ship.
Fifteen minutes later...
Maple piloted The Nubian Yacht, knowing its every control and how much it could take. It had been her home for so long that she wasn't truly comfortable anywhere else.
The Amalgam kicked back in the Co-Pilot's seat, using the beautiful, purple skinned Twi'lek form she had used while pretending to be a Jedi. The same face she had used as Maple's Jedi Master. The face Maple knew the most.
The whole place felt perverted by her presence as she piloted, not daring to glance The SithSpawn's way until she spoke.
"Y'know, when I was trapped inside Ursula, unable to escape, I lacked the strength to do anything but look through her eyes..." The Amalgam trailed, making it more traumatic for her former student to listen to by using Ursula's stern but ultimately fair and gentle school teacher voice. Maple's grips on the controls tightened until her knuckles were white.
"I became aware of Laertia really when I saw her kill for the first time. Oh, it was glorious Uri. My heart went into my throat, just swelling with pride when she decapitated someone. But even as...marvelous as she was, even as much as I struggled to murder Ursula's mind on the spot to talk to her, test her...I couldn't...and for a time...I was barely even aware of you...I was so weak I had almost decided to give up...and then, you turned up with this beautiful ship, won in combat...you were the motivator Uri. You're what gave me strength--"
"If I had known what you were..." Maple growled, fighting back tears. "I would have blown your fething psychotic head off the instant I first saw you in that chapter house all those years ago."
"If I recall correctly you didn't have a ranged weapon." The Amalgam noted, grinning with Ursula's face, knowing it hurt Maple more than anything to see that psychotic smile plastered on the face of someone she had once loved as a mother and trusted before feelings grew bitter.
"I'd have used yours." Maple replied with an epic looking death glare.
The smile left The Amalgam's face for a split second, then resumed as she rose up, circling Maple's chair, then wrapping her arms around around her. Unlike Laertia, Maple didn't flinch.
"Why can't you just admit..." the beast hissed, pressing the side of her face to Maple's, causing the schizophrenia-ridden Bounty Hunter to shrivel up in disgust on the inside, but refusing to give the psychopath the satisfaction of visibly showing it.
"...that we are the same?" The Amalgam asked with Ursula's voice after politely waiting for the previous narrative exploration of Maple's inner conflict to conclude.
"There's a useful four letter word..." Maple hissed back, staring only at the blue hyperspace tunnel as her insanity caused her to make an OOC reference. "And you're
full of it."
"Oooo, a Roger Moore reference in 2020. You saucy little girl..." The Amalgam joked back, her own form of insanity keeping up as she stroked Maple's hair lovingly, making the Hunter want to vomit.
"I prefer Dalton and Craig references, personally..." The Amalgam mocked, fingers sliding through Maple's hair.
"The Brosnan Films had Jean Grey and Storm as Bond Girls, the former of whom you are a partial expy of. Go feth yourself." Maple snapped.
"Spectre had
Persephone." The Amalgam shot back, not releasing her grasp.
"True. But Brosnan got to catch the plane and drop Sean Bean from the top of the relay dish. I've already done the former..." Maple trailed menacingly.
The Amalgam took her arms off Maple, retaking her preferred human appearance.
"I'm not scared, Daughter...we'll make a Xenia out of you yet..." The Amalgam trailed, starting to leave the cockpit.
Maple shot out of her seat, and her next words made The Amalgam go still.
"I don't know what it was that made you so murderous towards the entire Galaxy..." Maple said quietly, not hiding her tears of shame at part of her still loving the monstrosity in front of her. "But you don't have to
stay that way. Your life is
empty. Hollow. Can't you let go of your hate and malice? Is it really that precious to you to fill every moment of your life with what ultimately amounts to little more than petty bullying?"
The Amalgam turned a bemused expression to her former student.
"Is this the big dramatic scene where you try to turn me?" The Shi'ido asked slinking up to her.
"I have to say I tried."
"Do or Do not: There is no try." The Amalgam said, circling her student., the Darth Phyre within observing Maple with growing interest.
"I can't change what you've done. All I am saying is you don't have to keep being what you are..." Maple pleaded.
"You tried to stay out of the game, Uri. How'd that work out for you?" The Amalgam asked, fingers brushing the back of Maple's head lightly.
"I'm a work in progress. Why can't you be?" Maple asked. "You nearly got out once yourself..."
"No one really leaves the business. Not even Luke, depending on which version of his life you believe. If anything,
I'm the one trying to save
you." The Amalgam countered with a devilish grin. "Saving you from a life of being a slave to society. Saving you from a life of wasting your potential in the Force. You have already tasted the Bogan's power. All those Sith I had you kill? Pretext. Justification for pushing the limits of two very powerful Force Adepts. That's what the foolish Jedi never understood: It does not matter if you are Light or Dark, you are still killing those you disagree with ultimately so you can be the only person in the room talking. And they wonder why they create so many people who want to tell the Light to go feth itself. They wonder why they are absolutely
trapped in this nightmare feud that never ends. If they ever understand all they have to do is stop trying to control what every Force Adept does with their power, than even with their philosophy being so highly questionable, almost sixty percent of their capacity for generating the proper resentment needed for someone to recreate The Sith Lords would disappear virtually overnight. I could never live in a world run by them, and neither could you, if you joining a government run by
Darth Metus
was any indicator." The Amalgam hissed, standing behind Maple and smelling her hair, and this act 'did' finally cause Maple to flinch, though she remained still otherwise.
"You want the Darkness. The Bloodshed. You can't function in a world where 'they' are calling the shots, any more than I could. What use would they have for you, my beautiful chocolate haired Daughter? They'd have you running around popping common Dark Jedi, at best, if they didn't instantly fear you for your capacity at creating a mountain of corpses in a shockingly low amount of time. They'd forbid you from using a blaster at all except for emergencies more than likely. I know how your face lights up when you kill people with a shotgun. I couldn't imagine you never taking a Mandalorian Assault Rifle out for a little target practice ever again...could you? They'd consider endorsing
Ritual Disfigurement if someone could dress it up enough to play on their desire to remain humble."
"I'm not saying you have to be a Jedi. I'm not even saying you are entirely wrong about many of the things you say about them. All I am saying is that you don't have to be a Sith. You don't have to spend the rest of your existence as a rotting mass of filth hiding behind Scarjo looks. You've disappeared before. Why not just drop everything, disappear for good? Reappear somewhere else? As someone else?"
"Like you? Living on the fringes? Taking the slings and arrows fate chooses to direct to you as you drift between planets on this cozy, glossy life raft." She cooed, putting an arm lazily around Maple's neck that could easily become a choke hold as she petted Maple's scalp
"Yes. Like me.
With you as company."
The Darth Phyre persona hiding in The Amalgam was nearly murdered in that instant. It barely retained enough strength to resist being annihilated by the remains of the rotting mind it had subverted.
The Amalgam petted Maple's scalp lazily.
"Alan Moore had a funny story about situations like ours once." The Amalgam remarked idly.
"Save the DC references for Laertia, she nabs those a lot." Maple idly remarked back, tears streaming down her face.
"Oh my, tell me about it, she already aped Mr. Freeze during that last invasion thread right before this new storyline started." The Amalgam scoffed.
"It was that Everything Freezes line, wasn't it?" Maple asked out of sheer curiosity.
"Deliciously hammy on her part. They really don't give Arnold enough credit for that one." The Amalgam surmised. "But I wouldn't be caught dead in that sparkly white Riddler suit they put Carrey in."
"I dunno, I like sequins..." Maple trailed bitterly, keeping up the verbal game for reasons even she wasn't certain of.
"Heathen..." the Amalgam sneered, though this hateful snarl did not stop her from petting Maple's scalp.
"You can still walk away from this life..." Maple trailed, getting back on track.
"Two loonies in a glossy padded cell trading barbs. Hmmmm..." the Amalgam hummed in thought, arm tightening slightly around Maple's neck as she continued walking her fingertips through the scalp of her former student.
"Would we really be cellmates though? Or simply each others prisoner?" The SithSpawn hissed quietly into her 'Daughter's' ear. "Could we ever truly turn our back on each other? Even in such a confined and tranquil space, the minds inside me yearning to get out and inflict pain every second? No, my Daughter. It might be a nice fairy tale for a while, two diseased people caring for each other, adrift in a glittering shard of black between the stars...but our diseases would still win in the end. And you know that. You could never truly forgive all my crimes because of your honor, and I could never truly be sorry for committing them in the first place, as long as the end result was you at my side at the end, or dear Laertia, or both of you. No, Uri. I love my daughters too much to not make them beautiful with the Darkness, and you love me too much not to grant what you would view as a mercy killing. The 'only' future where we can both be truly happy is the one where you turn to the Darkness."
"And if I refuse?" Maple asked.
Now it became a chokehold. Maple felt her airway compress, threatening to cut off her oxygen completely.
"You won't refuse..." The Amalgam sneered, Maple on the verge of blacking out completely. "I won't
let you."
The SithSpawn released her grip, Maple coughing, dropping to her knees as she struggled to catch her breath, messaging her throat.
"Is that your final answer?" Maple asked, voice hoarse from being deprived of air.
"Yes. I love you for trying, though..." The Amalgam said in Ursula's school teacher voice. "It was sweet of you."
Maple looked up at her former master, one eye sulphur, the other a brilliant wet green.
"I want you to remember this moment..." Maple said firmly, giving her a death glare that might have possibly given
Darth Carnifex
himself at least a millisecond's pause before playing skip rope with her intestines anyway.
That said, The Amalgam had never personally seen a death glare that intense, and grew quiet as it was fixed on her, the homicidal smile leaving her face entirely.
"I want you to remember this moment, Amy. Because I certainly will..." Maple spat. "I want you to remember I gave you every chance to avoid being my Sean Bean! Every chance to avoid turning me into your Pierce Brosnan! Because at the end of all this?
I'm gonna drop your ass. And it won't be for everyone you've murdered. It 'will' be
for me."
Maple dusted herself off and headed to the cockpit.
"Uri!"
Maple turned around.
Her smile, the dead purple glint in her eyes told Maple The Amalgam was as evil as ever.
But the tone still threw her off.
"I won't apologize for what I am..." The SithSpawn said, dropping the smile for a moment, even the Darth Phyre persona within affected in a way it didn't understand. "But no one has ever tried to save me from anything before. Certainly not myself. For what its worth...I thank you for the failed attempt."
Maple's expression remained deadpan, and her next words drove all expression from The Amalgam's face and earned only silence.
"Y'know..." Maple mused outloud, stare piercing suddenly. "Its very interesting that with as much strength as you say your False Self was losing...its still strange you would permit her to tell me to kill you..."
Maple headed for the cockpit, a crazy, Gary Busey-grade grin on her face at having finally gotten under The Amalgam's skin...
Present.
They had touched down before the attack came, setting up in the Korriban Academy where others were rushing to arms to meet the attack.
"An attack right on Korriban?" Maple muttered in surprise at the NJO's stupidity as she loaded up a Sith Assault Carbine with an underslung launcher. "The NJO is insane. They don't care about the Bryn'adul at all..."
"Love and Hate are two sides of the same coin. One can blend and mix surprisingly well and Vice Versa..." The Sith Spawn said as she loaded up weapons of her own, such as a Mandalorian Assault Rifle in one of the academy armories, handing her academy schematics. Maple studied and memorized them before tossing them aside, clad in her black and white hooded armor.
"The tunnels...they'll try and use them, hit a security office..." Maple said. "Its what I'd do if I wanted to hit this place."
"That's why you're off to look for a team that should be either about to breach this place from underneath or has already breached it." The Amalgam confirmed. "Expect Shadows. You don't have any objections to popping Jedi, do you?"
Maple cocked a short barrel pump action shotgun.
"If it spares them from whatever horrors await their capture at the hands of the Sith? I'll pop them like a damn balloon out of sheer mercy." Maple hissed in contempt.
"That's my girl..." The Amalgam cooed. "Slippery Slope justifications are my favorite justifications..."
Maple snorted before leaving the armory.
The SithSpawn danced out of the armory to go look for a Jedi to kill, popping a Jedi that had managed to get past the front entrance and great arches, letting out a controlled spray of fire that killed three others before a Jedi got too close. She unleashed her dark, rotting aura upon the Force, drawing on the power of the Academy. Her flesh shuddered disgustingly as she channeled the Dark Side through it, her purple blades springing to life as she savagely spun and slashed through the Jedi's pathetic Soresu defense in seconds, before grabbing him, watching as he rotted in her grip, before dismembering his mummified remains, and summoning purple lightning from the sky that blasted apart two more Jedi, sending the destructive blast downrange as much as possible as she drew her laser pistol, her deadly fast and precise trigger pulls finding their way through a mutual Niman defense, blasting through both heads.
The monster whose flesh shuddered smirked with bubbling lips as she rushed forward, slicing through more soldiers and looking for more Jedi to slaughter...
(Open now for fighting,
Dhalinar Greystar
...and anyone else!)
Meanwhile...
Maple had hacked a terminal to get an idea of the systems, running a systematic check on every section dealing with security.
Only one had yet to make periodic check in with the others...and it happened she was very close to it.
Maple activated her cloak system, hiding her thoughts as she made her way to it.
Sure enough, two guards were down, and two Jedi were trying to control it.
Maple hid her feelings and emotions, thinking about anything else other than what she was doing as she pointed the shotgun at the head of
Allyson Locke
and pulled the trigger, releasing flechette shards aimed at her face. She might dodge because she was at a distance, and Maple wasn't stupid enough to get close without trying the simple, efficient method first.
She fired rapidly, prepared to draw her trusty staff if they got too close...
Ryv
Coren Starchaser
Auteme
Asmundr Varobalder
Oceiros Sunstrider
Adron Malvern
Other Space Kaiden
Salamander
Zaavik Perl
Gnox the Insatiable
OOC: I tried to remember as many as I could. Sorry if I missed anyone!