Revenge Of The Jedi

[Matsu Xiangu]

She was running before the buildings pinched and broke, lungs burning with the effort of sucking in breath while all at once getting entirely more than she had been used to for the last year of her life. It was heady, an abrupt dizziness swirling through her skull as she let a laugh that - for all the way the armor filtered it to something void of emotion - was almost ecstatic.

The thoughts and clipped feelings of the people perishing in the force-user’s game of dominos seared through her mind; quite, like she imagined, a uncaring god would feel as one more drop down the bucket escaped his ability to care. She was an accessory to the battle waging in front of her, beholden to neither side and yet fully invested in the outcome of both. Ash and dust choked the air, making it nearly impossible to see what played out in the street below save for the earth-shattering blows of a man using his own power to rip up the pavement in assault. Rolling her shoulders, Matsu crouched down on the lip of a building that hadn’t yet been toppled, tilting her head in animal interest.

Whatever precision and cold aloofness that characterized her, she’d never quite let go of that girl on Utapau - the one who’d been so very willing to shed her skin in the fire for something more animalistic.

The Dark Side pressed in on them as tragedy coiled in the street, wails of fear chorusing from the dark yawning mouths of window. It seemed to press down and around, falling the same as the dust to choke the weak unwilling to submit and the willing who were not strong enough to harness it. It seemed to smell blood, opportunity - she always felt it manifest, like a lover old and familiar when things were about to change. She did not know where Ignus was in that dust and debris and therefore tension coursed through every artificial nerve ending she possessed as the situation unraveled.

“Do it,” she whispered in to Connor’s head. But it wasn’t a whisper for long, that same hideous passion for the Dark curling in to her growl as she goaded him. “No chains here, Harrison. NOTHING MATTERS.”

[member="Connor Harrison"] | [member="Darth Ignus"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Dark Lord stumbled backwards further into the decrepit structure as it buckled and groaned, the last vestiges of whatever was holding it upright now torn from their foundations allowing the structural integrity of the building to falter and ultimately collapse. Dust rained down as the floor above him sundered in two, large chunks of permacrete spilling down from the egregious wound rent straight through the building's center, and from that epicenter everything began to crumble away to ash and ruin. The Dark Lord surrounded himself in a cocoon of Dark Side energies that visibly materialized as an orb of malevolent brilliance that seemed to leech the color from the already lifeless surroundings. Debris crashed against his defenses as he plummeted through the crumbling building, but so long as he maintained his concentration and his mastery of the Dark Side of the Force nothing could shatter his shield.

The only drawback was that once everything had settled he would be buried beneath several layers of what used to be a full-fledged structure that had been laid so low by Connor's wrath. Yet even in that confined blackness a smile managed to part his lips - the Silver Master was cutting loose, he had long since forgone restraint and had instead opted for maximized destruction in his desire to see Ignus' broken corpse at his feet.

The darkness that now dominated the atmosphere was succulent.

The muscles in his arms bulged as he heaved against the weight that pinned his shielded body down beneath the rubble, and slowly, but surely, it all gave way as he clawed his way free. A fountain of permacrete heralded his ascension as if an explosion had been set off beneath the rubble. He emerged from the ruin, the Dark Side cascading off his body in visible waves to inflame the passions.

His next words echoed Matsu's goading; "Give in, Harrison. The Dark Side claws at your insides, begging to be released. It has only tasted the briefest of freedoms and now its voracious hunger cannot be sated."

[member="Connor Harrison"] | [member="Matsu Xiangu"] | [member="Darth Ignus"] ​

 

[Leora]

Where he was didn't matter much, as he was forced to move regardless. All the toppling buildings forced him out of his hiding hole, though that alone wasn't going to make things easy for Connor. This whole ordeal wasn't just to kill the man who was now flying above the city, destroying what was left of it and murdering even more of his people. No, this was also a test of his own skills, an so far things had gone well. Connor was frustrated, after all.

He ran from the building he was in, several away from where the apparition, which had now disappeared, had been fighting Connor. But he didn't appear alone. Several dozen copies of himself, illusions, emerged with him, and they all scattered in varying directions. Since the illusion worked on the mind, and Connors was tweaked out of his control, Leos didn't need to keep line of sight, he just needed to not go too far.

Each apparition would move as swiftly as one would expect. If Connor directed his anger on any specific one, throwing debris at them or some such, one after another woukd disappear. If he ignored it, an apparition that escaped the man's sight would disappear into nothingness. These were just a distraction to allow the real him to move unhindered. Of course there was still the chance Connor would see through it.

Moving alongside him as he weaved between buildings, seeking refuge were his two Maalraas, Arus and Milan. Each remained cloaked in the Force, not divulging their presence. These two spent the entirety of their time with him. They knew how to behave and that he would tell them when he wanted them to act. For now they were his secret weapons, and they would remain such.

As he ran he kept his apparitions going, and one eye tuned to Connor, waiting for the inevitable. It was nice to see the man breaking, even though it made Leos mad that more of his people were being killed. Connor would pay in the end.

[member="Connor Harrison"], [member="Matsu Xiangu"], [member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

The words of the Sith below echoed in his mind, speaking to him as the vortex of dust and scree flew around the ruins from his handywork. Clearly Ignus was starting to feel the burn; multiple figures emerged from thin air across the ruins, some hidden by the cloud of debris, others on the lip of it. So Connor twisted his hands up and pulled them apart, taking himself out of the situation and going into the Force itself.

He felt the crevices of another building behind him, an old apartment block still with a few squatters, and pulled them apart like twigs. It resulted in another domino effect. The spiral building groaned and toppled forward like a lumbering giant, crumbling on itself as it fell to shake the ground below and killing those inside or burying them alive.

No chains here…

Connor turned inwards, and brought himself down amid a small pile of metal and rock, dust kicking up around him as the jets on his suit cut out, to let him stand back on solid ground once more.

He’d seen a decade of Sith out there – ones who acted like Gods and reduce cities to dust, more so than a few buildings. He’d seen ones who preyed in the shadows and manipulated governments and systems for their own cause. He’d seen many Sith in his time, but knew the best ones, the ones who commanded respect, fear and hold total power, were the ones who simply got the job done by any means using the Force as a tool of mind and body.

Matsu and the Sith Lord were on his level now, but he didn’t see them as enemies. They were his allies. Allies in using the Dark to purge weakness at whatever the cost; to get the job done. He was confident in where he stood and how much he was worth alive to them rather than dead. Hence, worth more to them than Ignus was. The real Sith won battles with more than just shows of power.

Reaching up, Connor pulled off the faceplate for his armour and felt the air on his face as he dropped it; air that was gritty, dank and filled with death, but it was his own creation. His eyes were grey, not his usual tranquil blue, as they squinted into the ruins and ignoring the erratic visions of the coward Ignus.

His hand fell to the hilt at his side that had followed a similar, almost ironic, destiny.

"You come out now and I will end your miserable existence. Or you run away, and I will hunt you down more powerful than I am today,"

Connor shouted, eyes down, staring at nothing as he absorbed the darkness and fed from the strength of the Lords behind him.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Darth Ignus"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

So much of her power stemmed from observation. She loved her Undead. She loved her sorcery. She loved her illusions. But where she felt the Dark side most keenly was in her what might have been traditionally been called empathy. The difference was that she was not made to feel more kindly towards those whom she read. She was as indifferent as it was possible to be, supplementing her inability to understand anything but that beautiful Force of nature by collecting thoughts and feelings.

Once she’d pretended to walk among them, convince herself she wasn’t sickened by weakness and mediocrity. But what was the point? She’d said herself that the only thing that mattered in this life was her.

It was the first time Connor accepted the strength she offered without any holds barred on his interest. She’d felt him back then, curious but guarded - still a Jedi on Rhen Var. It was a mark of strength in her eyes to resist that which so clearly called his name. That couldn’t be taken away from him - that resistance. And yet with the door open Matsu couldn’t help but shove her foot in to stop it from closing, forcing entry in to a side of his use of the Force she’d dug her claws in for.

Ignus’ illusions scattered along the city lines, bordering broken buildings and infiltrating space until she might have been convinced he was everywhere and nowhere at once had she not possessed the same skill. But she - spider and sneak - was on no one’s side and therefore said nothing as to where Ignus might truly be, but neither did she begrudge Harrison his draw. She offered that strength - dark, connected, innate. If he wanted to see what the Dark Side might offer he simply had to reach out and hold on to what she offered in the Force.

[member="Connor Harrison"] | [member="Darth Ignus"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]​

 

[Leora]

He ran until he reached a safe, or sort of safe, spot, inside of another nearly destroyed building. There were a few locals huddled inside, but he quickly shooed them off, telling them to leave the city entirely as it was no longer safe for them. He was angry now. His people were being slaughtered all because Connor wanted revenge on him for defending himself from an idiotic child that had attacked him. That alone was ridiculous, but had been counted on. What Leos hadn't counted on was the Jedi drawing so heavily on the darkside that he was wiping out the city and everyone that lived in it. Mass murder. His people had already dealt with that; they didn't need to deal with it again.

"Arus, Milan, guardia lo. Babesteko me."

The two Maalraas kept themselves hidden, perched in the room at entry points, ready to pounce on anyone that might come into the room. Leos took care of them, good care of them, so they were going to take good care of him in return. Meanwhile, Leos took up a seat in the center of the room, already buried under mass amounts of rubble, and reached out with the Force. Connor was still out there, calling him out. Unfortunately for the Jedi, unless he made a concerted effort to find him, he wasn't going to. Going out to face the man was suicidal, and that was something that Leos definitely was not. Teynara would be very upset if he went and got himself killed so foolishly, so he would not do so. Besides, he couldn't do what needed to be done if he was dead.

No, he was going to stay nice and hidden for the moment and use his skills to his advantage. A new apparition would appear as all the others vanished. This one floated down in front of Connor from above him, a perfect replica of the armored Leos. It didn't matter if the man believed it was there or not, because it was there. This skill was only partially illusion, just like what he'd been doing before. It was a near mirror replica of the real Leos, and perfectly capable of taking, and dealing, damage.

"Why would I come out to face you? That goes against my skill set. Besides, as you grow more powerful, so do I, and I'm clearly frustrating you now. You can try and find me, but you're doing a poor job of it, and I'm rather enjoying using the Force to beat you like this."

The man had removed his mask, creating a weak point. The apparition aimed its fist at it, intent on smashing the mans nose in. Connor could stop it, of course. It wouldn't be that hard to do so, but he would find the apparition quite tangible, just like the last one had been. This wasn't a game that could be one by great feats of strength like tearing down buildings. Connor was facing a tactically minded foe, one that did not fight on the front lines, but he was treating Leos like he did. It was a misstep on the Jedi's part and, unless he learned to really control and use his anger, harness it, he was never going to come close to succeeding in what he wanted to do.

"Admittedly, you've surprised me. I didn't expect you to utilize the darkness within you so readily. Apparently she was important to you after all. Not important enough for you to teach her to defend herself, though. Or better yet, to teach her the value of her own life over a stupid inanimate object. You are, ultimately, responsible for her state of affairs. I merely defended myself and taught her what you could not."

[member="Connor Harrison"], [member="Matsu Xiangu"], [member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OhroA6ShhI​

Connor looked down at the ground a few feet before him, controlling only his breathing and connection to the Force. His hair was matted with sweat and dust, his armour heavy and the small tink-tink-tink of pebbles lightly pinging off his armour from the destructive fall-out. Nothing else mattered. There were no rules now. There were no chains. Inside his head, she was there, latching on. Not pulling him back, not pushing him forward, but...holding him up, fusing his mind and body with the darkness that was buried inside. It was empowering. It was liberating.

Another form of Ignus came down like some false God. Connor only saw with the Force, looking for weakness, fear and desperation. Feeding from Matsu's support and becoming a predator - a focused warrior, what he had been prevented from becoming all his life. The words meant nothing, for it was the actions that spoke volumes.

As the punch came, so did Connor's left fist to catch it, twisted and brought up the Kal'vod gauntlet with a flex of his right wrist, ejecting the garroted blades for a clean strike into the apparition's neck. Connor didn't look. He didn't need to. It soon became clear another apparition was down.

Flexing the hand to retract the two blades, the Jedi turned to Matsu, eyes dark and distant. Ethereal.

"Come with me."

It wasn't an order, it wasn't a request - he was talking to the Force inside her.

Whether she moved form her vantage point or not, he wouldn't know. Instead, he took everything away around him. The insignificant materials of rock and metal, the armour and weapons, everything that was an illusion to reality. The Force surrounded all living things; the darkness inside him would find Ignus and sniff out the coward himself hiding within the shadow.

Like a gunshot going off in his head, like a Reek with a scent, Connor bolted down from the rubble out into the ruins. The world around him was like a holomap of senses; heat signatures, death, fear and dank evil. An apparition came out nowhere with a strike, but Connor simply span to avoid it and not breaking stride. He pushed down to ride the terrain as if it were flat, rather than strewn with pockets of fire, twisted iron and pulped bodies.

Ignus was hiding, and his heartbeat was what Connor focused on, pure and natural and bathed in the Dark Side calling to him like a homing beacon.

[member="Darth Ignus"] | [member="Matsu Xiangu"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Still she waited.

She’d told Harrison she only lived for herself. But that wasn’t entirely true. There was not a single creature in the galaxy that shaped her destiny but her, no matter how she might care for Reverance, for Ygdris, for her son.

But for the Dark Side? She would die.

And was that not a Sorceress’ gift, to be born with the dark side attached like some filthy parasite, tearing a hole until she festered? To think of her made her ecstatic, a woman wild. Was there any partner more loyal, any force more devastatingly beautiful once one had proven themselves worthy of controlling it? She viewed it as a trade, a symbiotic relationship almost like something she might share with a lover. If she spread its glory, it would give her power - and it loved her, oh it did. She could feel its approval as Harrison opened himself to its presence, a new conduit from which to work towards plunging the galaxy in to shadow.

Connor’s voice drifted through her mind and still she toed the line, unwilling to stick her foot in the middle of a confrontation that would no doubt end in cataclysmic destruction. She’d seen too many dabble in the dark, testing the waters with idle or frightened fingers only to pull back when they realized it wasn’t the romanticized revelation they expected. It was rot and offal. And until she was sure that Harrison was prepared to drown, she would remain.

But still, she dropped down from the roof she’d climbed to, spidering in to the broken window of a building clawed in half by Harrison’s quickly shifting connection to the Force. Inside she found nothing living, bodies broken, ash settling on skin soon to follow as the ground settled between quakes.

Her voice drifted along his mind in response.

“Not yet. But there’s no turning back now - not after what you’ve just done. So you might as well embrace freedom.”

[member="Connor Harrison"] | [member="Darth Ignus"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]​

 

[Leora]

Finally.

For a master of the Force, Leos found Connor to be surprisingly daft, even if he was power drink on the darkside of the Force. He hadn't expected his illusionary arts to be this effective for so long outside of the containment of his sphere. The fact that it was sort of perplexed him. How was this man, so easily influenced by simple mind games, someone that was looked up to among the Jedi? It made little sense to him.

But now the man was finally using his brain and honing in on where Leos was. Of course Leos was prepared for such an endeavour. The attack of the clones ceased as Connor drew closer. Instead, Leos reached out and began to transform the area around him. An area of effect illusion, if you will. It would only interact with those who came within sight of it, so until then Connor would be quite fine in his approachieve.

The illusion was relatively simple in visage. Where the buildings opening was, what was left of it, a giant maw of absolute darkness had opened, shroud ingredients everything within it. Leos knew the man had gear to see through darkness, if he was wearing his helmet, but it wouldn't see through illusion. Only the Masters mind could do that. And if it did? Well, Leos had his maalraas and a few other tricks up his sleeves. To say he was helpless would not be accurate.

So let them come. He was ready.

[member="Connor Harrison"], [member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

As the last few words trailed in his head from the Sorceress, Connor slowed to a gradual stop as the illusions faded and a sharp wind kicked up a small dust cyclone sweeping erratically across the ruins. He stood atop the iron beam he was on and surveyed the planet before him.

He was in control now; amidst a dangerous battle of brain and brawn, with Sith Lords present, this Rogue Jedi was in control. That was power. The first step. Silence all around him bar the whistle of the wind.

Freedom was calling, yet here he was playing cat and mouse with a Knight.

It was nothing but a waste of time and resources; something Connor had in limited means right now in the bigger picture.

The calling to him across the building in the distance, a black maw pulsating, was inviting, and he looked at it through hard eyes for a moment before turning on the beam and walking back to where he had come from, taking his time.

"You have nothing left," he said to himself calmly, speaking out to Ignus, "and it will be a victory watching you fade away when I take everything that you’ve only dreamed about."

The desire for Kyra was slipping further and further down into his mind; her safety was paramount, but to do that he needed more.

The wind picking up a little, Connor held his arm up to block the sharp debris as he made it within speaking distance of Matsu Xiangu.

"I think we need to embrace freedom. I’m done wasting my time. The time for action is now."

[member="Matsu Xiangu"] | [member="Darth Ignus"] | [member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

The time for action is now.

And wasn’t it?

Matsu was a woman of silence. Endlessly quiet, a brick wall void of any emotion she might have been feeling, she’d cultivated a habit of holding back. It was safer. Krius Syonis had taught her that and although she may have watched his body burn, smelled his flesh as it cooked, sat through the night as he turned to ash, she carried his lesson with her throughout. It had helped make her a monster, a powerful monster.

But sometimes she gave in.

I’m done wasting my time.

Without a second thought her wall dropped, an animal of a woman emerging from a shell in which she usually lay. Stalking out of the building in which she was admiring his inadverant handiwork, she followed their signatures in the Force.

She found Connor’s particular tug, latching on and drawing from it. Before he would have been inaccessible. Before he would have been the Light, pure but weak - unfathomable and untouchable. But something burgeoning and festering was within him and finally, finally he would let it go and see who he could be. Using his power she raised her hands and whispered her spell.


It was heady to speak it once more, to hear the ancient Sith language escaping her lips where for so long she’d been forced to cast without sound.

From her hands, sorcery erupted, the dark coalescing in to something corporeal as as a massive cross between a serpent and some pincered grub appeared. Half as large as the buildings still standing, it clacked its giant pincers together, huge red eyes shifting as it interpreted its sudden existence as agony. Barreling forward, it smashed itself in to the building closest to it, legs clack-clack-clacking towards the yawning, dark maw that seemed to be made of the same material that had created it. It would crush anything in its path. It feared nothing for it was already dead.

“Alright Connor. Go ahead. Have your first taste.”

[member="Darth Ignus"] | [member="Connor Harrison"]​

 

[Leora]

"You know nothing of my dreams, Connor Harrison. Nor do you anything of the Force. Your previous blind devotion has seen to that."

He still had tricks left. In fact he had quite a few of them. No, he'd merely been content to use the same ones over and over again because it worked. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. But of course he kept much in reserve because he kept much in reserve because he knew that Connor would eventually find him and close the gap. Leos was smart enough to know his tricks wouldn't work forever.

The fact that Connor thought he would waste away, and the. spoke of the time for action while calling off his hunt when he'd been mere steps away had proven that he was not a man who was willing to commit to the tasks that lay before him. He was still weak, misguided and utterly uncontrolled. In this state he was more akin to a freshly awakened acolyte than he was to a master of the Force.

Of course that didn't change the fact that Matsu was a Master. Apparently a bored one as she summoned forth a worm; a creature already dead and with no remorse. He was beginning to get sick of them all laying waste to his homeworld. It was nearly life day and Zaharrak Opari already had enough to do without these two adding to it.

He would not be goaded, however. No, he valued his life enough to not be stupid. If the creature drew near, he had his own methods of dealing with them. A snap of his fingers and the two Maalraas stood at attention. He pointed towards the door and looked at each in turn.

"Arus, Milan, go."

The two invisible hunters departed, blending into the darkness of any shadow they could find, concealing themselves within the Force itself. Maalraas were good hunters. Nightstalkers, they were sometimes called. They darted out and made their way for the Worm. They would leap at it, even upon it, using their speedy, lanky bodies to attack it with their vicious teeth and fangs. Strong bones and musculature would help.

"I am more than shadows, my friends. I am also called Beast Master, and there are more where these two come from."

Indeed in his ship were more such creatures, merely waiting his call, but for now the Maalraas would do nicely.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"] [member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Feeling an almost nauseous sensation as if something was draining him from the inside, the full sight of Matsu embracing the Dark Side was quite inspirational as she seemed form dark clouds and whips floating around her hands. She truly embodied a power attuned to the Force. Regardless of allegiance, the controlled and harnessed the essence that Connor had been working to all his life.

However, the ground soon paved way for a giant beast, pincers and claws and eyes as red as blood and body black like her heart. He stumbled back, dwarfed by the beast as Ignus called again, also conjuring his beasts.

The power of the Dark Side proved there was more to a challenge than simple hand to hand combat and tricks – it truly span the spectrum of life itself. Man, beast, and beyond.

Shielding his eyes from the raining dust cloud and taking in the horrific sight that roared up above, Connor started to panic. Matsu called upon him to test himself, but… he couldn’t. What if she turned? What if this was a trap?

He didn’t trust her.

Looking back over to her, he called out.

"I can’t! I’ve never had this power before!"

And a hellish call came from the dust – two more beasts leaped to attack the worm. And then, Connor saw his insignificance as looked on. Two Dark Side followers calling upon the Force to control and conjure beasts. As a Light Side Master, Connor was adept in many of the more routine and less-aggressive powers and techniques, but here he was glimpsing a whole new world.

And he had no chance of survival in it if he wasn’t strong enough.

"Give me the power for this!" Shouting over the brutal carnage, he never felt more like a dot amongst the landscape.

[member="Darth Ignus"] | [member="Matsu Xiangu"]