Private Save it for the Morrow

[Darth Empyrean]

"That is because you don't understand my strength or it's limits.", Empyrean declared with authority.

Objects flew at him, slamming into his shoulders, chest, legs, head - each driving that body part back in recoil before he continued forward. His material hand raised itself in the air - and clenched like he held the will of the world in his palm, refusing to surrender it. The objects nearest him ceased, but his will manifested greater.

Spirits were harder to fight than physical strikes, and Empyrean understood that Morrow needed her physical form as much as he did. That said, Very little, so his weapon would be the Force. Pure dark side energy began to form around her like a cloud - building to a tornado similar to her own, but entrapping, deadly, black as the void was empty.

It burned something far deeper than flames or lightning, it was a burn that crossed dimensions to the Nether, to Other Space, it burned through reality itself. The sneer on Empyreans face was unceasing, bringing down the strength of his power down upon her so that it may finally end.

The barrier shook and cracked beneath the strength of the two Sith, the Sepulchrals chants building in speed and power as they struggled to contain the duelists. The audience watching However seemed enthralled, rarely given the opportunity to witness such grandiose affairs - let alone their Dark Lord fight.

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

As the dark side energies began to close around her another tornado began to form, this time a brilliant white as it pushed out all around her with enough heat to scorch and evaporate any matter it touched. Bursting out from her containment, Morrow's form unstable began to reform itself within seconds, hardening once more.

Sending forth a burst of energy she blew back the fire and his dark oppression, her eyes of pure magma watching over him with deep hatred. The force itself would shift under her brewing anger, her memories of torture and pain flooding her mind with each passing moment, each step she took it all began coming back. So much she had locked away came to light as she began fighting for what seemed like her very life.

A force scream echoed across the chamber with enough power to knock back any unprepared, only to be followed up by metal pillars rising from the scraps of floor in an attempt to skewer the man.

Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Her efforts met traction - the scream ripping what remained of the tile, flame and metal skewering the form of Empyrean from beneath. He lifted high into the air, one hand grasping at the metal that crucified him before he slowly went limp and seemed to lose the fight that sustained him.

"You are strong, Darth Morrow.", she would hear, but not from the body held aloft, but from behind her.

Empyreans mortal hand pressed lightly on her shoulder - and all the flame, all the heat, all the anger was suddenly awash in a cold snap that spread ice into the ground. Small crystals formed from his presence, cold air falling still in fear of his being.

"... but I am beyond strength."

The cold snapped ever lower, driving the energy in the room away, making the temperature unbearable. It grew colder in their space inside the barrier than it was even outside the ship in space. Ever colder, every tightening - like movement itself was choked by his touch.

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

Hearing the voice behind her Morrow instantly came to attention, though it was too late. Frost began to curl over her form, pain wracking her body as it began to coalesce into more physical than her non corporeal state. The woman fell to her knees, she felt as though she couldn't move; her pale skin turned a tinge purple as she began trying to create heat with her use of the force, though as he continued to force this cold upon her it became harder and harder to even think,

Dark cracks of fire attempted to spread across her body, much like lava does a landscape after an eruption, though what resulted was frost burned flesh and more pain. Slowly, agonizingly she attempted to force herself to stand, the fight clearly not having left her as the smoke that once coated her quite evidently continued its attempts to allow her to shift away.

The feelings of rage that burned inside her steadily grew, and if the man she once knew hesitated for even a moment the woman would burst to fire once more in an attempt to equalize the temperature of the room.

Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

"Heat for a Sith is easy, it's so simple to create heat and flame from anger.", Empyrean offered her.

The cold grew deeper.

"But the cold? It comes from contempt, ire, calculated vengeance."

The cold grew deeper.

"Heat. Cold. Ice and flame."

The cold grew deeper.

"I am both and neither, I am energy as a concept, God as we know it."

The cold grew deeper.

"And in this moment, I am death. It's cold embrace, the hand that calls, the blade that cuts mortality."

The cold grew deeper.

"Surrender yourself to the cold. Surrender..."

The cold grew.

"To..."

The cold.

"... me."

Cold.

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

The woman continued to fight, that was, until she didn't. Every bit of anger drained from her in what felt like her last moments, and they were full of suffering. Pain filled her very being until she was met with nothing. Everything dissipated from her except a feeling of warmth that she never knew. It felt as though fire crawled across her skin and scorched ever atom of her. And somehow, she welcomed it. The death she finally craved granted to her at last, the nothing of the abyss she so hoped for, to allow herself to drift off into nothing.

"I.... surrender...."

Morrow collapsed to the ground, her body barely holding together as she lost consciousness from the pain that drove her so close to death. It was one of the few things that could. The genetics of the experiment her body was mixed with was a sensitive array of enhancements, and drawbacks. What she lacked physically she made up for in connection to the force, however, Empyrean did one of the few debilitating things to halt the creation, a failsafe made in order to contain the wayward weapon should it wreak havoc.

In her mind she was brought back to the times she begged for death at the Emperors hand, the day she lost her husband... the death of her child... There was so much pain filling her, so much trauma and suffering brought to a crescendo in this very moment, all by one little mistake.

Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Morrow collapsed, and with her surrender, Empyrean let free his grip on reality. The room warmed, light returned - and the Sepulchral grew quiet as they let the barrier fall. The room was destroyed, but that would be fixed later.

For now, it was simply a testament to the strength of Morrow. Empyrean walked to her corpse, and the strength he held faded - falling back to look like a man weakened by time and injury. He kneeled next to her and pull hair back from her face - ensuring she still lived.

It was a skill in itself to fight so hard and not kill someone - a skill he had learned many times over. A dead Sith served a purpose, but to kill all sith that challenged him was pointless - so many could serve for better as his agents.

"You've fought well, Darth Morrow. No less than what I'd expect.", he said in a low and tired voice.

"I shall have a room made for you - you shall know trivial comforts and security so long as you aboard my ship."

"You will serve me well, Bringer of Flame, and I will make you strong for it."

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

Days would pass before there was any signs of extensive life from the woman. Morrow was carried to a chamber, a safe place for her recovery that was slowed to a crawl by the damage she had taken. Her form was in lack of better words disabled, much like one would shut off a droid, though this was far more intrusive. Her healing abilities were limited by the cold that gripped her even hours after the fighting had ceased, spots healing in small bits and pieces as the days dragged on.

In this time of recovery, the woman experienced visions, something she always had during her times of drifting in the abyss. Memories and premonitions invaded her mind unbidden, an intruder to her processes as things long buried reared their ugly heads.

She watched before her eyes as Kieran was taken from her again, back on the dusty and humid surface of Iridonia, how she kicked and screamed for him to be freed and watching him be tortured by the slavers before being sold off like cattle. She watched the fight between herself and the Slave, Maliphant, for the right to be an apprentice under Darth Imperia, the woman she later killed at the expense of her old life.

Things began flashing faster, her first sight of her new form, a gift from her new master, Carnifex. Her own torturer. The birth of her three children, the death of her son named after her late husband, fleeing through space and her inevitable capture. Her many a fight against the man who demanded absolute obedience, and the final moments she saw him before fleeing at the tail end of the war. And finally her imprisonment, a decade long self sustaining prison powered by her own connection to the force.

Sulfuric eyes shot open after the days had passed, her eyes meeting the ceiling of the chamber before she inevitably took in a long, aching breath. She felt the pain in her arms as they continued to reform, the phantom pains stretching through her and gripping her chest with a vice grip. Slowly, Morrow began to press herself up with all the power she could muster.

Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The doctor in her room glanced to her - a double take before he pressed a button on his holopad, informing others of her awakening. He cleared his throat and held a hand out for her to slow down -

"Please, Darth Morrow, wait until-"

But his voice trailed off and his pupils expanded, so wide they covered even the whites of his eyes. The voids of his vision were vaguely animated, but his form froze - twitching as it's control was lost to another. Then he hummed, affirmative in his action as he set the holopad aside and took a seat.

"Hello, Darth Morrow.", he said, his voice overlapping his own with the deep bass of another she knew, Empyrean.

"I hope you're recovery is going well."

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

Her eyes narrowed to the doctor, possessed by the man who beat her down with such a cheap trick. Morrows still felt the deep chill that gripped her, her mind still trying to wrap around that she was close enough to feel death itself. But once more she was forbidden from passing over, as she always was. The universe seemed to have a sick sense of humor, dangling the offer of death before her time and time again but keeping it just out of reach.

The memories still fresh in her mind from her purgatory stay she began to stand, holding onto the edge of the bed for support with her stumps as arms still reformed. It was clear she wasn't through healing, her pale skin still cracked through like that of a dropped porcelain doll, her eyes less full of light than they always were. She was still weakened from her entombment, and this did nothing to help her recovery.

"You should have just killed me... This is a worse torture and you know it..." The woman's voice carried across the room, softer than its usual echo as she slowly pushed herself away from the bed. The feeling she had was akin to her connection to the force being pulled through a funnel, the harder she pulled the more it became stuck in its restriction, it would take time for it to be fully restored, an unfortunate design of her partial genetics to keep her second half in check.

"What is it you wish of me."

Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

"There is no shame in losing to a God...", the Doctor said in a voice all to familiar to Maliphant's.​

​

The Doctor smiled, rested a hand on her shoulder, then removed it as he sat. A small comforting gesture - reminiscient of who Maliphant once was, that Empyrean seemed so far removed from. Folding his legs, the Doctor leaned back to look upon her again, eyes still as dark as the void of Empyrean's arm.​

​

"Many Sith do not concern themselves with joy - but I find that short sighted.", he began to ramble.​

​

"... Joy is a foundational emotion, a strength so many choose to ignore. Do you know why that is?", Empyrean said from the Doctor's puppeted voice.​

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"Because suffering is easy - one can commit it through nothing more than a word. Joy is far harder."​

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"I wish to give you joy, Darth Morrow. A strength you can rely on - but more than that, a reason to listen."​

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"I don't expect you to stay loyal because I beat you - I expect you to stay loyal because I am the only being who can help you."​

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His eyes seemed to intensify at that - staring deeper into her than she cared to admit was there.​

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"I will become your God."​

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"What do you think of that, Darth Morrow?"​

​

Darth Morrow​

 

[Darth Morrow]

Morrow missed her old friend, that she could say well enough. Memories of time under Imperia drifted through her mind, their fights, their triumphs together, their training, and at the end of that day what became their foundation. She remembered being nothing but an apprentice under Carnifex, slaying her former master in a move of revenge for abandoning them, for leaving them in the galaxy alone, with nothing more than their basic lessons. Her heart ached, or where her heart should be, when she thought on how she wondered if he survived.. Then seeing him once more as Maliphant.

Looking upon him her eyes were almost filled with a brief moment of sadness, as everything faded away and she was pulled back to reality. He was so similar to how he was back then, even if just for a brief moment. Snapping back she sighed, considering over his words.

Joy.

A word that could make Morrow laugh had she not been so hardened. Joy, it was something she hadn't even thought on in what felt like millennia. She hadn't felt joy since before she was taken by the empire. Since Kieran was by her side. A feeling wrenched in her chest. Joy was not something she was permitted, it was ripped away from her, beaten out of her mind until she knew best to listen; that was how the universe worked, in its sick ways.

"The joy I once had is gone, Maliphant." She said softly, giving in to that hope that he was still somewhere down inside. "And it wont return. It cant."

She crossed over her arms, the hands beginning to reform with the crackle of fire and smoke, piecing together carbon to make what seemed to be skin, though really it was nothing more than an outward appearance. Slowly she let herself lower onto the bed on the other side, her back turned to his. There was so much going through her head, surely a telepath would want to cleave their own head off at the drowning wave of her mind.

"I have been gifted wealth, possessions, offered a comfortable life, that is no replacement for Joy. Those aren't things that simply give you happiness, no matter how much you wish. I had the life I wanted, and the Empire ripped it from my hands. I doubt there is anything you could do, even as godlike as you say, to change my life into something full of 'joy'."

Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The Doctor smiled at that;

"I fully expected you to doubt me.", he retorted.

"Once someone is so deeply engrained with negativity - to see positive emotions is hard. You weren't aware of what Imperia did to me, do you?"

The smiled faded.

"You were the apprentice, and I was the slave. When you beat me in that bout to become her student, and I lost, I remained a Slave. She used me, abused me, sold me to her friends as a toy for their pleasure."

A frown deepened.

"When I was given a chance at happiness, do you know what I was reminded of? That I was a Slave. That I was worthless compared to a Sith of power, who was free."

The jaw muscles worked and grinded before they stopped and fell slack beneath skin.

"I lost everything even when I had nothing - again and again until I was a husk. I felt nothing, only anger and shame - until I took the mantle of Maliphant. Then I felt power; but power was only the foundation for my joy. It allowed me security and a chance to experience more than I was."

"You will experience it as well, in time. Do not doubt me, Darth Morrow, but feel free to speculate. I'll impart upon you the philosophy of the Eternals, and through it you may find the joy I did."

"In time, of course, at your own volition."

Darth Morrow

 

[Darth Morrow]

Morrow listened to her once friends' story, a frown forming on her porcelain face as he went on about his past. She knew of the suffering it had brought him, she even remembered the dirty trick she had pulled to win their fight, it was something that haunted her. How different it all would have been if she were the loser of their bought. Her rage boiled but this time softer, almost, sadder; there was so much that could have changed from one little mistake, she did what she had to... She remembered Kieran's last words to her before he was pulled away... He wanted her to live.

If she hadn't won that fight, whos to say Imperia wouldn't have just slain her there, if she hadn't followed along and obeyed every order... If she had been beaten to death by Carnifex in a bought, if she were to lose to any of her numerous enemies or even if she were to have died to Empyrean however long ago their fight had been... it all would have sullied his wishes. The woman felt the pain of heartache full force, so many thoughts she had locked away once she began her new life as Darth Morrow.

"I am... sorry I did not kill her sooner." Were her quiet words, though she allowed the man to continue.

She felt his pain, again and again as she heard his tale because it was something so similar to her own, her bouts for freedom against Carnifex and the Empire, her childhood and life on Iridonia before she was taken. There was suffering, and her happiness within grasp was beaten out of her again and again.

"I am sure, you have managed to find your own joy. It is not that I doubt you, more so as much as I doubt anything in this universe could bring me happiness again."

Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The doctor possessed by Empyrean laid a gentle hand upon hers - and in his eyes was a sternness shrouded in the black pits that formed within them. Brows tight, focus measured - his words were spoken with a careful authority of a man far beyond the traditional scuffles of Sith.​

​

"Give it time, Darth Morrow.", he said. His hand squeezed, as though to reassure her. He leaned back then, pulling back and relaxing as his legs crossed.​

​

"In truth, I'd of preferred you never killed her. I would've liked to kill her myself."​

​

He glanced at the Doctor's nails, as though judging the man for his cuticle health.​

​

"I'd of shown her something she would never forget. Ironic, isn't it - that while she abused us, we have surpassed her so unequivocally?"​

​

"Her weakness is interesting in that regard alone - that she could create beings of such power and potential with almost none of her own."​

​

Darth Morrow​

 

[Darth Morrow]

"She was weak, desperate for power; Imperia clung to the idea that all she needed was to seem powerful to earn her place. She kept slaves, servants, she built leisure palaces and threw grand parties. All the while, she never once held any power herself."

Morrow sighed, looking over to the possessed doctor and thought back on the things she had done in her past, how much she regretted, there was too many to count.

"She killed me you know. I was just an apprentice, but before she went down... she killed me." The pale woman looked down at the floor, letting out a slow breath despite the necessity. "My body was crumbling by the time I made it back to Carnifex's ship, I'm surprised I even made it back; I could have so easily withered away in my ship, trapped in hyperspace for eternity or drifting somewhere in the void. But I didn't."

The sulfuric eyes turned back to the doctor, devoid of emotion but somehow still conveying something none were equipped to understand.

"In truth, I believe I really died then... maybe not physically... but..." Then there was a long pause.

"I am... very sorry for everything."

Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

He frowned at her, his black void-like gaze holding to her expression before his brow furrowed. It was a look between pity and disgust - all too foreign on the Doctors friendly Visage.​

​

"Don't apologize.", he said. His voice was more stern, probably more than he intended - spoken like he did when he was to be Dark Lord, not a friend.​

​

He quickly looked away from her - composing himself before he sighed and looked back.​

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"Imperia was barely a Sith, but barely is still enough. She did what she could because she was more powerful than us - but when her strength failed in the face of more pure power, she resorted to what she could. Take no shame in what happened - accept that struggle gives us a foundation for strength."​

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His jaw muscles worked beneath skin -​

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"Pain is there so we know what we fight for - what we don't want. Jedi make peace with pain, allow it because it I'd "natural". We fight it because it's all we have ever known - don't forget that, Darth Morrow. Fight pain and struggle with everything you have so whoever comes next has to struggle with less. Don't mourn for what has already occurred- to whoever it has occurred to."​

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"Even me. Even you."​

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Darth Morrow​

 

[Darth Morrow]

Morrow listened to his words in silence, considering them as they were and making note of the passion, rather anger he had behind them. This was something that meant everything to him, enough to make his composure slip for even a moment. It made her think back on her past even more, in her times of rage, hatred, those she wanted to obliterate like nothing more than a bug being scraped against pavement.

Her reforming hand clenched while it was nothing more than shadow still.

"If you'll allow me, I'd like to use a laboratory you have, if you have the equipment for bio regeneration and cellular splicing. If I'm going to use my pain to fight those we want underfoot, you've killed this body, I need to make another."

It was true, from what he could see her form was far slower to regenerate than it ever had been, porcelain skin still cracked to show the shadows that made up her form for what they were, nothing more than a temporary solution to a long term problem.

Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Empyrean nodded -​

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"As my agent, you will have access to all I can give you. Request a member of the Sepulchral to shadow you, their knowledge is endless and unknown - they hide it well, even from me. With their assistance, I do not doubt you can achieve anything you set yourself upon."​

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He stood slowly, brushing nothing from his chest.​

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"When you have collected yourself, found temporary peace, find me. We have much to discuss on our plans for taking over the Order."​

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Darth Morrow​