Private Spelunking on Dagobah

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Wearing: Unknown Jedi Armor

Armed With: Nathan's Synth Crystal Lightsaber



Kytrand , days prior.


Nathan tried to meditate. Genuinely meditate. For the first time in years. But he never could.

Each time he tried, he was beset by nothing but visions of his wife being drained of her life, and having a Force bond to her killer did not help.

Stuck aboard this old Centurion Class Battle Cruiser , controlled by his fiance's clan, orbiting over Kytrand , he had grown restless. Since the attack on Jakku, with that bastard Aziraphale having mind tricked him into attacking a pregnant Lossa Aureus , he had been steadfastly trying to increase his resistance to Mental Assault, to stretch it beyond his already considerable abilities. He was haunted by his failure to keep that abomination out of his head.

When he had once more failed to properly meditate he sighed. His mind would only still itself when his wife was avenged. Sleep brought different nightmares, and he would often wake up during those. Discipline forbade screams.

He had gone down there wearing a seized armor he had found on Exagol to do his business once he was aware of special properties it possessed properties like disguising his aura.

He had brought medical supplies. Bacta-Works brought wounded refugees sometimes, due to the planet's pacifying nature. Keeping a patient calm and serene would greatly aid in healing.

He had busied himself unloading crates filled with Bacta, getting stares from everyone due to his Jedi Armor, which fully concealed his features.

"Didn't know the Jedi were involved with Bacta-Works..." One Woman, a middle aged peasant from Ukatis remarked as he dropped off Bacta ointment in a waiting basket by her repulsor bed.

"They aren't. Remember that NDA you signed." Nathan answered back.

The woman rolled her eyes. "And no bedside manner either..."

"You're good to go..." Nathan replied as he continued pushing his repulsor cart along, the mask disguising his voice also. One of the Soldier Biots suddenly calmly walked up to him.

"Sir...you should come with me. There's an issue that requires your attention." the catsuit clad killing machine with supermodel looks said quietly to him.

"There's always an issue." he grumbled but stopped his rounds and followed her to a command tent on the outskirts of the tentative settlement they had started building. Other Soldier Biots scurried about, rushing reports and monitoring scans and transmissions

"Alright, what is it?" Nathan asked.

"This..." The Biot answered, showing him a holorecord of several different individuals, graduates from Nytesmyth Academy on Susevfi.

Nathan watched as the Graduates were captured instinctively healing patients with the Force, and being perplexed when they pulled it off by accident.

"They tested high on ethics and sense of duty in corporate reviews. The ones you instilled." she whispered.

"Has anyone else on the staff seen this?" Nathan asked.

"No. The security drones that recorded it have already had their memories wiped."

"Good. See to the destruction of this footage immediately. Where are they?"

"They're still working the camp close to those cave systems in the northeast."

"Transmit a recall to all of them."

"We've tried. Something at the site is interfering."

"I'll go get them." Nathan replied, sighing as he went to the nearby speeder and took off, knowing where to go, unable to shake the feeling of at the seeming convenience of it. All the healers, drawn to that cave network...

The Force was trying to tell him something. And even though he wasn't exactly fond of the Boss, when it told him something, he listened.

Upon arrival he saw a lot of the settlers were arguing at the fort-like center of pre fab shelters when one of the gate guards noticed him.

"Hey guys! It's a Jedi Knight!" He called out in surprise

"There are no Jedi Knights on Kytrand." Nathan repeated as he walked past the guards, the other settlers, all refugees, staring at him.

"I'm a consultant. Except I'm not here, and none of you are speaking to me." He explained to them. "I'm looking for the team of medics that visited you this morning. Where are they?"

"They all went into the cave. Got a funny dazed look over them..." one of the women called out. They've been there an hour. We were debating going to look for them. We tried calling Corporate, but no signal got through."

"You were wise to avoid going in hastily. I'll take it from here. Thank you." he replied in a brusque way before heading back the way he came. "And remember the NDA you signed."

He went out the gate, spotting the large mouth of the cave in the distance, and getting out his lightsaber. He teleported to the entrance and headed inside.

There hadn't been much scouting in this location conducted so far, so he felt surprise at seeing steps the further he went, then the walls smoothing out, Jedi hieroglyphics carved into them. He descended down carefully, spotting Jedi statues of glowing white stone in a massive carved chamber, and each of the graduates, suspended in a pillar of light near each Jedi Statue. There was a great pillar of empty light at the center.

He tried calling out to them, but they were unresponsive. Great. Just fethin' great.

Nathan cautiously crept into the chamber. This place had called them to it, and they had responded. Now they were trapped. Why?

With terrible, sneaking suspicion, he suspected he was the actual reason they had been called here.

The damned planet felt like testing him.

So be it.

Instinct told him to go into the central pillar of light, even though he really, really didn't want to.

He was levitated up the moment he stepped into the light. A surge of great and terrible power flowed through his body, and it was so painful he thought he was going to die.

Nathan, calm yourself... He heard Syd call out through their bond. Don't fight the Light's power. Let it flow through you. Let me help.

Nathan, through his agony, saw the medics, still trapped. If he failed here they might he trapped forever. He had no choice if he wanted to save their lives. He, at the very least, didn't want to be responsible for their deaths.

DIRECTIVE TWO: PROTECT THE INNOCENT

Nathan reluctantly let Syd into his mind, their horrible memories merging as she showed him the way to stabilize the power, to harness it from destroying his cellular structure. He let the Force guide itself through his body rather than instinctively resisting the strange God he no longer held any real feelings towards except distaste and a lingering sense of having been betrayed by said God. He trusted it only because there was no other option to get out of this situation...

The Force's power may have flowed through him, but he absolutely took no comfort in that. He just had to accept it and obey. Comfort or Like was not a pre-requisite for obedience.

He felt the Light's power. Perceived it as ambivalent towards him. He kept calm, not indulging his darker emotions, which even he knew to be dangerous.

He felt a focal point in the Force and reached out and grasped it, feelings it's countours before sending a pulse through it

The pillars of light that had entrapped the medics ceased to function. Nathan dropped to the floor coughing...he felt different...

(Plasmid Acquisition Theme Plays)


(Nathan's Force Reserves have been permanently increased)

(New Force Potential achieved!)

(Key Force Powers Enhanced!)

ENHANCEMENT: ELECTRIC JUDGEMENT

Spoiler

Bolt Range + 1 (Ten Meter increase without cohesion loss)

Bolt Accuracy + 1 (Singular bolts are far more precise)

Bolt Chaining (Can chain up to three enemies with a single bolt)

Sphere Judgement + 1 (Unleash a condensed ball of Electric Judgement, firing weak bolts off in random directions as it speeds past)

Bolt Ricochet +1 (Singular bolts ricochet off surfaces up to two times)

Sky Judgement +1 (Coalesce the Light Side into a singular, heavy bolt that erupts from the sky to the surface to incapacitate or kill Dark Side users (Only heavily stuns everyone else)

ENHANCEMENT: PYROKINESIS

Spoiler

Stream Range +1 (Increases the range of manifested fire streams by ten meters)

Fire Ball +1 (Condensed mass of flames that, once launched, explode on contact)

Fiery Touch +1 (Touch can now literally burn people)

Fiery Repulse (Explosion of flames from User that rivals the devastating effects of a Force Repulse

Cohesion +1 (Greater cohesion of flame Constructs, allowing more precise shapes to be created

Construct Duration +1 (Constructs of fire last longer)

Construct Durability + 1 (Constructs are now harder to disperse)

ENHANCEMENT: STASIS

Spoiler

Radius + 1 (Can now possibly put targets in a seven meter radius around the user in Stasis)

Duration +1 (Targets in Stasis might remain in Stasis longer)

Stasis: Bolt Catching +1 (Freeze up to two blaster bolts using Force Stasis)

Wound Stasis +1 (Place heavily injured people into a Form of Stasis where their wounds will not get any worse for a period of 24 hours)

ENHANCEMENT: FLASH

Spoiler

Blindness Duration +1 (Enemies who fail to resist such a power may be blinded slightly longer)

Flash Trap + 1 (Coalesce a globule of Force Energy Imbued with the aspect of Force Flash) a stick it on a wall, acting as a flash mine when anyone but the creator comes in proximity)

Disorient + 1 (Enables blinded by the Force Flash may possibly also have their equilibrium disrupted for a few moments)

Flash Repulse +1 (Unleash a powerful burst of blinding light in a wide radius that may blind a lot of enemies temporarily)

(New Force Powers Unlocked!)

Power: TUTAMINUS

Spoiler

Absorb Energy non violently from inorganic sources, using it to heal wounds or strengthen Force Powers. As rank increases, greater and greater amounts of energy can be absorbed.

Power: FORCE LIGHT

Spoiler

Coalesce Light Side Energy into the form of a spear, hurling it at Dark Side enemies. As Rank increases, more powerful effects may be unlocked. May be able to damage dark side infused flesh and objects

When Nathan woke up, he was staring up at the faces of all the medics he had rescued. He was still wearing his armor. They were still in the now inactive chamber.

"Are you all ok?" He asked as he rose to his feet...

"We're fine Master Jedi...just... surprised. We didn't know the Jedi Order had a presence on Kytrand." One of the Medics, a woman with young looks and dark hair spoke.

"The Jedi Order doesn't have a presence on Kytrand." he said sternly, sensing the Force in all of them.

"And there are no Jedi Knights on Kytrand." he continued. "Just me."

"And who are you?" One of them, the burliest of the bunch asked, his size and musculature reminding him of Master Caltin Vanagor.

"A Consultant, and Talent Scout..." Nathan answered. "Answer me...why were you all drawn to this place?"

"There was like...music..." one of them answered a scrawny fellow with glasses "We all heard it. And we followed it. Then we couldn't move for I don't know how long...then we were free, and we spotted you."

Nathan looked at them all a moment.

"How would you folks like a special internship?" he asked slyly. "The pay is fantastic..."



Present: Dagobah


Wearing: Covert Jedi Robes

Armed With: Nathan's Lightsaber

Nathan didn't like wearing Jedi Robes.

For all the Order's claims of humbleness, it no longer meshed with practical reality. Classic Jedi Attire could be spotted a parsec away now, and put a massive target on your back. He'd met Jedi who had tried wearing it anyway, wanting to be a beacon of hope in dark times. They were often dead within six months if they didn't stop immediately. The Jedi who survived the Plague often were the ones who functioned in a clandestine manner.

So he didn't understand why these 'Covert' Robes were called such. He saw no appreciable difference between them and normal Jedi Attire. But it was useful for not raising questions from the Jedi at the Dagobah Temple, who cast funny looks at the eternally unhappy looking Jedi Wayseeker who visited them to drop off supplies.

Today , he was on a different mission, in its swamps. A cave network had been located by a Padawan, who had then vanished in it's depths. Nathan had volunteered to go in, and he had asked Elias Edo to help. Elias, who was probably the closest he had to a friend in the Trade League Jedi other than Kinea Lewellyn of the Wild Knights.

Nathan still was not sure he could trust him with any knowledge of Kytrand. But he had tentatively given him a piece of its secrets in the form of an anonymous Lightsaber he had sent to him, careful to remove any evidence of his own involvement. Edo knew Nathan had considerable strength in the Force, but otherwise knew very little of Nathan himself...he was just as mysterious as the day they had first met on Sullust, a discomforting, silent spectre in the darkness of the temple ruins, who had been there for reasons of his own.

Who knows how Edo or his friends would react if he or they learned the sullen, terse scavenger that Trade League Jedi referred to in a derisive manner as The Vulture had once been a very dangerous Knight from the Plague Era. It would beg all sorts of questions Nathan was not yet prepared to answer.

Nathan waited by a speeder bike on an old trail leading to a path through the deeper swamp into the cave systems. He hoped Elias was prompt. The more time wasted, the lesser their chances were of finding that Padawan alive. Nathan didn't get his hopes up. These scenarios usually had unhappy outcomes.

 

[Elias Edo]

​

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl
Location: DAGOBAH

The muggy air and soggy ground had kept countless explorers from traversing the mysterious world of Dagobah, but not Elias. He was acutely aware of just how much the others loathed the marshlands and still he found himself drawn to them. Perhaps he'd earned the moniker of 'druid' after all. His love for flora, the way he could drone on and on about biospheres... he just couldn't help it. Life made him feel, well, alive. It made great material for contemplation as he stepped along the muddied path toward the coordinates that Nathan Bloodscrawl had given him.

His friend had been quite vague on the details, intentionally so if history truly repeated itself. Nathan always had a mysterious way about him, only shedding as much light as was needed to see just what needed seeing. No more, no less. A man like that was admirable in many ways. Once upon a time, Elias resented Nathan for his abundant secrecy. But now, with the Sith breathing down their necks on one end and the Mandalorian Enclave carving a warpath on the other, Elias wished the Jedi could be more illusive. Shrouded in mystery, much like Dagobah itself.

Elias brushed his fingers against the broad, leafy plants that wove the dense underbrush he traveled through. He hadn't encountered this particular species before and thought, for a brief moment, to stop and collect a few cuttings for the temple. But Nathan's coordinates were sent with urgency. He pushed onward until eventually he spotted his friend ahead, waiting with a speeder bike.

"Come here often?" Elias asked with a playful grin. He could sense the tension and wanted to lighten things up, even though he knew it was in vain. When Nathan was about business, he was focused and cold. Mechanical, almost, like an android. Elias stepped over to the bike, looking to the path ahead.

"What've you found?" he asked. "Is it trouble?"

​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"It's looking like it, Master Edo..." Nathan answered gruffly. "Padawan vanished in the cave system up ahead. I say we either find him in the next four to six hours or we won't find him at all. These sorts of scenarios rarely end well."

Nathan's dark blue lightsaber blade flashed on. It was often the only indicator Nathan was on the Order's side. Everything else about his demeanor suggested a man who did not view Jedi duty the same way other Jedi did. But Dark Side Users who threatened the Trade League were quickly learning to dread the pitiless blue sword of plasma he carried. Nathan would offer them quarter only once, immediately after meeting them. They often didn't take it, which he expected, but they went to the E.R. missing one or two limbs for their trouble.

"Let's go, I'll take the lead..." He said to Elias Edo as he went ahead...

Ten minutes later...

The cave was ancient, it's entrance covered in Moss, and long ago faded carvings dotted it. He felt cold just looking at it but went inside anyway.

His saber lit the interior in dark blue light. The cold feeling in his stomach got colder.

His feet brushed something and he knelt down, picking up a partly rusted lightsaber hilt. He activated it, displaying a light green blade.

"This must be the Padawan's..." Nathan theorized. "But something made him drop it..."

He looked around. No sign of struggle.

"No sign of hurried walking. Or panic. It's like he went in, dropped his saber, and was very casual for whatever else happened. I don't like this..."

A pillar of red fire erupted in the distance of the cave network, overgrown with algae and Force knew what else...

"Careful, Master Edo... approach slowly..." Nathan cautioned, shutting off his blade, slowly approaching the pillar...

 

[Elias Edo]

​

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl
Location: DAGOBAH

“I’m beginning to think you have a thing for caves,” Elias said as he followed Nathan down into the darkness. He lit his own blade, holding it sideways overhead and casting emerald light in the distance behind Nathan’s blue.

Dagobah’s caverns were an interconnected void of tunnels and natural cisterns that were almost alive with the Force. Some of them were practically nexuses, but not all of them were conduits for the Light Side. Some of the swampy caves were steeped in dark energies… this was one of them. He was about to say as much when they happened upon the missing Padawan’s lightsaber.

Elias eyed its blade, a strange sense of connectedness welling inside as he examined its color. The lack of struggle made him worry.

“Shit,” he said darkly. This was exactly why the Coalition Council warned against exploring the wilds. Uncharted caves were inherently dangerous on their own without the temptations of Dark Side nexuses

The sudden pillar of fire all but confirmed his suspicions.

"Careful, Master Edo... approach slowly..."

“Following your lead,” Elias answered. He disengaged his saber but kept a firm grip on the hilt - he wasn't about to mess around with whatever comes crawling from those flames.

After his clash with Darth Nwul on Kazarak, Elias was prepared for anything.

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan grimaced as he advanced forward ahead of Elias Edo .

"Actually...I can't stand caves..."

Nathema , Gulag Era.


He had given a mighty fight before they had finally brought him down, and had proven so violent that even after he was captured it was deemed necessary to put him in five point restraints on a durasteel slab, a mouth muzzle put on the lower half of his face, while the upper half allowed his sightless, blind white eyes to be seen, messy dark hair matted to his scalp as his captors carted him through the dark cave system on Nathema. He had been guided by the Force to come here, and had stowed away on a shuttle to find what it was the Force wanted him to find.

As it turned out, it was a very prolific group of Sith Acolytes, trying to perform some sort of small scale experiment other Jedi had been killed trying to investigate. But as to 'what' they we doing here he still has yet to figure it out.

He was silent in a way that unsettled the other acolytes.

"Why isn't he saying anything?" one asked.

"They usually start acting tough and defiant right about this point. It's weird." the other black robes acolyte murmured. "It's like the lights are on but nobody is home..."

The Padawan stared straight ahead, acknowledgment of anyone or anything to around him nonexistent. He was carted until he was placed in the center of an ancient cavern carved with Sith Sigils.

Morris Crownwraithe scowled as their leader drew away from the darkness into the light of the pit of flames nearby. He sickly looking with a yellow pallor to his eyes, almost emaciated and with a few strands of white hair covering his bald head.

"My my, what an interesting specimen you brought me." the old Sith said with sickly, rotted yellow teeth.

"He shall make a fine subject for our ritual. We shall prepare the instruments."

The Sith got closer.

"Rejoice, for soon your life force will be diverted to something much greater than yourself..." The old Sith Promised.

The teenage Padawan shifted his sightless eyes to him.

The old Sith raised an eyebrow.

"Brain fried from combat huh? That's okay. I've seen that before too..." he said, starting to pull back.

The Padawan tore a shackle on his arm free and brutally smashed it into the Sith's temple, killing him instantly as he was flung like a ragdoll.

The Acolytes launched bolts of lightning at him but he had teleported out of the restraints, to their shock, and reappeared behind them, grabbing them both by their spines and crushing them, killing them also.

There was a sound like thunder that echoed through the cabin.

Dozens of Sith Acolytes filled the cavern, red lightsabers activating, the Padawan calmly dusted off the frayed, tattered biker leathers he wore, sightless eyes glaring at all of them before he teleported the red lightsaber of one of the Acolytes he had just killed to his hand.

All Acolytes raised their red blades over their heads as he pointed at them.

"HE-RE-TI-CS." came a loud rattle of a hiss that escaped the lips under his muzzle before he went into a Soresu opening.

Padawan and Acolytes rushed each other...


As Nathan approached the pillar of flame, it began to become more and more violent until it appeared to form into a wild, swirling portal, that hissed unnaturally from it's fiery surface. On the other side, Nathan could make out what he thought to be the Padawan wandering around in the distance on the other side, clutching his head, wandering deeper into the darkness beyond.

Seeing the child in danger brought him back to that day on Dantooine, to every other day he had failed to protect a child in his profession and he almost leaped into the portal but for his instincts...and some prodding from the one he was bonded to.

Look before leaping warned Syd in his head.

Nathan looked up, saw the carefully hidden runes, made with fresh blood.

"It's a Fake Portal Trap." he hissed to Elias in realization. "It shows you what you want and beg's you to leap in after it, and reduces you to chunky salsa. Saw once after...never mind..." he said, raising his hand and unleashing a bolt of green lightning at the runes.

The red flames dissipated and the portal vision vanished leaving only the darkness of the cave passage beyond and the air turned icy. The passage seemed to stretch unnaturally ahead.

"He's not dead." Nathan said, pointing at the tracks.

Nathan continued slowly...

 

[Elias Edo]

​

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl
Location: DAGOBAH

Elias' eyes widened at the sudden bolt of green electricity from Nathan's fingers, but ultimately, he was impressed with his friend's knowledge. Elias had never seen such as thing as a portal trap, and likely would have leapt straight through it to save the mirage on the far side - if that's even where he ended up after touching the cursed thing. "Good catch," Elias said with a nod. He then looked to the tracks on the cave floor. "Careful ahead," he said to Nathan, following his lead.

The air had grown strangely colder the deeper they went, he noticed. The light puffs of breath that escaped his nose were eerily out of place given Dagobah's hot, humid nature. Certainly, this place was steeped with the Force, though whether it was the Light or Dark Side, Elias couldn't be certain. Not yet, at least... Dagobah was just as known for its conflux of Force energies as it was for the weather. Another reason why the younglings and Padawans were forbidden from the exploring marshlands alone.

"The tracks don't seem hasty," Elias noted after a few moments of quiet tracking. "No signs of a rush. He seems to be moving with intent- see, look," he said, pointing to the straight path the bootprints were taking. "No deviations, no turns or signs of indecision. For better or worse, the boy seems to know where he's going." Elias scratched his chin, hoping it was the former. "Now, where could that be?"

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"The steps are too... focused..." Nathan noted as he led Elias Edo ...

"He's not lost either. Look at these marks here. Chalk..." Nathan said as he ventured further, pausing as he knelt and uncovered what looked like to noticeable alarm completely uncommon for Nathan, a land mine made of glass.

Nathan carefully viewed the inside, then marked it.

"Glass Mines. These things are pure anti everything. Dreaded during the Gulag Era. They were among the single easiest mines to create...So many of them were made you can still stumble across fields of these. I knew a guy who went from one...even the very best scanners we had could not locate all of the fragments. Be wary. It's often a Death Sentence for even a full grown Wookiee..." Nathan warned quietly but grimly as he marked out the mine.

"I don't think it was set by our missing Padawan either. It looks too well placed on the trail for anyone but an expert to lay it the way he did ..."

As he went ahead, he began to see half faded carvings and scribblings by a child's hand, and the distant giggle of children in the distance that chilled his blood.

Then the earth fell out from under him and he yelled in surprise tumbling downwards into a chamber filled with more carved utterances of madness...

...and ancient skeletons of Jedi Knights.

"Elias! Elias get down here!" Nathan called out.

But there was no response.

"Elias?!" Nathan called out again, hearing the distant giggle of children in the shadows beyond...

 

[Elias Edo]

​

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl
Location: DAGOBAH

Glass mines... a new and horrifying bit of tech for Elias to take note of. He'd heard of weapons like this before, improvised explosives created by the Eternals and left on ravaged worlds like Ravvath along with ghastly Sith demons. But seeing one up close and hearing Nathan's experience with them made Elias' blood run cold. He watched as his friend marked it out for their return on the way back out, then followed close behind as they descended further into the depths of the swamp world.

"I've got a horrible feeling about this," Elias remarked in the silence that had befallen them. "What could possess a young one to venture this far below the glades on his own?" He knew the answer. It was right there in the question: possession. Someone -or something- had urged the Padawan into the caves and was pulling him deeper and deeper. The pair followed the tracks, but Elias noticed Nathan seemed... distracted. Or focuses, rather, but on something besides the bootprints themselves. "Sense something?" he asked, just before the soft ground gave way beneath Nathan's feet. Elias dropped to his knees and looked down the sloping mud into the chasm that opened up. It was unnaturally dark, as if a heavy blackness had divided them.

"Nathan!?" Elias called into the pit. "I'm coming down! Hang in there!" He had a bit of corded rope with him, but he wasn't sure how far down the chasm went, nor did he have a true piton. Elias looked for a sturdy root and wrapped the rope around the thickest part and fastened it. He gave it a few good tugs, then stepped to the ledge. "Here goes nothing," he said to himself, stepping down and easing into the pit.

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Another Sith Acolyte fell at the blind Padawan's stolen red lightsaber.

As combat had commenced in the large, dank cave, they had quickly realized he didn't move quite right for a Soresu user. His movements were too loose, his counter-attacks focused solely on killing and the way he moved towards someone was borderline zombie-like. They didn't sense bloodthirst as he cut down their fellows, sightless eyes tracking them. They sensed nothing but a void as he struck them down with a quiet fanaticism pursuing them deeper into the cave system.

Heretics, to the very last of them. The Padawan vowed to make sure no one escaped .

He stalked through the cave network, dragging the tip of his lightsaber behind him, not caring if it burned the ground.

The Acolytes who had had the sense enough to flee the massacre he had inflicted collapsed part of the passages behind him with telekinesis only for him to teleport to the other side of the rubble, and resume the brutal culling of their numbers.

Fresh from cutting down another Sith Acolyte, The Padawan resumed his eerie, almost zombie like walk, searching only for threats to cut down.

A voice, sharp and sweet, caught his ear...

"INTO THE DEEP..." it hissed in his head. He was alert instantly, realizing this wasn't just another natural hovel the Sith had chosen as he searched for them to kill them.

Something was down here. Something they thought was worth risking being around. Something he would no doubt have to kill before the night was out.

"Into the deep..." it said again, this time as a whisper in his head...

His head was on a swivel as he moved, listening for every little sound, refusing to be caught off guard...

He was here to purge Heresy. And purge it he would...

Nathan blinked as he saw Elias Edo drop down into the pit.

Nathan turned on a flashlight, immediately showing the Jedi Master the ancient skeletons of unburied Jedi, still in their robes.

"We weren't the first Jedi down here. Neither was that Padawan..." he said in a whisper. "Someone dragged the bodies here..."

He shined a light on the tracks in the pit. They led into a smaller passage, barely big enough to crawl through, but as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw a faint red light at the end of the passage though he couldn't make out what was making it.

But he hears familiar words that chilled him, words that echoed in his head telepathically. Elias would likely hear them as well...

INTO. THE. DEEP....

"Elias..." Nathan said. "I figured out what took the boy. We're in serious danger from an evil Sith presence inhabiting something called the Holocron of Voids. I know this because I barely escaped it as a kid..."

 

[Elias Edo]

​

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl
Location: DAGOBAH

"How dangerous exactly?" Elias asked, perhaps rhetorically. It wouldn't make any difference to their ultimate goal: neutralizing the Sith presence, one way or another. Elias joined Nathan at the bottom, stepping carefully to avoid the mass grave they were standing in. Despite the effort, he snapped the hollow femur of a long-dead Jedi. Elias winced at the sharp crack, but thankfully the dense walls of mud and roots weren't prone to echoing.

Elias stayed quiet as the pair proceeded, eyes darting between his boots and the dark path ahead. The Sith Lord Dramath's holocron was the only one he could think of from his studies that had been used to imprison a person's soul before. Perhaps this Holocron of Voids was a similar apparatus? Elias' thoughts stopped when they came upon the narrow tunnel. "Think we can make it through to the other side?" he asked, then noticed the red glow that Nathan saw.

"Do we want to make it to the other side?" Tight spaces were not his favorite, but Elias would do anything at this point to see the Padawan returned safely to the temple. He put himself into the same mindset as when he and his second, Erewhon, had to descend into the limestone caverns beneath the Bogano enclave to hunt oggdos that had been terrorizing the younglings.

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

The Boy slinked ever deeper into the cavern, opposition growing greater. But they at last seemed to understand that this one was no ordinary Padawan. That he was aggressive, and would strike first if given the opportunity. And that he was VERY talented, and killed without mercy or feelings as he ripped through Acolytes sensing his primary weapon nearby.

Flashes lit the passages the boy walked in a Zombie Like manner, lighting his blind face up as his stolen red blade sizzled through flesh, sightless eyes reflecting screaming faces before they were cut down.

The Voice called to him in his mind and he resisted it's hisses that promised unfathomable secrets. That promises he could be human again, whatever weight that has in his mind still. He barely remembered what had created him. Barely remembered the pain associated with it.

There was only his life as a purger of Heresy.

The boy grabbed a Sith with his immense strength and twisted his wrist, breaking the neck. More than once they tried to use the Dark Side to crush him telekinetically, but he was...simply made of stronger stuff, and it showed in how he pushed back their collective will to turn him into a pulpy mess, his own will a wall of static noise that forced them back from destroying him by sheer mindless brute strength.

He sliced another in half and came across an armory in the cave, another vicious duel breaking out between him and a Sith Marauder, a burly, ashen skinned man with Sith Tattoos. Their red blades glanced against each other for ten seconds before the Marauder was beheaded.

The boy heard more sounds. He spotted what looked like a Portable Minigun, and came out of the Armory with it, just in time to violently gun down a hoarder of apprentices and Acolytes coming down the passage, hurling lightning bolts and compressed balls of telekinetic energy at him, the bullets ripping into them in response, his aim steady as he gunned more acolytes down before the minigun ran dry. He went over to the far off table, spotting his imbued yellow shoto, attached to a chain, and he commanded it to him and it slithered along the desk and along his arm, coiling up and down it until the shoto grip was snugly in his hand. He seized the other Sith's lightsaber.

("BFG Division" by Mick Gordon Plays)

Two more Marauders blocked his path as he proceeded down to where he heard the voice of the evil spirit the loudest.

Saber staffs came active. The Boy teleported making a vicious lung with both his original saber and the stolen red one he had been using before reacquiring it. They parried quickly, one reinforcing the attacks of the other and the Boy realized he was up against a master and an apprentice.

The black garbed hooded foes attacked relentlessly and systemically from all sides. The Boy resorted to Soresu, dodging, intercepting spin attacks. Diverting thrusts of red blades.

The Sith began to get driven back as he began teleport-spamming around them, his blades rushing for throats and limbs, and he distantly noted fear building up as well as anger and hatred at his relentless, yet complex and cunning teleport assaults that it took all their skill to defend against.

"He's been enhanced!" The Apprentice yelled as he was driven back.

In Desperation, the Master unleashed a Powerful Force Repulse, the explosion of invisible energy cracking everything around them and starting to trigger a cave in and the two Sith ran.

"What did that fool ritual master drag in here?!" The Master griped as they ran.

"It looked like a Deputy..." The Apprentice said.

"A Deputy? Out here? The Sorceress of Ossus must have caught our scent..." The Master coughed out just barely outrunning the cave in.

"But more powerful than ANY Deputy I ever ran into. Something like a Sheriff..." The Master agreed, still coughing.

"If that was a Sheriff, we'd be dead..." The Apprentice muttered, dusting debris off his robes.

"I think that thing is her apprentice..." The Master theorized before he spun around as the Force Screamed at him.

His apprentice's severed head tumbled to his feet...followed seconds later by his own head, his body toppling over, too slow to deflect the whip-crack strike of the boy's chain shoto.

He drew the chain back to him with a thought or what passed for one in his scrubbed clean mind, and then resumed tracking the source of Heresy, which he felt emanating from the bottom of a staircase close by.

His zombie like gait carried him down the steps, sightless white eyes straight ahead as he stopped in front of a pair of ornate Iron doors, seemingly built into the earth, making the whole thing go from that Hallway Scene in Rogue One to Blair Witch real fast.

INTO THE DEEP... the voice hissed in his skull.

The Boy pulled open the doors and beheld a some how beating heart of red, translucent crystal. From red flames that leaked out of it, a
figure of a woman in a strange garment that sparkled formed, and looked at him with cold eyes.

"Such power..." the pale woman said.

"But I can make you more, help you break the bonds that tie you to that wretched Sorceress..."

"It isn't a normal Holocron. It's a crystallized fragment of undead tissue powered by the dark side..." Nathan said, leaning down to get a good look for obstruction...

"Eons ago, a powerful witch of the Dark Side came to Atrisia and turned it into a killing field..." he trailed. "Mythology states her crimes were so extremely heinous that the Gods obliterated her soul, but her flesh was so strong with the Dark that even though her soul was no more, her eternally putrid, rotting corpse never completed the deterioration process, spawning other monsters, even other Witches like herself from it. Some even bore her likeness...To say it was a natural Dark Side Nexus was an understatement. I've encountered fragments of her over the years. This was one of them."

He looked up at Elias Edo . "It shows people things to break them. Customizes the process to the victim. We have to destroy it, but be warned; better men than us have tried. And died. But that Padawan is dead if we don't try."

He got his saber out.

"I'll go first. I may be able to distract it with the chance to nab old prey."

Nathan proceeded into the tunnel, navigating it as carefully and quietly as he could, seeing flashes of horrible images when he closed his eyes. It knew he was here. It had latched onto him.

"Round 2, Schutta..." Nathan muttered, clearly not minding a rematch. In the end, Nathan viewed himself more as an errand boy, sent by a grocer to collect a bill.

(Cutaway of Captain Willard slowly rising out of the mud with a thousand yard stare)

 

[Elias Edo]

​

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl
Location: DAGOBAH

Elias blinked silently as he took in Nathan's words. "If he's not already," was the Jedi's only remark. He hated that things like this make him seem so jaded, and perhaps that was the very goal of the Dark Side forces at work. To undo his patience, his hope, his virtue. Elias shook his head slightly, swaying his dreadlocks. He wouldn't let it happen down here. That thing wouldn't be killing the Padawan today.

"He's not already," Elias corrected with a nod. He stood close by as Nathan entered first, giving the Jedi a 30 second head start before following him in.

Bitter murmurs and dark whispers began creeping from the periphery of Elias' mind the moment he stepped into the tunnel. They began as shadowy snippets of memories, bad ones, ones that Elias would sooner forget than relive. He saw flashbacks to the last battle he fought with his Rebel team during the cold war with NIO; the funeral of Tarus Undara where he buried a brother; the day he learned that his brother had forsaken the Jedi Order; it all came back to him, slow at first but hastening.

Elias soon realized that the effects of the tunnel were worst when he closed his eyes. Even blinking was enough of a window for the Dark Side to flow in. "Keep your eyes open," he said aloud, though he was unable to see Nathan now. Whether that was another trick or they had actually gotten separated, Elias couldn't tell. For now, he kept pushing forward. He'd either bump into his friend or fall out the other end of the tunnel, either of which were preferable to enduring the growing barrage of mental taunting any longer.