The Exorcism of Anya Malvern

[Muad Dib]

Kaer 1​

He stood in the gardens of the skyhook and allowed the fragrance of the flowers fill his nostrils. The sea of colorful petals reflected the evening lights as the stars shown from above. It helped to center him at times. He was reminded of his meeting with a crime lord named Kassey once upon a time. Beautiful and deadly woman, she was. Also flitting through his mind was a visit to Voss with a Silver Jedi named Coci. Both women were strong. One a criminal while the other a Jedi. Violence and peace. It was fitting that the two women filtered into his mind on this night.

Easing through the garden he made his way to the courtyard. As he walked the stone pathway he spied the stasis chamber at the center. Beneath the fluctuating field he looked down upon the seemingly peaceful woman within. The lady had crimson, flowing locks that artfully framed a refined feminine visage. Elaborate tattoos flowed across her skin.

Stepping away from the woman he crossed his arms. Valeria E'Tad was once a mando'ad who had fled Manda'yaim during the reign of Ra the Undying merely because she was a force sensitive. Though she didn't train her abilities, because of her potential to wield the force she was ostracized. Leaving her homeworld she became a mercenary in keeping with her bounty hunter roots. Elective surgery and grafts enhanced her musculature which gave her greater strength and speed. Her nervous system had been upgraded allowing her to selectively enhance her nerve endings or diminish the 'feeling' she received. Valeria was good at what she did, until an explosion caused brain damage through her proximity to the concussive blast.

Glancing at the readout he saw the trauma had been repaired, however the being Valeria no longer existed. Her soul had effectively departed. Yet remnants remained. This would add to the difficulty, but the upcoming procedural ritual would still proceed. Moving away he looked once more over the garden as he rolled up the tan sleeves of his tunic. The danger of transferring Anya's essence would be difficult, but the inherent danger of wielding the necessary Darkside energy would threaten to corrupt and destroy the wielder. It was why, when it was successfully done, the transfer was irreversible. The body wielding the power typically was destroyed. The Mad Master hoped that syphoning his energy and directing the ritual through Anya's current body would save him from a painful and horrifying demise. It should be possible, course only time would tell.

So he stood, smirking slightly, as he awaited his daughters.

[member="Anya Malvern"] I [member="Zesiro"]

 

[Anya Malvern]

Today was her birthday, well....sorta....more like being reborn or something like that. Either way the night before she was nervous as could be. She had laid awake looking up at the ceiling. Day before as well she 'met' her new body....a warrior a proud one at that, she was amazed when she heard about her and made sure to remember that and everything about her...including the upgrades

Now here she was, she sat before a mirror looking herself over, she still wore the bandages from her injuries. Running a finger over them she closed her eyes before she found the end and started undoing it slowly and slowly feeling the cold air touch her burned skin. The bandages fell down as she opened her eyes greeted by her scarred body. She ran a hand iver her face as she sighed

good bye...we've been through a lot

She said to herself and moved her chair out of her room. Once outside a sweet smell hit her as she stopped and relaxed for a minute then forward as she started for the garden. On her way there her mind simply roamed a bit....visiting her past memories and events....she stopped as she remembered her son she left behind, would he even remember her? She had to find him after this get him back....that meant seeing adron...

Shaking her head she started forward yet again, she came into the gardens and looked to her father as she smiled softly. It felt good having someone to call a father, someone she could trust with everything she had every experienced. Someone she could love

hello B...buir? Yes buir

She said, having been studying and practicing a bit
[member="Muad Dib"]

 

[Zesiro]

Something momentous was going to happen for Anya today. In a way she was going to be rebirthed. Her intention was to take over the body of a poor woman that was already basically dead. It would make things easier, at least in her mind.

The night before, they had gone to visit this woman, see the condition she was in and learn a little about her. Zesiro had gone as moral support for her sister. She now went with her to do the same thing as well as observe just what went on.

Keeping with the red hair, Zesiro had a slight internal chuckle. How Anya got so lucky she didn't know, but it matched her temperament better than the blond did her.

They walked forward into the garden and approached Maud together. Her sister spoke, but she remained silent.

[member="Anya Malvern"] [member="Muad Dib"]

 

[Muad Dib]

A small smile crossed his face as the two women entered the garden. A genuine smile. Turning their way he waited as the stopped in front of him. Zes merely nodded and Anya called him buir. Yes. He wasn't friend with bonds of circumstance and proximity but father, a permanent part of their lives through good times and the bad. But regardless of what life and the Galaxy through at them, they were aliit now, family.

"Well ner Zes'ika, Any'ika, are we ready?"

Motioning toward where a second bed lay next to the redhead body he moved between where Anya and her new body lay. This would be difficult for Anya. It wasn't swapping a shirt but was quite a bit more involved. It was the very essence of his daughter leaving the body and being focused into a new one. The integration would be hard, nerve endings awakening as the body became subjugated to a new master.

The danger for him was different. He would be controlling Darkside energy in going against the natural order of life. The power he would wield would be massive. And the reality of corruption and obliteration of self existed. If this went wrong they could both end up in the nothingness of chaos. But he would not.

[member="Zesiro"] I [member="Anya Malvern"]

 

[Anya Malvern]

[member="Muad Dib"] [member="Zesiro"]

ready as ever...I won't lie if I say I'm not nervous or scared a little

She moved over to the bed as she carefully got into it and laid out as she looked up at the sky and took a deep breath. She moved around a bit before she got comfy and sighed out. She looked over to zes and offered a small of confidence before she looked over to her buir and nodded slightly swallowing

alright let's do this...

She said wanting it to be over and move on with it all so she could be useful again

 

[Zesiro]

This was all for Anya and Zesiro was going to be here to help and support her sister. The idea of having more of a family still had not fully infiltrated her mind and sunk into her brain. She had always been a dependent person and only in the last few years learned how to live on her own. Having taken up residence on Kesh and lived there. Eventually meeting up again with Edric and accepting a position within his more or less guard.

Listening to the question and answer by Maud and Anya, she took up a position next to the bed where her sister was laying down. Making sure she was comfortable, Zesiro reached out to give her hand a squeeze.

"I'm here for you, sister. Always will be."

It would be a change, but maybe for the better. Looking over at Maud, if he failed, she would be at a loss again.

[member="Anya Malvern"] [member="Muad Dib"]

 

[Muad Dib]

Reaching over his head he gripped the tunic and pulled it free of his torso. Tossing it to the ground nearby he breathed slowly centering himself and focusing his mind on the task at hand. Glancing at [member="Zesiro"] he sensed her worry for her sister. A small smile crossed his face as he spoke quietly to her.

"Do or do not, there is no try. And I will not fail."

Looking back to [member="Anya Malvern"] he gave a slight nod as he watched her settle in and give her statement of preparedness.

"Oya. Let us begin."

Closing his eyes he began to draw in the force. As the power filled him he reached out and gained a sense of the woman, Valeria, as his senses stretched over her. As his mind conformed to the Mando woman he turned to focus on Anya.

"Try to relax. This is going to be uncomfortable. Then it's going to be painful. But try to relax."

Despite the oxymoron of his advice he began with Anya. His senses traced her body, the brokenness, the vitality, the pain. As he finally gripped the bodies almost intimately in his mind he slowed his breathing even more and matched the tempo of their chests with his own.

It wasn't just their breathing that united. The pressure of Muad standing on his feet would touch the nerve endings of he other bodies, the pain still wracking Anya's body would be felt by both others. The body that lay empty still echoed the sensations of laying prone which was felt by both of the other beings. Their bodies were now linked through the force.

Speaking once more he directed his statement to both women.

"Any'ika, you will experience a mental link with myself and then the body. Try not to fight it because it will be more painful. Zes'ika, step back and don't touch either myself, your sister, nor her new body or you could interrupt the chain."

 

[Anya Malvern]

[member="Muad Dib"] [member="Zesiro"]

She swallowed and stomped her gears put. She trusted her buir, this man who was similar to her in many many way. She closed her eyes and relaxed herself as she felt a tingling in the back of her mind that slowly grew and grew until finally she felt a immense pain she could only describe as devorian posion....least in the amount of pain

Then she felt him...or well him standing, then the other body laying there...She blinked that pain she had momentarily ignored as she awed at this sensation. She smiled as she heard him and nodded relaxing even more as tears streamed down from the immense amount if pain

 

[Muad Dib]

As the sensations merged the three became linked. On one side was the body laying dormant. On the other was Anya, her physical pain reverberating through the force. And he was the conduit uniting them. But the unpleasant sensations that were flowing through his body was just the beginning. Allowing the force to build within him a light lift to the corner of his lips revealed his amusement at the neutrality of the power flowing through him.

But it wasn't the lightside or even the neutral needed for the ritual to work. It was time to utilize the Darkside. Looking down at Anya he saw the woman he had adopted, the woman who shared many similarities with him. A woman physically broken and wounded in spirit. A snarl crossed his face.

Peace never did anything. Those happy go lucky Jedi did nothing but sit on their hands and let the evil infect the Galaxy. The republic, the alliance? Those Jedi did nothing but speak mantras, and talk. Talking solved nothing. The Confederacy. Their Kumbaya Creed , holding hands and pretending to be sith, pretending to be Darksiders. They were weak. As weak as Jedi.

His eyes that normally glowed bright blue slowly changed to an obsidian black. The blue sith runes that ran from his left elbow to the knuckles of his hand had shimmered to a deep, dark black.

The rage at the impotence of the Jedi, the CIS, fueled the Darkside energy swirling through him, tainting the power drawn to himself. Tendrils of darkness wrapped about Anya and her new host. Fists clenched and he looked down upon [member="Anya Malvern"] .

"Tis about to get interesting."

 

[Anya Malvern]

[member="Muad Dib"]

She closed her eyes, she could feel the power swirling around her. She chucjled and smiled as she could feel the dark and light whispering to her almost. She wanted to reach out and try to grab them but the pain was unbearable and she couldn't move at all

She opened her eyes and glanced to her buir, seeing his ruins shimmering black and his eyes....his eyes scared her a little. She gave a confident smile as she felt that tip upon her and closed her eyes as she sighed

do it...I'm tired of being in this useless body....I want to move again

 

[Muad Dib]

To say that he had successfully done this before was a falsehood. He'd never transferred his essence into another body. However he had studied the technique from Darth Nihilus, a wannabe copycat of the famed Sith Lord. He had even seen it done several times, and a few of those were successful. In his days as the Mad Knight of the Sith he had gained many teachers of varying dark arts. And what he was about to do was one such. Yet never had he seen someone transfer another into a new body. It gave him pause earlier that day. Yet he was determined not only to attempt it, but to complete it. He had given his word to his new daughter, and he would not fail. There was only do, or do not.

And it was do time.

His mind coursed along with Anya's as he learned the curves of her unique signature. But more then that he had to find her very soul. If he didn't find her soul this would merely imprint her upon the empty shell of the new body creating a monstrosity that would bear her memories, but not what made Anya truly alive. Slowly he began filtering her mind, her memories, her instincts, her emotional triggers, everything that the brain stored, from her current body to the new body. As the onslaught that pulled at her mind was moved through her body, himself, and into the woman lying comatose beside him he felt the darkness begin to erode his own mind.

Placing barriers around his mind, the transfer felt as though it sought to pull himself along to the new body, as the technique was supposed to do. The barriers created to protect his own mentality was crashed against by the swirling power that battered at his as though a force of nature had taken offense at him. His body tremored against the pain as his mind was assaulted by the flow of the force that pulled Anya's mind through him, as the conduit, and into the body of Valeria.

Yet this was not even the hardest part. Not for him and certainly not for Anya.

Without giving anymore warnings to Any'ika, for he could not spare the distraction, Muad began the part that would cause his daughter the most pain. He would rip her soul from her body. The sensation would feel like death. And the power and focus necessary to complete the process would certainly be detrimental to his health.

Reaching out through the force he enveloped her presence, learning her contours, sensing her every aspect, committing to memory every curve of her soul. It was red, and blue, and gold. It flickered with the fire of passion, rage, love, confusion, pain. It whispered of love and loss, of a stubbornness that had been broken, but a refusal to remain so. It was the culmination of a life of difficult choices and hard consequences. It was beautiful to behold.

Gripping her soul in the force he constricted it to ensure he had a solid understanding and grip. Then he began to pull the very essence of what made her alive from her body. The funny thing is a soul doesn't want to leave it's body, even when you're dying. But when the body is dying the soul is more apt to leave. It was one of the reasons the body that was funneling the Darkside and expiring was allowed to be consumed with the raw power needed to perform the ritual.

Fueling the Darkside of the force through his body he sent it into Anya, corrupting and destroying her body while also creating a cocoon of energy that would keep her soul safe as it traveled from her dying body and through the nether into her new body. With a final surge he ripped the final tendrils of her soul from her body and began the transference.

Gritting his teeth he let out a growl of pain. The pain Anya felt was no doubt great. Yet the nature of the ritual was that your mind was no longer in your body when your soul was ripped from her original form. No memory of the agony, yet the soul would echo with pain once rejoined with the mind in the new host.

The same could not be said for Muad.

The power and corruption of the Darkside had filled his body, permeating his flesh. At the initiation of the transfer the energy began destroying his own body, attempting to erode his own mind. His flesh blackened as if burnt, skin cracking and weeping crimson tears through rent flesh. His mind , locked firmly on the ritual, was battered by the Darkside and weakened. His own soul was tarnished and taxed through the effort of controlling the power and forcing it to do his will. The disease that he kept dormant in his body attacked driving him to a knee and weakening him further, the desire to rend flesh from bone, to feel teeth tear through bodies, for the sensation of blood splatter to coat his face grew with every passing moment. Scars across his body reopened, bones weakened, eyes dimmed.

Yet he was not done.

Channeling the power through Anya's previous form he allowed the destruction to consume her original form instead of his own. With a focus and will driven by determination he continued Anya's soul across the way and settled it into her new form. Slowly and methodically he tethered her soul to the former body of Valeria, securing Anya together in mind, body, and soul. The process took time and intense deliberation as he felt the conduit of power that was his body begin to fail, Anya's previous form falter into death.

As Anya's body united in concert, Muad allowed a final surge of power to flash through him which burned his body, through Anya's original form that consumed the last vestige of that mortal coil, and cauterized the raw unity of mind, body, and soul that was now Anya.

Staggering back he collapsed to his knees. Closing his eyes he weakly countered the disease that flowed through his body. Opening his eyes he looked upon the form of Valeria and waited for Anya to open her eyes.

[member="Anya Malvern"][member="Zesiro"]

 

[Anya Malvern]

To say, such pain she wanted her greatest enemies to feel....would be wrong, she smiled as she closed her eyes and felt the pull. However it feel like she was tied down...she gasped a bit and felt her physical self go away and a sort of, greeting of death called. She wanted to embrace it but she grinned and shook her head as she suddenly felt a storm behind her as her body was destroyed, she glanced back to see pure darkness as it ate her body...then suddenly she was...no where it was dark it scared her honestly


Suddenly she gasped and coughed, she rolled to the side coughing a fit before she gasped again and took a breath as she blinked and looked around. The eyes fianlly takimg light in as she covered her eyes

buir...buir are you there...sister? Sister?

She kept blinking

[member="Muad Dib"] [member="Zesiro"]

 

[Zesiro]

When Maud requested her to step back and not touch any of them, Zesiro did just that. Taking a place against the wall nearest Anya, she waited and watched. Every detail was observed and she would attempt to remember everything.

Narrowing her eyes at what happened with Maud during the proceedure, she did not interfere in any way. She felt the power surrounding and flowing between them. She was kept separate and outside of the procedure, but saw everything.

Zesiro was not the sharpest tool in the shed or a fast learner, but once she did learn a skill, it was done perfectly. So in time there was a chance maybe she could perform this skill Maud was doing. ​It wasn't so much Zesiro wasn't intelligent, but she lacked common sense. It had never been taught to her growing up.

The blackening of Maud and burning were implanted into her mind and that was something she would never unsee. The destruction of the body that belonged to Anya was surprising, but it needed to be done to force her soul to move. Not stopping any of what was going on between the other two, she very much wanted to touch her sister. The warning having been issued though, she stayed her hand and where she was standing.

Sensing the power coursing between them, it was as a magnitude she didn't think she could ever attain. Time would tell there though. What might have been mere seconds or days, the ritual passed and was completed. Looking at the new body when Anya blinked her eyes it was as if she couldn't see or find Zesiro and she cried out for her.

Remaining where she was standing, a hand rose to reach out to Anya, but no contact was made.

"I am here."

[member="Anya Malvern"] [member="Muad Dib"]

 

[Muad Dib]

"Zes'ika, go to your sister. It is done now. Any'ika, we are here. You are not alone, never alone."

Grunting he wearily stood to his feet, swaying where he stood. Pain and exhaustion wracked his body as tremors flickered across his ruined flesh. Eyes fell to the sisters and a twitch of a smile touched his lips, but even such a minute movement caused his body another scream of agony. Stifling a moan he gave a slight nod to his daughters.

"Take your time. Learn slowly. I must ... Recover...."

Moving like a wizened, ancient being aged to a decrepit figure hunched over by time he moved from the garden and towards his quarters to recover. The ritual had taxed him past his limitations. But as he saw new life blossom for Anya and hope of Zesiro grow, Muad admitted that it was completely worth it.

[member="Zesiro"] I [member="Anya Malvern"]