The Wolf and the Dragon [Yasha]

[Darth Carnifex]

The Emperor stood still and silent as the lift began its long descent, four great churning cogs at the cardinal ends of the platform lowering it down a seemingly bottomless shaft to whatever destination the Emperor had in mind for his guest. For several minutes he just stood there, staring at her with unwavering unblinking eyes, and then he looked away as they reached the halfway point in their journey.

"What I am about to show you is only known to a handful of people, no more than ten or so. When the Mandalorians came to this world seeking blood and death, they brought with them the transients of the emptiness between the stars to rain down upon our marvelous city. Kaas City was the epicenter of a cataclysm that wiped out every native species on Dromund Kaas, millions of civilians were destroyed in a single act." His eyes turned back to her again, "What remained was a crater several kilometers across, filled with the rubble and ruin of a civilization that had stood for thousands of years. The Force screamed in agony at such a loss of life, and the energies of the millions of men, women, and children soaked into the earth and trickled down far beneath the lifeless soil."

Carnifex breathed in deeply and blew hot air out through his nose, "It culminated in the creation of..."

A flash of warning, second-sight drawing the Emperor's gaze away from the Mand'alor for only a moment before he suddenly flung himself at her, seizing her body with his powerful arms and holding her close to his body as a web of protective energies cascaded over the both of them. Trapped within a cocoon of energy, the gears and mechanisms that kept the lift from tumbling down into the abyss exploded with radiant sunbursts of billowing flame.

And they fell.

Bound tightly in the Emperor's web, they managed to survive the destructive blast that surely would have left them too injured to survive the horrific freefall into the darkness. Only through the Emperor's quick thinking and mastery of the Force were they able to survive, and as they neared the bottom of the shaft he again reached out to slow their descent until they landed with a huff of kicked up dirt. The cocoon retreated from them, and the Emperor raised his right hand to the sky to prevent any lingering debris from crushing them and making his previous actions moot.

Once the danger had passed, the Emperor turned to look at the Mand'alor. "It seems we have a problem."

[member="Yasha Mantis"]​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Beneath her beskar’gam, Yasha’s eyebrows contorted. He wanted to show her something so rare? Known to so few? A cataclysmic elimination of life, done by Mandalorian hands to this once deficit Sith world. The sentiment hit as hard as his face was apathetic to most things, this seeming wealth of apathy.

What was this man, this King of Butchers, to be both soft and belligerent? He treated her as a youth who required education, as an equal and as a daughter in the same footing, leading and guiding with a hand that to her had only been hard once.

Her cheek stung along the puffy dark scar, where he punched her after she ruined his stoic face. She gazed intensely upon the scarring of his left eye, a mark of patience from a man she knew could have continued the battle and ended her… or died trying.

So why didn’t he?

What stayed the Dark Lord’s hand? These were the thoughts of Yasha Mantis in the seconds before the Emperor Zambrano grabbed her, viciously to his chest.

Protecting her… Yasha Mantis… one more time.

12 Years Prior
“YASHA!!! NO!!!!” Silas reached for the struggling ad’ika, watching in horror as she tried to kick off her uncle, and shoot at the escaping figure of Mia Monroe. Monroe… her mother’s killer. Blinded by her berserker rage, the child kicked off Silas’ breastplate.

​

She could make it… she could reach Monroe and kill her… ​

… the tumbling free fall which stole Yasha’s kill lingered in her mind as the singular worst moment of her young life. Yasha did not reach Monroe, too little… too small. Instead, the child fell to a cascading fall, body spinning while blaster bolts scattered directly at her from Monroe’s bes’uliik. Silas dove after his niece, screaming her name as she was grazed by the slag of an explosion and tossed unceremoniously through the air above MandalMotors HQ.

​

He caught her, held her to his chest… ​

​

and fell… ​

​

and kept falling.​

Silas’ arm was bereft of the debris. That was the day Yasha realized her mother’s death was permanent. The day she realized that her father and uncle were not ineffable… mutable… kill able. The smell of amputation, which her mother’s AI taught her to do, knowing full well Yash’ika would do it, after all…

… Yash’ika was an obedient little girl… she would do it. She would cut the arm off the man who saved her life, to save his… because nobody else would survive her… and again she was alone…

Again Yash’ika was falling. ​

Again, a man reached for and caught her, held her close as she was transported back to childish fear and clung to his body. A shriek of indecent proportions burst from the Mand’alor’s lips as the elevator burst and crashed and they tumbled down to the ground of Dromund Kaas.

They landed, the dragon and the wolf, in the crater of Mandalorian excess. Together in a place of the dead. Yasha’s breathing wheezed from hyperactive lungs as their feet touched terra firm, her eyes immediately yanking upward to the onslaught of wreckage above. Cascades of rock and slag thundered down around them. Yasha pulled her warhammer from her back and leapt into action, vaulting over [member="Darth Carnifex"]’s shoulders to smash into a boulder falling through his net.

The flurry of rock flickered around their bodies, until the debris equalized, and the above vertical tunnel rested in agonizing fullness above their heads. Scanners on her beskar’gam running wild, Yasha saw the entire channel of the elevator was destroyed more than halfway up its’ mammoth length.

“Whoever did this knew exactly how far down this chasm went… personal vendetta perhaps? Or did you forget to pay the architect?” Now on the ground, the earlier terrified shriek subsided for the task at hand.

“It would take a decade to uncork that mess without crushing us. Ambrose…. Ambrose, hear me!” Yasha spoke, but nothing other than static greeted her attempts at calling [member="Ambrose Mantis"].

“Ambrose! We’re stuck, we… dash it… Kain’ik… hey buddy I know I told you… dang he’s too far off… Captain Kierke, Girak…. Grandfather, do you read me?” Nothing but static.

“Kaine, what are these caves made of?” Yasha stilled, pausing in her act of placing her war hammer back on its’ back webbing. “Aaannnndddddd why’re my infrareds giving me heat signatures? It wouldn’t happen to be part of a massive network of tea parties, would it? Sith Stim-caf? Cookies? I hear you guys make badass cookies.”

Her back gravitated against his, as in the distance, forlorn cries bellowed from the black.

​

'Mooooooooooooooommmyyyyyyyyy'​

"MOOOOOMMY!"​

"Mooooooooooommmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"​

"Where are you, Mooooooooooooooommmyyyyyyyy"​

"Daaaaaddyyyyyyyyyy we see you Daddy."​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"There are many factors in which to consider the culprits of this attack, ones we will investigate after our return to the surface."

Carnifex listened in silence as Yasha desperately attempted to establish communications with her people above, but found such an attempt impossible. "We're several kilometers underground, Yasha. The walls are too thick for any signal to break through, so we're effectively on our own until a rescue can be mounted." The Emperor briefly wondered how long they would remain down here before his people managed to break through the rubble, or even realized that they weren't coming back anytime soon. He didn't doubt that he could survive indefinitely down here without food or water, he had the Dark Side of the Force to give him sustenance, but he couldn't say the same for Yasha.

Then the voices filtered out from the darkness, surreal and horrifying.

"They are the denizens of this world, those who languished in the darkness. Warped by an insatiable hunger." He activated his lightsaber, casting a crimson glow on their nearby surroundings just far enough to reveal the horrible visage of a beast that had once been a man but had since become something far more terrifying. Memories of his first voyage into these underground depths flashed through his mind, where his entire team of cartographers had been devoured by these gangly monstrosities until only he remained to discover the Lake.

Carnifex flung his lightsaber towards the nearest creature, the scarlet blade bisecting it at the waist and driving the other creatures away with its brilliant illumination. After recalling the weapon to his hand, he turned to Yasha. "They fear bright lights, Yasha. So long as we have some on hand, they will not venture too close. But we cannot stay here, we must push forward to the Lake."

[member="Yasha Mantis"]​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“No one knew I was coming but Ambrose. Captain Kierke got a set of coordinates right before our jump and that was all. There was no time for any in the Mando’ade to know where, why or what. That should help narrow it down… it also means aside from Ambrose, there’s only a single Mandalorian ship capable of realizing I haven’t returned… my comm should still be able to… nothing. Suppose you’re right.”

Cacophonous choruses of disembodied child-like voices broke the rumbling of settling rock. Warning signs in her HUD spoke enough of the structural instability of the wreckage above them… they needed to move.

“I hope the foundations of your citadel are sufficiently protected. We don’t need that on our heads, too. I doubt even you could hold the debris up for long… if that explosion didn’t radiate up to it already.”

Back colliding softly with [member="Darth Carnifex"]’s, Yasha unsheathed her songsteel sword and knocked the hilt against her right hip. The sword vibrated, its’ natural luminescence casting a pale blue light upon the surroundings. War hammer in her left, sword in her right, Yasha waited for the rush of creatures after Carnifex’s saber toss and flung her warhammer in an arc.

A blast of crackling lightning burst from the weapon, sizzling several of the Zmir into charred, shaking mounds on the ground. The hammer returned to Yasha’s gauntlet-clad hand.

A grim growl purged from her throat, her voice growing steady in this new threatening place. “Lead the way, I will cover.”

Yelps and cries stuttered around them. The Cacophonous Chorus continuing with the guttural noise of clanking jaws and rending flesh.

“Mooooooommmyyyyy”​

“Daddy! Daaaadddy”​

“We see you Daddy” ​

“Mooooooooooommmyyyyyyy Eli wants you”​

“Help.”​

“Oh gods there’s more of them, help!”​

“Moooooooommmyyyyyyyy”​

“Daaaaaaaaaaadddyyyyyy”​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"It will take more than an explosion to take down my citadel."

The foundation of the Emperor's Citadel was constructed from multi-layered pieces of turadium, designed to withstand several megaton blasts before showing any signs of structural instability. Combined with all of the defensive measures and safeguards, the Citadel was the strongest and most well-defended location on Dromund Kaas, if not in all of the Empire save for his Palace on Bastion. So he did not possess any concern about the state of his citadel, what truly made him worry was how a couple of insurgents could've gotten so deeply embedded into his staff that they'd have access to the critical points of the mega-lift, which had been something privy only to the elite of the Empire after its construction.

It smelled of an inside job, a conspiracy within his own ranks.

Eyebrows furrowed in contemplation as he led Yasha through the darkened tunnels, his Force-enhanced intuition enabling the both of them to pass through the labyrinth. Any beast they encountered was either driven off or destroyed, bisected bodies and pulped corpses left behind whenever they dared venture too close. Eventually, the attacks dwindled off as they neared the massive central chamber at the heart of the cave complex.

What the Emperor unveiled was breathtaking. A gargantuan lake upon which a dead city rested on its shoreline, the ruins of a once vibrant city laid low by the Mandalorians. "Behold, Yasha Mantis. All that remains of the Kaas City of old."

[member="Yasha Mantis"]​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

"Be that as it may, someone tried and we've been caught." The winding passages churned in Yasha's mind, an impassable web to all but the scanning buy'ce and internal computer. The Mandalorian's computer created a detailed map of the catacombs as Yasha followed behind the Dark Emperor, cutting down the Zmir who came too close.

Yasha was silent and vicious, her sword slashing with its luminescent metal surging into their tainted flesh. [member="Darth Carnifex"] was as silent as the dead, gnawing on his own conscious thoughts. The Zmir penchant for consuming their own dead interred inside her, a dread disease of the mind paired with Carnifex's disquiet.

"It doesn't delight, having doubt in one's people. Whomever tried to kill us, leave enough for me to eviscerate, or I'll make your right cheek match the left." Yasha quipped in an attempt to drag the silence off of him, pull it like tar from the top of ice-water. How long would they be down here?

If Kaine Australis followed her orders… he’d never come.

All thoughts were banished once they passed through the labyrinthine tunnels into the chasm of the lake. The ruins of Kaas City laid in disarray before the Mandalorian, surrounded by a black and still glass-like lake. Yasha shook blood off her sword, returning it to the scabbard.

“My gods.” A city with no denizens, no speeder traffic, nothing but the decay of Mandalorian rage. “My father was in this battle… he and Gilamar Skirata destroyed the throne… my mother, she… she studied the footage of Larraq’s asteroid tractor beam application to improve her ships’ tractor technology.”

The Wolf-Helm glanced from the landscape to [member="Darth Carnifex"], baffles raising in a motion akin to alarm. Her war hammer still in her hand, pointed down at the ground, Yasha walked forward to view the buildings in their varying states of destruction. Some of the buildings out by the water appeared slightly more intact than others, shifting duracrete settled over the years since Dromund Kaas was a palace of Sith extravagance.

“Some of the structures are semi-intact. We could fortify a home base to hold out before rescue… the heat signatures are backing off from the lake… is that water… black?”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

No matter how many times he'd seen it, the Lake was something that never failed to strike him with a sense of awe and magnificence. The symmetry of the shoreline dominated by the ruins of his former capital while the black water was so placid it resembled a sheet of obsidian glass rather than a watery surface, only briefly disturbed by the occasional drip of water from somewhere high above.

It was a work of art.

Carnifex breathed out a sigh as he ran his fingers through his graying black hair, eyes briefly closing to consider his options now that he had actually gotten Yasha where she needed to be, but found that the way back was blocked by treason. Still, he was firm in his resolve to carry out the reason as to why he brought her to this ancient world in the first place, and so he moved to stand next to her as she looked over the lake for a vantage point to hole up for until rescue.

"There."

He said with a point, a building sticking up out of the water that was still in good shape even after all of these years, with four openings capped by a belltower-like ceiling. "We will stay there for the night." How curious it was that he didn't answer her question as to why the water was black before looking for a way to safely bridge the gap over the water and the rest of the shore.

[member="Yasha Mantis"]​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“It’s gorgeous.” A city of ruin consumed by the ragged blues and blacks of a still death lingered before the eyes and optic intakes of two Epicanthix. The sight held a majesty in its cataclysmic reticence to turn to ash, it’s mystic waters humming through their placid containment to settle as a frigid layer to her skin.

Exhaustion was defeated by a survivalist’s instinct, pushing her body through the ache in muscle and bone. Her teeth chattered under her buy’ce, stomach emptied of nutrients from their length of hours underground. The Dark Lord may have the capacity to survive on the Force alone, but all the Infernal had were her wits and a survivalist’s body, honed in her terrified scant two decades of life.

Temperature control warnings on her Beskar’gam spoke of the chill in the chasm, but Yasha refused to allow the electronic temp containment to function. Too many years in long term survival with limited power created a spirit of thrift. Yasha did calculations in her head, the use of her war hammer, the ocular controls on her helm... the Zmir appeared to refuse the environment, sticking to the catacombs away from the accursed lake.

“Looks like death, that water… maybe we can collect some falling from the ceiling? It’s got to be fresher having seeped through the watershed.” As safe a place as any. Powering down the armour, Yasha manually released her buy’ce’s catch and pulled its components back and down to rest like feathers upon her shoulders, metallic pauldrons with the wolf head resting on the back of her neck. Her breath steamed in the cold air. Carnifex’s reticence to answer her curiosity about the water’s colour sunk into her shoulders.

“It looks defensible enough, if we sleep in shifts… what is that jump, twenty meters long? Twenty five? Six vertical?” Yasha measured [member="Darth Carnifex"] with her eyes, biting her black painted lip. “If you can’t make the jump, I’ll come back for you after scoping it out.”

Holding her war hammer in both hands, Yasha pictured the jump one last time, running a final calculation in her head. Making jumps using her war hammer’s repulser tech was more intuition than science in the heat of battle, but for the danger of that dismal black water. Yasha took a few precious steps back, ears listening for the creeping sounds of the Zmir. With a final deep breath, she bolted for the bell tower. At the edge of the broken beach, Yasha flung her warhammer in an arc, firing the repulsers, which when fully employed were powerful enough to destroy the armour of a tank or small ‘walker’. She flew silently in the air, landing feet first on the side of the building, her right hand gripping to a hold in the duracrete structure. Placing the hammer on its’ maglock on her back, she shimmied up the vertical wall as if she were crawling horizontal on a calm floor. Sitting half in the first of the four windows, Yasha scanned for sound, motion, anything which could damage the relative safety of their hold out.

“Looks like it used to be a studio of some kind… some of the possessions survived.” Yasha called back. “Can you make it?”

The Infernal tested the flooring. It creaked under her weight, wood flooring giving way to the duracrete and steel-alloy joists and floor between. She tested the entire floor, and finding only one weak spot, made a mark in the dust with her foot.

Around them the rusted and warped remains of someone’s life scattered around the corners. Artist’s supplies, some thermal sealed containers and unidentifiable slag tangled up with the remains of a low couch, and table. A small kitchenette held nothing but char and decay, utterly broken by the concussion of the Mandalorian assault.

Yasha hugged into her cloak, wrapping it as firmly around her as she could, and tried not to exhale in the chill air.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

He watched her, that spirited fire of youth, explore ahead of him and volunteer to scout out the location he had determined would serve both of them well as a base to rest and recuperate. She disengaged her helmet, revealing her face to him and to the cold biting wind that wafted across the lake's surface. The Dark Side made everything unnaturally cold, sending shivers down even the bravest of warrior's spines with a biting chill that could not be brushed aside like any other frigid freeze.

But it hardly seemed to affect the Emperor, who showed no signs of discomfort in the harsh wind.

Through the Force he could control his internal temperature, keeping himself aloof to the threat of hypothermia and frostbite. While reconnected to the Force, Yasha had no such training in such techniques. She had survived worse, he reckoned, the Netherworld was a far more inhospitable land than this subterranean tomb, and he would be thoroughly disappointed if this was what got the better of the Hell Wolf.

“Can you make it?”

He almost scoffed.

Almost.

"This is trivial." He replied, walking to the very edge of the precipice before lifting his mighty bulk up with an almost effortless twitch of his fingers, levitating through the air before gingerly setting himself down on the safety of the tower beyond. His eyes scanned the room, taking in what Yasha had already scouted before him. "This will suffice," He muttered, "But we will need to get a fire going if you're going to keep the cold at bay, find me something for timber and I will provide ignition." As he said those words, he extended his right hand out in front of him and clenched his fingers into a tight fist. At his unspoken command, his fist was consumed by a brilliant orange flame.

[member="Yasha Mantis"]​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“Hey, stow the lip, your highness.” Yasha’s lips quirked in such a way [member="Darth Carnifex"] hadn’t seen before. “How am I supposed to know what your cushy Force Powers have done to his eminence’s game legs?”

Survival was the one part of existence Yasha Mantis knew beyond any other. Survival was simple, the purest of experiences muddled not by the complicated ‘others’, which usurped her time. There was no tedium here, nothing but a new expression unknown to the Dark Lord.

Yasha was having fun.

The destruction which brought them forth was worth the peace of this new evening, coated in two beings finding relative safety reflected in each others’ dichroic eyes. Carnifex made it to the bell tower, the flooring creaking under his hefty weight.

“So you’re not dead.” Yasha spoke the casual Mando’a greeting with a new enthusiasm, in this new place. “Good to know you can jump... or whatever it is you did.”

Teeth chattering and nose rosy with the preternatural cold, Yasha’s Amber eyes flickered across the Dark Lord as he usurped the room. Without pause, she took her hammer and slammed lightly down on the ground. Shales of the wood floor crashed up and fell back down with cold dry thumps. Her hammer rested on the duracrete, resolute and unyielding to any in this place but her.

“Firewood.” Busying herself with dragging a rounded metal bowl (which must have been something else entirely in its prime) to the middle of the room, Yasha stabbed it with her left katar blade and created air holes for the new brazier. Dumping broken pieces of wood into the brazier, Yasha picked up fragments of what once were parchment.

“Pity we’ll never know what was on them... that mystery will never be answered.” Tossing the parchment in as tinder, Yasha nodded for the flaming hand of the Emperor to ignite. “Unless you’d rather carry around a Yash’icle.”

The room filled with a defiant amount of cheer, the girl’s own combat to the horrors of being trapped under a rejuvenated world. Her smile was her current weapon, the necessity for levity in crisis a worthy perspective many refused for their fears.

“Not even you are so cold.” Kindling and fuel prepared for him, Yasha moved the remains of the low couch in front of the eventual fire. While much of the cushioning disintegrated over time, the leather and wood frame remained. It was more comfortable than the floor, at least.

“Handy trick. I have this friend, she’s a pyromancer. Almost got eviscerated by the Undying when she did that... only thing that saved her was her age. Married a Sith Lord, one not of yours. Think they’re having twins. Do you eat?” Sitting knees akimbo on the couch with her elbows on her thighs, Yasha pulled a ration bar from her belt and counted the notches.

“I can live off a quarter bar a day if I’m careful. Lose muscle mass doing it, but I’ll manage. More concerned about water down here than food. Don’t like the look of that lake, find another source tomorrow...” Smacking her lips, the Hell Wolf produced a Beskad and sliced a quarter of the ration bar, offering the rest to Kaine if he wanted to take it. A ration bar that size ought to have been consumed three per day, a quarter of one was starvation. It didn’t stop the woman from cutting her ration bar section up into bite sized pieces and warm them on the knife over the fire.

“Nothing like a hot meal. Sit! Sit, warm up. It’s the attitude of defeat that’ll kill a person stuck like this. We keep our hopes up, we’ll have at it. Funny. Mama used to do this. Get my mind off the danger by pushing it onto something else without a break. You would have either liked her, or killed her in a single meeting. Can never tell which. Was this what you wanted to show me? The lake?”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"You're unusually quippy this evening, has the frigid chill gotten to you?"

The Emperor more or less ignored her snarky nature, taking the time to watch her gather the fuel necessary to start a sustainable fire and then pressing his flame-enshrouded hand into the pile to start the blaze. Once the fire had been tended to and nurtured into something that could produce some real heat, he dispelled the fire that still coated his right hand. "I won't need food, you should ration out all that you can for your benefit. The Dark Side will sustain me indefinitely."

He knelt down on his knees, placing both hands over his thighs as he breathed in deeply and let out a slow controlled exhale, his eyes clenched shut as he let the Force flow through him like electricity through a closed loop circuit. Then he opened his eyes and began to disrobe, shrugging off the maroon cloak that hung from his shoulders before unbuckling his armor piece-by-piece, arranging them in nice little piles before he disengaged his vambraces and removed his tunic. Folding up the fabric and placing it on top of his armor pile, the Emperor flexed his bare muscles and prepared to settle into a casual meditative trance while still maintaining passing conversation with the Mand'alor.

"Yes, the Lake is what I had planned to show you. It is a fount of Dark Side energy born from the energy of every man, woman, and child who was murdered by the Mandalorians on that fateful day. That is why the water is black." Then it came, the moment of truth.

"I had planned to bask Adara in its waters."

[member="Yasha Mantis"]​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“Kaine, we are locked away in a chasm beneath New Kaas City, with nothing but our wits, what scant possessions are on our persons and the constant threat of siege from child-voiced monsters, which we spent the last twenty two hours slaughtering gloriously with my seldom used magical sword…” Yasha paused, the serious purse of her lips drifting into a form of honesty devoid of previous encounters with the Dark Lord. “There is nothing more we can do but survive. And that, your royal frowniness, is my element. There’s nothing more pure in this universe than the fight to survive, nothing less complicated than slaughtering one’s way to a wholesome further life. Besides, we have a fire, fuel, food and the prospect of water come a few hours rest, which, I might add, is in a location which procures clemency over alarum. I even have a couch. It’s not comfortable, but it’s far better than where I was raised sleeping in dirt caves in the Blood Plains.

I’m thrilled. This is the closest to a vacation I’ve had in years, so don’t spoil it.”

Hugging her knees in front of the crackling fire, Yasha burbled a sigh and continued to warm up her piece of ration bar until it crackled on top. Piece by piece she ate the meagre portion, cold nose becoming warm, and fingers losing their stubborn clumsiness.

“The Dark Side will sustain me… bah. Force force… dark side… blather mysticism complete.” Yasha mumbled under her breath, stifling a giggle as she finished her meal and set the beskad back in its’ thigh sheath. Pulling her cloak around her shoulders, Yasha pouted and huddled in.

This place was still ruddy cold.

Fire danced in her eyes, she watched the curiosity of [member="Darth Carnifex"] disrobing in a freezing environment, meditating as if that act alone kept him from frostbite. While his pale skin clung to an impressive specimen of Epicanthix masculinity, Yasha looked beyond him to the maroon cloak.

“If you’re not going to wear it, I will. Still bleeding cold, even with the fire…. force powers. Answer for everything, are they? Ember taught me death is definite. Eventually it comes for all, regardless of their talents in the Dark. Seems to me, your desire for indefinite is a bleak look at a skewed frame of reference.” Cast it off, did he? Watching that his eyes were closed, the Infernal crawled over to the pile of armour with the cloak atop it, and pulled it to her chest. She wrapped the Emperor’s garment around herself and sat back down on the low couch, pulling the top hem of it over her hair, folds around her propped up knees.

“You wanted to toss my child into a pit of liquid death?” Yasha glared at the Emperor, sucking on her bottom lip between her teeth. The Lake…

If she stopped to ponder it, was there not a preternatural cold seeping through? Past the fire, past the cloaks and her silicar armour weave, it settled ill on her bones, radiating inward with a constant and terrifying shiver. She couldn’t get warm. Mandalorian excess destroyed the lives of those whose spirits ill-rested under New Kaas City. Those same spirits seemed to breathe icy chill down her neck, accosting her now revealed complete soul with their hate and terror.

“Why would that not kill her? Last week, you… mentioned I was open to the Dark Side. To the Force. I could barely breathe. I haven’t slept since, not properly. My head is still spinning. You want to bathe my beautiful little daughter into a nexus of screaming death? Were…” Yasha’s amber eyes veered into the scars on his ruined and repaired face. Her breath stopped, plump lips mashing together in a line.

“No. You weren’t.” She huddled in the cloaks, clenching her jaw to avoid the teeth chattering in her mouth. “Kaine… no.”

After eating her portion of ration bar, Yasha smacked dry lips, her last mouthful burned down a dry throat. An easy twenty six hours since her last drink, the Infernal was beginning to feel it.

“I’m not drinking death water. I’d drink blood first. There’s got to be another source of water here.”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

He let out an exasperated snort of air, "You were unfamiliar with the experience of the Dark Side, Yasha. You couldn't handle it, you still can't handle it, not without training and guidance from someone who has steeped themselves in the Dark Side all of their life." She was allowed to take his cloak for warmth, if that was what she desired, he could make do without most of his material trappings in service of survival. The environment they shared obviously affected her more than it affected him, "While we're trapped down here, I suppose to behooves me to instruct you to better control the dark impulses that exist within you, and maybe help you learn to regulate your internal body temperature..."

It was unsurprising that she would protest at his desires to bathe Adara in the Lake's waters, she was partially ignorant to what her child truly needed and protective of anything that seemed mildly dangerous. But fortunately for Adara, the Lake had long since lost its transformative properties after the Zmir's creation. Carnifex had tested that theory by chucking one of his own servants into the Lake to monitor its effects, and all it did was turn the man insane with the Dark Side.

Then again, he wasn't Force Sensitive.

So when Carnifex then bathed himself in the waters, he was partially unaffected save for a rush of energy coursing through his body. There wasn't much more of him that could benefit from the Lake's powers, but when tested on an individual that was only a novice in the Force it gave them quite the substantial boost. "Adara is tied to the Dark Side, Yasha. She is stronger than you know, and the Lake will only reveal her true potential." He stood, naked save for the pair of trousers that covered the lower half of his body, "I could give you a demonstration if it would ease your mind."

[member="Yasha Mantis"]​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“Guidance? Is that the truth of this? You wanted to guide my perky backside into a Dark Side Nexus and… train me to take all of it in?” Hissing out a cold breath, Yasha huddled in her cloaks and scooted closer to the fire. She shoved another piece of tinder into it, letting her hand stay near the flames. “One doesn’t have to be trained… but I suppose it is a blaring weakness to be open to such things and completely devoid of defence. You… suppose it behooves you? This was your plan, wasn’t it? To offer a midnight swim? Wait.”

Her eyes narrowed, face peeking out from under the cloaks.

“Regulate body temperature? I could… maybe… we have fire. I’m not that cold… although your attire is causing me to reconsider. How are you doing that? I’m in a thermal under layer, armour weave and full plate.” Perhaps her statement would hold more validity if her teeth arrested their chatter. Alone, Yasha let go. Her words flung out of her mouth in Epicant, accent pursing out of chapped lips which still remained stained in black lipstick. Shutting her eyelids tight, the young warrior felt the increased chill tempered only slightly by the flames. Another piece of wood flooring crackled into the small fire. How could the man be sitting there in nothing but his trousers? He was mocking her.

What possible explanation could there be for such chill, which cut through beskar, and her silicar thermal armour weave? The problem with honesty was when it came in multiple forms. Denying her daughter’s abilities was easier done, when everyone in her life wasn’t telling Yasha the exact same thing.

“I won’t have someone make a weapon of her as they did me. You know how I feel about this, Kaine. I refuse to let her grow up in the thrall of power like I did. She needs to be a child. A loved and educated one, yes, but a child. Her potential is valuable and I know I have no reference for it all, it's why I went to Ithor in the first place, but… her true potential can wait until she’s old enough.” Adara was of the Dark, a being incomplete without the infusion [member="Darth Carnifex"] desired for her. Yet Jaster’s dying gift of the purification crystal settled in the hidden recesses of her mind. Adara would choose, one way or the other. For now the widow Infernal held fast a belief that she could stall for time, allow Adara a few more years of growing up before the Galaxy took its’ toll on her daughter, as it had her.

“I am convinced that nothing could kill you except the creation of a genuine altruistic smile. Your demonstration might be harmless to you, but for her? For me?” Yasha smacked her lips, attempting to swallow in a dry mouth. Sitting in the rather large shadow of the Sith Emperor, Yasha clenched her jaw and stood up, cloaks around her. "I should scan for another water source anyhow. Anything has to be cleaner than the lake."

He brushed by, skin radiating a heat she felt from no fire nor cloak. It was this place, then. This tomb to Kaas City froze any who entered its’ bower. The heat off him slid temporarily down her spine, pooling into her bones. Warmth. Something so intrinsically simple was terribly hard to find.

“What sort of demonstration?”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"What you want and what she needs are not compatible, Yasha. One day you will learn to understand that."

Again, she was unable to see reality for what it was. What she wanted for her daughter would not factor in for the destiny laid out before her. There was little she can do to alter that path, not at this juncture at least. The Emperor of the Sith had done many things to ensure that his vision would come to pass, he had accumulated a great league of oracles to his side to peer through the webways of the Force in order to steer the wheel of fate towards a favorable outcome. He had been forced to snip the strings of fate around other beings while tieing them around others, entire lineages of greatness snuffed out just to further his own grand schemes.

Potential generations extinguished.

"And you may go on your search, just be sure you do not get lost. They won't."

With those parting words, he fully disrobed and folded his black trousers before placing them overtop his armor. Now fully naked, the Emperor walked towards the precipice of the belltower and stared down into the inky blackness below. Without another word he flung himself from the tower, diving down to disappear into the watery abyss.

He did not immediately resurface.

Instead, he immersed himself in the Force, letting the Dark Side fill his being as his mind opened itself up to the Cosmic Force.

Deep in meditation, he would remain there until Yasha returned.

[member="Yasha Mantis"]​