This is what it feels like (Dredge)

[Cryax Bane]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNI12hvKsxI[/youtube]​

Location: Unmarked Slicer Bar on Antecedent​

Cryax Bane, Chiss President of the Red Ravens Criminal Syndicate, should have known better than to leave the casino sans a small army of bodyguards, but desperation made a man do irrational things sometimes. It was exactly two weeks after his capture and torture at the claws of the Yuuzhan Vong overlord [member="Dredge"], and the Chiss only had one more week to fufill his end of the hard bargain he'd struck with the creature in order to garner his freedom. Information about one of Dredge's Mandalorian nemeses in exchange for escaping eternal slavery. It was a deal with the devil that Cryax was going to seal for better or for worse. His infochants and bounty hunters had come up empty-handed, and so Cryax turned to the Holonet and the slicer community, unearthing a new up-and-coming slicer named Acid who was supposedly the next big thing.

Gently kissing his sleeping Morellian boyfriend, Cryax snuck over to his computer and ordered two Mirari bodyguard droids to accompany him on his late night mission to track down Acid. As his penthouse door opened with a hiss, the crime boss put himself on autopilot and before he even knew what was happening, he and the droids were riding in a speeder taxi to one of the city's worst neighborhoods in the middle of the night. As drug fiends and stim addicts cast furtive glances at the Chiss, scurrying away from the street corners like womp rats, Cryax, droids in tow, double-checked the coordinates on his Datapad, and confirming that the location was correct, ducked into the unmarked bar and into the smoky playground of the Antecedent slicing community.

Keeping a keen eye out for anyone that looked malicious, which was basically everyone in the place, he soon found a booth in the back where a scrawny Twi'lek with bad acne sat, typing away on a tricked-out Datapad. "You're Acid, aren't you?" he said to the Twi'lek, sliding into the booth next to her without so much as an introduction. "I've got a special job for you."

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

One week earlier

"But my lord!" A Yuuzhan Vong shaper protested outloud to a figure sitting in a throne. Beside him stood four other shapers who stood with perfect composure and form. They appeared to be in a throne room of some kind, and unlike the happy regal vibe most gave off. This one had the feeling of a Conan villain written all over it. "What you ask for cannot be done in such a short time!" The shaper protested again

Silence crawled into the room for a moment before a large bellowing voice spoke out.

"I care not what you think is possible. You will have her alive and talking in this time, or you will be fired from your position!" The demonic voice demanded absolute control and it meant every word that it said.

"Then by the gods fire me! Because what you ask by the gods bellow can not be do-" the Yuuzhan Vong shaper was cut off by a joust of red hot fire that protruded out from an outstretched hand that had been clutching the side of the throne. The Yuuzhan Vong shaper screamed, fell to the ground then promptly died an agonizing death.

"Consider yourself fired then." The voice spoke and the Yuuzhan Vong Overlord himself stood up to address the other shapers. "Does anyone else have anything to say?" Dredge asked the other shapers in the room. They quickly shook their heads and bowed before him.

"Very good then. Leave my sight and have the workers feed this filth to the war beasts." Dredge kicked the corpse as he walked back to his throne. Sitting back down he smiled watching the slaves carry out the scolding hot body that burned their hands as they did so.

"I want Cidaxi Bane alive."

Current day

Cidaxi bane was a woman in her early forties by nature, and even though that may have been she did not look a day over thirty. The Yuuzhan Vong shapers had brought the woman back from the dead and they did a damn good job at doing it. It was funny how quickly and effectively someone could work with the threat of being burned alive and eaten was behind you. But regardless the woman lived and was now infected with the wonderful creation of the Yuuzhan Vong. Surge coral. Surge coral was a substance given to thralls that caused overwhelming amounts of pain when triggered, it created obedient and loyal thralls and it was used on Cryax's mother to get her to go along with what Dredge had planned.

The woman watched her son go in from across the street and was holding herself back from crying at the first sight of her child. It was terrible to watch yet a gift at the same time to see her son grown up.

"I can't do this." She said to herself. But then an overwhelming amount of pain triggered by dredge reminded her that she could indeed do this. Or else

The woman frowned and walked into the bar slowly. She had gotten a lot of dirty looks from different people most of which checking her out and more than likely thinking less than appropriate thoughts. She entered the bar completely and a tear rolled down her cheek when she spotted her son. She walked towards him slowly and cautiously not wanting to disturb him at work. What was her son doing in a place like this? She slowly approached him and unsure of any other way how to speak to a son after you died she spoke.

"Sweetheart, it's mommy." She said trying her best not to break down crying.

 

[Cryax Bane]

Cryax thought that with the amount he was personally offering for the information, that Acid would have credit signs in her eyes and would jump at the chance to get the data he needed. But no dice. Apparently even young upstart slicers didn't want to piss off the karking Mandos. He sighed and bought the Twi'lek more drinks, which Acid gladly downed despite the fact that she had no intention of taking the job. With arms folded over her skinny red frame, she still didn't budge, simply sassing Cryax when he tried to give her a harder sell, promising her a job with the Ravens. "Ooooh, my own office! With free coffee!" she said in a mocking tone. "I'll make sure I tell all my friends I finally made the big time," she scoffed with the careless giggle of a teenager. Cryax's eyes narrowed and he was about to play "No More Mr. Nice Chiss" with the other slicer when he noticed that Acid's eyes were focused on someone standing directly behind him. Her face full of confusion, she lifted a red-skinned finger very slowly, and the Chiss whipped his head around and saw...his mother.

His dead mother was standing before him in an unmarked slicer bar in the middle of the night, and the pained look in her eyes instantly broke his heart. At the same time, the impossibility of the scene before him made his adrenaline spike, and the Chiss had to steady himself with a hand on a nearby table. Dredge. It had to be Dredge. No. No. No. No. No. His hand involuntarily moved to his blaster and he levelled it at the frail Chiss woman. He clicked off the safety with an almost imperceptible gulp. This wasn't his real mother. His real mother, Cidaxi Bane, was long dead, and the last time he saw her was in a Yammosk-induced nightmare. This body who stood sadly before him waiting for an answer from her beloved son was a vessel or a husk and soon Dredge would speak through her mouth.

His blaster still trained on Cidaxi with trembling arms, he reluctantly spoke to the figure, spitting out the words as if they were bile in his mouth. "No, it's not kriffing mommy." Cryax growled, although it pained him to speak to his mother this way. Especially because Cidaxi never liked cursing. "Not by a long shot. Dredge, you're early again. You really need to invest in a calendar."

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

Cidaxi's eyes went wide with fear when her son pulled the blaster, it shook her down to her frail core and she stumbled back as any normal person would do. Unlike Dredge's minions who begged and pleaded for death, genuine fear was on this woman's face. She stumbled and tripped backwards falling onto her butt.

"Sweetheart, no please!" The woman said trying not to break down completely. She was on the edge of losing it and seeing all that hate in her son was not helping. She could see in his face, his sunken eyes that longed for rest. The twitch in his temple and the grit in his teeth. She could feel her son's anger in only a way a mother could. Her baby was hurting inside and out.

She looked down and began to cry. Hot tears ran down her face in rivers of despair. She cried not for herself or her safety, but for the pain her son felt and that she wasn't there to defend him or comfort him when he needed her. Her pale green dress began to stain with the tears that fell from her scarlet eyes. Cidaxi looked up at Cryax and gave him a look that showed how sorry she felt for him, that even though he held a gun to her head it was ok. Everything was going to be ok.

She slowly gained her composure and walked forward towards her son. She took slow calm baby steps towards him and wanted nothing more than to comfort her baby. "Forlac'rya'xitodo, it's okay. Mommy is here to make everything better." She walked closer and closer to Cryax praying that he would not pull the trigger. That she could see her boy in more than just a violent flash of hatred and rage.

"I'm not Dredge baby, it's really me. I don't know how either but it's really me I promise." She said until the barrel of the gun was directly in her face again. She took her hand and slowly put her two fingers on the barrel to try and push it down as she made a long comforting shushing sound.

"Shhhhhh, it's ok honey. Everything is ok."

 

[Cryax Bane]

As his security team also trained their blasters on the other Chiss, Acid grabbed up her things from the table. "I'm outta here," she muttered and breezed out of the slicer bar without looking back, but Cryax paid no attention. His glowing red eyes could only see the figure standing before him. Mixed emotions rippled over his face as he carefully watched Cidaxi with furrowed brows and a deep aching in his heart. This version of Cidaxi Bane was different than the one in his night terror. His arms taut as he held the blaster steadily aimed at her face, the young Chiss crime boss backed up a few paces, stumbling over a chair, as she stepped towards him. He noticed that she didn't have the lifelessness of the usual husks, the walleyed stares and drooling faces. She was so alive. So much like the mother who'd raised him all on her own in a small village on Bakura.

Her voice was as soothing as a breezy summer's day, and he badly wanted to run to her and wrap himself up in her warm embrace. To curl up and sleep in her arms. When she used his traditional name instead of his core one, his chest heaved involuntarily. Cryax's heart wanted desperately to believe it was really her, but his brain told him it was too much of an impossibility. It was a Dredge trick. Still, despite himself he found himself speaking the words before he realized what he was saying. "Ma? Is that you?" he implored, letting her gently push the barrel of the blaster lower until it was pointed towards the floor. Then Cryax stepped forward a few inches, his expression very similar to that of a young boy desperate to be cradled in his mother's arms.

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

"Yes baby, it's me." She said trying not to choke up anymore. But seeing her son lose that anger on his face only to be replaced by the raw pain he felt. It was just too much.

Once the pistol was lowered Cryax's mother let out a choking sob and held her baby. She cried and wept wrapping both arms around his head and lowering him slightly until it rested on her collarbone. She ran a comforting hand through his hair over and over again the way a mother would giving affection to her child. Her tears fell down wetting his hair slightly as she continued to hold him in her arms. She tried to speak but her words only came out as choking sobs of sadness mixed with the joy of seeing her son again.

"Mommies here, mommies here." She said before letting out another sob, she gripped her son tighter to her chest and laid her head on his. She missed her son so very much, it was a feeling like a weight being lifted from her shoulders only to be replaced by the sight of her child in such pain. She buckled a bit but held on to her son in the emotional moment that was her being reunited with her son, returning from the dead to see him once more.

"I'm never going to leave you again, I promise, I'm not going to leave you. I'm so sorry honey, I'm so so sorry!" She buckled again feeling weary after the stress of the moment. But nothing but her son could pry him from her. She would rather faint on the floor then let anyone take her away from him again. She moved her head and trained her lips on the top of his skull. And with a deep and nurturing feeling she kissed the top of his head letting her lips stay there as she held Cryax.

 

[Cryax Bane]

Amid the perplexed stares from slicers and glitterstim addicts huddled in the bar's shadowy corners, mother and son reunited, and Cryax had all but forgotten why he'd come to the club in the first place. "I'm here, ma," he managed to choke out as he rested against her, taking comfort in the gentle kisses on his forehead as he wiped away her tears and then his own. "Your son's here." The crime boss's security droids were just as confused as the bar patrons, but following their master's lead, they lowered their weapons.

Cryax's worries faded away for a moment as Cidaxi Bane's embrace burst his heart, filling him with a warmth only a mother's love could provide, but just as quickly the doubts returned. What the frell was happening? This wasn't normal. There was a perverse unreality to the situation that he knew was Dredge's doing somehow. If not his Yuuzhan Vong tormentor, then a machination of own fractured mind, and he wasn't sure which was worse. He helped Cidaxi to the nearby vacant table and sat her down, stroking her blue-black hair with his fingers. "There's no need to be sorry," said the Chiss to his dead mother with a wan smile and put his finger to her lips to shush her. "I'm the one who owes all the apologies. I've been the worst son, but I'm going to make it up to you I swear. Ma? I have to ask, how are you even here? How is this possible?" Cryax didn't want to remind her that she was dead, as he was certain that whatever her reaction to that revelation, it wouldn't be a good one.

A cold dread coursed through his veins as he reluctantly brought up the name that had been laying on his tongue like a rancid taste, his voice wavering. "This has something to do with Dredge, doesn't it, ma?"

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

Cidaxi lowered her head and a weak smile formed on her face at her son's words of comfort. She was soon after set down at a booth where she laid back in her chair and did her best not to cry. Putting her face back on she had an expression of care and love towards her son, a face that read she was here for him. She still hurt to see her son like this but she did have a purpose for being here, dredge had allowed her to reconcile with her son and do the whole mother thing. Let no one say Dredge is not generous

Though when she started to call himself a bad son she snapped her head at him and narrowed her puffy teary eyes at the boy. "You are the best son a mother could ask for. And there's something that I wish I could of told you towards the end." She reached out her hand and grabbed her son's tugging at it and holding it tight in her own. "When I was laying there in that bed dying, I knew you weren't going to make it. I was told about where you had been, and..." She said pausing to look her son dead in the eyes

"I forgive you." She said to him in the most soft and caring voice she could muster up. "It wasn't your fault." She said holding her sons hand tight. She smiled and gave him a soft nod of reassurance to show she meant every word. But then she mentioned the word Dredge and a cold shiver ran down her spine.

"All I remember was waking up, seeing these monsters covered in tattoos around me. They told me welcome back and then put me under again. After that all I could hear them talking about was a person called Lord Dredge." She shook again and remembered the awful experience of having the surge coral placed in her. "Then they put something in me that made me hurt every time I disobeyed them. They told me to find you and tell you they wanted to make a deal with you. Something you could not refuse, they told me that my life was at stake and that was all they told me." She held her boy's hand and then spoke again

"Whatever they want from you it's not worth me."

 

[Cryax Bane]

His red eyes searching hers, Cryax listened carefully to his mother talk, watching her familiar features with disbelief etched on his face. His hands firmly held onto hers as if letting go would cause him to lose her all over again. When Cidaxi gave him her forgiveness, he choked back tears. Determined to be the strong son he felt she’d always wanted, the Chiss crime boss refused to cry in front of his mother. There was so much he wanted to share with her, like his learning Cheuhn and his job, of course, although he wasn’t sure if she would approve of the latter.

His caring smile turned into a frown as Cidaxi mentioned Dredge and then a scowl as she admitted being hurt by the demon. Through some form of foul necromancy she was really here and not just a phantom. Cryax no longer cared how his mother existed, but only that she did, and he was determined to do everything in his power to keep her from being further terrorized by the Yuuzahn Vong.

“It's a long story, but I’m already working on a special task for this monster, Dredge.” he explained. Then the young Chiss suddenly slammed his hand down on the table. “What more does he karking want from me?” he exclaimed with an edge of rage in his voice. Softly squeezing Cidaxi’s hand he said more gently, “Don’t be silly, ma. I’d do anything to keep you out of harm’s way. I'm not going to lose you again." Cryax looked around the bar, his red eyes frantically searching. "Where is Dredge then? I need to talk to him."

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

Cidaxi Bane almost jumped when her son's hand slammed down on the table, calming herself a bit she looked at her boy and shook her head. With a bit of strength in her voice she spoke back to her so who saw it fit to swear like a sailor in front of her. He may have been a grown man but she did not like cursing all too much from anyone, especially not her own son. And so she told him so

"Forlac'rya'xitodo Bane! I did not raise you to curse and shout like a madman! And I certainly have not come back from the grave to see you start doing so!" She gave her son's hand a little squeeze to help get her point across. He was a bit too old to bend over the knee but she could at least give him a ass chewing. "You know how I feel about cursing young man." She said to him as if he were a child, she didn't mind him doing it around others since he was a man and all but she was pretty strict on the policy around her.

"And further more you are not going to negotiate with that man, i don't know what he did to you to hurt you so bad or make you come to a filthy dive bar like this but you are my son. And I will not sit here and watch you tear yourself apart for me or anyone else. I love you and I will not tell you what bec-" Cidaxi was cut off from her sentence and an overwhelming amount of pain flooded her senses. She screamed and fell over in the booth. It was like a thousand ants were biting every part of her body at the same time, the look on her face went from concerned mother to victim in a flash.

But then her screams faded and she stood back up smiling that siniste little grin Dredge was famos for. "Oooh wretch, how your mother disappoints me." She spoke in her normal voice, it was not the demonic one of dredge. But it still carried that same weight and pitch that he used in his own speaking voice.

"She's beautiful is she not? You should of seen her when I plucked her from that grave. Nothing but rotting flesh and bones. A woman who had died alone." A tear rolled down the woman's face as dredge kept talking. She was in there as her body was being used as sick little puppet for dredge somewhere close. "If you want to save her wretch you will enter the sewers beneath you. You will be escorted from there and we shall talk. And before you say if I refuse. I'll kill the queen nice and slow." He said putting emphasis on hand last few words

 

[Cryax Bane]

The sound of his traditional Csillan name clicking off of Cidaxi's tongue almost broke Cryax, but when she admonished him for his swearing, he felt his mouth turn up into a weak smile. Although his boyhood self would never have agreed, it felt good to be scolded by his mother again. She had always tugged at his emotions in a way that no one else could, and he sorely missed her sweetness and her protectiveness. His hand brushed her blue-skinned cheek as he apologized profusely. "I'm sorry, ma," her son said sheepishly. "I forgot my manners."

Cryax and his mother's reunion had been fairly pleasant up until the point where she started yelping like a wounded animal and jerking in pain. "NO!" he screamed, immediately rushing to her side but only able to helplessly watch Cidaxi writhe in anguish. Then with a sinking feeling, Cryax watched her as she became Dredge personified. A thrall, just like the husk that had infiltrated the casino. Despite the instinct that this moment was inevitable, he still found himself appalled at hearing Dredge's voice emerge from Cidaxi's slack mouth, and the horrid sight made him palsied with rage.

He couldn't bear the thought that his mother would be returned to him like this only to be murdered by Dredge. His face laden with pain, Cryax stood up, saying nothing other than a simple "Stay here," to his security droids. Then he walked slowly out of the bar and headed towards the sewers with the heavy soul of a soldier marching in his own funeral procession.

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

"I'll see you soon Wretch, real soon." Cidaxi let her fingers fall forward in a quick motion from pinkey to index, she repeated the process twice in a quick motion and let the Chiss crime lord be on his way. His mom would be safe with the guards and before Cryax left the door Dredge said something to Cryax that would make his blood boil. "Disobey me Wretch, and you'll hear her scream until the last bitter moment." The woman's head slumped forward and she passed into unconsciousness, deep down where there were no dreams or monsters that could hurt her.


When Cryax entered the sewers it would not be the sight everyone would expect when dealing with Dredge, it started off rather nice actually. In the distance Cryax could hear a faint whistle and a honest to god orchestra. Playing a friendly tune of upbeat serenity. The song played went to a tune that now rang out a bit distinct

http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=4xbabEtsBvI

The path before Cryax was not something anyone would expect, it was a patch of green grass and flowers that lead down the sewer line. A bunny rabbit or two scrunched up their nose and bounded away. The sight was fucking bizarre to say the least. The path of flowers and green grass was as clear and real to the touch as anything could be, drawn on the walls were the crude pictures of happy suns and flowers, animals playing and frolicking through fields. They looked as if an eight year old had drawn them and the happy chalk skies above Cryax smiled at him with their poorly drawn faces. On the wall to the side of Cryax read

"XOXO SAMANTHA"

There were no guards escorting Cryax at all and the cheer filled orchestra kept playing in happy tunes of sunshine and cookies. However as Cryax progressed down the path the music began to turn a little, the path bellow him began to get sticky and messy. Not with mud but some other liquid, red stained the bottom of his shoes and the grass bellow had turned into a thick groggy stew of grass and warm blood. On the walls illustrated poorly were the fun times Samantha and Cryax had spent together on the Omen. Pictures of knives dug into his legs, beetles crawling around in his flesh, Cryax being flogged with the bladed unholy torture device. And last but not least was him crucified upon a hill as if he were the messiah himself. The music grew darker and darker hitting higher pitched notes of woe and despair, the rabbits on the ground now twitched and bled out over the flowers and everything was growing closer to hell when Cryax drew closer.

Hitting the crescendo of whistles all around Cryax in the tunnel dead members of the red raven gang hung to the walls. Lieutenants, shot callers, foot soldiers, paid hit men, all of them were nailed to the wall their faces contorted into dead smiles and eyes that all stared at Cryax when he passed them. The music was nearing the end when Cryax came out the other end of the tunnel he would come across a disturbing scene.

"Let's play what did you have for breakfast!" Samantha standing next to her towering father in armor was gutting the member of the Red Ravens, the woman was chained to the wall while on her knees and she cried out in protest screaming the entire time while Samantha ran a blade across her gut until her entrails spilled onto the floor and her head hung loose and dead. Samantha proceeded to play hopscotch in the leftover organs and giggled whilst doing it. Standing over was dredge lowly whistling the tune in front of Cryax. His eyes focused on him and to the left of him was a small orchestra of Yuuzhan Vong priests

 

[Cryax Bane]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FlSdHyXYO8[/youtube]​

As he begrudgingly walked towards the exit of the slicer bar, Cryax heard Dredge's last warning about torturing Cidaxi if he disobeyed, and the sharp words made him stop in the doorway momentarily. His head turned almost imperceptibly, fingers clenching. Then he kept walking. Down the empty street and into the sewers. The strange peaceful scene of green grass and shining sun was unexpected to say the least, and although it felt achingly real, deep down Cryax knew that this was all part of Dredge's trickery. Then there was the terrible whistling, a chilling tune that violated his soul.

The deeper into the passageway he got, the more twisted the scene became, and pretty soon the Chiss was surrounded by the all-too familiar hallmarks of Dredge's theater of the absurd. Feet sticking in the red viscera that lined the ground, his adrenaline spiked involuntarily when he saw the childish murals of Samantha, the sickeningly cheery, little Yuuzhan Vong child who had gleefully tortured him. Keep it together, Cryax. He put on imaginary blinders and stared straight ahead, resigned, as if he were walking the plank. But as he went deeper into the subterranean hallway, he found his surroundings more difficult to ignore.

Amid the terrible whistling that pierced his eardrums, mixed emotions flooded Cryax's system as the dead bodies of Red Raven members hung, scattered around on the walls like pieces of drying meat, their expressions twisted with death grins. He suddenly realized he was going to let them down. He was going to let them all down. He was no crime boss. He was merely a fake, a fraud. Cryax was struck with a dead certainty that he was leading the Red Ravens, everyone he loved, and worse of all his own mother into inevitable disaster. This wasn't Dredge's theater, it was his. He was the one playing the smoke and mirrors game.

Finally, the Chiss crime boss reached his destination and as he arrived, he was a rickety mess, shaking, sweating, his nervous system only under the most tenuous control. He watched little Samantha eviscerate a Red Raven woman, and as she died he realized he didn't even know her name. He choked back a cry as the woman's head fell, and then gulped and swallowed back some acrid bile. Cryax's eyes narrowed, and he raised his head defiantly, facing the Yuuzhan Vong overlord once again. Although he wouldn't admit it, he was nowhere near getting the information that Dredge wanted on Preliat Mantis, and he was sure the edge of panic in his voice betrayed his failure.

"Nice show, Dredge. Really. Award-winning performances all around. Can't wait for the sequel." Cryax said, with a sad, sharp laugh. Then his voice lowered as he growled. "I thought I had a week before had to see your ugly face again. Why the sudden dress rehearsal?"

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

The whistling dredge tuned it down and faded away the musical theme until it was just Cryax and the horror show he saw in front of him. Dredge smiled at Cryax, still so defiant in the face of very real danger. Though of course is wasn't danger for him, it was pain and torture for his mother. Snapping his fingers Dredge stood there and soon after the howling screams of Cidaxi echoed through the sewers from the world above, she sounded like a stuck pig dying and bleeding out slowly. After a few seconds again Dredge snapped his fingers and the screaming stopped. The tyrant stepped forward and spoke in his demonic booming voice.

"Let's get something straight. The only words you are going to say to me right now are Yes Master, and No Master and if I ask you something that isn't a yes or no question, that sentence had better end with Master. Otherwise I'm killing her slowly." Dredge stepped back and the priests holding the instruments began to play a small haunting tune. A Yuuzhan Vong Worker caste pushed a large wooden chair behind dredge and he sat down. The worker moved around and popped open a cheap camping chair for Cryax.

Dredge ushered forth a hand and spoke. "Sit, Wretch." He said in a commanding tone.

Dredge looked over to his daughter who had finished jumping around in the leftovers of woman's chest cavity. Samantha came to her father's side and smiled brightly. "Oh father, don't forget he can only say wretch as his name!" The little girl said sweetly before scampering off to go play behind her father. "I had almost forgot, I swear wretch this being a father thing is quite fun. You really learn how it feels to be one of you lesser life forms." Dredge lifted his ankle so it rested on his thigh the armor scraping and groaning as it did so.

"Anyway let's talk, I figured to myself why just buy the milk when I can own the cow. Made perfect sense to me. So wretch, let's make a deal shall we?" He asked Cryax and smiled at him as he sat back in his chair awaiting a response

 

[Cryax Bane]

Dredge was obviously not in the mood to answer Cryax's questions. He cursed himself silently. It was simply stupid of him to trust the overlord, to entertain the hopes that he'd be able to get away that easily. He had no time to muse over his own idiocy, however, because the sounds of his mother screaming echoed through the sewers, making him wince. He was starting to feel like he was back on Dredge's ship again, a thought almost that made his knees buckle.

His glowing red eyes were fraught with worry for his lovely Cidaxi, as he listened to Dredge talk. He cared no more about what happened to him, but was deathly afraid for her safety and her life, convinced he had to do everything in his power to prevent further pain being inflicted on her. So the young crime boss backed up as a chair was unfolded for him and took a seat next to a Yuuzhan Vong underling just as he was commanded to.

Cryax had forgotten just how hard it was to hear the nickname Wretch again, much less use it himself. Scowling, he turned his head away uncomfortably as both Dredge and Samantha happily reminded him. It seemed that Dredge was changing the plans on him. Of course he was. What else did Cryax expect? As the overlord sat back on his throne, self-satisfied, Cryax mulled over his options but came up empty-handed.

"As loathe as I, um, Wretch is to bargain with you again, Wretch will, but only if you let Cidaxi go. Otherwise no deal. Do you understand, Master?" Cryax made sure he added an extra helping of sarcasm onto the last word just to spite Dredge.

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

Dredge sat there stone face when Cryax started making demands about how things were going to be, his face was mask of neutrality that could not be read by even the greatest of interrogators. He simply lifted up his hand and snapped his fingers, above the screams of Cidaxi screeched through the sewers. They were horrifying to listen to, they sounded beyond pained. As if someone had taken every bit of strength from her and willed it into her screams. It was unimaginable pain Dredge was putting her through at this moment, and he was doing for the simple reason that he said I and that he tried to protest against him in even the slightest of ways.

"I'm sorry you were saying something?" Dredge asked in polite voice over the sounds of Cryax's mothers screams. And with the snap of his fingers again the screams stopped and Dredge sat there without a grin or anything on his face. It was completely inhuman to look at how little he cared if his mother lived or died

"Well if you are done wretch allow me to make my offer." Dredge said with a bit of contempt in his voice.

"It's rather simple really, your life for hers. You take the surge coral in your system, you become a loyal thrall under my command. Then you go off and live your little pathetic life while I pull your strings from the shadows. You have my word that I will leave your mother be and let her live with you. You will retain your free will but when I call upon you, you will do what I say when I say or else you will feel pain beyond pain. But your mother will be free to live out the rest of her long and fruitful life, it is only fair is it not? One life for another." Dredge gave his offer and sat back in his chair. However dredge was an aggressive businessman and he was going to give Cryax some incentive to say yes.

With a snap of his fingers the screams were back on and Dredge simply sat there that grin plastered on his face.

"So what will it be?"

 

[Cryax Bane]

As Cidaxi's ragged screams rang out through the sewers of Antecedent, Cryax instantly regretted his tone with Dredge. His mother's anguished wails were the most unbearable sounds he'd ever been forced to listen to. Worse than the Utapan child screaming back on the Omen, the one he was forced to kill. And his face twisted with emotional pangs. "Stop...please." he muttered, squirming in his chair. But unfortunately, Dredge stopped in his own time. With a snap of his fingers, there was only silence and the overlord's quiet voice.

Then Dredge detailed what the new bargain he wanted to strike with Cryax and the Chiss involuntarily shook his head as he listened. But despite his gestures of protest, he realized that he had no choice, but to trade his life for Cidaxi's, or else face a terrible guilt that he'd never be able to live with. There were quite a few people that Cryax would sell out to save his own skin, but his mother wasn't one of him. If he didn't strike this bargain, he felt like he'd be no better than the monster who sat before him, leaning back in his chair nonchalantly as if they were discussing something as banal as the stock market.

"How does Wretch know that he can trust you?" Cryax asked suspiciously. "You didn't honor our bargain before. How does Wretch know that you'll honor this one?" As Cidaxi screamed again, Cryax gulped audibly and shifting in his seat, added the word "Master."

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

Dredge sat there his face back to that inhuman mask of neutrality and patience. The fact of the matter was that Cryax couldn't trust Dredge, not as far as he could throw him. Which was to say very far at all. Dredge simply sat there and stared at Cryax, he wouldn't waist his breath giving back a whit filled retort. He wasn't going to sit there and go back and forth with Cryax, the deal was the deal and he could either take it and trust that Dredge would no longer need his mother after the operation on Cryax. Or he could lose his mother again today, either way the results would bring dredge some form of satisfaction. A Yuuzhan Vong worker caste walked over to Dredge and put a fruity cocktail in his hand from the bar above, it smelled like a sex on the beach or some other form of tropical drink. There was a little umbrella in it and a straw that protruded out from the glass cup.

Dredge took the drink in his left hand and held it to his side all whole staring at Cryax uncaring that his mother was screaming in pain behind him. Taking his right hand Dredge lifted it up so it was a foot away from his own face. He opened up his palm and normally this would be the part where the person in front of him would see a bright flash and then burn to a crisp. But no, not this time. There was something much more sinister about his movements.

Lifting the drink to his lips dredge began to sip through the bendy straw taking in the sweet sugar and vodka flavored drink. With his right hand he began to twist the air to the right as if he were turning up tbd volume on a stereo. And has he did so Cidaxi's screams go louder and louder as the pain grew more and more intense. Some of the sounds she was making didn't even sound human anymore, it was all screams and guttural noises of pain and desperation wanting it all to stop. Dredge pried his lips from the bendy straw and looked at the drink. Then up to Cryax. And he spoke, his voice almost muted under the screams

"Wretch, this cocktail is amazing. Would you like one?" He asked politely as he set his right hand down

 

[Cryax Bane]

It was a bizarre scene indeed. Dredge torturing Cidaxi Bane, Cryax's mother while sipping a fruity-looking cocktail as if the Yuuzhan Vong was lounging on the beach on Chroma Zedd. It pained Cryax to no end to hear his mother scream while Dredge got his libation on. No, this wouldn't do. His mother was in anguish, and only her son had the power to stop it. "Stop! Ok? Stop it! Wretch agrees to whatever..." the Chiss stammered, his tongue stumbling over the words he didn't really want to say. "...whatever Dredge wants." he finally spat out. Then Cryax dropped his face into his hands and sobbed. "Please make it stop," he said, his voice muffled through his fingers, his chest heaving. "Please, Master," he hastily added.

Cryax couldn't stand to hear his mother scream anymore. The woman had been through so much already with her deadbeat husband, Cryax's father, her illness, and her son's abandonment. The best thing he could do for her as her only son was to stop the torture and let her live anew, away from all of this. It would redeem him. Or kill him. The only thing he wasn't sure of was which one would come first.

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

With the snap of his fingers Dredge halted the screams and it was over. The woman stopped screaming and Dredge stood up took one more sip of the cocktail then poured the rest on Cryax's head. Throwing the glass to the side it broke and shattered into tiny little pieces much like Cryax's will. Dredge had won, he had broken the man and he didn't even have to lay a finger on him. Dredge squatted down and with one finger moved Cryax's chin and head up so he could stare into his dark red eyes. He gave him a somber look and then smiled, "Oh wretch, how you never cease to amaze me." The man chuckled once softly and stood up to walk over to the chair he once sat in. Grabbing the chair he moved it away and behind that lay something monstrous.

A meter and a half tall crab looking creature stood behind the chair. It stared at Cryax with it's dark pale black eyes and pincers. It had one purpose and it was to administer the coral into Cryax's system. The monster clicked it's pincers and waited there patiently.

Samantha approached the beast and pet it's side before speaking to wretch in a very happy and chipper voice

"This is Colonel Snazzy Pants! He will be administering your treatment! Please step forward!" She said before disappearing behind the monster. Dredge have a soft chuckle at his daughters antics and spoke aloud himself to Cryax

"Yes Wretch, approach Colonel Snazzy Pants." He said trying not to laugh at Cryax. It was quite hard but Dredge was a pro after all