Two is Better Than One!

[Bubák]

Flinching when she felt the energy beam touch her shoulder, the first thing that came to the teenager's mind was that her arm would be removed as a punishment for weakness. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead and dripped from her chin as she waited for the incredible pain to arrive and mark a permanent amputation of her arm. At least she had the luck to live after that?

Despite her wild expectations, the blade only pressed itself against her tunic and let the girl's skin underneath taste its heat. Nothing more. As a puzzled look spread over the Chiss' face, the girl stopped covering her head and gazed back at the woman, disbelief soon disappearing as she remembered this woman claimed to be a Jedi. Or a light sided Sith, to be precise, but Alaki could not accept something like that, therefore she branded the Echani a Jedi.

"Because I want to become one. Be strong and have no fear," the girl tried to explain, "As a Padawan, I have witnessed their power on Coruscant."

Standing up, she telekinetically summoned her weapons and continued. "I came to a realization that the Dark Side is superior to the Light Side of the Force. The path of a Sith is the right way of life."

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

"You confuse me, you say that the dark side is superior, but then you say that is why you joined though sith. You see, the Sith do not -own- the darkside, just as the Jedi do not own the light, they are but aspects on a spectrum. The Sith and the Dark Side are two very different things, the Dark Side thrives on your harsher and more explosive emotions like Fear, Hate, Anger, Pain, Jealousy.... while the Sith way is the acquisition of power no matter the cost... or normally it is. Just as the Jedi defend peace at any cost. Remember the Jedi can cause genocides and cultural removal just as quickly as the Sith, the Great Hyperspace war as well as the constant war with the Sith being proof of this. But this is where i come in..." She shut off her sabers and dismantled them through the force a innocent grin on her face, telling the woman she had recovered the force to a point but to tell no one. Once dismantled she took from the saber's their crystals and handed them to her. And in them she would feel a light feeling of warmth and happiness mixed with a even lighter emotion, love. "... The lightside can be just as powerful as the dark, this is simply for one reason. Light and Dark are measured by your emotions, morals, and your will, someone who revels in the pain of others and will only cause death to achieve power is quite obviously attuned to the dark side. But someone that moves to power through peaceful means, ones that protect and creates trust in those they command. Showing mercy, compassion, and joy to all they touch, even in the heat of battle, can they not attain the same power if their emotions are just as strong as their dark counterpart?"

 

[Bubák]

Alaki did not agree with everything the Jedi said, but remained silent until the woman finished and took her weapons apart. The Chiss shook in disgust when the two crystals were presented to her, as she could feel the Light Side radiating from them. It reminded the girl of her own lightsaber crystal, one that served as a proof of her weakness she had to destroy by becoming a true Sith. Upon closer inspection, after holding the crystals in her hand, she felt something unexpected among the Light Side; love and happiness, both fuel of the Dark Side. A sly smile crossed the fallen Padawan's face upon noticing that. When the Echani stopped talking, the blue skinned teen shook her head. "The Dark Side is much more powerful than the Light Side because it requires emotions, something natural to sentient beings. That is why the Jedi fear it, why they want to foolishly destroy it. It feasts on all emotions and passion, those make it grow stronger. To deny the Dark Side is to deny your true self, your desires and feelings. All serve as fuel, all make me more powerful as I immerse deeper into the Dark Side..."

"The Sith are not afraid of fully embracing the true power of the Force and bending it to their will. I have seen that on Coruscant. Sith are stronger than Jedi. Unafraid and powerful. I need to be like them... Don't get me wrong, I do not want the power to destroy, I want it to survive. The intention is what matters as well when it comes to the light and dark, right? To be more like the Sith, I need to be less like the Jedi, but where does my wish to live fit in?"

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

"There is a difference between not being a Jedi and not being lightsided. I am not a Jedi and never would i be one, they are not true users of the lightside. They void out emotions but you must understand that the Light Side uses emotions just as they Dark does. They merely use love, compassion, caring, happiness, joy, and mercy... Sorry if i sound like a broken record but i am trying to help you understand that things are not as you think they are." She paused and rested her chin in her hand. "Did the Jedi every say the force was alive? I mean im sure they did but how did they treat the force in its case of being alive."

 

[Bubák]

"No, no," Alaki decisively shook her head again, "Love, happiness, joy... all of those fuel the Dark Side as well! That is why the Jedi try to suppress all emotions, as all essentially allow the user to draw power from the Dark Side. I am no longer afraid of feeling... as I let the Dark Side fuel me, make me stronger." The teenager stated, still convinced of the truth of her words. Why else would the Jedi frown upon emotions? Even several books in the library in the Sith Temple stated that positive feelings can be used to draw power from the Dark Side as well. The reason for using hate and anger was quite simple; those could be manifested quite easily in battle.

"As for the Jedi saying the Force is alive? Hmm," the girl frowned and thought for a bit, remembering all the things the Jedi have said about the Force, everything she wished to forget and replace with the Sith teachings, "Yes, some did believe the Force to be a living being. I do not remeber them treating the Force in any special way though... only that one should not use it needlessly." Her glowing red eyes looked at the Echani woman, unsure of what the teacher wanted to point out.

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

Alexandra frowned and sighed. "So none of them can even talk to it yet they realize it is alive, hypocrites." She shook her head as she said that, at first not explaining as she mumbled something else. In the moments after her mumbling though she did explain. "You see, they are actually right about it being alive, but they haven't gone to the extent of understanding that i have. The force has no tangible voice, none that could be heard by someone without the force and as such this means that things are very hard for them to understand when i talk about something like this." She cleared her voice and without telling Alaki what she was gonna do she reached forward, placed a finger on her forehead, and in that moment everything would go dark for Alaki as she would be pulled out of her body, left in a scene with nothing but darkness around her.

 

[Bubák]

The young Chiss girl simply shrugged, not commenting on the Jedi Order's hypocrisy or the Force being alive. Ever since joining the Sith, the young Chiss started seeing the Force as nothing but a tool to gain more power, bending the Force to her will, alive or not. Alaki no longer cared about the Light Side or balance, she had witnessed the superiority of the Dark Side and did not wish to revert to the old Jedi ways, or any Light Side ways for that matter. If listening to the Force meant gaining more knowledge and power though, she was interested. Before having a chance to open her mouth, the pale Echani reached out and touched her forehead, much to the Chiss' surprise. The teen's vision darkened and the whole universe disappeared, leaving nothing but the Force and her consciousness. The impenetrable night did not worry the girl though; a Sith did not have to fear darkness, a Sith knew no fear.

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

Alexandra moved slowly into view, looking around at the darkness around them with a frown, the small flame in her hand the only thing pushing away the darkness that looked like a fog of pitch black around her. Her hand tensed and the ball of flames expanded out around them and created a ring around the two of them. "What you are seeing around this is the way the world is viewed when in wounds in the force, places where the force has been completely removed... Then there are places where the force is corrupted and twisted by the darkside..." She looked at the darkness as it shifted and showed a far different scene. They were standing in the same room that they had been in before, the only difference was that they were standing next to their immobile bodies, coming from Alexandra's body was a web of what looked like brambles, pure white and streatching out from her around her own body and Alaki's. Alaki on the other hand had a smaller aura that showed to be a darker shade of grey, not pure black like some sith which would be chopped down to her having only recently started on her dark path. Lastly a third aura could be seen, also coming from Alexandra's body as it was like a shadow expanding out of her back, pitch black and forming into a body of its own as the shadow looked at the Alaki that was out of her body.

 

[Bubák]

Alaki watched with certain relief that the silver eyes teacher was in the darkness as well, yet a small part of her remained scared of what awaited them in the mist-like darkness. Looking the Echani with a fearful gaze in her eyes, she did not know what exactly happened, expecting some explanation. Was this some sort of an illusion? The fact that the teacher had touched her forehead before she appeared in this dark place only supported the theory, though it's been quickly proven wrong when the white haired woman released the flame from her hands and illuminated the area, pushing away the nightly darkness and revealing something that shocked the teenage Chiss; their own bodies. Alaki wished to scream when she saw herself, yet found no means of making the noise leave her mouth. The realization she was outside of her physical shell shook her to her very core and if she stood in her real body, she would have most likely passed out. How can anyone wrap their mind around this?

Paying little attention to the auras coming from both bodies, the Chiss quickly looked down, only to see her own arms, torso and legs, much to her relief. Still, she found it hard not to be shocked by this out of body experience. Now she finally gazed at the empty physical shell that was little more than a living corpse at the moment and frowned upon seeing what she assumed to be her signature or something like that. Having expected herself to have a darker signature, she found the grey color disappointing, as it showed she had yet to walk a long way before becoming a true Sith. "Why is this... why is it wrapped around me?" the Chiss asked the teacher, referring to [member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]'s white web stretching out of the Echani's body and getting closer to the fallen Padawan. Following the trail with her eyes, Alaki noticed another signature coming from the woman's body, a black one. Surprisingly enough, this dark signature appeared to have a shape of its own appeared to be looking at Alaki, the spirit without a body.

"What is that?"

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

"Im sealing our minds off from others that would use this moment of... weakness to harm us, either of us. Further more this, thing, is my own aura and is the way in which i tore you from your body to show you it. What you are seeing is a bit of force sight, a basic understanding of flow walking, and a technique that i developed to show you that we are all but strands in the force, someone's connection determining the strength or size of those stands..." She snapped her fingers and suddenly Alaki's vision would white out before returning back to normal, only this time a strand of energy was seen connecting to the center of the physical Alaki's chest and towards the ceiling, disappearing into the stone, the same said with alex, but instead of one strand, two appeared.

"... Those are the strands that connect us to the force and give us the ability to command its gifts, it is also how i communicate with it. You see, the force acts much like an Ashlan wolf as ive come to notice, it communicates in ways of thoughts and emotions, not physical words. Wounds in the force a warning of a great catastrophe. Visions are the chief way of communication though, and not those forced things that Isolda does, and ESPECIALLY not Flow Walking... Those harm and corrupt the force, what i speak of are dreams, specifically the ones that you come to realize were a warning... Deja Vu as some put it without the force. Those with a strong connection to the force understand the burden that comes with these visions, as normally they are signs of great pain to come... but there are some that are granted those visions through need or luck of the draw. I have witnessed a few, including my death, but i do not know when or where, merely how..."

She looked at the shade only now and frowned. "Hel, either speak or go back to my body, i really don't need your damn pestering..." Alexandra frowned and in a moment the dark shade took on a body that was a complete mimic of Alexandra's with but a few exceptions. The largest of these were blood red eyes that glowed slightly and pitch black hair that seemed to move and shift on its own. Much like her hair her own robes and cloak seemed to move and shift, pitch black like an endless void. The tell tale sight though if the other features weren't clear is that she gave off feelings of fear, pure primal fear that made Alexandra noticeably shiver as well as utter rage and a cruel air like she would torture Alaki just because she could. "You are no fun Alexandra, i was creeping the girl out..." The dark vessel moved towards the chiss, the primal, dark emotions coming off her possibly making her limbs feel like Jelly as Hel closed the distance closer and closer.

 

[Bubák]

"Ah...," exclaimed the girl as [member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"] explained more of this power. While she still had her doubts about the Force, the Chiss perfectly understood the need to protect their minds from any outside harm. But to what extent could the Echani's power shield them? Who would not take a chance to kill a Master in the Sith Temple, if for nothing else than just for prestige? The thought unnerved Alaki as she imagined a group of Acolytes entering the room and attacking the two bodies, with the two spirits unable to do anything but watch their physical shells being murdered. Shivering, the teen nervously glanced towards the door before turning back to the teacher, only to be blinded by a sudden burst of light that forced her to instinctively cover her eyes with her arm, too late to realize her spiritual form did not have the same properties as the real body, thus the cover did not shield her. Everything went white, leaving the fallen Padawan to wonder about the things to come.

Unlike the last time, the change was not as drastic. Alaki found herself standing in the same room in the very same spot, still watching her body. The only change seemed to be the branches coming out of her body and the form of the teacher, now reaching up and going through the ceiling. The Chiss shot a questioning glance towards the teacher and almost immediately received an explanation, upon which she raised an eyebrow and looked back at the strands of the Force. She never would have imagined the thing that connected them to the Force to look like this, and watched it with silent amazement while absent-mindedly listening to the Echani's words, taking all in but really understanding just about half of it. The concept was hard to understand, especially if one started as a Jedi and absorbed their beliefs before replacing them with the Sith view of the Force.

Once the techer adressed the Dark Side personality, Alaki's attention shifted towards it, now noticing it had changed its appearance to that of Alexandra, a bit more demonic version of her to be precise. Having blowing red eyes herself, the Chiss was not that scared of the monster, but she took a step back nonetheless, initially scared by the fear the thing radiated. When it started advancing towards her though, the feelings of rage getting stronger and stronger, the teenager backed further away. "It can't hurt me, right? Not in this state..." It was as much of a question as a wishful thinking. Alaki hoped this Hel did not have the power to harm her, it was just a spirit, but then again, so was she right now. Alaki wondered if she could die in this spiritual form and what effects would it have on the body. Maybe she'd just wake up as if nothing happened?

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

"Well she actually could harm you in this state or just take your body if she wanted too... but i don't think ill let her miss Alaki. I just thought she might be a better teacher than I if you are going to stick to the illusion that being of the lightside makes me weaker than a darksider." She leaned back into a chair nearby, her eyes switching to their physical bodies for the moment before back at Alaki and Hel who was now walking towards her. "Ah Chiss, did you know your people were massacred by the government you are fighting for, how every master in the sith, even helped when they took your home planets... it was glorious. Every chiss dying at the feet of their betters, that is what a Sith is being about, getting more power, attaining freedom through absolute power. She taught you the basics for Jar'kai, no?"

 

[Bubák]

Gulping when the Echani stated the opposite than what Alaki wished to be true, the girl finally lost her battle against the fear that raged inside her mind for some time. Knowing the demonic version of [member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"] could actually hurt her in many ways, the Chiss unwillingly made Hel stronger with her own fear, feeding the Dark Side and thus letting the beast draw more power from it. The teenager would have used the Dark Side as well if she knew how to do that. Unfortunately, she did not know how to use her own fear to her advantage; not without succumbing to it, her panic fear of dying getting the better of her and causing the girl to make mistakes. The voice of reason and logic prompted the Chiss to calm down; a true Sith that she wished to become knew no fear, she had to stop feeding the demonic figure.

Whether taking deep breaths worked in this spiritual state or not, Alaki had managed to persuade herself to calm down, her body no longer shaking. The red eyes darted between the teacher and the Dark Side version of her before stopping, narrowing and staring at the opponent with no more fear. This was her new teacher. "I don't fight for any government," the girl stated and took a step towards the black haired, red eyed Alexandra, "I fight for myself. If the Sith are strong enough to take planets by force, then they deserve claiming them as their own. My homeworld was the first one to fall into their hands, despite it housing a temple full of Jedi. And I will be just as strong as the Sith who have fought there." The fallen Jedi referenced to Coruscant, the planet being her homeworld, having no knowledge of what happened to Csilla and thus not understanding what Hel truly meant.

"I suppose you will teach me more?" the blue skinned teenager smiled slyly, stepping closer to the demon, "Train me. Give me power. Make me a Sith." She commanded, no trace of her fear left as she saw the opportunity to learn from something what might have as well been the Dark Side itself.

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

Alex tried to speak up before wincing as Hel only rose her hand at the comment and sent a bolt of lightning at the student. Whether the lightning was really or not, it would certainly hurt like the real thing. Alaki would soon learn there was more than a simple difference in looks and attunment in the force. Hel was a Sadistic woman, unfit as any teacher other than one in how to control pain and to use it. She would rather torture her students and bend them to her will and she hated Alexandra for trapping her in the woman's body. But now she had a chance to teach and bend a student to her will, something Alex simply cringed at as she looked at Alaki while this happened.

A laugh came from her as she looked at Alaki, Hel's laugh that is, a twisted thing that held nothing but malice and the want to see the galaxy burn. "You are not fit to be a Sith, no, you are just one of those pretender dark Jedi for now. When you are strong is when you will be called a Sith by others, maybe even called a Sith now by others, but you will never be a Sith until you understand their code. Recite the code now..."

With that she laughed again and smiled as a red blade erupted from her hand, a saber there now. "Oh and every time you fail, you will be cut, unless you can defend yourself." She smiled as two training sabers would appear hanging out of reach above them.

 

[Bubák]

The Dark Side itself came out of the demon's fingertips and caught the girl unprepared. Not like she had any chance of defending herself anyway; having experienced the devastating effects of Force lightning before many times, Alaki knew all too well what was going to come. Nothing in the world could ever prepare one for the pain of being attacked by the Dark Side though. The bolt struck the girl to the chest and sent a wave of burning pain through every fibre, which elicited a scream fromher throat and forced the Chiss to her knees. Tears formed in her eyes, yet she was not crying, unwilling to give the monster the pleasure. And those words, those poisonous words that left the monster's mouth fueled the Dark Jedi Padawan's anger, as the same words have been used by many instructors to teach the former Jedi how to hate and push her beyond redemption.

Grimacing, the teenager started reciting the Sith Code, remembering the words clearly as those have filled the place where the Jedi Code used to be. Alaki may not be a Sith yet, but she knows their Code by heart!


"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me."

Each line filled her heart with certainty, as those words now guided her in life. Most of the time, anyway.

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

Hel smiled and spoke. "Good you know the words, but do you understand them." She shocked her again, making Alexandra wince from the sound of the lightning bolts ionizing the air and the stench of burning cloth made her frown. She hated seeing this kind of training but it wasn't like she could just leave, otherwise Hel would vanish too.

Hel on the other hand was having fun, she was enjoying the pain and suffering of the girl and feeding on every emotion like it was a treat and now she was determined to force this girl to work for her freedom from Hel's training. She rose a finger and smiled. "For every wrong answer, you are going to be shocked with an ever increasing bolt of electricity, is that understood?"

 

[Bubák]

Once more the Chiss' screams filled the training room as the Dark Side coursed through her body, making it feel as if someone chewed her insides. Despite being subjected to Force lightning in nearly every class, the teenager still found the pain unbearable. On the bright side, she had noticed this pain did make her slightly more resistant to lesser forms of suffering.

Offering no resistance whatsoever, the Chiss did not even try to stand up, knowing the next bolt of Force lightning was inevitable. As much as she tried to follow the Sith path and their Code, she did not know the interpretation Hel wished to hear. Every Sith was free to come up with their own version, therefore the chance of her interpretation and Hel's was fairly low, which meant many, many shocks of the Dark Side as a punishment. With little to no chance to guess it corrects, the girl took her chances and deeply bowed to the monster to assure Hel of her dominance over the Chiss.

"My Master, I am just a lowly Dark Jedi Padawan who lacks proper understanding of the Sith Code. Please enlighten me with your great wisdom, you who bask in the Dark Side!" Alaki said in as much submissive tone as she could, hoping to appear unworthy of more punishment. On the other hand, she might receive even more for being so cowardly and spineless, but the girl had already placed her bet and now just had to hope she would not be killed by the very power she wanted to control.

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

A nother torrent did indeed come and Hel seemed... pissed would probably be the closest word to it as she stood there and spoke to the woman who was now trying to please her. And while Hel loved to push people under her feel she had given this woman a direct command. As such the blast of dark side energy was sent into Alaki without mercy and only stopped after Alex spoke up. "Hel, stop it before you kill her..."

Hel hated the woman that virtually controlled her, but was forced to stop. Hel knew that they couldn't die like this, but the trauma was enough to overload a body's senses if anything too damaging happened in this place. Virtually shutting down their minds, Alex was lucky that Hel was around to be a back up, the worm lucky that with Hel in her mind she was able to even pull off this stunt. "Now, follow my orders worm..."

 

[Bubák]

She could not hold back the tears anymore as yet another, fresh and more powerful stream of the Dark Side energy struck her body. "Aaaaaah!" The girl cried out as the hit pushed her down and sprawled her on the floor, not stopping as the previous short bursts and subjected her body to agonizing seconds that seemed like an eternity to the girl. When it finally stopped, the teenager remained lying on the ground, gasping for air in irregular intervals, feeling as if her muscles have been fried. Even the slightest movement hurt, therefore she tried to keep them minimal, including the breathing. Whenever the oxygen finally entered her lungs, the fallen Padawan let out a moan, waiting for the pain to go away.

As her body slowly escaped the agony, Alaki's breathing returned to normal, though she remained down, looking at Hel with tears rolling down her face. The monster was adamant about hearing the girl's interpretation of the Code, forcing Alaki to quickly come up with something.

"Uhh, the first line tells us that unlike the Jedi, we draw power from passion, denying peace?" the teenager asked and answered at the same time, believing the Sith Code to be the reversed version of the Jedi Code in some aspects. "Passion will give me the strength to use the Dark Side, as it does to all Sith. I will make the Dark Side a part of my power and with that, I will be able to crush all who stand in my way. Once there is nobody to oppose me, I will be free, thanks to the Dark Side."

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Alaki"]

"Its a start, but deeper." Hel would have shocked her again but Alex reached out and suddenly Hel's entire arm shattered and turned to shadows, her glare dangerously close to becoming pure Venom. "I said, thats enough Hel..." Were Alex's only words and the Shadow woman's arm resumed its solidarity. "Fine, since weak stomach wont let me torture you..." She instead waits, foot tapping.