Private Unbreak the Broken

[Lockerie Aurine]

A Camp of Thugs
The Lost Tomb of a Forgotten Sith Lord
Thule

Lockerie spiralled out of a hellish world of agony and hallucination. Disorientated he could feel cold hard stone on one side of his face but he could not yet place where he was or why. It was also, he realised, wrong to say he had woken up from the world of Agony. He was still in Agony, only now the agony felt decidedly more external than internal, it no longer felt like his blood was boiling him from the inside only like he had been put through a compactor. It was then that he remembered where he was and why.

He had in a manner of speaking been put through a compactor. They had been torturing him for days ... maybe more he had lost track of time. They'd certainly had him and Loukie imprisoned for a long time. It had been at least two days before they opted to torture them to gain access to the temple. Fools thought Lockerie's notes would be enough. Loukie had taunted them incessantly as they tried to translate and comprehend them. Lockerie and he had a coded language all their own. LockLoukie

Wait Loukie ... He looked around as much as he could. The chair he had been bound to have tipped over ... or perhaps more aptly been thrown over as he writhed and thrashed under the influence of the toxins they had poisoned him with just hours before. He hoped he had not told them anything useful whilst in his stupor. He could hardly fret about that now though. He remembered them laying pretty horribly into loukian. Possibly injuring him in a fatal way ... again.

Thrashing and causing no small amount of grazing to his cheek he managed to find Loukie. Curled up in a heap, wheezing but alive. Lockerie could not tell if he was conscious. He daren't speak and rouse attention back to them. It was enough, for now, to see that his brother was clinging to life. Lockerie was throwing everything he had into compelling Loukian's broken body not to die. They had to cling on until they could escape. They would escape. They always escaped.

Loukie was a broken husk, blood covered him and his clothing was filthy amongst it all. The cave had taken on a rank smell and even when that faded from immediate notice it was only because he could smell and worse still taste the coppery tinge of blood. Inescapable here. Looking down as best he could at himself he could see that he too was filthy. there was blood on his collar. A shirt he rather liked ruined. He closed his eyes and sighed. How had life come to this?

How was he so calm? Had he truly been terrified so long that he had become indifferent to it?

Was he losing his mind?

He did not have long to contemplate before it was noted that he was awake. He heard the footsteps before he saw them. Then he was being lifted back into an upright position. His head swam and he was distinctly of the view that it had been better on the floor. Suddenly the extent of his pains revealed themselves and he swore under his breath as his head lulled forward.

It was soon pulled up again, his matted hair clenched in a fist. Putrid breath wafting into his face and stinging his eyes. No doubt his own was worse.

"I don't think 'e has much more in 'im ... might finally die" the thug rasped, clearly he'd never been taught the letter 'H' "Don't bode well for you does it? ... 'e were the tough one" The thug was half right there ... so long as he could touch Loukie for an hour or so before ... sundown? sun up? Lock had no idea of the time ... before the elapsing of a few hours, Loukie would live. He was the tough one though, the thug was right on that no matter what they did he hardly ever screamed "Wi' 'im gone ... you'll snap like i twig" Regrettably probably also true.

Apparently, the thug was a sporting man though and he would torture Lock instead of finishing Loukie off. A gentleman if ever Lock met one. The brute was just deciding how he would make Lock scream when the screams of someone else rang through the caves. Then another and another. The room was filling with thugs now as they fled deeper into the tomb trying to hide in the labyrinthian corridors ... perhaps some would run to the great door and try to will it open in the hopes of finding a great weapon.

"Don't bode well for you does it?" Lock struggled out ... nebulas be dammed his throat was dry and tight. He got a sucker punch for his quip but then the source of the screams was upon them and he was thrown back onto his side as his would-be tormentor fled.

Dominick Feratu

 

[Dominick Feratu]

Dom was in his glory. Ever since Arc had sent him off planet to be his spy he had taken on any number of other tasks for those with the right coin, and boy did he ever love getting to destroy everything and everyone in his path to fulfill the requests. He had lucked out on this job. He had just so happened to overhear an overly loud and overly drunk contender for it whike relaxing after a strenuous opportunity he had already fulfilled. The fool has spoken of the money and the job as he was trying to recruit more for the rescue. Well, why be recruited to a team and split money when he could steal the job and get full payment himself? He was more than capable of destroying the camp himself if there was resistance and the family was offering an overwhelming sum for a team. No no, Dom wouldn't be taking a team he would be collecting that sum fully for himself.

A quick jaunt to his starship and a fast hyperspace jump to Thule and he was already eons ahead of the competition. He felt the power of the dark side coursing through the very ground and Dom smiled with a wicked and cruel expression. Oh yes, death would be glorious today. Reaching out through the force he found the position of two dampened sources surrounded by hordes of people. Judging by the weakness in the two sources he felt he knew he needed to be quick otherwise his sources of income would die before his payment, that he could not allow. He dashed forward at sickening speeds until he came upon the tomb.

Hidden beyond sight he took in the entrance to the tomb, not enough of a force to even be concerned about. Clearly these slavers weren't worried about anyone getting in, but only about people getting out. He knew the main force would be inside the tunnels and he was more than capable of taking them out in the barrel of tightness they would encounter. It was the perfect scenario for Dom, as long as he cleared every side lane and room he encountered to keep enemies from his back, he could walk through this tunnel with minimum effort.

Stepping out of his hiding place, black hood hiding his face as his robes flowed in the breeze as he watched the eyes of the guards at the entrance widen and even as they turned to run or scream they were dispatched. His right hand came up and the closest guard grasped at his throat as his airway closed. His left came up and the farthest guard rose into the air and was thrown, headfirst, into the stone. He crashed down unmoving. Dom held the guard as he slowly walked forward, when he reached him he spoke in a low and evil tone. "You've taken the wrong people friend, and I am here to make you all regret it." with a sickening crack the man's head twisted 180 degrees as his body slumped and Dom began to remove his robes.

After a few moments Dom stood naked in front of the entrance to the tomb, and as he began moving inside the sound of shifting bones and realigning appendages could be heard. As he entered the tomb it was not as a man, but a large, golden coated wolf. He bounded through the tunnels and pounced on the first person he saw, slamming into him from behind as his weight crashed into his back. Even before the man was fully on the ground Dom's muzzle seized his neck and wrenched it, ending him. As the body hit the ground Dom was already leaping toward the next teeth bared and claws swiping. He went through the tunnels like this, keeping sense of the captives to guide his way.

When he was close to the captives he shifted back, not wanting them to experience anymore fear as he approached. He heard one of them spit a retort at their captor and Dom smiled. He was going to like this one. He heard the hit and heard the man begin to flee, Dom allowed him one step outside the gates before throwing up his hand. The man screamed in agony as Dom used the force to inflict the same pain he had caused the captors to hit him all at once. A second man blew past wide eyed and made to run in the opposite direction but Dom held forth another hand as lightning sprang to life catching him. As he fell to the ground Dom moved forward holding them both with his force powers. Eventually the one being consumed by his lightning stopped screaming, but the other was clinging to life as he suffered the pain of those he had tortured. Dom stood in the door looming over the would-be captor.

Looking over at the men clinging to life his eyes widened. Something about the one still conscious called to him. He had heard of imprinting before but had never been one for relationships, no one had ever called to his soul like this man bleeding before him. In a low growl he addressed him for the first time."If you want your own revenge, take it now, I am using all the constraints I have to not kill him here and now. I figured you would want that honor." With that he moved the hand no longer frying the dead husk outside and the ropes fell away from both captives.

 

[Lockerie Aurine]

Had the quip been worth it? Lockerie asked himself as he landed with a painful thud on the ground the chair he was tied to still holding him still. His hip throbbed and complained and he was struggling to get his breath back around the blood lingering in his mouth. He decided it was. After all they had done to him ... and they had done some very horrible things to him what was a punch to the face? A bruise to the hip? It would all fade into the tableau of soreness. Just like the rest. No doubt if he was being rescued the pain would find him in due course. When he no longer had a constant string of adrenaline-inducing experiences to numb it.

He hoped he was being rescued, he couldn't keep pulling Loukie back from the grip of death. Each time he felt his ability to marshall his dampened force abilities waning. Like he was revving a car on an empty gas tank. He had tried to fix his mind upon how it was they were dampening his connection to the force. Drugs? something in the bindings ... one or more of them? It seemed odd that he was still able to get something but then this place they were in was a well of darkness. Perhaps that was giving him something where normally he would find nothing. He had never figured it out. Each time he came close to starting off a rational track for his train of thought his tormentors came back to distract him or Loukian relapsed. He'd barely been conscious the last two days.

He hoped again that this would be a rescue.

Who would come though? If Mother was going to send someone she would have by now and beyond family they didn't have much. There was a very real chance they would just switch one set of captors for another.

Being on his side he could only really look at the opening which Dominick entered through and he was not at all what Lockerie had expected. For a start, he was stark naked and despite the screams of a monster, he was a handsome fellow. Perhaps a little imposing and he had such angry-looking eyes. Not what Lockerie normally looked for in a man but there was something about him. Something that would have held Lockerie's gaze even if he could look away. Even as Lighting Arced over his head, his eyes would not have left the man's form. His body had become a canvas of ink over however long he had lived. In his teenage hormone-riven thoughts he had never thought of tattoos as something he would like on a man.

At that moment though he knew that he did like it on that man.

It would have been a source of embarrassment to him in whatever time he had left living if it had transpired that Dominick was not there to rescue him.

Ink ran almost from the very tips of Dom's toes and up. Lock followed it as far as he could but the man was tall and he could only turn so far. The man actually speaking came as quite a shock. Lockerie had become so lost in his body that he had quite forgotten for a moment where he was and what it was that he was looking at. For the first time in hours, he could move and once he was no longer held against the chair by his bonds he fell from it. Heaping on the floor for a moment. He needed a breath.

He did get up though. Body cracking and creaking as he did and he felt the force grow a little stronger in him as the thug who had been hit by the lightning finally snuffed out. There was some element of them suppressing his connection then. Wheezing he folded over to support himself on his knees and wrinkled his nose at his own appearance and smell. Of all the times to meet a man Lockerie Aurine you pick a moment when you are covered in blood and bile.

"Don't kill him, just keep him from going anywhere ... I shall require him" Lockerie rasped, his throat was like sandpaper and his head throbbed. Limping he made his way over to Loukie. There was noise from more complaining limbs as he crouched down "I don't have long" he grumbled "He will die soon"

He turned to Dom finally taking his full form in. the detailed ink leading up to his head. At least his face was clear. Lockerie wouldn't like ink there "I assume you are here to kill them all? Perhaps you would help me too there is money in it for you and perhaps more ... despite my appearance, I am a man who can give very enticing rewards"

He needed to get his things back, particularly his book of spells. He had been fudging by on what he could remember but it would take all the knowledge he had and that thug's life to sustain Loukie until they got to a proper doctor. Even for Loukie he would not leave this tomb empty-handed. Tomb treasure room first and then Loukie. Again Lockerie made efforts to regain his feet and hopefully by then the Thug would be immobilised.

 

[Forrest Dinn]

Dom moved into the room as he saw the man attempting to get up from the floor. Crouching low he put the man's arm around his shoulder and helped him to his feet. The man's touch upon his exposed flesh sent shockwaves closing through his body. Yes, there was definitely someone different about this one.

Dom shrugged nonchalantly as the man requested that he be kept alive. It was counterproductive to his goals here, but apparently he needed him to help the other, the one who barely registered in the force. With a wave of his hand the man's limbs snapped with a sickening crunch and Dom, after making sure the man was able to stand on his own, walked over to grab the collar of the broken captors shirt, dragging him into the cell and throwing him harshly against the stone wall. There he slumped unconscious but alive.

Dom smiled wickedly as the man spoke of even more money. With this exchange alone he could go home and make a territory of his own, with Arc's approval of course, and never have to worry about anything again, with more, his riches would be close to matching Arc himself. Dom smiled at the man as he stood waiting. "First of all, there is nothing unappealing about your appearance from where I stand. I'm sure it will be even more breathtaking once you've cleaned up, but you're perfect from my viewpoint. Secondly, your family already has an impressive bounty out for your safe return, if you want to add to my riches, who am I to stop you. My goal here is to save you and get you both home alive, the killing of your captors, that was an added bonus." Dom shrugged unapologetically as he finished the statement.

He moved to pick up the other man to try and keep him alive but the other stopped him. Safer here? He shrugged again, whatever worked, the other man wouldn't bother him again. As he followed the man out of the cell the door shut and the metal bent so no one save a force user could enter. "Lead the way, I'll make sure you're safe. I'm Dominick by the way, Dominick Feratu, you can call me Dom."

 

[Lockerie Aurine]

The touch upon his shoulder and then under his arm to help him up from the heap he was in was unexpected. Pleasant but unexpected. The shiver he felt however was even more surprising turning as fast as he could with the stiffness of his neck he saw something other than revulsion on Dom's face. The shiver was not one of disgust but ... pleasure? Fear? both? either way, it was a pleasing development. It gave him some semblance of power and force knows he had been missing that all his life. He knew that once the rush of feeling he had at being free and able to take revenge passed he'd feel scared and alone so having something to cling to would help ... Someone ...

He chided himself internally not to exceed his own grasp but Dominick was tall and strong. Already Lockerie felt safer from just his fleeting touch.

As if having read his mind Domique broke the legs of his tormentor. He could have done any number of things but he chose to do the most violent. No less than the vile brute who had tortured him for weeks deserved but it was also telling. Still, the man was alive and that was all Lock needed. If this man were an uncontrollable savage that could be dealt with later ... for now he was all Lock had and he seemed to be a pretty good person to have on his side. Certainly better than being his opponent.

The naked man was a flatterer as well as a rescuer it seemed and Lockerie could not help but smile slightly before looking over himself bashfully. He was a mess. Standing he could see how bad it was now. His clothes were ruined and he was caked in dirt and blood to say nothing of the rest. How anyone could find him attractive like this was a mystery. His face was bruised and bloodied and even his normally flawless hair resembled a nest of some kind. He could tell as much as he scratched at his head. He needed to wash as soon as possible.

"Perfect?" he asked incredulously "Either you are making fun of me or you need medical assistance ... eyes or mind, I look a mess and I haven't washed in ... Oh nebula I don't care to figure out" He sighed dejected "I do look better cleaned up I can swear to that" He hated being this poorly turned out. The news that his family had put out a bounty for their safe return was shocking to be frank. Grandfather and mother were the type to want things handled by the family without outsiders and father could barely dress himself without help so Lock did not see him successfully posting a bounty or indeed knowing where Lock and Loukie might be. Still ...

"I will see that you are compensated for assisting me in completing my mission and then you can complete yours" Let it never be said that Lockerie did not pay his debts.

Lock let Dom move Loukien out of the makeshift cell but no further than the part they now stood in. He would only weigh them down and it was safer he be here away from the fighting. Dom sealed the Thug in the makeshift cell and they continued on toward the heart of the tomb. Lockerie was to lead and so he limped on ahead. "I could also take to stabbing myself with forks but I doubt I shall do either any time soon" He said when Dominick offered the nickname Dom "No name worth saying should be less than 4 letters, You shall be Dominick to me" He let all the syllables of the mans name shine, drawing it out as if savouring the feel of the name in his mouth.

He gave no disclosure of his own name, either Dom already knew it or he had to earn it.

"My Things and their camp should be down here I assume they will collect at the camp, many of these tunnels are blocked or rife with traps and other nasties ... I think they moved us into that cave because they knew how unpleasant it was ... " Cold and damp it played havoc with Lockeries allergies.

"Nakedness was an interesting choice for mission attire by the way" He teased as they moved down the labyrinthian tunnels. Some they had to move down and back ... others it was clear were empty and soon they reached the entry to the cavern where all they hunted waited "You lead here Dominick, I can help fight but I will need you to get most of them"

They were trapped now. the one way out was past Lockerie and Dom and behind these thugs was the impassible burial chamber door and collapsed or booby-trapped tunnels.

 

[Dominick Feratu]

Dom laughed as the man, the one he was ever more sure was who they had called Lockerie, questioned his mental stability. "I never said I was sane, but I also pride myself on being able to see what's beneath the surface. Blood, bruises, filth, nothing compared to what I see when I see you. Call me crazy all you want, but regardless, you're gorgeous."

Dom shrugged once more as Lock once again talked about how he would be compensated. [/b]"Money is money, show me where to go and who to kill and I'll get you there. I don't know what you're looking for or where you're going, but direct me and you'll get there without harm."[/b] there was no hesitation in his voice. He meant what he said fully. Nothing but complete confidence and assurance that Lockerie or Loukian for that matter, would never be harmed again.

Dom smiled again as Lock scolded him for having the audacity to tell him to use a shortened name. "Look, call me whatever you like, I had the advantage of knowing your names, you didn't know mine, so I told you. I'm guessing you're Lockerie Aurine, the one we left would be Loukian?" he posed it as a question just to be sure his assumptions were correct.

Dom nodded in agreement at Locks words. "I'm quite sure you're right, it's what I would have done. Cold, miserable, only one exit, easily guarded and beat suited for torture. As far as slavers go, they got it right, what they got wrong was allowing me to find out they existed."

He laughed out loud as Lockerie mentioned his choice of wardrobe and he stepped in front of him protectively as he asked him to let the way. "Oh, I just didn't want to ruin my clothes. They tend to rip when I get deadly." even as he finished the sentence he was already shifting and moments later the largest wolf Lockerie had ever seen, with bright golden fur and long snarling teeth stood before him. He began bounding toward the first enemy he saw the moment he came into view.

 

[Lockerie Aurine]

Dom somewhat disarmed Lockerie, first, his laughter set Lockerie on edge and seemed to add proof to the idea that he was being mocked but then only sincerity flowed from his lips. He explained that all the things Lockerie had cited as bars to him being looked on as attractive at that moment were just the surface and that beneath all of that Lockerie was gorgeous. He did not quite know what to say. There was no doubt that despite it all he was being flirted with. He had not expected this to be how his day went and he had to turn his face away as a blush bloomed under the grime on his cheeks and ears.

"I suppose I can not call you crazy after such words" He replied considerably quieter for a moment. He'd had flirtations before but never anything said on him with quite that much intimate intensity.

Money was Money. A simple mantra, pragmatic though and it seemed clear that Dominick would do whatever it was that Lockerie required of him. Kill anything and all while keeping Lockerie safe. He shivered at that less for what was said and more for how it was said. There was something feral in it. Brute and tribal. As if it was a pledge from a time before life was complicated and there was nuance to everything. A pledge that existed only in what was said and not in unsaid caveats. "I was sent here to recover a book I believe was buried in this tomb, its' occupant was an undistinguished administrator not particularly well placed in the old Sith courts, not particularly skilled in the force either but he did stumble on some interesting ideas and they are written in a book I believe was buried with him"

It seemed Dominick found him amusing, smiling broadly at the way Lock had reacted to his name. He seemed genuinely content to be called whatever Lockerie wished, no doubt he had meant only some variation of his name but Lockerie turned back with a playful smirk "Whatever I want you say?" He would have to get creative it seemed "Very well". Dom made a guess as to his identity and Lockerie shrugged "I shan't be telling you that so easily ..." he replied as Dom guessed at his identity "If you wish to know which Aurine Twin is which you shall have to put some work in to find out" Some of this was Lockerie being purposefully difficult. As was his right. There was a self-conscious motivation to it as well, however. Dominick was a large and imposing man, it was clear that he had put work into bulking up and building muscle. No doubt he was the sort of man who liked hiking and fighting. Aggressive music in pits of people and feats of strength. Lockerie was suited for any of that ... Loukie was though. He was the rough and ready one. Lockerie had decided he liked this man and he wanted to keep his attention for just a bit longer. Then he could lust after Loukian.

It did not cross his mind that Dom was fawning over him thinking ... well knowing that he was himself and not his brother.

Dominique almost spoke approvingly of his captors, approaching it purely academically. Lockerie could normally agree such a way was the best way to approach an issue but not this time. This time he had been personally affected " It certainly was miserable and torturous" he huffed "Almost as bad a prison as last time" he shivered to think of his week of hell in his younger days "The torture was worse here though" his body screamed such a thing to be true with every sluggish step.

"deadly?" he asked before his answer came in the form of Dominick's transformation.

He had expected Dom might be one of those Sith who liked to get into the heart of things and spill blood in a great frenzy of violence. Blood washed over their bare skin like a cultist in a dark story. The wolf was a surprise. Huge and snarling. It bounded off ahead of him, launching itself upon one, then two enemies before frenzy made it hard to keep count. Lockerie limped around the edge of the fighting hoping to avoid attention before he found his things. He needed his book of spells. He was not to be left completely alone of course even with Dom. Some stragglers got away but none that Lock could not manage even in his weakened state.

He only hoped they had kept his things together. staggering into the camp as carnage reigned he upended chests and containers until finally from one rolled his saber... what little use it was to him in this state, even in peak health he was far from an accomplished duelist. Better was the book which fell from the same box. A hefty looking tome, the knowledge of long-dead sorcerers combined with his own musings and ideas. simplifications and Frankenstein spells.

A thug rushed him as the book fell open "Kraujas Kalbinis" Lockerie said in guttural sith lifting a hand and watching as the thug's roar of battle became a gargling mess of leaking blood. the more that flowed out the more the thug bled and it gave Lockerie a funny turn. Filling him with nausea and even making him sway in place as the thug landed at his feet. He hated that magic-charged command but it was an effective tool.

Leaning against a tent pole he tried to right himself. eyes fixed on Dom as he taught the thugs a lesson in slaughter.

Dominick Feratu