We Will Start An Inferno

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

Surah looked confused.

“Help me?!” She called out, not really understanding what was going on. She still didn't really know why she had gone with Jenna, save for the feeling of having absolutely no other choice. She suspected that it had to do with the other thing inside of her, something that had pushed her to move with the criminal after her last blackout. Yet she couldn't be sure.

“I...i...” More stammering, that was getting obnoxious. “I don't want to stab you!”

Well she kind of did, but then she wouldn't get anywhere at all. Surah had absolutely no idea how the outside galaxy functioned, she would be useless again without help, and she couldn't go back to Kashyyk.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Her distrust (especially regarding being stabbed) was natural. The past experience of prison living often left a person lacking trust in others. People did things when they were scared, things that were wild, things that weren't rational. Jenna would really be kicking herself in the afterlife if she turned around with knife lodged into her sternum.

This whole thing put her on edge. Was [member="Surah"] just waiting for the right time to strike? Was there even a split in personality? Was it all just an act to lure Jenna herself out here? Why? They had no link, there was no real reason to stab her. What if power didn't wait at the end of this road?

“Whatever,” she finally said, conceding defeat in the Surah and the missing knife scenario.

With that out of the way Jenna finally disembarked from the vessel, stepping foot onto the open wasteland that they had come to. Good to stretch the legs at least. Even if it was on a planet that seemed to consist of absolutely nothing.

“What a shethole,” she commented dryly, folding her arms across her chest and waiting for the stuttering slave.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

The knife of course, had been taken by Surah. The blade had been stripped from the man and had been hidden inside of the vent of the starship. Why had she done this? Because during the flight she had very nearly killed herself with the blade, only being stopped by the other inside her.

That was why the knife had gone missing.

The slave girl didn't know that of course, she couldn't. Her memories had been corrupted and twisted in such a fashion that it would have been impossible for her to realize. The Something within her prevented it, stopped her from recalling her near death, as it had so many times before.

Surah stepped out onto the planet with bare feet, the soil crushing between her toes.

It had a calming effect on her.

“W-where do we go?” Funny that she was asking Jenna, it should have been the other way around.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

It was more than mildly irritating that the woman was asking her for directions. As if Jenna had a clue, she didn't even know a single thing about this world, how was she supposed to know which direction they were to go in.

She sighed, rather angrily at that.

The sun beamed down upon them, it felt oppressive more than anything and the light caused Jenna to squint into the horizon (although one eye was almost swollen shut from the prior assault upon Kashyyyk, alas poor cheekbone).

Knife or no knife she didn't care, Jenna reached over to [member="Surah"] and grabbed her by the shoulder, pushing her ahead of herself. Hopefully this would work. No reason it shouldn't, unless the soul of this Sith Lord couldn't break through the stuttering slave to guide her feet. If she couldn't do that, what worth was she to Jenna?

“You pick the direction. Which way do you feel like walking?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

For a few moments, Surah only stood there. She didn't know what to do. Her head was telling her that this was insane, that she couldn't possibly know where to go or what to do. This was stupid, Jenna was clearly playing some kind of trick on her, she clearly wanted Surah to make the wrong choice so that she could beat her, so that she had a reason to hurt her.

Her breathing quickened at that thought.

Another beating?

Could she handle that? Could she take that? Her head began to shake, only minutely so that Jenna didn't see it.

No she couldn't handle another beating, she had to...she had to...suddenly Surah felt something. A touch, a familiar feeling. It was as if something was calling her, it was as if something...something nearby was singing a song. Surah heard it, her head snapping towards the noise. What was that?

Almost as if she were hypnotized, she began to move.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

She almost hit her.

As [member="Surah"] stood there like the most useless creature in existence, Jenna's fists became balled. This woman was so fething useless, couldn't the Sith Lord have possessed a gizka or a skraal? Something at least worth more than this wretch?

Patience leaving her, Jenna's frown started to become a snarl, perhaps if she threatened Surah's life than her useful side would come out, perhaps if she beat her to a point of endangerment she could have squeezed out a modicum of worth.

Perhaps.

But then like a Sithmas miracle the woman started to move, praise the fething Force! Jenna couldn't help but feel a small smile come to her lips. Good, she was getting closer now. That power, that control that she sought.

Silently she followed the woman.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

Surah moved like a woman possessed. It seemed like she wasn't in control of herself, like she was being moved by an outside force. She floated, stepping lightly and quietly. They moved from the landing site through trees and bare fields. It seemed that this world contained utterly nothing of value, holding no great mountains, no massive forests, simply barren wastelands with starving vegitation.

It didn't matter much.

Surah and Jenna weren't here to look at pretty things, they were here to find the echo, the thing that called to Surah, moved her.

They walked for some time. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes. Throughout that entire time Surah did not make a sound. Not a complaint or a breath of panic. She simply moved towards the thing that called her, moved ever forward. It wasn't until the two of them began to crest a large hill that she began to change her attitude, shifting from a stiff back to a submissive crouch.

The answer as to why quickly came when they reached the top of the hill.

There, in the valley below lay half a dozen starships. Each one large enough to hold hundreds of people, each one broken, decrepit, and overgrown. A few scatterings of what looked like tents lay in the clearing, and Surah gasped as she returned to consciousness.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Jenna found herself transfixed upon the woman's bare feet. How could she not have shoes? How was she content not wearing shoes? She imagined that the ground was hot with small rocks and hard chunks of soils embedding into her feet like furious organic Lego.

They moved in blessed silence, Jenna staying behind the woman and keeping a suspicious eyes upon her.

While they walked her mind wandered, she considered the fact that she was hungry and also increasingly thirsty. Maybe she should have had a snack before disembarking, but there she was Jenna Rayley, not thinking things through once again. Maybe if Surah led her in wrong direction she'd eat her. No qualms about trying human flesh, as long as it was cooked properly.

And then they came to something, finally after so much nothing in these wastes there was life. She marvelled at the collection of starships, all decrepit and taken over by nature. [member="Surah"] didn't seem like it.

“Do you know this place?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

Surah stared.

No.

She...

No.

She couldn't be back here. She couldn't have come all this way to return here. She couldn't...no. no. no. no. Panic like she had never felt before poured through her. Hurt, anger, fear above all else surged through her. She didn't understand! Why had Jenna brought her back here? Why were they here. Panic reigned in her, and Surah turned around.

She made a dash towards Jenna, trying to run as fast as she possibly could.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

[member="Surah"] didn't respond.

Jenna scowled.

Maybe it was just another thing that the stupid wretch didn't know, it wouldn't have surprised her. However then she turned around and Rayley caught the expression of terror upon the woman's face. She didn't want to be here, which meant that they were likely very close.

With her keen reactions, Jenna sidestepped as the woman barrelled towards her, sticking her foot out and upwards to trip the slave up in her panicked momentum.

If that was successful she would have opted to stomp down upon Surah's back, hopefully keeping her immobilised and pinned to the ground for a few moments.

“Where are we, Surah?!” she crowed, voice both scornful and mocking in the same breath.

 

[Aela Talith]

She flailed.

It could have been said to be cute if it hadn't been for the look of pure and utter panic to her, the way she was pinned to the ground, and most of all how miserable she appeared to be as soon as Jenna asked her that question. She didn't want to answer it, she wanted to close her eyes and deny everything, she wanted to say that she wasn't here.

“W-w-w-we...w-w-w-we.” She stammered so badly that her tongue almost fell out of her mouth. “W-w-w-w-we were at the-the-the slave fleet.”

That was all she could manage.

She couldn't say which slave fleet, or whose, just that they were at the slave fleet. The reason for that was simple, for Surah, there was only one slave fleet, and it contained horrors unimaginable.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Jenna rolled her eyes as [member="Surah"] really struggled through her words. How could anybody put up with a stutterer was beyond her.

She knew what she meant, she knew where she was but having the woman confirm it was just a measure of precaution, not to mention the mild enjoyment she took from the creature seemingly losing herself in a tidal wave of fear.

“Calm down!” she shouted, pressing her foot down further upon Surah's back, almost all of her weight was down on the slave.

“Who, or what's down there, Surah?”

What are you so afraid of?

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

“Th-th-th-the fleet!” She screamed the words as loud as she possibly could, as if it would somehow make the ships down in the valley below go away.

Of course a rational mind would have stated that the ships below were derelict. That there was no one in them, and that Nemene, and her slavers, were long dead and gone. Yet Surah did not have a rational mind, she did not have straight thoughts or logic in her brain. All she had was panic and fear, and when it came to that fleet, it was intensified a thousand times over.

“Nemene!” She shouted. “Slavers! Punishment!”

She tried to curl into a ball.

Unsuccessfully.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

That stupid little…

“Are all gone.”

Her boot came off the woman's back finally, allowing her efforts to curl into a ball to be realised. So scarred was this woman's psyche that all rationality escaped her. Otherwise she might have questioned how Jenna knew that, how she knew Nemene's name and why she wouldn't be there. It wasn't likely that sense would likely not return to her by this stage.

Jenna in her ultimate kindness decided that sense could be returned to [member="Surah"] with a swift kick in the ribs. So that's what she did.

“Get up. We're going to check things out.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

She let out a big breath as a sharp pain ushered through her ribs. A cry escaped her, and she tried to curl into a ball again. This time she succeeded, but was almost immediately urged out of the fetal position by the urgings of Jenna.

For some reason she felt compelled to listen.

What she did not know of course was the fact that within the fleet somewhere, down in one of the ship lay a very special item. A small book that called to her, leather bound pages that warped held in place, that seemed to caress her very thoughts.

Slowly, very slowly, Surah stood.

She followed after Jenna almost lazily, shirking away from any noises, any shadows, anything that came too close.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

They descended cautiously down from the hill and into the valley.

Nemene Talith and the slavers might not have been causing chaos but that didn't discount anything else. Wild beasts, surviving slaves, maybe even surviving slaves that resorted to cannibalism to survive in such unforgiving wastes.

Maybe there were as scarred as [member="Surah"] was, all choosing to roll up into their own balls of terror at the sound of approaching, confident feet.

“See, we're fine.”

Truthfully the abandoned camp, coming into the sea of dilapidated starships made her uncomfortable too. It was always disconcerting to see structures and places that had once held human life so abandoned.

A scowl came across her face, not knowing what they were looking for.

“Is there anywhere you feel like going?” she queried, ready to smack the woman in the chin if she dared suggested leaving.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

It was a nightmare.

A walking nightmare.

She had often thought about what it would be like returning to this camp. How it would feel. She felt that now. She felt the panic in her heart. She knew it was abandoned, she knew that there was no one here, but the fear in her spiked anyway. It carried through her, pushed into her mind and threatened to overwhelm her.

The instinct to run was strong.

Surah looked around when Jenna posted her question, they stood in the center of it all. Four great ships looming over them. She turned to each of them as if Jenna had commanded her. Big orange eyes searched, and then fell on one with stripes of faded purple. “Th-that one.”

She stuttered out, pointing.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Well she wasn't running away, that's always a bonus.

Jenna kept a very close eye upon the woman, feet ready to fly in case the slave decided to bolt. It was like tending for an animal, so stupid that in a moment of panic it might flee with no care or consideration for where it ended up.

Where could [member="Surah"] run to? Nowhere. Who could Surah run to? Nobody. She would simply die out here in the wastes, not a single thought spared towards her.

She pointed out one of the large ships, the faded purple stripes evading her notice, not that she cared. With every step they inched closer to the goal, and that was all that mattered.

“Good.”

A small smile.

“Let's go.”

Without hesitation Jenna boarded the starship.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jenna Rayley"]

The shook.

Literally shook. Her entire body was covered in goosebumps and her skin seemed to crawl with invisible insects. There was so much discomfort, so much panic and ear within her that boarding the massive vessel nearly overcame her.

The only reason she did it, the only thing that drove her was the thought of Jennas anger.

She did not want the woman to strike her again, she did not want to be hit. Punishment was bad, Surah knew that, she knew it better than most in fact. This fleet, this very ship, had taught her that, Nemene had taught her that.

“T-t-t-the left.” She stuttered as they came to an intersection.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

The anticipation was almost becoming too much to handle.

Jenna wanted this excursion to be over, she wanted to find whatever it was that they were looking for and be done with it. No more weeping, ball-forming timid slave nonsense, but a look at an actual future, her future.

Power and control.

Which was evidently on the left.

There was a moment where the woman softened, not know what would happen when they got to where they were going. She could afford a single moment of kindness, if only to try and stop the constant stuttering. Not the most noble intentions, but hey.

“Calm down, [member="Surah"],” she said quietly, “there's nothing here that will hurt you.”

Not true.