Unreality's Demise

Posted on Thu Feb 28th, 2013 @ 10:14pm by Thane & Bomoor Thort & Berry & Sev Rezer & Morgo Le'Shaad

3,372 words; about a 17 minute read

Chapter: Chapter III: Relics
Location: Inner Sanctum, Ancient Temple, Tython
Timeline: Day Eleven, Late

OLD

The group stumbled out of the now-ruined chamber and back into the winding corridors. K'Errekh had made no attempt to hide his path. Blood soaked the floor before them and his maniacal voice danced back through the hallway. His wound seemed deep. Something no ordinary being could recover from. But the Whiphid had proven his abilities all too well and they could take no chances.

NEW

Onwards they ran, following the voice until they found themselves once again facing the giant doors that had blocked their path when they had first arrived, which seemed so very long ago now. This time, however, the great metal doors stood firmly open. Nobody had heard the creak of machinery or the scraping of the doors. Perhaps they were opened while they were under K'Errekh's influence. But now that power was fading, and yet the Jedi could still feel a great presence inside the room. A power not unlike that of the holocron safely stashed away in Thane's quarters upon the Red Raptor.

The group slowed as they caught a glimpse of the room beyond. Great stone steps led up to a set of seats at the peak. Littering the steps were corpses, bones and blood all at various stages of decay. It was a chamber of the dead, with the seats above sat like thrones upon a mountain of bones. Lying before the central chair was K'Errekh, face down and heaving in a pool of his own dark red blood. He grasped outwards to a skeleton seated upon the chair. His mumbles and gargles were too soft for the group to hear.

Morgo looked worse for wear, all this fighting, being thrown, and running tiring her. But though her breath was heavy, her skin sweaty and dirty, Morgo still carried herself like a Duchess should, and she stepped towards K'Errekh with languid grace.

"Oh, how adorable," she began quietly, the corner of her lip kicking up, "He wants to die at 'home', amongst his dead." And stepping up beside Bomoor, Morgo looked up at the Ithorian, one of the few aboard the ship taller than Morgo herself, "Do you think I should tell him to sit up? A facedown body makes for a very unattractive, and unimpressive corpse."

Morgo tilted her dark blonde head, watching the Whiphid die and mumble with a detached interest, "Dying in a pool of one's own blood deserves a better pose." Morgo said lowly, repressing a tsk.

It was usually about this time that Morgo's old lab team, or whatever excavation team she was working with, would gently nudge her in the side and tell her that, yes, she was thinking aloud again, and yes, her timing was atrociously off again, and no, it wasn't proper for anyone to be expressing any amount of amusement at this time. Pity they weren't here to help censor her anymore.

Berry herself didn't bother, instead frowning darkly, brows furrowed. Morgogo was right--he was dying, and drowning in your blood must be really gross. But what was even grosser and just plain wrong was the water magic here. It was dark, filled with blood you couldn't see with your own eyes--just waiting for sharks to come and fight over it. It was if Berry could taste it in the air, something she tasted before...on the Raptor. Not as bloody, but still...bad. She couldn't keep herself from briefly frowning disapprovingly at Thane before she glanced over at the others. Sharks. But they were strong, and could protect Shady Lady. "I'll keep a lookout," Berry murmured before slinking to the doors. "There's no treasure here," she said softly in the dark. Not the good kind, anyway. She firmly looked ahead, gaze sweeping everywhere but inside the chamber.

Thane's grimace deepened, the lines on his dirtied face growing deeper as he glowered at the fallen Whiphid. Unlike before, however, something else was occupying his mind. Now that the bright, evil light that was K'Errekh was now dimmed, another light shone more clearly; grasped by the skeletal corpse by the dying being was a holocron. Nothing like the design of Darth Bane's, it was nevertheless clear what it was, and its presence in the Force also made it clear its origins.

Sith.

Deciding now was not the time to marvel upon the chances of the same group of people finding two Sith holocrons in the space of a week, he kept his focus away from the dark side device, its ivory-esque octagonal shape quite subtle in the dimness of the temple's inner sanctum.

As K'Errekh did not deign to even pay attention to the others in the room, his lolling head only sometimes managing to let him fix his paling eyes upon the holocron, Thane took a step forward beyond Morgo, and looked down at the Whiphid. He did not feel so much pity for him as he surmised the others perhaps did, or at least, not in the traditional way. His pity was for the potential that K'Errekh clearly would have had as a Force user, but had now become this, and wasted whatever potential may have once been there.

He had to die, and for a multitude of reasons. Be brought his lightsaber up in a position ready to execute the downed creature, the humming violet blade ringing in his ears. Thane mused that the Jedi would indeed do something much the same; certainly, once upon a time, the Jedi Orders of old would have argued for compassion and leniency, but these days, he was certain the Reborn Order would end K'Errekh quickly.

But, he considered in the few seconds before bringing his blade down, they would do it out of fear. The blade sliced through the Whiphid's neck, rolling off noisily through the pool of blood. But I did it out of justice. It was only then that he realised that his stepping forward and executing K'Errekh had only taken place over a very few short and brisk seconds, but he kept his composure and form as he disengaged his lightsaber.

Much of the shroud that had slowly been decaying along with the Whiphid was then entirely lifted, and K'Errekh's sudden disappearance in the Force felt like a relief - a cleansing - to Thane.

Berry swallowed from her position outside, her frown deepening as a blip of life disappeared from the sea. New blood bloomed like a beautiful evil cloud in the current of water magic around them. She scowled to the side. It stank.

Bomoor too felt a wave of this Force energy as the dark glow that was K'Errekh was extinguished for good, "Rather gruesome again Thane," he spoke, tensing the muscles in his face as he looked at the decapitated Whiphid, "That's another Sai cha execution you've performed. I find Shiak much cleaner when necessary. But still, the result is the same."

The Ithorian caught the sensation of the holocron once again and paced up the steps to where Thane stood. He saw the Sith device grasped in the corpse's still-twitching hands, "Another holocron?" Bomoor was as surprised as Thane that they had encountered a second one so soon, "Well that would explain a lot about what has been going on here. This lost soul must have gone mad drawing from the device."

"We don't know that." With the Force, Thane brought the holocron out of the cadaver's grasp and into his own, feeling its weight in his hand, as well as the sensations flowing out from within. Certainly, it was old. Perhaps not as old as Darth Bane's, but old enough, although it was in seemingly good condition all the same. Turning it in his hand, the rogue Jedi noted it was lighter than Bane's, and whilst it carried a remarkable and distinct dark side presence, its manner was unlike the other, yet still so distinctly what he had come to know as Sith.

For a moment, he once again found himself considering his former Master and Bomoor's attitudes towards the Force and purpose, of destinies and things being intertwined. In that brief glimpse of thought, he considered that he was perhaps destined to have come across it; just as equally, the entire group had been present for both, and by that very same logic, they could all have been destined. Dismissing the thought, he passed it backwards to Morgo.

Slipping her gloves on, Morgo took the holocron with care. The thing was of similar design to the Bane holocron Thane had showed her before, but at the same time it was distinct. Running through her mental list of holocrons, Morgo wondered which Dark Lord of the Sith had created this one.

Inspecting the holocron, Morgo rotated it in the light, wrinkling her nose slightly when she noticed a splash of K'Errekh's blood had gotten on the relic. Wiping it off with a swab, Morgo considered the blood-stained cloth before it came to her that whilst the Whiphid was dead...he could still be of use to the realm of science. Yes, Morgo thought to herself as she secreted the bloodied cloth back into her pocket, K'Errekh's blood would do nicely alongside the other samples, and help in furthering her...studies.

"There's nothing else here," Thane decided, placing his hands on his hips as his eyes wandered about this inner sanctum. "Only dead dark siders and stone." However, the whole affair had not been a failure, as they had found the holocron, after all, and whilst anything else of use - tomes, tablets, and other trinkets - had long been taken or turned to dust by the ages, the holocron may be of some use, either as a source of knowledge for Kaiburr shards... or as a font of knowledge for something entirely different.

He looked down at his hand for a moment, opened it and produced a small ball of electricity briefly, before then dismissing it by clasping again. Thane turned to the others, each of them looking as tired and beaten as he felt, but he could not deny the great sense of relief K'Errekh's death had warranted him - for a multitude of reasons - and was pleased that they could soon depart. A rumbling noise of thunder echoed in the distance.

"I think it's time we left," he suggested, already walking towards the door where Bería stood guard, looking indignant and seeming perhaps a bit naive, yet he made no comment... for now. "We may have unbalanced things out there more with that thing's death." Thane gave the room one last sweep with his eyes, not seeing anything that particularly interested him, despite a slight inner urge to delve further into the temple, even with what had happened.

Berry gave him a dark look. "It's not like you're gonna suddenly have a baby to balance things out, right?" She chuckled at that, but her eyes still retained their sharp look. Water magic never liked to be unbalanced...what made this Pale Guy think it would change off this whirlpool of a planet? Berry consoled herself with munching on some nuts she found in her shirt, frowning all the while.

"At least if we're on the Raptor," he responded quickly, "we're not likely to get torn apart by a Force storm because one of us starts meditating for too long." Thane certainly knew he had to speak with her. What had happened here - not so much with the visions, but with K'Errekh - had clearly affected her more than it should. Probably thanks to their bond, he could feel the...

What? Thane asked himself. The disappointment? Whatever it was, it was clear there as it was in the physical realm.

"Enough", barked Sev. "That thing tried to kill us and we prevailed. He was crazy and he would kill us without having a pang of remorse. He was killed and his presence will not hurt our party anymore. If Thane hadn't killed him, I would have so simply because fact his mind wasn't in the same place as his spirit anymore." He pointed at the corpse. "He's far better now because he's not hurting anyone. And we are far better now because Thane ended his life. There's justice in this." The Mandalorian turned around to face Thane. "This Holocron is not good influence in any of us. It must be destroyed."

Morgo shot Sev a venomous look as she held the holocron close to her chest, eyes flashing with anger at the mere suggestion of such a course of action, "We will do no such thing." She declared icily, "This holocron is knowledge, and knowledge must be protected." And tilting her chin up slightly, Morgo studied the Mandalorian, vaguely disdainful, "Say we do destroy it. These things you deem as 'not a good influence'. Where does it end? When does your book burning stop? If you destroyed this holocron Sev, you would be no different than the Jedi Order on Coruscant, fearful of anything that might corrupt their young students. You'd be no different then even Emperor Palpatine himself, ordering the destruction of all knowledge of midi-chlorians on my home planet. An order that nearly undid my family's entire legacy in one fell swoop." Morgo spat, her voice low and dangerous.

And grasping the holocron tightly against her bosom, Morgo turned so that the length of her upright cortosis stave separated the Mandalorian from her. Narrowing her eyes at the man, Morgo spoke levelly, "So no. We will not destroy the holocron. I'll trust you not to make such a foolish suggestion again, Sev Rezer."

Sev Rezer turned around to face Morgo. "Ah, there's the arrogant nobility position I was expecting. You know nothing about me, my culture, my people. From my standing, you are the savage. Remember that, next time you spill you filthy words in my direction. The holocron made that mad. It can influence minds. It can make a Jedi go crazy. It is dangerous. Only a scholar can not see the threat."

His voice became low and menacing. "And, Milady, if I wanted, instead of wasting my time arguing with you, I could have just killed you, taken your precious holocron from your dead fingers and destroyed it before anyone could react. And I will, next time you dream you can threaten me into doing or not doing anything. Do you understand, chakaar? Consider this your first and last warning."

Thane let out an almost rasping and exhausted groan, before declaring his own, "Enough!" As one would to bickering children, whirling around and using the Force to rip the stave from Morgo's hand and into his own, his other outstretched to telekinetically hold Sev's weapon where it was at side. "As amusing as I would normally find this," he complained, his patience having quickly reached its end with the day's events, "this is neither the time nor place, and none of us are in the right frame of mind to be having this sort of discussion. Besides, we've no need to hear your pretentious prattling, Duchess, but we are keeping the holocron, Rezer: it may have information that will help us against Axion."

The Human let his eyes bore into Sev's visor, approximately where he knew his eyes would be. Whilst he could feel traces of thought but certainly clear emotions from the Mandalorian, the man had clearly nearly perfected methods of shielding himself.

"Now," he said through gritted teeth, pushing the stave back into Morgo's free hand, "let's see if we can get out of here before we try to kill each other any more." Thane avoided looking over to Bomoor, the memory of their own engagement still very fresh and daunting, and so put his focus on Morgo, squinting slightly as he tried to probe further with the Force. As usual, she was a blank slate within her void in the Force, and yet he had picked up traces of thoughts and intentions from her at random intervals - something he would have to focus more on.

Done with his glaring and becoming more uninterested in whether the pair did start trying to cut holes in each other (although the thought of Morgo trying to stand up to Sev in combat was amusing to him), Thane shifted himself over to Bomoor, finding comfort in his Ithorian friend's sanity. "Sometimes - just sometimes - I miss the simple times. Let's get out of here."

Morgo stood at her end of the room, only slightly surprised at Thane's outburst. Did he think they were all going to kill each other now? Perhaps he needed a reminder just who it was that had actually swung a lightsaber at who. A reminder that of all of them, just who it was who had taken action with lethal intent against his friend and vice versa. The same friend Thane now took comfort in sidling close to. It said a lot, Morgo thought as she took a final sweeping look of the chamber, that the two of the crew most proudly in control of themselves and their powers, were the ones to break out into mad battle once their minds were tested.

Smiling faintly, Morgo stepped backwards until she was alongside K'Errekh's corpse, wary of his pool of blood. And looking down at the poor Whiphid, Morgo brought the holocron she held eye level, expression thoughtful as her voice was quiet, "He doesn't like my pretentious prattle much, yet he sits for hours at a time in front of his holocron, wide-eyed most likely, listening to what Darth Dearest has to say." And looking at K'Errekh's ruined body Morgo smirked conspiratorially and lowered her voice to a low whisper, as if the two of them had secrets to share.

"I'm starting to think he favors the company of the dead over the living. Is that what happened to you, my poor man? Talked too long and too hard with whoever it is that's in this holocron?" Morgo paused thoughtfully, "And then you went mad." She said, quiet.

Straightening, Morgo's eyes slowly lifted from the Whiphid's corpse, traveling across the room to settle on Thane's back, studying the broad line of his shoulders, "Well...our resident dark Jedi may yet follow in the footsteps of the dead. You may yet have company."

The rumbling outside grew louder, the crashing reverberating through the temple and even through Berry's sandalled feet. She frowned slightly at the thing Morgogo held. That shell holding all that dark water was working right now, keeping them here so the water storm could destroy them. "Well, I'm leaving," Berry stated as she started walking out. "But somebody better walk in front of me because I'm gonna get lost." She said it like it was a fact of life, because it was.

Sev Rezer looked at Berry. His anger was not hot, but cold. He didn't care about the kriffed holocron. "Follow me, adi'ka. I'm done with this place". He looked at Thane. "I'll wait in the Red Raptor. Try not to kill your friend again when I'm gone. You can kill milady if you want."

With that, the Mandalorian turned around, and marched towards the exit. "Are you coming, adi'ka?", he called to Berry.

"I'm coming," Thane said slightly quietly, almost resigned. His anger had cooled and the tiredness that had come with the day's trials beginning to seep in, his mind, body and spirit sapped of energy. He placed a hand on what passed for Bomoor's shoulder, letting some friendly feeling spread between the pair. He turned and looked at Morgo, the enigmatic woman looking as if she had something to hide from in in her peculiar conversation with the corpse. Trying not to dwell on it for now, he turned towards Bería and Sev. "We're all coming."

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