Departure

Posted on Mon Mar 4th, 2013 @ 11:20pm by Bomoor Thort & Thane & Berry & Sev Rezer & Morgo Le'Shaad

3,522 words; about a 18 minute read

Chapter: Chapter III: Relics
Location: Red Raptor, Tython
Timeline: Dusk, Day Eleven

The journey back from the ancient Je'daii Temple took less time than the journey there, but likely thanks to the reasonably uncomfortable feeling that had settled over the group, they had all been walking quickly to get back to the Red Raptor, the boarding ramp to which they were just closing now.

With his hand still resting on the mechanism, Thane gave one last look out towards the temple to Bogan, to the place where they had all been subject to the meddling of an insane dark-sider and poised against each, Thane and Bomoor in particular. Not sorry to see it disappear from his vision as the airlock sealed shut, he turned around to follow the rest as they made their way into the recreation room.

Surprisingly, it was only Kip of the non-Jedi that was not bothering him as he entered to the gathering, with the others all conflicted or conflicting with one another. Morgo was still clasping the holocron in her gloved hand, and seemed intent on shielding it from the others, namely Sev, who had kept close to Bería on the journey back, just as Thane had kept close to Bomoor.

Taking his black greatcoat off to reveal more of the battering he had received during the various events in the temple, he sat down on one of the chairs, closing his eyes as he felt some of the aches and pains begin to flow through him more readily now that he was more at ease, and relying less on the Force to fight off and remedy the fatigue and pains.

Looking first at the trouble Bería, sensing the concerns that still flooded through her, he was still nevertheless impressed with how she had performed. His tired blue eyes then shifted to his Ithorian friend, who he knew had to speak to also. For the time being, however, there were other things to handle.

"Would you put the holocron on the table, please?" He gestured to the circular table that doubled up as a holoprojector in the centre.

Morgo did so, placing the holocron on the table a little reluctantly. With Sev so close by, who'd so clearly expressed what he thought should be done with such relics, it was hard to put the holocron anywhere in the open. But she did so. Long fingers leaving the artifact, Morgo stepped back and wordlessly arched an eyebrow at Thane.

"We should ascertain the very least we can for now about the holocron," Thane said, his ears then picking up another rumble of thunder in the distance, "and then get away from Tython. After leaving, I reckon a day or two in port would be good. We've still got all of the supplies from Coruscant fresh and ready, but we should get some quiet time as well." He didn't wait for any responses before raising his hand, ready to use the Force to activate the holocron, but then stopped himself and looked over to Berry.

"Bería," he said, softer than his usual tone, "why don't you activate it? Reach out with the Force, as you've proven you can, into the device. The rest will come naturally." Whilst he was certain the part-Aquar still had concerns about him and perhaps resenting him somewhat, it was still no reason to put off any further training. She was already exceeding expectations and learning quickly, and he had no intention of letting this upset stall that. Thane was also curious as to how she would react to the holocron's presence the deeper she delved into it.

As far as he knew, Berry's only true contact with genuine dark side energy had been what he had exposed her to with the Cult of Axion and his own learnings. To have her touch it now would be an interesting exercise.

Morgo’s eyes shot from Berry to Thane, narrowing. What was he playing at, asking Berry to activate the Sith holocron? Inexperienced and unprepared, the girl could even come to harm. Morgo blinked. This wasn’t training. Not when it involved a dark device notorious for its addictive properties for those young still in the Force. This was altogether more sinister. If she didn't already know that Thane wasn't far along enough in his Fall to pull something like this... Morgo would even call it blatant corruption. Mentally, Morgo briefly considered stopping them.

But Berry was grown. She could make her own decisions.

Berry crossed her golden-green arms, eyes slightly flashing over at Thane. She looked quite intimidating, with one braid fraying and half her face covered in a film of Temple dirt, especially on her nose. "Why should I get my water magic all bloody for that...thing?" she asked darkly, pouting slightly. "It's bad. Really bad. Since you're such an expert with blood treasure, why don't you touch it?"

Thane shrugged slightly, a hint of a half-smile trying to pull at a mouth corner. He even thought he could feel some of the part-Aquar's own stubbornness pouring into him, but she was showing more darkness than she perhaps expected of herself. "A fair response," he said, slightly impressed with her resistance to the holocron, "but you can't dismiss something because it is 'blood treasure' or dark, lest you become no better than the Jedi."

Her response nevertheless did show something, and it was the primary reason for asking. If she had gone forward and been so easily corrupted, then, he felt, she probably was not worth much attention anyway. Thane also realised what a grim assessment that was, and that he should probably be more bothered by it... but he wasn't.

Looking at the ivory-styled octagonal holocron, he waved a hand and stretched out with the Force to active it, and thought again what a peculiar design it was, being fashioned by bone. In fact, it wasn't entirely unlike the designs popularised by the One S-

After a brief moment, the emerald centre piece split open vertically and horizontally, and a red light - not unlike with Bane's holocron - shone out, and a figure garbed in what could only pass for Yuuzhan Vong armour was floating above it. A large helmet with spikes lurching out adorned his head, with holes present for both his eyes and mouth, which seemed permanently stuck in a disappointed grimace.

"Darth Krayt." Thane's eyes had opened wider, amazed at the serendipity of the holocron's discovery. It was not so much because of what Krayt could tell them, but simply because of the sheer magnitude of the One Sith Dread Lord himself in history. Just as Bane had instituted the Rule of Two, this one had brought about the 'Kraytist' Rule of One. Sadly, historical information concerning the one-time Galactic Emperor was limited by the Reborn Order.

Berry gasped and suddenly lunged over to Morgo, shielding her from this dark presence as her light stick burst into life. Kovu must be at it again, putting people in places they weren't standing before! But wait, Kovu wasn't real and...this "person" wasn't, either, but....she could feel all that dark water pulsing from him. Her scowl slightly faded as her eyes darted over at Thane, who wasn't on guard for some reason. Maybe he was under some kind of spell! "Hey!" She yelled over at the Human, her expression now mixed with confusion and suspicion. "Who is this guy? He doesn't look like a dark crate to me, but he's bad--and tiny!"

"And dead," Thane added, not taking his eyes away from the apparition, his mismatched eyes searching each of those present from within his helmet. "Over a thousand years dead, this is what is left of the last Galactic Emperor, Darth Krayt." His voice was tinged with an element of reverence, but it was not out of respect or subordination to the holocron's gatekeeper, but still to the history it represented. It was quite a thing to be in the presence of, even if just a snippet, the figure that toppled the Second Republic and created a new Sith Empire from it.

"A new charge to heed my words and teachings?" Krayt then queried with slight aggression and curiosity. "I presume that you have killed the pathetic creatures that dared to call themselves the One Sith - the remnants of my grand vision?" His sights seem to rest the longest upon Bomoor, narrowing at the sight of the Ithorian. "There is much conflict amongst you - much chaos. Is this truly what the galaxy has become since my demise?"

Morgo stared, slightly mesmerized by the apparition that was Darth Krayt. Gently laying her white hands on Berry’s shoulders, who stood before her, tense and ready to fight, Morgo bent forward to whisper in the shorter girl’s ear, “Stand down Berry, its just an image. An image projected from withing the holocron itself, made to communicate with whomever activates it. It is meant to represent the one who created the dark device in the first place—Darth Krayt, last great Dark Lord of the Sith in recorded history. He cannot hurt you or me like this." Morgo smiled faintly, "But thank you for thinking of me." She said, lightly squeezing the girl's shoulders before letting go. Good behavior should be positively reinforced.

Berry nodded, frowning as she flicked the light stick off with a small wave of water magic.

As Morgo looked upon the impressive image of the Dark Lord in his armored glory, she tilted her head and looked to Thane, "Perhaps you should go and fetch Darth Bane, Thane, and present him to our new guest. From what I've read, they'd absolutely hate each other." She said pleasantly, blinking, "And then they could fight over who would be the better master to you. Catfight of the century."

Or maybe Thane had intended to play the Dark Lords, the two-timer, seeing and learning from one without letting the other know. Oh what Morgo would give to see Darth Bane huff indignantly and slap Thane's face, squeaking out 'Cheater!' before going back into his holocron to cry and demand a divorce, whilst Krayt stomped and demanded Thane stop treating her him like the other woman. Internally, Morgo laughed in a way unbefitting of a Lady.

"This is a waste of time", came Sev's voice from the cockpit direction. "Either this has the information we want or what we went through meant nothing."

"You", he said to Morgo. "Have to remember the vow you made to me. Break the vow and I will break you. Do you think showing this to her is abiding to your vow?", the Mandalorian said, his hand resting on his pistol. "Knowledge is not bad or good, but it can be dangerous without proper control. And she doesn't have it."

"And you", Sev said, this time fixing his eyes on Thane. "I joined forces with you because we had a common objective. Axion. Now, you seem to have forgotten that because you have two holocrons with dark teachings. If I don't get the answer I'm looking for to get to Axion, I have no motive to stay here. Choose what you want, Thane. Axion or the knowledge. You can't have both now. After Axion is dead, you can plunge into the darkness for all I care. But don't you dare delay this hunt for your own ambitions."

Thane clenched a fist, and the holocron instantly deactivated, the spectre of Darth Krayt disappearing as quickly as it had appeared as the former Jedi wheeled about to face the Mandalorian, his lip curling with anger. "You should watch your tongue, Mandalorian, before someone crushes you in your little green armour," he said with some menace. "Don't even deign to understand what that holocron contains and how it can help us in our hunt for Axion. Krayt's relic may have great a great magnitude of information about Kaiburr shards, and failing that, the teachings in there may help make me powerful enough to face him down."

The Human took one step towards Sev, the tiredness and fatigue of the day slipping away with the anger that began to energise him. "My ambition is to become more powerful to end Axion as quickly as possible. My ambition, Sev Rezer, is your ambition - our objective - so try thinking before speaking in the future. Your opinion on the holocron is noted and discarded - either stay or don't." Thane's eyes narrowed. "It's your call, Mandalorian, but you're not stopping us from using the holocron as we see fit."

Indeed, whilst Thane was still highly interested in learning the Mandalorian way from the bounty hunter, he was quickly growing tired with how easily he was creating rifts between those on board, of how quickly he was getting them into this fired up state. He had no wish to lose the opportunity to learn from the man, but he was finding it harder to abide him. After holding his gaze for a moment, he stepped over to the holocron, examining it whilst keeping his entire focus within the Force upon the other man. "I think you'll find it's you that's delaying this hunt."

Berry frowned vacantly into the distance, sometimes losing focus of what someone said because she was just so tired, not even giving the small box another second of thought after she realized she probably couldn't eat it (probably tasted like that crazy Boar guy) OR play catch with it. The voices of the men...they sounded fuzzy...what were they talking about? Something about being distracted and not focusing on their hunting trip. She knew she really wasn't hunting with them, but she didn't really have anywhere to go to get stronger. And that bloody crate wasn't an option (she liked to store her fish from a hunt in a bag, not a box)...but her bed was. She smiled sleepily at the thought, even though it was just pretty much a slab of metal with a layer of fabric thrown on it. Way softer than a tree branch...

The part-Aquar blew out air in a tired sigh and looked over at the debaters, her dark eyes slightly glazed over in sleepiness. "Yeah, well...this crate might help you guys, it might not..." Berry began to babble softly as if half asleep. "...but we're all pretty tired and probably should let our brains rest after getting slapped around by that Boar guy...I know I can't think straight after getting beaten up...boy my brain feels melted," she chuckled as she stepped forward through the thick web of tension in the room.

It seemed to fall away from her, leaving her unaffected, as she went over to Thane and patted him on the arm. She smiled tiredly at him, some concern bringing her eyes back to life as she briefly gazed at him in worry. She really hoped he didn't get mad again, he looked really tired, too...then she smiled over at Armor Guy and the others before turning around and ambling off down the hall to her room. Berry didn't even bother closing the door as she literally fell asleep, unconscious before she even hit the bed. It was about 5.5 seconds later that muffled snoring sounded about the ship.

Sev's eyes didn't leave Thane as Beria left the room. "I want Axion dead. Yes. And I'll cross the galaxy and face down an army of Dark Jedi to do that. I have my purpose. But you? I heard about holocrons teaching you. Getting you more powerful. You're already mixing your own objectives with this hunting party's. If you don't like what I say, make true in your threat and try to kill me. It would be a stupid rash action of someone that's already lost sight of his purpose."

The Mandalorian crossed his arms and said with a professional tone of voice."You want to be better fighter? Good. Do you want to be more powerful? Also good. Not now. We need to know where Axion will be searching the for the other shards. That's all we need. Now. We already possess enough power to best him together. As a hunting party. If you doubt that, then there's no reason for us to be allied. There's no reason for me to teach you the path as you requested from me. There are no reason for us to be here, talking." For Sev it was clear that Thane was amazed and unfocused, having holocrons of two Dark Lords of Sith in his hands. All the Mandalorian wanted was to get Thane focused again, but the Caanan, already too deep in his own anger saw only a challenge.

With Sev's own softening, Thane tried to ease as well, turning to face the Mandalorian again. "I can see your concern, Sev," he said, although there was still a bit of bite to his voice, "but it's only been a week since we last faced Axion before he had even one Kaiburr shard. We are not ready to face him, or even his ilk - the size of which we don't even know yet. I'm not going to force Bomoor or Bería to use either of the holocrons if they don't want to, nor Kip. If I'm the only one prepared and willing to delve into them, then you need to trust me to do so. Krayt's holocron might have masses of information or nothing at all, but if it is anything like the other one, then it won't simply be a case of just asking."

With the Force, he picked up the holocron and sent it over to Morgo. "Why don't you see what you can learn from a non-Force perspective first, if anything, and then - with whoever wants to be present," he added, looking to each of them, "can be, but I can't promise anything." Focusing once more on Sev, he said, "Why don't you get the Raptor off the ground and get us out of the Deep Core. I'm sure you know a few haunts and a few people who might have some intelligence - something more concrete. We gambled here, and we'll soon find out whether we won or not. Either way, I need some rest."

The continuous conflict - both mentally and physically - had been a drain, although the slight ember that had been lit by his reaction to Sev had invigorated him a bit more, the first showings of being more and more comfortable at feeding off of his emotions. They, too, were very drained. "We'll talk more after a night's sleep," Thane said, but it was clear he was directing it more to Bomoor than the others. Not waiting for any more responses, he took his leave and headed with a tired but typically confident stride to his own cabin.

Bomoor peeled himself away from the wall where he had been leaning, rather distancing himself from the awakening of yet another holocron and the conflict that ensued. The torments of Bogon Temple had ended, but he saw the conflict it had left in its wake. He wondered if they would be able to trust each other completely again after seeing dark glimpses of each others' minds.

He tilted his head over to where Morgo still stood, fingering the holocron in her pristine white gloves. His concern at having another Sith presence on board was somewhat diminished after spending time in what seemed like darkness incarnate. His greatest fear now was what the Jedi Council would think of this. He had concealed Darth Bane's holocron from them on Coruscant but could he do so again when he reported back as he would have to very soon? Would he have to tell them of the battle between himself and Thane?

Although, despite the terrors that Tython had brought them, they had seen an end to the dark power that resided there. In fact, if Darth Krayt's holocron was correct, they had seen an end to the last of the One Sith. Perhaps their actions here were noteworthy enough to please the council, at least for now. It was a pity though, to Bomoor, that they had not seen a brighter side to Tython. Surely there were still untouched areas where the purity of the ancient Jed'aii still shone through. While pleased to see the back of the temple, he still wished they could set down elsewhere and perhaps enjoy the tranquillity of Tython.

He glanced over to where Sev stood, with is arms crossed, still somewhat riled by Thane's attitude. On the other hand, in the crew's current state, they would probably send the Force right out of balance again. For now, they had to leave Tython. Perhaps one day Bomoor could return when he was at peace with himself.

RSS Feed