Return to Darkness (Hotel)

[Hand Soler]

He shook his head, pulling his gloves off of his hands and tucking them behind the control panel of his fighter, one of the ones the Jedi Council provided. Popping the canopy, he climbed out, settling in a crouch on the right wing. "Alright there, R4?" he said, smiling at the long trilled reply. "I'm sure she was here. I just don't know if she still is. It makes sense that she would come here, though.

"After all, this is where I fled when I fell," he said, looking up at the ruins a few hundred yards from him. "Keep the ship primed, R4, and keep it going. I want to be able to get out of here quick. I sense... I sense the Dark side," he said, as he reached out and felt his senses brush against something icy cold. "I want to be able to get out of here as soon as possible if something goes wrong."

He shook his head, and dropped down to the ground, his hands finding his sabers and pulling them free, even as he walked across the intervening space. The ruins had been his home while he had lived here, and was very familiar to him. But even after the time he had been here, the taint of the Dark side shouldn't have been THIS strong after all that time.

He paused several feet outside, his senses reaching out and probing carefully, looking for any traps or such before he entered his old home.

[Hotel]

Darkness. Pure, perfect darkness. A darkness so profound, so sure, you could lose yourself to it and never return. That's what the dark side was. That's what this planet was. Light could not exist in darkness, for it would wither and die within the shadows it would cast before being consumed. Just as the forever night of the planet consumed all light. This world held such power just in it's constant darkness, just as the Sith did in the darkness within the force. This is where she had brought him, and where he would find her, and lose himself to the darkness forever.

She knew of the man, Irad Demair. She knew he had nearly lost himself here once before. She knew it had forever touched him, slowly making him what she had herself become. His precious friend had told her that after she had broken her and showed her how weak she was because of the light, and let her embrace the dark forever more. She knew he would search for him, and she had been right. And tonight she would show him what he truly was, not what he wanted to believe he was. The darkness of the planet, the darkness of his heart, would consume him once more, and never let go.

As she walked through the night, she had thought of how they came to be here. Mirian had spoken of the man, of his past, and it had intrigued her. So much she began to lay a trail for him. She wanted to meet him, but not just anywhere, it had to be here. So she made sure to bring him, taunting him and staying just out of his reach, like the carrot at the end of a stick. Only it wouldn't be the carrot he had been hoping to grab and take that he would find, but her.

Almost as soon as she had landed, she made sure to discard the woman's old, tattered and bloody clothes in the ruins of his former house, and leave a trail even a blind rancor could follow. Pulling her hood up over her head she stopped and turned. All that was left was to wait for him to chase the carrot.

[Hand Soler]

He stopped as he approached the house, seeing the odd trail that had been left for him, and then ignited both sabers, flipping the shoto as it ignited, the blade gleaming down the back of his arm without touching it. He inched cautiously into the house, his senses on full tension.

But he stopped stock still at the site of the bloodied clothes scattered all over the room. He stared in shock, and his hands started to tremble, the blades flickering in the darkness as they shuddered. "No.... This can't... she can't... NO!"

There was a ripple in the Force around him, a slight shiver of cold through his aura for a moment before it vanished. When he stepped out, his face lit with the light from his twin sabers, his face was set in a grim expression, as he followed the trail in the light of his sabers, moving quickly.

He slid to a stop, however, when he saw the woman standing there, his feet kicking up dust from the ground. "Who are you?" he called out, the Force flickering around him again, this time a more sustained flicker, grief tinged with a taste of fear and anger. But it only lasted for a few seconds, and then stopped.

[Hotel]

She couldn't help but hide a smile under her hood as she saw the twin beams of energy racing towards her in the distance. It seems he had found the clothes. It would not be long now until he arrived and things could truly start.

She remained still as he neared her. She wanted to test his mettle, see just what kind of man he really was. So when he asked who she was, slowly she would raise her wings from under her cloak, the light of the sabers just enough to make them out. Her mind would touch his, but only three words would reach out and echo in his head. "I am darkness."

[Hand Soler]

He snarled, and shook his head, a door slamming in her mental face as his barriers came up in a heartbeat, his eyes gleaming with the pain of loss. "That's not an answer," he said, shaking his head. "Not going to happen. Give me a straight answer, or you are sentenced to death for the crime of murdering a Jedi," he snarled.

That pulse shot out again, lasting a few more minutes this time, and then cutting off again. He shook his head, trying to center himself again. But the pain of the loss of a friend, and the fact that this woman was the most convenient, and the tempting lure of the taint he himself left here, were all too much for his dedication, which was slowly starting to crumble and shatter, his aura slowly growing colder and darker.

[Hotel]

The mute Rilan's words would once again echo within his head. She had yet to try to read his mind, and simply communicated the simplest and most efficient way she knew how. "Who ever said she was dead?"

She smirked as she began to walk closer, a hand gripping the twin hilts of her own saber under her cloak, the two hilts joined as one at the moment. "She is alive, but she is one with the darkness now. Just as you once were. Just as you once will be again." She continued to step forward, deciding to goad him a bit about her. "She was resistant at first, but she has come to realize just how worthless she really is, being a Jedi. She is disgusted with herself, but seeks to redeem herself by rising from the ashes of her former life into as something more then the lowest of the low, the filth of the galaxy, the Jedi." Even through her thoughts the anger and true hatred could be felt. It was obvious that the Jedi had hurt her horribly.

[Hand Soler]

He shook his head, stepping back slowly. "No. That's not true. You killed her," he said, his eyes slowly welling with tears. He shivered, and snarled. "Get out of my head!" he snapped, the sabers coming up, the dual-phase across his chest, the shoto up and almost intersecting the dual-phase butt to blade.

He growled, dropping into a low crouch, his eyes locked on the female. "Don't...... Just shut up," he snapped, his aura going crazy with black and white ripples, the cold radiating off of him now. "No. You didn't turn her. She was too strong in the Force to be turned. You couldn't have broken her."

Slowly, maddeningly slowly, the chill exuded and grew worse, until the ground beneath his feet started to freeze from a nearly physical cold. "You will die now," he said, his lips pulling back into a snarl. "Now DIE!" he screamed, lunging at her, the shoto flipping around as he crossed the blades, a crackle sounding out loudly as he lunged, aiming for her neck.