Keep Pace. This Will Hurt. (Sparrow)

[Meira]

The room sat high in the temple. Though it was not a large room, the ceiling was vaulted. Windows set toward the top let in the light of the setting sun, casting the room in reds and oranges. The furnishings were sparse, only two padded meditation coushions.

Renata rarely used the room, though it had been set aside for her alone. It adjoined to the rooms she used as her private living quarters and what served as an office of sorts. But Renata's meditations usually went better when done in the deep meditation chambers, those hidden in the depths of the temple where the pulse of the lives that inhabited within the fold coursed through the very stone. There, she could melt into the force through their energy and catch herself up in the current.

But today, she waited in the little-used room. Today would be the beginning of what she hoped would be only a few sessions. If this dragged on, she would likely feel the need to slaughter a few initiates just to relieve the pressure. It was because of this frustration, this pressure, that Renata had not summoned Gabriella.

Renata's Echani apprentice was much like the Dark Lady in her impulsive nature. She was rash, quick to anger, and deadly. She was wildfire. Extremely formidable and unendingly useful. But not in this case.

Renata has summoned Zarene for this task. Aside from being much more levelheaded, the cyborg had what could possibly by a physical advantage, making her ideal for the tast Renata had in mind. But Renata knew little about Zarene's mechanical nature, and so more would have to be determined before moving forward with what she had in mind.

[sparrow]

The sand-filled punching bag swayed as Zarene's left fist struck it with a thump. Her hands returned to position guarding her face before flashing forward to hit the bag once again as it swung back. Again. And again. And again.

Her comm blinked and she stopped to answer the call. A summons from Master Renata. "Acknowledged. I'll be there right away." She took a deep breath, grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead while casually examining the back of her hand and callouses on her knuckles. With no one to stop it, the bag swung back and forth a few times before finally coming to a stop.

Walking briskly up the winding staircases, she arrived at the small training room with the high vaulted ceiling hidden away in the upper levels of the Temple. Seeing Renata within, she quickly knelt, briefly touching her forehead to the stone floor before rising again. "Mistress, you summoned me?"

[Meira]

The Dark Lady paced as she waited, hands clasped behind her back. The only sound in the room was the soft swish of her dress as it slid against the stone floor. When pacing grew old, she took a seat on one of the meditation cushions, crossing her legs and allowing her hands to fall loose on her knees.

Ice blue eyes disappeared behind closed lids as Darth Renata drew in an even breath. As she released that air, she sent her senses forth with it. Like wisps of smoke, Renata's consciousness crept outward. Stone and metal meant nothing to the woman while submerged within the force. Soon, the Dark Lady found the familiar rhythm of life she was waiting for, and was pleased to note that Zarene was nearing. A dedicated woman. Loyal.

Retreating back within herself, Renata's eyes opened with the door to find Zarene's physical form bowing. The woman touched her forehead to the floor. This gesture, so very uncommon among the Sith, did not go amiss. Renata's thin lips widened ever so slightly in approval. Humility. It was a lesson that Renata had struggled to learn. In so many ways, she still struggled. It was hard to see around the illusion of weakness it could so often appear as.

"I did." Renata's voice was smooth, almost sweet.

As Zarene rose, so did the Dark Lady. Renata approached her apprentice, stopping a mere foot or so in front of her. Zarene was taller than Renata by a fair few inches. Her raven black hair was pulled back, as Renata was used to seeing. She noted a slight glisten to the woman's skin. Perspiration.

"Training?" she asked, an eyebrow arching with the question. She hoped Zarene had not been working too hard. She would need her strength if this was going to work.

Renata stepped sideways, then began to circle around Zarene, starting at the woman's left side. She studied her build, her stature. She moved behind Zarene, and then to her Right side, where the woman's prosthetic arm drew her interest.

In all honesty, Zarene's... condition, as it were, was part of Renata's initial fascination with the woman. Easily dismissed as a damning handicap, yet Zarene flourished in spite. If it hindered her, Renata could not tell. She certainly never used it as an excuse.

As Renata came around in front of Zarene once again, she locked eyes with the woman. Her own electric gaze searching the other's mismatched pair. Though Renata had chosen Zarene above so many, though she was well aware of her general abilities, she'd never taken the time to learn much else about her apprentice. She was a firm believer in independence. She had, after all, nearly been smothered under an oppressive master. She had not truly grown until she was free. She would demand nothing less of those who followed her. But perhaps she'd been too aloof.

"I gather that your arm is not the only mechanical part of your body. Am I mistaken?"

[sparrow]

Zarene nodded. "Yes. Training. Just the basics, mostly."

The second question was more unexpected. Her expression darkened momentarily and she felt her body quickly tense up before she realized that had not been an insult. When people around her mentioned her cybernetics, it had almost always been in a derogatory manner, to the point where she would instinctively react with violence. It was one of the few things that could instantly break her calm.

Freak,... Ugly,... In a world where most wounds could be healed with kolto and bacta, to be seen with prosthetic implants,... it was weakness. A loss of humanity. Abomination.

She blinked, and her fist slowly unclenched. No, that had just been a perfect innocent question. Renata was her master. She wouldn't try to hurt her. Not like that.

"I..." It wasn't something she liked talking about. "No, it isn't. The explosion that cost me my right arm..." When was the last time she had actually talked about it? "It damaged by right lung and heart as well. I have cybernetic implants in them to keep them functioning."

[Meira]

There it was. Renata closed her eyes for a moment as her senses were washed with the sudden wave of anger. It peaked, and dwindled quickly, but Renata had felt it all the same. So Zarene did have insecurities about her cybernetics. Well, it couldn't really be held against her. There was indeed a stigma attached to such conditions. All the same, if Zarene wasn't careful, such a thing could be used to an opponents advantage.

As the Dark Lady's eyes opened, she saw Zarene's hand unclench from a fist. Her sensitivity might be a weakness, but a foe would be a fool to think it would be an easily exploitable one. Zarene was strong, and even if she were lured by her insecurity, she would still be quite dangerous.

Renata's gaze returned to meet those almond shaped eyes of her apprentice. Zarene was only a few years younger than herself, but Renata felt so much older. The training Iniquitous had imparted on herself and the other members of the Inner Sanctum had a way of aging the mind, but the words she was about to share came from a wisdom only her own personal experience could have grown.

"Accept it." she said, moving closer and placing her hand along the metal arm. "This is who you are, do not forget. Wear it proudly so that no one can turn it against you." For a moment more, she gazed upon the mechanical arm before her mind came back to the present and her eyes fluttered upward toward Zarene's face. With a flash of a smile Renata turned around, pacing away, once again focused on the task at hand.

"Implants in the heart and lung..." she repeated Zarene's words thoughtfully, nodding. "Then I think you will do perfectly. Have a seat." Renata gestured to one of the cushions and she took the other.

"I summoned you, Zarene, for a very specific purpose. One for which I believe that you are uniquely suited. This will be a training exercise, but not for you so much as for me." She paused a moment to allow Zarene to process that information.

"This will be somewhat dangerous, for both of us, but I am hoping that your cybernetics will help prevent any serious or lasting damage to your body. It will be painful, however. That is a certainty. Lastly, What happens here today must remain between the two of us. I expressly forbid you from speaking of it with anyone. Do you understand?

[sparrow]

"Do not forget? Believe me, I've tried. But you how do you forget when you're reminded every single day?" She reached up and adjusted the half-mask that rested over right side of her face, made of a smooth cold bone-white material. "My shield in public," she said softly, "but it doesn't cover everything."

Her fingers moved to the edge of the mask, slowly prying it off and lifting it away from her face. She carefully placed it on top of one of the cushioned meditation pads.

"But enough about my feelings." Standing back up, she met Renata's icy gaze. "Never thought of it like that. Always figured it just meant two ways to kill me. The normal way, or disable all my cybernetics. But if you think it'll help, then fine, let's do it. I can take pain as long as there's some purpose to it."

[Meira]

Renata smiled once again as Zarene agreed. The apprentice was straightforward, direct. She didn't boast, didn't go into a speech about her abilities. She simply agreed; sure of herself without all the frivolities that so many seemed to possess. She knew her reasons for selecting Zarene as one of her own, but knowing didn't stop Renata from being impressed by the woman all the same.

The Dark lady stood with her apprentice, nodding her approval. Lifting her arm, a casual motion in the wrist sent the cushions sliding toward the walls, leaving a decent area in the center of the room for the two to move around. She stretched her limbs for a few moments before gesturing for Zarene to stand in front of her.

Renata, with arms hanging loose at her sides and feet shoulder width apart, closed her eyes and leaned her head back. She inhaled, her shoulders and chest rising. "Close your eyes and breathe." she said with her exhale. "Open yourself to the currents of the force. Feel the power of the dark side."

As the last of those words were spoken, Renata plunged into the darkness. She wrapped herself within the folds of the energy and could feel it creep over her skin. It electrified every nerve of her being, giving her focus. It was then that she tapped into that deepest power.

Her journey home with Eurachis a week ago had proved quite educational. That man was more than she would like to admit. And what he taught her, how to wield a power she could only previously use as a survival instinct... well, she would never confess what a help he'd been.

She delved inward, as he'd taught, seeking out those things that brewed in her core. It was like ripping her own flesh as she seized the pains and fears of her past. Memories and anger, the dark man from all those years ago, hatred, Gordon; these things pulsed inside of her. With each beat of her heart the sensation grew. She was a storm, a title wave, a tempest of rage.

Cold blue eyes opened. Renata's form shook with each ragged breath she took, her whole torso heaving. The color of her veins rose through her pale skin, and those eyes locked on Zarene. Somewhere in her mind, Renata remembered this was her apprentice. If she could truly care for anyone, Zarene would be one of the extreme few. But right now, Zarene's form seemed to flicker before Renata's eyes. Her features, in a blink, would transform into Gordon's, or the dark man's. Renata's nostrils flared as the raw emotions flooded her. Her jaw tightened, threatening to shatter her teeth.

"Brace yourself." she managed in a raspy voice. And not a moment later, Renata sprang forward with a frightening cry and a concussive blast of energy. Just before reaching her apprentice, Renata whirled her body around, using the momentum to carry her arm in an arc to strike against Zarene's neck. Her eyes were wild, crazed. Her teeth bared in a vicious snarl. Every muscle in her body tensed and readied to destroy Zarene. But her mind held. Barely.

[sparrow]

Zarene felt the dark side of the Force flow through her body, a tingling sensation crawling under her skin, a dark fire burning in her chest, threatening to incerinate her into nothingness if she so much as loosened her control a tiny bit. It was poison, killing her slowly.

But it was also life. She felt her senses sharpen, her whole body electrified, filled with energy. Pure power. She wanted to draw on more of it. All of it.

"Brace yourself." That was all the warning she got.

She raised her steel hand to block the strike at her neck. Renata's hand impacted the back of her forearm, sending a series of shockwaves up the metal plates to her shoulder where cybernetics met flesh. She felt her feet sliding to the side.

She caught herself on the wall, bringing her slide to a stop. Shifting into a more stable stance, she held her arms behind her, palms facing the wall. Her metal hand had not yet stopped vibrating from Renata's strike. That strike would have broken her neck had it been allowed to hit.

Focus.

Concrentrating, she felt the power building up in her hands, and released it all at once, pushing off from the wall with frightening speed, springing forward like a striking viper. Her open palm was a steel lance aiming towards Renata's body.

[Meira]

Pain shot through Renata's arm as it met with the metal of Zarene's forearm. each nerve from her wrist to her collar bone exploded into fire that escaped her body in a raspy cry. But the Dark Lady did not falter. Instead, that pain was absorbed into the furnace of her rage.

Senses rang out a warning just a moment before Zarene moved for a counter strike. The apprentice sprang forward from the wall and Renata jumped back. Her movement prevented a bodily collision, but Renata was not fast enough to avoid Zarene's strike. Her palm connected with Renata's sternum, knocking her back another step and pushing the air from her lungs. Renata gasped and nearly stumbled, but managed to keep her feet.

She stepped back again, removing herself from Zarene's immediate striking distance while her lungs struggled to reopen. It felt as if the tissue was being shredded to ribbons inside her own body. But the air came in. First in tiny pants, and then in larger gulps. Each breath brought in strength and Renata took this moment, this instant of pain and anger, and compressed it. In her heart, or at least the area around it, she focused the chaos, crushing it down tighter and tighter. Her hands, at her sides flexed and shook. The tendons of her neck stood out grotesquely and her nostrils flared.

Black spots popped in her vision and Renata knew, in that deep space of her mind where she maintained conscious control, that she was nearing that dangerous threshold. She could feel the icy grip of death creeping around the base of her neck, numbing her toes and fingers. Too much and she'd suck out her very life, but too little and it would dissipate. The balance had to be found on the edge of a knife.

Just when she was sure she was lost, she released the energy. It rippled out from her like a shock wave in all directions. Her dress blew in the air, her hair pulled wildly around her head. She stumbled now, falling to a knee as the blast left a vacuum in its wake, pulling her life's energy away and leaving her almost empty. The lights flickered and the cushions slammed against the walls, then fell back to the floor. Renata had no ability to study the pulse's effect on Zarene. It was a battle to simply remain conscious.

But it was this very battle that Renata had to fight. If she could not maintain herself, then she would never be able to wield this power effectively. She concentrated on her breathing, forcing her eyes to remain open. She felt as if her skeleton was rattling around inside of her body and that it would punch through at any moment.

A second pulse escaped her, causing the Dark Lady to throw her head back in pain. An anguished cry escaped her as she struggled to keep hold of her life force. This is what had almost killed her when she faced Blackwing. She could not stop it. Already she was doing better. She could remember at least three pulses from that encounter. She was beginning to sense that she would not suffer another this time.

But she was so weak. Already, sweat poured from her body, causing her wild hair to stick against her face and neck. Her chest felt empty, a gaping hole, and the pain of that emptiness was almost unbearable. Her rage had all but left her, leaving no buffer against the void.

"ZARENE!" she called out, her arms reaching around her crumpled frame. "HELP ME, DAMN YOU!"

[sparrow]

Renata stumbled backwards, and suddenly the air around her shimmered, a sphere of strange energy rapidly expanding outwards. Zarene had no chance to evade. The pulse hit her with the force of a speeding mag-train, and she was thrown against the stone walls.

She collapsed on the ground, and was just starting to push herself back up again when the second pulse hit her full in the face. Her neck snapped backwards, only stopping when back of her head struck the wall.

Her head was throbbing and as the world seemed to wobble as she slowly opened her eyes. Everything seemed shaky, strange, as if she was seeing everything from underwater. She tried to stand back up, push up on the wall with her hands, but collapsed back down.

She coughed violently, spitting up a glob of mucus and saliva. There was something else in there too. Something red. Blood.

Lifting her head, she could vaguely see Renata yelling something. Suddenly she realized that while she could see Renata's lips moving, her ears heard nothing. The world was silent save for the erratic pulse of her heartbeat echoing through her head.

Liquid rose up through her throat, and she collapsed on her knees and one elbow, her other hand clutching her chest as she spat up more red droplets, her eyes clenched shut, pain pulsing through her throat with each cough.

The sound hit her on her last cough, like a dam breaking, the water flowing through in huge flood. Her eyes snapped open. Renata's voice suddenly sounded loud in her ears. "-AMN YOU!"

[Meira]

Tears flowed freely from the Dark Lady's eyes. She did not weep, but there was no other outlet for the pain. It pushed outward from within her own flesh. There were bruises forming here and there all over her body as capillaries burst. But Renata held on to her will. It was all she had left.

As she struggled, and Zarene struggled, a door along the wall behind Renata silently opened. A medical droid rolled in pushing a hovering stretcher. It came to a stop at Renata's side, it's human-like arms reaching out to lift the thin woman up. Renata swatted it away. She would not accept the droid's assistance.

Her arms flexed as she used them to steady herself to stand on shaky legs. Only once did she start to fall, but she caught herself. "Tend to her." she said, her voice quavering but firm.

The droid rolled past Renata, stopping next to Zarene to lift the woman up my her mechanical arm. Once the apprentice was on the stretcher, the droid began to check her vitals. Renata stepped closer, still fighting her fatigue but latching on to the force for strength.

"What damage was caused?"

"Blunt trauma to the cranium," the droid's mechanical voice began, "not severe. The heartbeat is erratic, but the prosthetic is stabilizing. Scans detect fluid in the lungs. Lung prosthetic already beginning healing protocol."

"How long until she recovers?"

"Repetition of training is not recommended."

Renata's eyes flashed her anger, but it was lost on the droid. "How long?"

"Three days recovery at minimum."

Renata nodded. She needed the rest, and it was obvious that Zarene did as well. There was nothing for it but to postpone for the three days. As she looked down over her apprentice, Renata's hand moved to grip Zarene's. It was a strange sensation; one that likely only overcame her because of the extreme pain and fatigue. But in that moment, Renata almost regretted submitting Zarene to this.

"Three days." she said, then released her hand. "Rest now."

She stepped back and watched as the droid rolled the stretcher toward the door. As it closed behind them, Renata took two steps, then collapsed onto one of the meditation cushions. Her body curled into a ball as she fought to keep from crying out. The anguish brought the memory of her last recovery period. That had lasted weeks. This time, it could not. She would have to endure.

Closing her eyes, Renata retreated into the force. Disconnecting her mind from her body, she focused on remembering the experience of the pulse. Within the currents of the force, she recalled the scene, slowing down the time and focusing on each detail. She would learn to harness this power. The only alternative was death.

(alrighty Sparrow... Let me know if I stepped too far in how I controlled Zarene there. I can edit, of course. Also, if you want, you can go ahead and jump the three days in your post so we can go at it again! )

[sparrow]

She woke up with a splitting headache. The room had sterile white walls, and was filled with other beds like the one she was on now, as well as many curious looking machines. There was only one place in the Temple like that, the medbay. Strangely, she was the only one here at the moment, a most unusual occurrence considering how often training "accidents" happened in the Temple.

She was laying on a narrow bed, and naked save for the clean white bedsheet covering her body. A pair of translucent tubes pumping some unknown liquid were plugged into the panel on her shoulder, which was normally hidden beneath her armored shoulder plate, which was now detached and on one of the tables nearby.

"Bloody hell, what just happened?" she muttered, rubbing her forehead. She remembered training with Renata. She remember striking her master, right before she had let loose that pulse of strange energy. What had that been? A blast of Force Repulse?

No, of course not. If it had been, she would have been able to block it, not be knocked out for... How long had it been?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the growling of her stomach, and she slowly tried to push herself upright. Her foot lowered towards the ground, the tip of her toe touching the ground for a brief instant before drawing back. Cold!

Now knowing what to expect, she tried getting up again. Her legs were feeling a bit wobbly and she had to stabilize herself by holding the edge of the bed as she slid off it, letting the sheet fall to the ground as she did so. Her stomach grumbled again as if urging her to hurry up. But first, where had those blasted med-droids put her clothes?

[Meira]

At the end of the ward, a droid was stationed at a bank of monitors. Normally, the screens would be full with multiple readouts of the vital signs of many injured Sith. But today, only one monitor was active. On that monitor, all vitals had read low but steady for the past three days. The droid was running a diagnostic of its own systems to determine if it should power down for a few hours when the heart monitor of the ward's lone patient skipped into a more active rhythm. Simultaneously, brain wave patters signaled a change into conscious processes. The patient was awake.

Powering down would have to wait. The droid, turning on its fixed wheel base, collected a stack of clothing which had just been cleaned and moved along the central path between the beds of the ward toward the woman. Seeing that she was already standing, the droid approached, placed the garments on the bed, then wheeled around to face the woman. The droid had to raise its torso to equal the woman's height.

"If you will please allow me..." The droid's vocal processors emitted a cool, calm voice as its hands reached out and disconnected the tubing from the woman's prosthetic arm. They detached with a series of pops. The droid then lifted the woman's mechanical arm, checking all around the area where it connected to her flesh. Then, moving with precision, the droid proceeded to check nerve function by methodically poking the woman's flesh with one of its digits; a finger tipped with a thin needle. The exam encompassed her torso, neck and face, natural arm and both legs.

"Forgive me." it said as it continued. Most of the ones brought here reacted violently to this exam. The droid had learned to move quickly in order to avoid being slammed into walls. "Darth Renata has requested that you come to her as soon as you awake."

---

The past three days had been a trial of patience, a trait the Dark Lady had never claimed to be among her strongest attributes. The first day alone, she'd made a minimum of five visits to the medical ward where Zarene was being monitored. Each visit had proven fruitless. Her condition had not changed. After that, Renata had ordered the medical droids to send updates to her. They were few, but she had other duties to attend to, and meditations as well.

She meditated more in those three days than she could ever remember before. But she could feel she was getting closer to her goal, to control. By the morning before she received the notice that Zarene had awoken, Renata was practically itching to practice again. We're it not for the advantage Zarene's prosthetic implants supplied, she might have simply plucked some unfortunate initiate from a training room and used him as a dummy.

Instead, Renata sat within the same room she and Zarene had occupied three days before. But this time, a table had been brought it. On that table, a meal had been placed and awaited only the occupant of the empty chair across from the Dark Lady.

[sparrow]

Zarene winced slightly as the droid's sharp needles and metallic probes touched her skin. Her body was a patchwork of various scars and burns, some received from the same explosion that took her arm and burned her face, many over the years after, and the droid seemed intent on checking over each one. Poke... poke... poke...

This was starting to get annoying.

She closed her eyes, clenched her fists as she imagined the droid suddenly flying upwards, head crunching against the ceiling. She opened her eyes. She was going to make it happen. Just a trickle of Force power, that's all it would take. If that droid poked her one more time with those cold metal fingers...

The droid stopped and backed away. It had finished. It spoke. "Darth Renata has requested that you come to her as soon as you awake."

"Oh."

Zarene dressed quickly and left the room. She did not want to keep the Dark Lady waiting.

[Meira]

The monotone voice of the medical droid issued from the comm sitting on the table. The droid detailed the readouts of the initial exam performed on the patient before she left the med bay. All seemed normal. Renata stood as the report ended and the comm fell silent. She paced the room once, then twice. Heart rates and brainwave patterns were all good and fine, but they did not tell the whole story. Renata wouldn't know that until Zarene stood before her.

Prompt as always, Zarene did not leave her mistress waiting for long. The door opened with little more that a swoosh, and Renata turned, expectant eyes taking in the sight of her apprentice. Zarene seemed stern, as usual. In spite of herself, Renata smiled.

"Zarene. Sit." she said, gesturing toward the chair. Not a moment after the two were settled, a Zabrak moved in from where he'd stood along the wall. His shoulders hunched as he served out portions of the meal onto the two plates. This particular Zabrak had once been a guard in the temple, before he'd attempted to convey secrets in the nearby settlements. Now, his rusty skin, discolored by bruising, was testament to his demotion to base servitude. When his task was complete, he disappeared from the room, leaving Renata and Zarene alone.

For a few minutes, the only sounds from Renata were the scrapes of her cutlery on the plate. After a while, however, she set the utensils down and wiped her mouth with her napkin before speaking.

"How do you feel?" her tone was conversational, but her eyes conveyed the true meaning of her question. Renata wanted a status report, one from Zarene herself.

[sparrow]

Zarene's stomach rumbled, and she dug quickly into her food, scooping up large spoonfuls. For several minutes, they ate in silence, save for the occasional clink of silverware. She had just taken a rather large bite out of a roll when Renata spoke.

She swallowed and wiped her mouth with a napkin before answering. "Hungry... and a bit lightheaded, but otherwise fine. No permanent damage, I think. I've had worse." Pausing to take another bite from the roll, she frowned and stared thoughtfully at the half-eaten piece of bread. "What you did... what was it? I don't think I've seen anything quite like it before."

[Meira]

"Hungry..."

Good. Renata nodded her head as Zarene spoke. Her hunger was a good sign. Healthy bodies had strong appetites. The rest was understandable, acceptable. She picked up the cup that was on the table before her. Its contents were a warm tea that Renata often found to be soothing. She sipped as she watched Zarene, who seemed to be studying her food for a moment.

"What you did... what was it? I don't think I've seen anything quite like it before."

Renata paused as the question was posed. The cup was a small distance from her mouth, which still held the liquid she'd just drank. She considered the question as she swallowed and set the cup back down on the table. She had not originally planned on discussing anything with Zarene, beyond the effects the apprentice experienced in these sessions, but it seemed a trivial thing considering Zarene already knew so much. It was not a question of Zarene's loyalty that had given Renata pause but rather, the Dark Lady's own tendency toward secrecy. In any case, there was no real reason to not answer.

"That..." she said, her hands smoothing her robes across her lap. "is the real question, isn't it?" When her eyes raised to meet Zarene's her lips stretched into a smile. That smile quickly faded as her brow furrowed in thought.

"To be honest with you, Zarene, I do not entirely know. It is something I... discovered while on Umgul. I had come across a man that I hadn't seen in years. Suffice it to say that our encounter did not end well, for either of us.

"What I do know is that this ability is very dangerous to both the target and the wielder. It requires a tremendous amount of control. That is why I have been in meditation so frequently. I admit that our last meeting was the first time I had attempted the ability since the first time I had used it." She stood then, pacing away from the table.

"It begins with a sort of Rage. You are aware of that ability, I suspect? But rather than allowing that Rage to explode outward, it is compressed within the wielder, over and over. This is where control is essential; compress the Rage too much, and one risks extinguishing their own life. But too little, and the energy dissipates, or explodes as one expects in a Rage." She turned back toward the table, taking a step forward. Her eyes had brightened as she remembered the fine balance of power, control, and chaos. It was terrifying, yet exhilarating.

"At the precise moment, that energy, that rage, is then released in a sort of wave or repulse. It is devastating, as I said, to all within the range. The problem, Zarene, is that all includes the one who released the blast. The first time I did it, my ignorance of what I was doing almost cost me my life. I can liken it to a heart attack, or perhaps a seizure. But with practice and control, I believe these effects can be lessened, if not eliminated.

"That is why I need you." Renata's hands came to rest on the back of the chair she had been sitting in previously. Her eyes were focused on Zarene, searching for her reaction.

[sparrow]

Zarene quickly took another bite before responding. “I don’t really see where I fit into this picture. If you’re trying to figure out the properties of this ability and the ramifications from using it, there are many others in this Temple who could better assist you.” She looked down at her plate, and the fork slowly rose into the air, floating toward her hand and spun in a circle around her finger before settling down back on the plate. “I’m good with telekinesis,… and that’s about it. I can’t even conjure lightning.” That had as much to do with the fact that doing so risked shorting out her internal circuitry as much as any ability with the Force, but it was still a black mark against her.

“I suppose I can still help for practice purposes,” she said, wiping the corner of her mouth with a napkin. “If it helps you learn how to control. And perhaps I can learn something about it as well, or at least how to defend against it.”

[Meira]

A slight irritation crept into Renata's features as she listened to Zarene's response. Her jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed slightly as her hands gripped the chair a bit tighter. Zarene wasn't complaining, but the ease with which she dismissed her own abilities bothered the Dark Lady.

"Do you think I'm interested in your ability to put on a pretty light show?" Renata's voice was a bit sharper than she might have intended. Taking a breath, Renata moved to sit back down in her chair before she continued. "The ability to conjure lightning does indeed take skill and power, but it is only one example of the power of the Dark Side. The ability means nothing without the will to use it. That will is strong in you. It is for you to decide how.

"In any case, I need you because of what you are made up of. As I told you, the last time I unleashed this power, it very near killed me... and it did kill the man I faced." She paused for a moment to allow this idea to sink in.

"You survived. Why? Because your implants endeavored to correct the damage that was done to you. Those implants begin to work far faster than the natural healing mechanisms of the body. If I'd asked for help from anyone else, I'd be draining the temple of bodies. I don't think our Overlord would be too pleased with that."

She stood then, motioning for Zarene to do the same as she moved to stand in the middle of the room. "If you are ready, we can begin again. This time, I want to to persist in your attacks as best as you can. And do try not to pass out." She closed her eyes then and began to gather the force around herself, her senses keen within the room and her body prepared for a fight. "When you are ready..."

[sparrow]

Zarene listened, which pushing around a few of the last little bits on an otherwise empty plate with her spoon. "Perhaps. It helps me, yes, in the short term. But the joining of flesh and steel is not perfect." She took a deep breath and sighed. "As it is, even discounting the war, it is unlikely I will ever reach the full lifespan of my species."

Brushing away some of the crumbs that fallen on her lap, Zarene stood up and stepped away from the table. "You want me to attack as best I can? Now?" She reached up, pulling out the metal pin that held her dark hair in place, which fell down around her shoulders. Her expression hardened. "Fine."

Suddenly, her stance shifted and her hand snapped forward in a whip-like motion. She seized control of the Force, its power coursing through her body, flowing into her arm, concentrating at her fingertips before releasing, like a Force Push, only far more focused. The metal hairpin left her hand, the released power propelling it forward with frightening speed, turning it into a deadly missile.