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Sandy laughed and shook her head. “I can’t lie to your mom you know, that's who my reports go to.” She cocked her head to the side, “You know I am on the council right? I don’t have to tell your superiors anything, nor will they care what I am doing here unless we find something vital to the war effort.” It was strange though, for someone usually withdrawn and sulky, Aidan was acting like a horny teenager. It was not disturbing, she was positively flattered and leaned in to give him another kiss. 

 

“You deserve some R&R Aidan and I have missed you so much.” She kissed him again and pushed him lightly down with one hand. “Let's take tonight to relax, and tomorrow we can figure out what this world has in store for us.” She smiled widely and pulled herself on top of the Imperial Knight. 

 

“I love you Aidan.”

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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Well, spast. Even if he did wind up in her report, though, his leadership might not see it, even if the two did share reports and intelligence openly. That line of thinking was quickly shoved aside as her lips met his, and his world started to melt away. These were the concerns of tomorrow, and he would face them like an adult when the time came, but now?

 

"I love you too."

 

Nothing else mattered.

 

---------

 

Aidan woke first the next morning, finding it hard to stay asleep. He was incredibly joyous to just be near Sandy again, much less being able to share any amount of intimate time with her. For a while, he watched her sleep, watched her back slowly rise and fall as she breathed, and simply took her in. He knew he was lucky to have someone care about him like she did, but she also seemed to be the only one able to melt his stress away by her sheer presence and personality. She was his anchor in the storm that their lives were, and while he wasn't sure where he'd be had they never met he'd absolutely not change things if he was given the choice. Just being around her still felt very surreal to him.

After a bit, he rose, took a quick sonic shower in the room's refresher, and put on a pot of coffine. He'd let the aroma wake her gently, if she even wished to be woken at all.

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Love. What did it mean to love? Was it an easy love? A result of long lived lust? A result of early twenties hormones and passion? There was that of course, there was passion, the passion of two tired warriors who would grab at anything to distract themselves from a moment of traumatic memory. Anything to distract from the bodies and the shuddering dead. A slaughtered village, a plague, Sith ground troops pushing in from the Felucian Jungles, a woman with a red face and a silent fury. Great yellow eyes that looked with lust and desire. The eyes of a leering Togorian on Thala-

 

She woke up with a shout. Her lightsaber slamming into her hand from where she had instinctually yanked it with the force. Her satchel spilled its contents across the room as it was dragged along with the silver handle.

 

Sandy could feel her pulse flying as she gasped for breath. The room bathed in the soft silver light of her lit lightsaber. Its white hue throwing shadows that danced across the room like the smoke of a campfire. She shook her head once, twice, then snapped the lightsaber off as she took a steadying breath. 

 

It had been years since she had such a dream. She pulled the sheets against her nakedness and let the adrenalin shivers run their course as she steadied her mind. 

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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The mug of coffine almost fell from his hands as he turned to be greeted by the sight of her summoning her lightsaber as waves of terror rolled off of her. Aidan had to take a step back and brace himself on the counter behind him as he went a bit weak in the knees from her emotional outburst flooding his senses. Almost as violently as it began, it ended, she deactivated the lightsaber and slumped back forward into the bed. He took a half moment to right himself and test his footing before he walked over to her, reaching out mentally as he went to help soothe her in any way he could.

Before he was within lightsaber range he stopped, calling out to mostly to alert her to his physical presence, as she probably assumed he was either still asleep or had forgotten completely her bearings, as she seemed to not notice him in the small kitchen alcove. "Hey, I'm here, I've got some coffine if you'd like, but they only had powdered creamer."
 

He paused for the briefest of moments, knowing what he really needed to do, and it was an easy decision to make considering how much he cared for her wellbeing.

"Do...you want to talk about it?"

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The silver handles dropped from her hand and it fell onto the sweat stained sheets. She took another breath and let it out through her clenched teeth. Letting the sensation of the cool breath playing across her lips calm her beating heart. But the eyes were still there. Seared with the power of a sunbeam into the back of her eyelids. She trembled, feeling like the little apprentice again. The apprentice trapped behind bounded iron. Screaming in the dark. 

 

Her hand found itself on her abdomen, and she let the tears fall freely. This was not something to conceal, the force had brought the memories back up, and it was time to do something other than shoving them back into an already stuffed bottle. She had no strength for that any more, and he was here beside her. Her totem, the bright spot she always looked to. 

 

She looked up with tear filled eyes and nodded. 

 

The nodding brought her conviction. And the sight of his face, even through the tears, brought her the strength she needed to get out of bed. She could almost laugh at the audacity of a Jedi Master having had an episode like this, but that in itself had some dark truths. She had seen and done so much in her short twenty three years of living that many considered her one of the beacons of the Order. She had been there for every fight in the last half of a decade, and it had left her run down. Run to pieces in the ever revolving, ever grinding galactic war. She had seen peace, but it had been in peace that she had experienced her greatest trauma. 

 

Perhaps that was why she kept running. Mission after mission. Grinding herself into the dust so that she did not need to take a breath. She shook her head and pulled on a light outer tunic that had been dropped from her satchel. Not much against prying eyes but he had seen everything anyway. 

 

She accepted a steaming mug of caf and gave him a grateful smile. 

 

“Yes. I think I do need to talk about it. It happened when I was very young. During my first year of apprenticeship.” She left her mind open to him as she spoke. “We had been dispatched alongside the CoreSec outerring force to crack down on a slaver ring at Thallassia.” She laughed brutally. “I didn’t even have my real saber yet. Just a training one given to me by Master Adenna.” She shrugged and wiped at one of her eyes with her sleeve. “You can guess how it went. They were ready for us. And a training saber does not do much against determined resistance.” 

 

She took a long sip of her caf, and looked Aidan in the eye. 

 

“And I was captured and tortured, both physically and...well. You can guess the rest. I have been running from that ever since.” 

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Oh. Well then.

 

Aidan took her by the shoulder and sat her on the bed, wrapping the blanket around her before sitting down next to her. "I had no idea. I'm so sorry that happened to you." She could hear the regret in his voice at the apology, as if he was pained over not having been present. He struggled with words for a moment before giving up, nothing could really speak to a personal tragedy like that. After a moment, however, he got an idea and decided to change tack.

 

"So when I was first learning to make use of the Force under the Knights, I'd gone on several...well, I guess the only way to put it is a frenzied rage. I'm not sure what specifically happened, but I do know it was because I wasn't tapping into the Force correctly. I was allowing my emotions to control me, and it was resulting in these blackout episodes where I mercilessly slaughtered my enemies on the battlefield. I never gave them the chance to surrender, instead viciously and rapidly cutting them down as fast as I could."

 

He took a sip of his own coff, bracing himself to finally admit the truth to someone. If anyone had to hear it, he wanted it to be her, and if he couldn't help her in her misery at least he could show her he had his own.

 

"I can never really remember what happened, even if I try. I blocked the memories out so hard that I did something to myself, like scar tissue in the mind's eye. But the memories are still there, all of them, in vivid detail, and...I know this because sometimes I still dream about them. About a month ago one of the faces I saw was a young Trandoshan. He couldn't have been much more than an adolescent of his species, and he...he was terrified as I cut through him. He was terrified when I approached. And when I left, his corpse still had a look of shock and horror. He shouldn't have even been in that slaver camp, anyone's guess why he was there. And he...was only armed with a connector wrench."

Aidan stopped, letting it hang in the air a long moment before continuing.

 

"I can still see his face from my dream. I wasn't going to tell anyone, I mean you can't really change the past, you can only change who you are in the future. Eventually I'd probably let myself forget his face and it would simply be another story lost to time. But...you deserve to know. At the least, I know that it sucks to live with something like that."

 

He wanted to ask her about how strongly he'd felt her emotions and thoughts, but there would be time for that later. Right now, he was more worried for her wellbeing. He put an arm around her, pressing up against the blanket around her so he could hold her close.

"I love you. I just want you to be okay."

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So here they were then, some of the strongest force users in their orders. Broken despite their power. She reached a hand out and let it rest on the side of his face as she hugged herself into him. Her fingers brushing across last night's stubble, letting her fingers feel the almost sandpaper texture. The feeling was therapeutic and it helped her mind come back to the now, to concentrate on him and what he was saying. It was not a surprising thing to her, they both had done their fair share of killing, but there was a darkness in his description that scared her. Not enough to pull away from him, or to even think twice about his hug, but it was a check. And if anything it made her love him more.

 

“I love you more than anything Aidan. Thank you.” 

 

She lay there in his arms, the tears drying on her face as she reflected on his description of his blackouts. Her mind quickly looking past her own trauma to see if she could help fix his own. She hugged him tightly, planting a soft kiss on the side of his cheek and pulling the blanket open and throwing a part of it around him. 

 

“I want you to be okay too, Aidan. The Knights have put you through so much. Is that why you have been quiet for so long?”

 

The war had put them both through far too much for their young age. And though this was a respite from the war, she worried about how long it would be until they were both called back. For them to damper their emotions, and to jump back into a war where they might never see each other again. 

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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"I..."

He immediately trailed off, the guilt over having essentially been radio silent welling up strongly inside him. Aidan's emotions were an open book to her, and subtly stronger than normal.

"I'm sorry. I kind of got bogged down in myself, I guess, and when I realized I hadn't spoken with you after a bit, I just...shut down."

Aidan let out a nervous half-chuckle, but the truth was he felt like he was walking on broken glass.

 

"I didn't really expect to be talking about that with you, but I suppose I should have. I didn't want to face you for the longest time because I felt awful that I hadn't, and it became a vicious cycle. You sending me that comm was the straw that broke the dewback's back, and I knew I had to break free from myself. I never wanted to hurt you with my silence."

 

What a pair they made. This day was shaping up to be a bad day, and Aidan knew full well that they needed to get away from this.

"Hey." He gave her a little squeeze as he held her, his tone lightening up, though she could tell it was a bit forced. "Hey, we should go get some breakfast or something. I think the hotel breakfasts are comped by those contest winnings, but seeing as they don't have an actual restaurant in the hotel and it's probably going to be bad, I'm fine with going somewhere else. I had enough powdered eggs at Ossus to last a lifetime."

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Emotions were running high so she simply hugged him closer to see if love could batter down his defenses. 

 

“Your silence, while worrying, did not make me feel bad or awful. Hell I was working on Felucia to combat a plague for the better part of two months and then the Sith kriffing arrived and killed both villages I had worked to save. I did not have time or the emotions for a long holocall.” Though it would have been nice, but that was an afterthought. As long as he was ok, that was all that mattered to her. “I want to affirm you Aidan, do not apologize, we both have very busy operational lives and this time more than makes up for it.” 

 

She pulled herself up from the bed and wiped at her face with her hands before turning around and extending a hand to help him off the bed. There would be no forced tensions here, “Yes I am quite hungry, so find us a place to eat while I take a shower. Or after the shower, whatever you want.” She gave him an inviting smile, before making her way to the fresher unit and turning on the hot water. 

 

But still, those yellow eyes lingered.

 

And she wondered if he was following his father's footsteps more than he knew.

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His eYebrow shot up at her suggestion, clearly catching Aidan by surprise. It was the last thing he was thinking of, but suddenly it clicked and made sense. Who cared about their pasts When misery loves suffering? And Aidan was certainly ready to love on some suffering right about now. It didn't matter to him how fast her Emotional 180 turned, what mattered more was that she was better. Well, that and a butt that could bring low empires, but Aidan didn't come to the planet of pleasure to question good fortune.

 

Maybe he could find a good restaurant for them to get some lunch.

 

---------

The Corellian cuisine restaurant Aidan had chose sounded good on their advertisement, but the grizzled and greasy-looking Duros behind the kitchen window didn't give Aidan a lot of confidence, nor did the menus. 

"I don't know...I might try the soup. I'm a bit skeptical of this place, but supposedly the locals love it. Anything look good to you?"

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Sandy had learned from a very early age to let her emotions flow with those around her. Aidan did not need her to be the weepy scared girl, and if she was being honest, she did not much need that either. Plus, well, Corellian cuisine was nothing to shake a stick at. 

 

She looked out of the corner of her eye at Aidan and shrugged.

 

“I grew up in the slums of Gala, remember, literally anything that is not boiled garbage sounds good to me. Plus the locals can’t be wrong right?” 

 

Her eyes scanned the restaurant’s facade and she noted a pink and purple plastered flier that advertised one of the many pleasure domes that scattered the area. She wrinkled her nose at the thought and pushed her way through the door of the diner, her sense of smell being overwhelmed by the sudden smell of deep fried meat and potatoes. It smelled delicious and she gave Aidan a nod of approval before sitting down at one of the window booths. As he sat down across from her she grabbed his hand. Almost marveling at how large and muscular it was compared to her own. She leaned down and gave it a kiss, cradling it between both of hers.

 

“Aidan I….”

 

What was that? What was that tugging inside of her? That sudden burst of very real lust. As if she could tackle him right here in front of everyone.

 

That wasn’t her. She loved him and desired him, but it was a pure thing right? This carnal lust for him was something different. She let go of his hand and glanced up at the Imperial Knight. And behind him on the wall was another pleasure house flier. A great pink and blue outline of a stone temple, a skull in its center, and the skull had bright yellow eyes. 

 

She shivered. There was something wrong here, and it was not Aidan and herself. It was something in the air, something in the force itself.  

 

“...Aidan... I don’t feel right.” 

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Concern flashed across Aidan's face as she dropped his hand, and he felt it too, uneasiness. Wait. No. Why did he feel uneasy? Nevermind.

"I mean, I can make you feel better if you like..." Aidan took her hand and trailed a sensual finger up her scarred wrists, wounds of an old battle with herself, the battleground torn asunder, corpses in the trenches, smoke, burning flesh, wailing- 

 

"STOP!"

 

He found himself with his hands to his head, fingers dug into his scalp as if he were trying to tear something free. This was ƃuoɹʍ. No it wasn't. Relax, get a hold of yourself, you're making a scene. Look at her, you're scaring her, she's practically got tears in her yellow eyes. Wait. Green. Green eyes. He loved those eyes, he could get lost in them. Lost forever, drifting away until the rot took him and made him nothingness incarnate, a mouth into the void of the abyss, the look returned, he-who-was, fuel for the passions of the universe. Wai- Relax. Focus. She is your light, your beacon, your 𝕡𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟 for existence. Worship her.

 

"I think...I think you're right...why...maybe you should punish mm- ...Nno..."

It's about now that you're going to start panicking. Fight it. It just makes it worse. Just 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐗 and enjoy yourself. You've earned it.

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His lust for her, while flattering, was nearly overwhelming. Those eyes, his eyes, emerald eyes looking at her with such love, such need, such desire. Inhuman desire, inhuman passion, inhuman Lust. Of kriff. Oh gods, why had they sent her? The one Jedi in the order that had someone that loved her more than life itself? Why did the the cosmos play such dirty tricks? He was suffering, being eaten alive in front of her by the burning passion. 

 

Her eyes found Aidan's and she could feel her own fill with tears. She had to protect him

 

She reached one shaking hand out and put a finger on his wrist. This bond would consume them both.

 

She summoned the force to her, letting it move and flow through her like a sieve. Filtering the air, the very life that she was breathing. Seeing the many tendrils that bound the two of them together. Every breath that she breathed was his and every breath of his hers. They were bonded body and soul. 

 

And somewhere there was an infection. Perhaps it was the planet itself, perhaps this was the result of two strong force users that were entwined inseparably. She wanted to kiss him, she wanted to feel every part of him. To be consumed by him, by his desire. But it was all wrong. Everything was wrong, every feeling. Every desire that she had held since they had both been on the temple at Gala together. That beach at Kashyyyk. Unrequited Love. The flush of embarrassment before their first kiss. The stone walls of Ossus.  

 

They were bound unto death. And the tears on her face felt like boiling water. 

 

With a breath she blew out the candle of their bond. Severing every tendril of love. Otherwise they would both fall facefirst into darkness. 

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Look, think about it this way: you don't have to worry about anything ever again. It's even better, because you get to drown in your pleasures until those stresses just melt away. Soon you'll see, it's simply all for the best. And all you have to do is worship her, every curve, every...mmm! every dimple, every baby smooth hair on her naked bӨdy, waiting therǝ just ʄor you. Shє's ყouʀ liϝe, ʏσur ɛ۷ɛrყthinᎶ, y๏ยг ɮɛǟ¢ðภռn...ᘺᗩ|ㄒ ...

 

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It was death. It was worse than death. This was a pain he had never felt before, a deep pain of the worst kind of wound, and it was killing him a thousand times over every nanosecond. He was ripped apart and put back together and ripped apart by the woman he loved, the woman who he would have burned worlds for, the woman who ripped herself out of him so violently his very soul felt like it was imploding. His senses burned, raw and numb, no longer safely and comfortably reliant on hers but thrust into the cold abyss without second thought. This was the opposite of love; the very worst act she could have ever perpetrated on him.

 

And after a second, it passed, the haze rising from his mind, the Force rushing to him as he summoned it, revitalizing his senses just like he learned in combat training with the Knights. Whatever just happened was dangerous. Beyond dangerous. He had been bonded to her, but something happened, something used that against them, and so she had been forced to do the one thing that could have saved them both. He quickly began suppressing his heightened emotions using the mental pattern techniques Hunan had shown him, but there was fresh, raw scar tissue in the back of his mind, as likely as there was in hers. What a pair they made, twisted and broken. Now they needed to take things seriously however; there would be time to discuss what she had done later.

 

"Yeah. Something is very wrong here. And until we figure out what, this should probably be an operation instead of a vacation."

 

His voice was a bit lower than she was used to hearing, and even though he tried he couldn't hide the pain in his voice, even cracking at the last word.

"Damn lunch. We should get going."

Edited by Aidan Darkfire

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It was worse than death. Far worse than she had ever dreamed. It was like feeling him die right in front of her and like she was the one who had killed him. Her emerald eyes looked into his. Past everything in the dive bar, only at him as she carved out both of their hearts. She had done this, and she could not look away, even as tears boiled down her face. They had been used, and now they would need to find what had been using them. 

 

She blinked away her tears and hard emerald eyes found equally hard emerald eyes. She let the force wash through her, allowing her to see with new eyes all that was around her. And it was ugly. The comfortable smell of food was replaced by the distinct odor of unwashed flesh and rot. The bright sunlight dimmed outside, and the overweight duros in the next booth looked sallow and tired. 

 

The streams of visitors and tourists walking outside took the appearance of ghouls. Men and women whose pleasures had left them used up husks. Even she felt tired as they bounded through the door into the open air of the pleasure district. She looked at Aidan and shook her head. 

 

“I think the grandmaster’s fears may have been affirmed.”

 

What had happened between Aidan and Sandy would need to wait. It would be a long journey back. But she was ready for that when it came time.

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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Kriff. Just look at them. How could I have been so blind? They were everywhere, distorted versions of people he'd walked past moments before, but this was their truth. Gaunt, skin hanging, bloodshot eyes, only one purpose on their broken minds that some kept whispering at staccato intervals: "pleasure..."

 

"This isn't a tourist spot, this is a damned feeding ground."

He instinctively reached for his waist before realizing his lightsaber was still back in the duffel in his room. His armor, all his gear, he was wearing civilian clothes but he may as well have been practically naked for all the protection they'd offer against a serious threat. He would have even chuckled at the irony of feeling naked if the threat they faced wasn't so immense.

"PFASK! My saber, my armor. EVERYTHING is back at the room. We need to move, now, and we don't know if whatever is out there has noticed us yet."

Mildly panicked but trained soldier eyes scanned their surroundings for makeshift weapons, defensible positions, and avenues of attack. Very quickly, however, a painful headache erupted from him focusing too wildly and intensely on it. Far too much, too quickly considering what he'd just been through...right now there was only one reasonable solution left, and it relied heavily on Sandy.

 

"You should take point. Right now I can try to concentrate on protecting you, but I'm getting a nasty migraine when trying to mentally structure a plan. And honestly I don't know if I did it to myself because of what just happened or if it's something out there doing it to me, but I wouldn't put it past this place."

Part of him wanted to reach out to her, to reassure her...but a larger part of him held that back, the violent emotional pain still vivid and fresh in his mind. He'd never felt so alone in her presence, and fought hard to not think about that fact.

Edited by Aidan Darkfire

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The force now moved in earnest, as the veil was torn away, so was any subtlety that may have lain hidden. All except the great temple that jutted out above the city, which now stood out like a great black and garish obelisk that stood hundreds of feet above the highest building in the city. The citizens and tourists shambling through its shadow.

NPCs for boardwides and small stories on request

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“Of course Aidan.”

 

She pushed her way to the front of Darkfire and gestured that he should grab the back of her thick leather belt in case he needed it. She could also feel a massive headache starting from behind her eyes. Perhaps it had been there for a long time and was now just showing itself. She lifted a hand and brushed one of the ghouls aside, he stumbled but kept plodding on, his thin lips stretched into a thinner smile, the woman at his side a ghastly mess of greying skin and garish makeup. 

 

“Let's just get back to the room and we can plan from there.”
 

But she doubted that the room would offer much solstice from the oppressive consumption of the planet. 

 

She pushed past another ghoul and stepped into the shadow of the great temple. Almost instantly she could feel that they were being watched. A furtive glance up and she saw the faintest glimmer of yellow eyes looking down from the high facade of the building. She shivered.  And everything in her wished that she could just turn and surrender to her pain. To bow to the wishes of whatever was staring at her. She swallowed another putrid breath and pushed on. Not looking back to the Imperial Knight who was her temptation. 

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For the moment, they didn't seem to be in immediate danger. The passers-by, grotesque as they were, clearly were more interested in whatever they were seeing rather than Aidan and Sandy. His stomach churned, reminding him he still hadn't eaten, but also reacting to a low-level stench nearby. A few feet later and a quick glance down an alley identified the source: a bloated humanoid corpse. No obvious wounds he could really tell from a glance, but it looked as if they had simply dropped from exhaustion. They definitely did not want to end up like that.

 

Aidan kept subtle watch on their rear as they continued back to the hotel, but a thought caused him to call up to Sandy, keeping his voice low and conversational so as to not draw attention.

 

"This is utterly insane, Sandy, how could something like this have escaped the notice of the Jedi?"

Strangely enough, Aidan couldn't explicitly feel the telltale notes of the Dark Side, meaning this was either something unconnected to the Force, or whoever was behind this could mask their presence and influence on an unprecedented scale.

 

"What the kriff could be powerful enough to do all this?"

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Sandy shook her head as they sidestepped the masses of tired flesh that marched through the streets. They took a turn to the right, then it was up a flight of stairs. THen another and they would be safe. She spared a glance behind her and followed Aidan’s eyes to where a corpse was laying in a pool of degenerating flesh in the gutterway. But his question had merit. She could not escape the tinge of emotion that crept up the back of her throat as she answered him. 

 

“Did we even look Aidan?” She swallowed back a sob and wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her thin tunic. How had she even thought to wear this outside? You could practically see everything through the thin material if you looked hard enough. “Think, we didn’t even investigate the initial rumour of the Sith popping up until they had taken kriffing Onderon. Long after the Remnant had been fighting them for years. We didn’t even check.” She wiped her eyes again. Irritated at herself. “Plus it has been hidden so well.” 

 

But his second question hung longer, unanswered as she pushed herself up the staircase. She swiped her card and grimaced as the hotel room door slid open. It smelled like sweat and sex. And she wanted to cry. “It doesn’t feel like a Sith. But they can also be subtle, think about what we found at the Maw and Gala before that. There was a subtlety there. And on Felucia it was subtle too. Even in the center of the plague you could barely feel the darkside underlying.” 

 

She felt gross. 

 

“I need another shower to get this feeling off of me.” 

 

Then she felt another pang of remorse and lowered her head. “I’m sorry.”
 

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He didn't respond. He was sorry as well, but dwelling on it would only choke their needed forward momentum right now. He focused on putting on his armor, pouring his attention to its well-worn fit and securing it to himself. Briefly his thoughts flashed back to the many times he'd done this before he was sent into a warzone, but this time was slightly different. For some reason, he felt like he'd already lost. 

 

Finishing after several minutes, Aidan flicked his lightsaber on and off to test its functionality as a last measure before clipping it on his belt. When Sandy returned he was wearing his full armor to include the helmet, something he usually never wore. Now it was just another small sign of the insecurity cracks running through their lives.

 

At the very least though, he was ready. He didn't need a shower, he needed to put whatever had just screwed with them in the ground, and it was the perfect mindset for him to tackle whatever came their way at this point.

 

 

Edited by Aidan Darkfire

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The soap did not take the smell away. It seemed burned into her nostrils, that disgusting feeling of being used by some darkside entity could not be easily scrubbed away. So instead, as the water ran through her hair she let her focus return. She had been in grosser situations before, she had been in darker times, she had waded through the rotting remnants of a refugee village on Felucia. And even though the darkside was strong here, it was not overwhelming. They had broken its hold, even at such a ruinous cost. So as the warm water rolled down her back she listened to what the threads of the lightside were saying. 

 

He must be reassured that it is not his fault. 

 

There was truth there, Aidan was one to internalize his trauma, and this had been especially traumatic. But that would come in time, for now she would be strong. She was a Jedi Master after all, even though there had been much disapproval at that promotion. She would be strong. She had to be strong. 

 

______________

 

She toweled herself off and reached into her satchel for her uniform. The pale green tunic went on first, then the soft brown glove, then boots, belt and saber. The saber she had built with Aidan.

 

She stepped out of the refresher and nodded to the Imperial Knight. 

 

“Let’s go, the sooner we end this the better…”

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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He silently nodded acceptance though his gaze , hand still on the hilt at his waist, tracing the fingerholds. Anxiety was killing Aidan, but he didn't let it overwhelm him. Bits and pieces of his training had been coming back to him as he'd been donning his armor, realizing just how much was pertinent to their situation. Aidan thought he knew the dark side, but the truth was he was far out of his depth. He stood, heading for the door when suddenly common sense got a hold of him.

 

"Wait...where do we even start? This is going to take forever, and it's not like we can conveniently just insert a montage or a jump cut to-"

 

---------------------A few hours later-------------------------

 

Searching their immediate area had revealed nothing. Everywhere they had visited previously, the spaceport, the hotel, the restaurant, all contained the afflicted but no apparent cause for their condition. It was a shot in the dark though, one Aidan shouldn't have expected to pay off. He eyed some of the "food" in front of one of the grotesque tourists at the restaurant they again found themselves in, noting meat and what appeared to be spots of rot, but otherwise Aidan couldn't even tell what it was supposed to be in the first place...or for that matter what it had been.

 

"Well, that idea was bust."

He let the thought hang in the air for a moment before his curiosity finally got the better of him.

 

"What's being served here? I mean, you know, where's the food coming from?"

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Sandy ran a hand through her hair, letting her fingers pull at one of the tangles that had persisted from her shower. She looked up at the dark tower that loomed over them all, whose shadow had followed them through their search. She squinted up at the distant peak and shivered. 

 

“I had thought the food is imported like most other things on this planet. Unless you are suggesting....”

 

She grimaced. 

 

“But I do wager the temple overhead has answers.”

 

She motioned and pointed towards the distant and spiraling staircase that wound itself up the side of the obelisk. Its peak was covered in the evening shadow, and when she extended her mind she could feel a vague darkness in the force. 

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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In the Dark Tower an entity stirred. The temple was thick in the smell of incense, a cloud that covered the floor and stretched into the shadowed ceilings. Girls danced in the smoke, their glistening bodies reflecting the firelight. Men danced with them in an orgy of delight and lust. 

 

“They come for us at last.” 

 

It was a sad voice, tired. Ancient. 

NPCs for boardwides and small stories on request

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"I mean, yeah...in hindsight I guess it was a bad bet that the temple was too obvious, as it wouldn't really matter for anyone else who came here, they'd be lulled under the sway of this place just like we were. It's almost like..."

 

He hadn't actually given the temple much thought since he'd come to this planet. It was just kind of...there. Of course it was the main tourist attraction, but that's also why he'd ignored it for the most part: it seemed perfectly innocent. Now he gazed at the large ornate structure, eyeing the stairs closely with disdain.

 

"...Like it's trying to...sidetrack us."

And stairs. Why was it always stairs? He could fly halfway across the galaxy faster than the speed of light, but there was never a turbolift when you needed one groundside. Sometimes he marveled at how technologically backwards the galaxy was. It was so crazy how...

 

...wait. The temple. They needed to get to the temple. Aidan's eyes narrowed and he unclipped his saber from his belt.

 

"Okay. Let's do this."

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Her green eyes narrowed as she looked back at Aidan, there was certainly something off with him, but without her bond, it was almost hopeless to know what. So she looked at his facial expressions and could read nothing, same with his body language. Just a general vague tiredness that she was sure was also reflected in herself. Especially at the sight of those stairs. 

 

“Let's tap into the force, just slowly for now, to keep our muscles fresh.”

 

The force hit her like a breath of fresh air, flowing into her lungs and dispersing throughout her body, seeping pain and aches away as she let her gaze return to Aidan’s face. 

 

“Race you to the top.” 

 

They could build a friendship again and even a love without lust. She was sure of it. 

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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The hint of a grin tugged at the corners of Aidan's mouth, but he was oblivious to it. Deep down the levity was a welcome respite, but it didn't really completely cover the fact that they still had a rather large obstacle in front of them, not the stairs but the malevolent entity likely waiting at the top.

 

"Just keep an eye out, no telling if there are traps, even though my gut says there aren't. Not like they'd really be needed."

 

Tapping into the Force granted relief, but it was temporary. For whatever reason, he struggled to channel the light side more than normal, as if pulling on it through thick mud. He wasn't sure if it was exhaustion or something else, but nonetheless he fought to stay alert and combat-ready. He had no real plan to beat Sandy to the top, and even lagged behind a bit intentionally as they went so she wouldn't go too fast, but Aidan wasn't exactly slow either.

 

As they neared the top, he could feel his muscles ache even though he had blocked off the pain through the Force. He knew he should have felt much better than this, much more refreshed and ready for action, but this would have to do. If it didn't, he was dead. They were dead. And Aidan wasn't about to let that trauma happen to Sandy again, no matter how much he was hurt from their severed bond.

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Her eyes scanned the ground as they trudged the last few steps and as she let the force flow through her she could also feel his tiredness. Not as sharp or as visceral as before, not the tender feeling of exhaustion. Just the dullness of tired despairing muscles. She reached hand out and placed it firmly on his shoulder. Letting the force flow from her into him. A soothing touch of a consular, drawn from the steadfastness of her heart. Not from love, or desire, but a calm warmth of familiarity. They would get through this together. 

 

Then the feeling hit her like a block of ice getting drawn down her spine. It was not the now familiar sense of rot and decay, lust and desire that she had felt on Felucia and here. It was the sharp prickle of dangersense. The kind of dangersense that was a predecessor for the stone tipped arrow that slapped into the side of her face with the force of a sledgehammer. 

 

It was almost shocking that she had not seen it coming. It was the logical conclusion after all, they had pursued a dangerous potential force god to the top of his temple and she had not even seen it coming. Or at least not seen it until it was far too late. 

 

Her lightsaber ignited in her hand as she was thrown back against the staircase, but her mouth was filled with blood and she could feel that the right side of her face had been almost cut away. Her cheek torn open to the teeth, and the arrow had disappeared into the voice behind her. 

 

But this was not a time to think about her looks. This was a time to fight or die. 

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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