Korriban

[Raynuk Montar]

*Raynuk sighed and lowered his head to his chest, his eyes cast downward to the floor. It had been a very long time since anyone had asked him if he was okay, and acually, Raynuk himself couldnt remember the last time, or even the last person who had asked.

He remained silent for a moment, pondering his choices at answers.

 

No...shes been too accepting about all this for me to shrug her off again...

 

He sighed again and turned his head to her, locking his eyes with hers again*

 

"Quite honestly no...I suspect betrayal among the Sith, which is mostly why we didnt join up with them. I have a bad feeling, and they choose to treat me as a child, as if I had no clue what I was talking about. So to a point, I am worried, and to another point, I am angry...and to yet another, I feel confused."

 

*He let out a small laugh*

 

"My mind is quite the mess right about now..."

 

And it was then, looking back at her, he saw something that almost confused him more. It was a look he had never acually seen anyone give to him, but he had witnessed it in the presence of others. Looking at her, standing there in the doorway, he saw concern and compassion oin her eyes, and it was directed at him.

The whole thing left Raynuk rather speechless. This was new territory he was in right now.

 

I must be mistaking it...Why would she care for me? I just nearly killed her sister and took them both prisoner...

 

In the end, all Raynuk could manage was to swallow and just...look at her with a look of worry and confusion still plastered on his own suposidly emotionless face*

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

"Forgiveness, Raynuk," she said in answer to the confusion so evident on his face. Obviously, he knew nothing of its existence or he would have most likely changed it. "A principle forgotten - abandoned by the Sith. Revenge is taken in its place. And though the Jedi are misguided in many ways, I like to believe that forgiveness is one trait that should remain: forgiveness, and justice."

 

Slipping her arm out of Ashley's, she drew nearer to him, coming up close and laying a hand on both of his arms. "For me, forgiveness states that if an enemy, no matter his personal wrongs to me, I can release from any grudges and leave that behind me once he becomes my ally. In this case, I forgave you when you chose not to treat either of us cruelly. You went about 'capturing' us with a gentlemanly manner that I find quite forgivable."

 

Her eyes turned downards. "Justice - so overrated among the Jedi. It's a glorious goal to aspire to - never to be reached. Justice is when the weak are protected by the strong, when the rich spend to feed the poor, when the cruel are whipped by the tenderhearted. Justice also states that wrongs must be righted."

 

When she looked back up to him, her eyes were filled with compassion, concern, and something that could even be called love... "But forgiveness overrules justice. In this case, your wrongs to me - and Ashley - were righted when I forgave you. And she may choose to hold a grudge against you, but I do not."

 

A gentle, smoldering fire burned brightly in her greenish eyes as she gazed into the depths of his.

[Raynuk Montar]

)*The mind and emotions of a Sith had always been taught to be locked away and twisted about in ways that the mind itself can rarely fathom, and Raynuk himself was a prime example of the twisted emotions that protected the inner workings of the Sith Master.

 

Korriban had become the first true home of Raynuk, the first place where he was treated like an equal, and the first place where he stood out from the rest with devotion to the order. But standing there now with Jaina less than a few inches from him, it was a different devotion that was stewing through his brain, untangling the emotions that had been forced away, and opening the path to the true man behind the anger.

 

And it was Jaina who stood in his mind with the key to the doorway down that path.*

 

"Sith...do not forgive Jaina, and I am a Sith. I can not forgive or forget the proceedings of the past."

 

His voice was oddly confident and strong, betraying the inner self and the chaos of emotions.

 

"So therefore...I can not forgive your choice to become a Sith all those months ago...I can not forgive your actions to not make this any harder on me than it was proving...and I can not forgive your decision to not try to leave or escape, either on Coruscant, on my ship...or here."

 

*THe string of words visibly confused the young and beautiful entity who stood before Raynuk, and just that knowledge, the fact that she was there, now and had shown the slightest of compasion to him...it changed everything in that instant.

 

"The Sith never taught or encouraged the lack of feelings. Instead, we strive to use the feelings, use the emotions to drive us on. Emotion is a Sith's friend, it's ally....its source of power. I am a Sith. You have chosen to become a Sith under my watch. And emotion will carry you into power..."

 

*Raynuk, in that moment smiled, and for once, looked happy. He had figured out what had bothered him for so long, he figured out his own self, figured out what was missing, and there was no other way in his mind but to not let it go.

 

"Love is the most powerful emotion we know Jaina..."

 

*Those four letters were all that flowed through Raynuk now. It drove his heart to pump, his lungs to breath, his organs to work, and his mind to think. And it compelled his body to move.

 

And in one solid, un-hesitated movement....Raynuk kissed Jaina*

 

(Cue the damn fireworks )

[Malvagio]

--- Comm. To Raynuk:

 

 

Yes, the Bishop would like to thank you on your admirable job of preparation on Arbra. However, he is curious what exactly you accomplished.

 

As for your personal disappointment in hearing my voice in place of the Bishop's, outgrow it or silence it. I am the Bishop's voice. Never a word shall I say that is not in his agreement. Consider me as you would any of his vital limbs. If you wish for the Dark Lord himself to address you, the request will be met by deaf ears. If you wish to insult me again, please do so under the knowledge that you are insulting a portion of the Dark Lord.

 

Oh, and please try to think less. You will not come to the right conclusion.

 

 

--- End Comm.

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

It was, Jaina reflected dimly, definitely not the first time she'd been kissed. Oftentimes she'd give them away just to get what she wanted...but this was different. There was a passion here - an undefined purity.

 

Which said a lot, coming from a Sith.

 

As she drew away, gasping for air, she smiled at him.

 

"Then you must teach me how to love."

[Raynuk Montar]

*The comm buzzed just as Raynuk was about to answer, and he knew what it was, or rather, who it was. He looked down at it, and concidered what to do about the comm. In the end, he knew he had to answer it.

 

"Excuse me.." he said, moving away from Jaina and walking across the room to somewhere where he could vent and listen to the comm message. He didnt need Jaina, or Ashley for that matter, hearing what was happening.

 

He listened to the message, and thought about what his options were now, and made the appropriate reply.*

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

Wrapping her arms slightly about herself, Jaina turned back to where Ashley was standing.

 

"Well then - shall we go investigate?" she asked quietly, ignoring the look of shock and wonderment on her sister's face.

[Ashley Jade Skywalker]

Ashley shrugged, casting a glance down the corridor. "Might as well. Lead the way."

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

With one last look behind her, Jaina stepped into the corridor. After several steps, however, she was aware of quite a predicament: there were no lights. Stretching out to the Force, she pulled quite an old trick - moving the air molecules very quickly to create heat - and light.

 

When her vision cleared, Jaina was met with quite a surprise.

[Raynuk Montar]

*Raynuk came up behind the two, standing taller than both and a more massive of a form then them. Infront of them, the hallway was utterly trashed and discombobulated. A look around revealed the scrapes and gouges in the wall, the claw marks and the doors bashed in throughout the hallway. His eyes looked down the hallway, much as theirs did. The three took the carnage in, and the only difference was Raynuk knew what to expect*

 

"You can blame the bugs for the decorations..." He said quite flatly.

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

"Bugs?" she said quietly, fear tainting her voice slightly. "This looks like Tarentatek work to me."

[Raynuk Montar]

*Raynuk sort of emited a low growl in an almost annoyed way*

 

"No...it was the Tyranoids...I was here when they came after us. Trust me..."

 

He sighed and brushed past them walking down the hall leading the way deeper into the ruined temple to where the usable rooms were*

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

Walking towards him, in a very childish way, Jaina slipped her hand into his. It wasn't much, but the gesture gave her a feeling of protection, a feeling of something bigger than herself that was watching over her. Squeezing it gently, she followed him into the bowels of the temple.

 

"So what exactly is this place?" she said in an attempt to lighten the dark moment.

[Raynuk Montar]

*Raynuk subconsiously smiled and squeezed her hand back, looking around*

 

"This was the Sith Temple during our time of occupation here...We were here for a while, untill the Tyranoids started their conquest of the galaxy. Korriban was one of the first planets to be attacked, followed by Byss, Yavin IV, and the others. I refused to just stand and run from the bugs, so myself and a few others stayed behind to try and fight them...We killed a bunch of them, but they kept comming, and they started getting bigger...so we were forced out. After we left, they slowly destroyed the planet's atmosphere, consuming everything that would make them stronger...everything organic, so the atmosphere just sort of dissapeared...Then they left."

 

*He turned to Jaina for a moment, just looking at her. She was looking at the walls still, running her hand over one of the deeper claw marks. He smiled slightly and turned his eyes back forward, continueing on down the hallway*

 

"I came back here once since then...to get some things I left behind."

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

"I don't remember them," she said in a very small voice, running her fingers over the walls in wonderment. "Which, now that I think of it, that's not such a bad thing. I was on Sullust at the time, I believe."

 

She shuddered as she found a bit of bone buried in one wall. "What were they like?"

[Raynuk Montar]

*It was clear to see that Raynuk was not one to usually converse this much about things from his past, but it started to become easier as the conversation went on*

 

"Demonic...thats the first word that comes to my head. They hunched over usually, running on all four appendages like apes...But they were evil...Its very unusual for a Sith to look into the mind of something and not see the slightest twinge of fear. They feared nothing, even when we killed them brutally, their friends only became more angry...I never saw fear once in any of them....ever."

 

*Raynuk sort of frowned and fell ito silence talking about the lack of fear in them*

 

"They were relentless...but they stopped ripping apart the temple as soon as we left."

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

A shiver traveled up and down her spine.

 

"How did they get from world to world? Were they sentient beings?"

 

She was babbling, she knew - and she had always disliked babblers. But the very images of the shock and trauma were still fresh in her mind - perhaps just because of the intensity with which Raynuk spoke of them.

[Raynuk Montar]

"They were a hive species...the 'mothership' travels from world to world, shooting spores to the surface which hatch into the bugs, which then make nutrient pools...The bugs go out and consume everything and bring it to the pools...which are then absorbed by the mothership. In the end...the bugs eat eachother and 'recycle' eachother..."

 

*He once again squeezed her hand in his and sighed as they kept walking*

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

"And they're gone? All of them?"

 

It was nearly a rhetorical question, but she asked it nonetheless, frightening images and thoughts flashing through her mind. As they cautiously made their way through the damaged hall, Jaina gradually got closer and closer to Raynuk until she was nearly hanging on his arm.

[Raynuk Montar]

*Raynuk surprisingly shrugged*

 

"Well, when I came back, I didnt dilly dally...I didnt check everywhere. So I guess its possible for them to still be here somewhere, but not enough of them to warrent us to leave. I would guess no more than 10 at the most..."

 

*His words seemed oddly confident after telling of the horrors that they caused back then*

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

Nodding, Jaina sucked in a deep breath - holding it for at least fifteen seconds before she let it go. They continued the little walk down the hall in silence, Jaina's free hand reaching behind her for her sister's.

[Ashley Jade Skywalker]

Ashley remained silent as they walked down the hallway, her eyes roaming the walls and ceiling. Her silence remained as she took the hand Jaina reached out, suppressing a shudder as they walked.

[Raynuk Montar]

*After several more minutes of silence, the three arrived at a doorway where the hallway ended. The door was closed, and the claw marks all over the door showed that the tyranoids had tried quite hard to get though the door.*

 

"Well that explains why the rest of the temple wasnt touched..." He half murmered to no one in particular. He stepped up to the door, and looked at the keypad beside it.

 

All that was left was a jumble of wires and broken circutboards.

 

"Well, guess the code wont work then..."

 

*Raynuk took two steps back and held his palm outward to the door, his eyes closing slowly as he focused. A moment later, the door started squeaking as Raynuk used the force to open it. After another moment, Raynuk opened his eyes and pushed his palm closer to the door in a few random movements. As his hand moved closer to the door in those few movements, the door looked as if someone was punching it, which in a sense was exactly what Raynuk was doing. He continued on, each time causing a CLANG! as the metal bent and buckled untill the door shot inward away from Raynuk and the others, it's shape bent and deformed by the abuse. Raynuk sighed and lowered his hand, and remained silent as he walked through the doorway, and into the new section of hallway.*

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

The whole temple was filled with an unshakable feeling of foreboding, of abandonment, of ominous death. The devílish claw marks on the temple sent Jaina's already frightened imagination spinning wild, and the semi-darkness made it worse. Filling her lungs with a shuddering breath, Jaina drew Ashley up closer to her.

 

"W-where are we going?" she asked thinly.

Edited August 3, 2004 by Guest

[Raynuk Montar]

*Raynuk turned and stopped, looking back at Jaina. The new part of him compelled him to go back and take her hand again, telling her everything would be alright. The Sith part of him told him to ignore her and mumble about how she needed to toughen up. But Raynuk stopped, and turned and looked into her eyes, silently telling her that she needn't be scared.*

 

"We are going to find rooms elegent enough for the two of you."

 

*He smiled, and turned, and walked for only a few more minutes before turning and stopping.

 

"Okay, here we are. The best rooms in the temple. Take your pick"

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

Jaina turned, half-expecting the insides of these rooms to be torn apart as well. But while the walls around them - and the doors themselves - were nearly completely demolished, the rooms and the furnishings were untouched. And obviously, they had been meant for the Lord of the Temple. Satin bedsheets, large beds, intricately carved tables and chairs. Each room was nearly the same, yet each had its own outstanding quality. The sixteen-year-old shook her head in amazement, turning to Raynuk.

 

"Where will you be staying?" she asked, her face frozen somewhere between fear and wonderment. Because I really don't want to be alone tonight...

[Raynuk Montar]

(Acually the walls around these rooms/the doors are untouched, which is why I did the whole blasting of the door. The bugs couldnt get by it...Go back and read it again )

 

*Raynuk was still standing outside the rooms as the two looked through each room, deciding which to pick as their own. His eyes were cast down the hallway, back the way that they had come, into the darkness. He saw through the darkness however, and felt something beyond the darkness. It was hard to tell if it was outside the temple, or in one of the other wings of the temple, but either way...He would be ready.

 

He was still looking when Jaina asked her question, causing him to forgo his thinking and focus, and turn to answer her. He smiled, hearing the comment she made in her mind.

 

I wonder if I should teach her to hide her thoughts from me....It could be kind of amusing..

 

"Well, my old room was in the part of the temple we already passed, the destroyed part..."

 

*He again turned to the doorway he had blasted through and continued*

 

"...I'll stay in that first room this side of the doorway."

 

*He pointed down the hallway to the room in question, which was only four doors from the room Jaina had selected. He turned and looked at her again, letting his arm drop to his side*

 

"Okay?"

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

(Well, poo. I'm too lazy to change it. )

 

"'Kay," she said quietly, noting the bit of knowing smirk on his face. As she stepped inside the room, she stopped, opening her mouth. No sound came out of it for approximately five seconds...

 

"You...didn't hear that, did you?"

[Raynuk Montar]

*No responce came from Raynuk for several seconds as she stood there, fearing he had left her already, when she turned, Raynuk was standing in the doorway, leaning against it with a small smile*

 

"I'll leave my door unlocked..." He said kind of softly and winked before exiting the room and closing the door behind him. With a sigh, Raynuk gave a nod and a wave to Ashley, and made his way back down the hallway and into the room he had selected, one of the more drab and plain rooms, which suited him just fine.

 

Within fifteen minutes Raynuk was lying in bed, thinking about the presence he felt elsewhere on Korriban. He wasnt too sure if he should go to sleep or not, and in the end chose to stay up, keeping watch just incase whatever it was came too close for comfort. He sat up in his bed, and concentrated on the presence, keeping track of it*

[Jaina Jade Skywalker]

As Jaina sank onto her bed, sitting atop the satin sheets, still a bit nervous as to what the undersides might contain, thoughts jumbled in her head. Sleeplessly she lay, into the wee hours of the night, processing her emotions of the day - the churning, stirring thoughts that probed at the insides of her mind, keeping her painfully awake, though her mind wished sleep upon her.

 

Raynuk. It hadn't been twenty-four hours since she'd spoken to him, the first time in her life, and already she felt an intense passion for him, something unprecedented in her life. The relationship between her and Searcy had been merely two teenagers longing for something bigger, something to aspire to. This had become, in a much shorter time, something complex, something beautiful, something unforgettable. Still not knowing whether or not he had harbored the same thoughts, still wondering if she was just imagining things, if yet another man was messing with her mind, Jaina turned onto her side, soft brown locks sliding under the pressure of her head on the satin.

 

Another predicament was Ashley. Her sister held a good portion of her heart, her trust - they were the only two left, out of the original four. Tyler had gone first. Then Liana. And now, being the only two carrying on their bloodline, Jaina felt some obligation to protect her sister. Even as the younger, Jaina was the more powerful; she had endured more of an interesting - or rather, traumatic - history. Now that she was here, with Raynuk, getting reinstated into the Sith, though rather makeshiftly...Ashley was still sided with the Jedi, as far as Jaina could tell. The decision was still before her, and Jaina still had no idea which side her sister would pick.

 

The spinning thoughts in her head came to a whirling halt with a final name. Andon Colos - as with Raynuk, she had known him such a short time and become so completely attached to him. She shouldn't have cared when Byss was being overrun, but still held tightly to a hope that he remained. And as it were, she had little hope of seeing him again - save in combat. The very thought sent chills running up her spine.

 

Unable to sleep and unable to bring herself to get up, Jaina spent the majority of the night tossing and turning, the thoughts in her head growing more intense as time went by.