In the Shadows of the Gods

[Ols]

Violet Tempest stepped forth into the clearing before her goal and her lips cracked into the briefest of smiles. Through the jungles of Consico, there was little reprieve. An almost unnoticeable breeze barely registered with her in the clearing, compared to the close, humid air of forests. It just made the strand of hair that rested out of place on her forehead, rather than tied back with the rest, tremble ever so slightly. She had little time to enjoy the breeze, barely pausing to undo the zip of her jumpsuit down her chest to reveal the red t-shirt she wore underneath barely covering her ample bosom. Her destination was inside the structure before her.

The structure itself was not quite what she had been expecting. It was not big or imposing. It was built in stone, looking much as any Jedi structure across the galaxy. But it was no Jedi structure. It was an old, abandoned stronghold of the Ospion Guardians, smaller, much smaller in fact than the grand temples of the Jedi and Bogan that made even the most proud widen their eyes in awe. No this place reeked of humility, of an order that had abandoned the Jedi in act of righteousness. The doorway was not twice the size of any normal human, and heavy and ornate, but simple. The stone rectangle had once held the wooden door that lay rotting upon the floor before the entrance, and now it stood as a black hole into what she could only describe as a tomb. She walked inside.

Her customary black boots echoed as she walked purposefully into the entrance chamber. Her head span as she felt this place. It carried the scars of battle, the aura of sadness and betrayal lingered here. Even in this room the first signs were evident, a skeletal corpse in torn brown robes lay in his death throw. The room stank, the humidity doing the rot and decay no good. Violet first raised her hand to her nose, but then desisted holding her hand there, realising it made little difference to the smell, and that she had other things to worry about.

Stopping only briefly to inspect the skeleton, bending over in her black jumpsuit in a pose that would have made many a jaw drop she tentatively extended her right hand. Her fingers brushed the skull, her soft fingertips against the smooth, cold bone, her dark red nails contrasting with the murky, pale bone, like blood staining a white sheet.

A quick flash of blue light defending against an offensive red slash. Another parry as the defender is pushed back another step. The onslaught he faces is devastating and relentless. A flash of electricity jars his body, a blade pierces his chest and he falls back.

With a sickening crunch, the skull she had slowly touched fell away from the spine it was still attached to and thudded softly to the floor a few inches below. The vision disappeared with it, as suddenly as it had come. Violet stood back up straight quickly, not quite jumping as she had wanted to, but more restrained; a little concerned, but nothing more. She tore her eyes from skull and looked forwards, to the doorway the dead man had fallen in defense of.

Through the doorway was another chamber, this one much larger than the entrance before. More heaps of robes and bones littered the stone path that circumvented what must have once been a patch of garden in the center of the room. All that was left was dirt and the frame of a leafless tree, no taller than Violet herself. She stopped a second to look around the room. No flowers budded, no plants sprouted on the dirt. Instead weeds sprouted between cracks of the harsh stone floor, and moss grew on the walls.

Perhaps built as a recreational chamber, or meeting room, the garden serving as the prelude to the large space behind it, before four stone chairs set against the back wall, the first larger and more ornate than the others. Not the seats of power of the four consuls of the guardians, but symbolic in their empty, moss filled and cracked state, with a couple of names borne upon a space that Violet was sure had initially been marked out with the intent of bearing the Consul's names for centuries in the history of the short lived group.

Standing in the middle of the room now, the garden patch between the door to the entrance chamber and her now, the chairs opposite and a few other exits on the other walls, Violet stopped dead. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. He was here. Perhaps not in that very room at that very moment, but close, very close by. Instinctively, her right hand instantly clasped the cold metal hilt of her lightsaber. She had carried the same weapon for three decades, and it felt as much a part of her as anything she owned. Indeed, it was her longest held possession, and indeed one of a very small number of items she would indeed refer to as such.

Unclipping it from her belt she let it rest in her right hand, though she did not switch it on. Taking first one, then another tentative step forward, she began moving from the very centre of the room towards a door unto another hallway or chamber.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

There were four torches, one in each corner of the room. The flames sparked to life, licking the wax that bore them, illuminating the room in an orange glow, providing just enough light to be noticed in the already-lit chamber.

Undoubtedly, Violet would know who was behind the trick, but the attacker was not in the room itself, but rather just beyond. He did not need to be before her in order to mark her as his prey. It was a lesson that she would have to learn.

Banik Kelrada was no one's prey.

The torches slowly rose from the ground, as did so much else around her. Harsh, sharp rocks that littered the ground, old and dusty robes still stained with the blood of their betrayers, weeds from the cracks in the surface, and the very frame of the tree itself; all rose up, towering over Banik's former apprentice.

At once, from just beyond the doorway she sought to exit from, his mind commanded them forward, sending the objects hurling towards his old Padawan learner, aiming to consume her in a show of power torpedoing towards her.

She chose this fight. Now she would know what her actions had brought upon her.

 

[Ols]

The flames illuminated around her. The room rather than being barely lit by the streams of shadowy light through high, slitted windows, now took on an eerier, flickering light. Violet did not bat an eyelid, she knew Banik and she had known he would not just be sitting on his throne to be surprised by her visit. You did not survive the battles he had when you did not expect your enemy.

She flexed her joints slightly, no longer simply standing up straight, but taking a ready positon, on her toes, ready to move quickly. The objects in the room began to lift off from the floor, weeds and bones swirling around her as satellites orbiting a planet. The small tree ripped out of the dirt, its roots pulling out of the dirt with a loud rumbling.

"Somebody's overcompensating for something..." she muttered out loud, more to herself than her lurking attacker in the next room. She could guess what was coming next, Banik would not content to try and trap her in a rotating prison. He was going to draw first blood. And Violet would not be able to deflect a tree with a lightsaber.

She crouched slightly lower and closed her eyes, both her hands raising focusing her energy around her. A simple ability, taught early on to every youngling Jedi, as Violet had once been, was nonetheless effective after almost four decades of application. Far more developed than when she was just a child, and theoretically the same, every time she used this, her mind raced back to her first lessons. A mere child in the temple, in a class of younglings, when Banik Kelrada had still been a Jedi Knight and the old wookiee Dewbecca taught her and every other intiate of her generation. She remembered as the wookiee had growled and his transaltion droid had said, rather flatly "think wall".

And crouching in the chamber, Violet thought wall. The energy she focused upon encircled her and to a keen eye in the whirling flickering light that encircled her, a thin, translucent bubble could be seen materialising around her, as if from thin air, growing to look more solid. The barrage burst inside, the momentum of the whirlwind around her hurling forth at such speed that the weeds would break skin if they hit. She felt the bubble peppered by weeds and bones. Her eyes screwed up as she clamped them tighter and tensed, focusing everything she could on maintaining her bubble of protection.

The tree smashed against her and, despite the protection offered by the bubble to keep her from breaking bones as it impacted, she staggered backwards with the force of the blow. It cracked over the bubble and split in half. She was going to lose her protective bubble and there was still enough incoming debris to do more damage than she was willing to concede this early on.

In a split second decision that was made completely on instinct rather than cognitive process, she let the energy burst outwards from the bubble. It washed forth in infinite directions, as if the bubble was expanding in a wave of force energy, catching the few remaining missiles in their trajectories, some stopping dead, others being thrown backwards. The edge of the wave slammed into the walls, causing a few cracks, and dust from the bricks to pour from the walls. A small amount of the wave would also funnel through the doorways and, whilst it would not push him back, it would wash over her assailant.

Gingerly she stood back up from her crouch, not hurt or breathless, but feeling the barrage in a slight aching in her body. That could be ignored, and she would not even notice once her mind was completely focused on the battle, rather than an assessment of Banik's opening gambit.

"Theatrical, even by your standards," she offered her comment forth.

She lifted her right foot and pushed it under one of the torches on the floor that had hit her bubble and was still lit. She flicked it up into the air and caught it in her left hand. She threw it hard and fast, spinning, end over end through the doorway before her. Its path was strong and true, and as it flew over the threashold it began to illuminate the shadowy room beyond.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Banik, now slightly more illuminated in the shadows on the far side of the room, raised his arm and opened his hand out before him. The flaming torch stopped a meter in front of him, hovering above the ground, spinning ever so slightly as it failed to move in any direction. Banik walked towards it, taking it by the stand and setting it back on the ground. He waved his hand over it, killing the flame and the light that shined upon him.

"Much has changed since our time as master and apprentice," he reminded her, "yet your technique is remarkably similar. You never were able to best me. Surely you can do better now, when it actually counts?"

With his hand now held out to his side, he called upon the Force, twisting the very fabric of the universe—of life—itself, and drew his lightsaber from his belt to his hand. His face was illuminated once more with the shimmering of the green hue that was the blade of his lightsaber, the same weapon he had used for years, even as Jedi Grand Master. No matter where his journey had taken him, no matter what he'd done, it never felt right changing it to anything but what it was and always had been.

 

[Ols]

Violet narrowed her eyes when she saw him stop the torch with the force. He could have stepped out of the way with ease, but he preferred to show off. Her expression did not let off either as his lightsaber leapt into his hand. She remembered a time when Banik was not so flippant with the force: much indeed had changed. Including the blade of Banik's lightsaber. The same hilt she remembered from the first day she had met him, but back then it had borne a purple blade. By the time he had begun training her it had become blue. And now green. To each his own.

She ignored his quip, not rising to the easy bait he poked forwards. He could criticise her technique if he wanted, it would not change the fact that her defense had worked.

"Surely I can," she said, simply, pushing her thumb on the switch on the lightsaber in her hand, raising it before her. Its purple hue illuminated her face slightly as she lent forwards onto the balls of her feet and leapt, propelled in distance and speed by the force. She covered most of the distance between the pair and landed in her attacking stance, legs flexed, keeping her centre of mass low. As she landed, she pressed forwards and launched a ferocious strike, lashing her blade forwards in a double handed swipe towards Banik's neck.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

He had no need for his lightsaber for this defense. He channelled the Force around him, manipulating the very fabric of space and time he inhabited, as he dodged the attack, moving to the left faster than a speeding bullet as Violet's lightsaber lunged towards where he had been standing. He launched himself backwards as his speed returned to normal, flipping back to a spot a few meters away.

"It seems I'm not the only one holding onto our Jedi days," Banik remarked, noticing the purple blade of a Jedi Knight that she wielded.

Stepping backwards, his arm spun around and around, all the while keeping his hand open and cupped, as he collected the elements of reality around him in ways that a mere mortal, which he and Violet were not, could never possibly understand or accomplish. As his arm spun, so too did the universe around it, twisting and turning as it was manipulated by his finely attuned sense of the Force. With enough energy collected, he thrust his arm forward, releasing a burst of pure life-force towards his former apprentice.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
OOC: Just to make sure that's clear, that's a huge Force Push.

 

[Ols]

"Purple's always been my colour," she muttered, offhandedly as Banik began to whip his arm around. She could feel the energy building around him. The attack that was about to come, in whichever form, would be brutal. Violet wasted no time, letting her joints relax, raising her left hand and focusing. An extension of the same power she had used earlier, stemming from the same basic technique the Jedi taught their younglings, would be her defense. She would not try, however, to funnel the entire attack into her own body and absorb it, that was too risky if it went wrong she would be sent flying backwards, but nor would she just build her shield and hope it washed over her.

As the blast left Banik's outstretched arm she hopped off her toes and retracted her legs. As the blast met her, a wall of force energy travelling at the speed of a starfighter, and she would guess the power of a loaded train. Concentrating intently upon the middle point of the attack, the part hurtling directly for her, she let the attack hit. In mid air, her hand raised, her muscles tense with concentration and effort, a translucent steam of energy seemed to collect before her hand. Either side of her, evidence of the power of the blast whipped past her, causing her to land over a yard further back than she had started, and the blasts slamming into the back wall, causing the stone to crack.

As her legs whipped back out from under and she landed, crouched and lower than where she had taken off from, she did not even think in her counter. She lashed her left arm outwards and upwards, sending the ball of collected force energy careering back. More concentrated than Banik's attack, the ball of energy was not aimed at the Emperor, but it burst forth above him, smashing into the ceiling. The small area it hit would take more damage than the larger areas of the wall that his attack had hit, and rock from the ceiling would begin to fall from the buckling area of ceiling onto the man.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

"All too easy," Banik muttered to himself as he threw his hands into the air, albeit keeping his gaze locked on Violet.

Her defense was similar to Talzea's when they last met in the mountains of Alderaan four years earlier. That was during the old war, one meant to show the shape of things to come. Like Banik, Violet seemed to have a Jedi within her still. That would serve her well, assuming she left the temple alive.

Restraint was something the Bogan had hardly known before Banik took the reigns and forged his new empire.

As the rocks came tumbling down, they stopped a meter or two away from Banik's head, as if smashing into a wall without breaking, only in this case a wall of pure, invisible Force energy. It took little effort. Her defense could have worked on someone else, but to the Emperor of the Bogan—to Violet herself—Banik's response to it was child's play.

"Ah yes," he said with a smirk, recalling her comment about the color purple. "I seem to recall that ridiculous hair of yours."

Without hesitation, he forced the energy forward towards Violet, sending the dozens of large and smaller pieces of temple stone towards her.

 

[Ols]

"All too easy."

As Banik spoke, a smirk appeared behind Violet's serious facade. Invisible to Banik, she could see he had played his hand exactly as she had hoped, and indeed she had expected nothing less. Her restrained defense, countering by deflecting his relentless assaults back at him rather than beginning any of her own new attacks, a throwback to her Jedi days. Yet fusing the theories of patience in battle with more aggressive methodologies had proved hugely effective for her.

And the instant Banik raised both his arms to hold the falling stones, she struck. Her raised left hand pushed forwards as she focused and she prepared to send another burst of energy, this not absorbed from Banik's wave but her own attack, rushing towards the Emperor. It was not as wide or powerful as Banik's, but more concentrated. It would not send him flat into the back wall, but it was enough even if met with resilience to send him staggering backwards. If he managed to dodge sideways, it did not matter to her, the effect was much the same - he would lose control of the stones as they flew and be off balance, which was all Violet wanted. Any added bonuses of him losing concentration and the rocks falling on him were just that: added bonuses.

"Ah yes, I seem to recall that ridiculous hair of yours."

The energy released from her hand as he spoke, before he had begun to lob the stones, and right behind her attack, she prepared to leap, both to dodge the stones and to pounce on the Emperor as he dealt with her push. The attack came towards her and she leapt forwards and to the side, circumventing the attack, her theory being that with Banik either hit by or dodging her blast, as she doubted he would have time to set himself to absorb or deflect it given his attack of stones, he would be unable to redirect the attack, and her next leap would be straight at him, accompanied with a ferocious strike of her lightsaber.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Noob Hill.

The name flew through his mind with a flurry of concerns and conflicting emotions. It was a disturbance in the Force. Something had gone wrong. The assault could have gone either way, which he knew from the outset—which was why it was important for his commander in the field to offer the Jedi the chance to surrender first. Banik was a master of psychological games, and he would use them if the battle was lost.

He had little time for this battle with Violet now.

The Emperor had suspected Violet would take the opportunity to strike as she did. She had, after all, learned from one of the greatest Jedi who had ever lived: Banik himself. Rather than dodging it, he chose to end this duel with something that would build her confidence without making her believe she was more powerful than Banik, which would only serve to build false confidence that could get her killed.

Banik allowed the wave of energy to encircle him, moving around his body at breakneck speeds, and carry him backwards towards the wall. It was not strong enough to send him back too far, but, quietly, Banik allowed a burst of energy from his own free hand to be released. It hit the floor and pushed him back further and faster, away from Violet and her attack as well as the stones he had lost control of.

He slammed into and through the stone wall, the force of the impact causing the room to collapse further, without bringing the entire temple down around him. Violet, intensely focused on her now-failed lunge towards him, could not have been able to notice the energy released from his own hands mixing in with that of her own attack. It would appear as if her attack had done everything that had just happened.

"You're more powerful than you know," Banik said as he stood up from the rubble. He walked back through the hole in the wall, unarmed and applauding her, effectively ending what had been a training exercise from the beginning. "Not that there was ever any doubt. You were my best student, after all."

He added as he brushed the dust off his tunic, "Remember not to underestimate yourself again. Your lightsaber attack was for naught, and there would have been far more effective ways to defeat an opponent who was sent crashing through a wall."

 

[Ols]

"I don't underestimate myself," she replied, turning her lightsaber off, and bowing in mock appreciation, "Your sixteen year old apprentice might benefit from your revelations, but I'll hold out for the actual insight, rather than the shit pulled from the padawan instructional manual. I've heard it all from you before."

She did not notice Banik's addition to her own attack. It did appear as if her push had caused such a result. But Violet did know exactly how powerful her push had been. He had been the one after all who had taught her how important it was to know oneself. To know your limitations.

She had intended it to, at best, knock him backwards. It was designed to knock him off balance, not just to aimlessly send him flying. And not in a million years did it have the power to send a human male crashing into the wall. Someone not expecting it may have been pushed back to touch the wall, but that was the maximum of it's power.

She knew the power it took to burst through these stone walls, she had just felt the power required in the blast she had sent into the ceiling. His actions were strange, the counter itself was interesting, as it would hurt him to send himself flying through the wall just to avoid the attack, but his implicit suggestion that her push had done that, now that was unexpected. His assumption was both patronising and, worse, underestimating of her skill.

That was interesting indeed. Not that her words let her conclusions show, she portrayed the defiant, defensive, apprentice, as always, and Banik portrayed the smug, omniscient master. Not that she presumed for a moment she had bested him. Just that his pretence was known to her. His reasons why were quite unknown. He would have his reasons, the Emperor of the Bogan did not entice and then yield in this mock battle just because. Either it was as simple as building her confidence. Falsely building her confidence, that was. Or he had reason to leave. Or both.

"I am your best student," she added, before smiling "well...at least I'm the only one that's lasted this long."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

"That's true," Banik said, hiding his surprise at her attitude, one he had not seen from her before. "Many were left behind. You were the only one of my students who came to my rescue on Ossus, after all."

Banik looked around the temple, taking in the aura and energy of his surroundings. The ghosts of the fallen, some whose bones still littered the complex, wandered these halls. They were a reminder of a time long since past, a time when those who lived here were neither Jedi nor Dark Jedi. They were the ones in-between, the ones left behind.

"Some of the others are still here," Banik said, "their memories one with these very walls. This is an old Ospion temple, an auxiliary one for the main temple that was eventually used by the Bogan. This was where the Ospion schism ended. This was where the final Ospion made their last stand and fell to the Dark Jedi."

The Emperor placed his hand on the wall beside him, as if to feel the ghosts and the memories themselves flow through him. He had always been conflicted about the Dark Jedi; on the one hand they came from those who betrayed him, on the other hand they were new and effective tools to be used against the Jedi.

"My only regret is that I wasn't here to kill them myself," Banik said, removing his hand from the wall as the pad in his pocket chimed, indicating a message. He read it: 'Noob Hill is lost. All hands killed or captured.' The Jedi had won. It was no matter, though he would have to fill a now-vacant role.

"Have you ever given any thought to joining the Empire, once and for all?" Banik asked her.

 

[Ols]

"No," she replied, bluntly and honestly. Joining the empire had never been something she had held in thought. The offer had never been on the table. She was not a dark jedi in any official capacity, the dark side was a tool in her arsenal. She had been in limbo since leaving the Jedi, in fact. She had never taken to any other group once and for all. Maybe she had commitment issues.

"Are you actually offering me a room in a nice, drafty stone temple or are you just voicing your curiosity?"

Violet Tempest, Dark Jedi of the Bogan. It sounded batter than when it had been Jedi Knight. She did not quite know why. The Knight part had always sounded to her too honourable, too chivalrous. Honour was of little use to the dead. Practicality seemed to be the method of Banik's Bogan, even if she was not an out and out imperialist. Still, being part of something bigger than herself seemed odd to her. She had learnt to rely, to operate as a one, not as part of these hive minded factions that roamed. She was certainly open to the idea of becoming a part of such an organisation, but she remained wary nonetheless. Commitment was final. Maybe she did have commitment issues.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

"You're always welcome by my side, Violet," he reminded her. "You and Elijha are the closest thing I have to family."

He began walking towards the door to the far hall, one that would lead back to his personal shuttle so he could return to the capital. Before he left he stopped and turned back around, addressing her again.

Banik continued, "I do have something specific in mind, but it depends on the outcome of an…ongoing engagement we currently have with the Jedi. If you're interested, go to the Imperial Palace in the capital city. Show the girls at the front desk this…"

The Emperor pulled a palace access card out of a pouch on his belt, one that he had already had specially made for her. It was limited, for now, to only common areas and living quarters, but that would change if she accepted his potentially impending offer.

"…and they'll direct you to quarters we've already prepared for you," he said. "If this engagement with the Jedi turns out the way I think it has, a spot will have opened up for you. I'll contact you in a few hours with my offer if it does."

Banik smiled, sensing her issues with the possibility of joining, "I can sense your hesitation to making this commitment, but old habits die hard. I seem to recall an idealistic young Padawan on Anaxes who showed a strong curiosity and a profound conviction, not to mention a young Jedi Knight who showed loyalty in the midst of betrayal on all sides. I have no doubt you'll go to the palace and overcome any issues you may have with this."

 

[Ols]

"Yeah, you're the closest thing I have to a father," she said flippantly, "anybody knowing that would excuse my daddy issues."

Violet could not quite put her finger on it, but there was something about being told that you were the closest thing the Emperor of the Bogan and Dark Lord that was not altogether comforting. But Violet had never seen Banik as a comfort. He was a test, a clever obstacle, changing and shifting every time she overcame the lesson before. The master and apprentice. Or so it seemed.

"I do have something specific in mind, but it depends on the outcome of an…ongoing engagement we currently have with the Jedi. If you're interested, go to the Imperial Palace in the capital city. Show the girls at the front desk this…"

"A female receptionist? In this day and age?" she said with mock outrage, "apparently even your Empire isn't devoid of sexist stereotyping."

She raised her hand to him, as if offering it for Banik to throw the card to her. Instead she let a sting of energy lash out, grab the card, snatching it from Banik's grasp and letting it nestle firmly in her own in a flash.

"…and they'll direct you to quarters we've already prepared for you. If this engagement with the Jedi turns out the way I think it has, a spot will have opened up for you. I'll contact you in a few hours with my offer if it does."

Casting the briefest of glances over the card, she placed it in her pocket, securely. It was personalised, it seemed. Apparently Banik's offer was pre-meditated. Well, asking a girl to move in with you on a whim was never a good idea. Especially a girl as fiery as as Miss Tempest.

"Don't call us we'll call you eh? Well if that's how the Dark Jedi do things, don't let me throw a spanner in the works."

"I can sense your hesitation to making this commitment, but old habits die hard. I seem to recall an idealistic young Padawan on Anaxes who showed a strong curiosity and a profound conviction, not to mention a young Jedi Knight who showed loyalty in the midst of betrayal on all sides. I have no doubt you'll go to the palace and overcome any issues you may have with this."

"You never did understand the concept of 'boundaries' did you?" she muttered, more than accused, before adding, loudly, "I'll be expecting your call, Kelrada."

She turned on her heel as he motioned to enter his shuttle. She walked off into the surrounding jungle, back the way she had come. She did not expect anything else from Kelrada, although she was surprised he had not even offered a lift. Not that she needed one. She had made it here on her own, after all. She smiled to herself a little. That had been the first thing he had ever asked her to do, albeit she had to meet him on Anaxes rather than the Imperial Capital City.