The Veil Between Worlds

[Darth Kravos]

The last time he had been here had been with Cregan, and at the time, he hadn't realized the significance it would bear that he had come here. It was only after the death of his friend and the obsessive nature of the Dark Lord that the cave had returned to his mind.

The last time he was here, he and Cregan had met an ancient "woman" who was one part stone, one part Force presence, and one part human. She had become physically one with the cave, imprinted on it to the point that she could control its very existence to some level of extent. She had shown the two Sith Lords visions of things to come... before they'd killed her for speaking out against the Empress. Fine, so the two husbands weren't always level-headed, but the more he had thought back about it, the more he wondered if they could learn something here that would allow them to bring back the dead.

While Kravos wasn't sure that the woman had been dead when she was entombed here, her presence was not fully that of a living person, which made him wonder if it was a path to some form of psuedo-immortality. That led him to believe that they might be able to use a similar technique to bring Cregan back. They just had to figure out how it worked first.

He could immediately sense the familiar cold of the cave and he wondered if the "woman" would still be alive inside, come back from the dead. If she was, that would certainly lend credence to the idea that they could bring Cregan back. The last time he'd seen his wife, he'd told her he intended to bring him back somehow. Now it was time to follow through with that.

Last time I was here, there were large stone... cats, for lack of a better term, and a woman made of stone. I think we might be able to learn something here that could bring Cregan back, he told her as he stood in front of the cave. There was a slight but clear hesitation to enter here, and he knew they would face dangers inside, but that didn't mean he was turning back. If there was a way to bring his friend back, he would do whatever it took... as long as it didn't mean sacrificing his wife.

 

[Andraste]

It had taken some convincing to get Andraste to come out here. She didn’t like the idea of venturing into unnatural territories, which was hilarious considering how much she dabbled into the dark side. It took a lot of debate before she finally believed this wasn’t an abomination they were trying to make. She would never try to bring back Cregan as some strange warped version of himself. Andraste also didn’t miss that Kravos hadn’t exactly mentioned what he ran into the last time he had Cregan came here.

She stepped forth before the cave, feeling a darkness emanating from it. Whatever was inside clearly didn’t want her presence. Andraste felt as if she were trying to walk into an invisible wall, and the feelings were getting progressively angrier as she stepped closer. She looked over at Kravos, wondering if he felt the same or if the anger was directed only at her.

“You need to tell me exactly what you found here before,” She spoke firmly, reminding him not to gloss anything over. Since she had made her feelings on abominations and the occult known, her husbands had been extra dodgy with the topic. However, if she were to go inside this cave, she wanted to know exactly what she was up against.

With that, she slowly took her first steps inside, feeling the temperature drop drastically. She could see her breath in a mist, and she hugged herself from the icy chill. That feeling of being unwanted grew stronger and she grimaced, “Nothing in here seems like it could relate to Cregan. This place…is toxic.”

 

[Darth Kravos]

Kravos couldn't help but notice that whatever was here was resisting her even more strongly than him. Last time he had been here it had literally called to him, but now it didn't seem quite so inviting. This isn't going to be pleasant, he stated frankly, slipping into his business mode that most of the rest of the galaxy saw. This was the Dark Lord who burned Jedi worlds and murdered Councilors.

We won't want to resurrect Cregan here, but we need to learn how to do it. This is the only place I can think of, he said. He didn't want to bring Cregan back as an abomination either, and while it had taken some time to convince his wife of that, he thought she now believed him.

Somehow, they made it so that this woman doesn't die. Cregan and I killed her once, and she... well, she doesn't like you very much, he said, shooting her a glance and giving the smallest shrug.

Why have you retuuuuuurned, a voice nearly hissed, echoing throughout the cave as if it came from all around them. Led her back to the slaughter? Or in the hopes of killing me? the voice said. It was a woman's voice, but it hissed almost like air escaping from a compressed tank.

Kal unintentionally took a step closer to Andraste as they moved forward. He knew that whatever was in here would have a particular disdain for her. As if on cue, a piece of the "stone" seemed to tear away from the wall ahead and flew toward Andraste. As dust began to clear, the shape of a creature that had blended into the rock appeared and it became clear that it had tossed the boulder at them. Splendid.

 

[Andraste]

Andraste stared blankly at Kravos as he kindly informed her that this wouldn’t be pleasant, “Really, darling? Here I thought we were going to have a nice little picnic,” Sarcasm dripped from her voice like acid. She wasn’t enjoying this a single bit, and every step further in made her wonder if the entity wouldn’t just collapse the cave on her. As Kravos explained the background story, Andraste stopped walking for a moment.

“You mean to tell me…the only way to find out how to bring back Cregan is through this woman that you killed off who also hates our guts?” Andraste didn’t even want him to answer. It sounded just like him to venture into a situation like this casually. He was like this even when he was a Shadow, and it always ended up getting them in trouble. Andraste crossed her arms over her chest and simply shook her head, scowling at him.

As the voice rang out Andraste felt a chill crawl down her spine. She felt Kravos shift closer, though her focus was on the movement ahead, “Oh damn it, here we go,” She quickly began to gather the Force to herself. As a boulder flew her way, she sent a blast of the Force to stop it in its tracks and shatter it into debris. The debris scattered away harmlessly, Andraste spotting the creature that had sent it.

“These creatures always get more and more creative,” Andraste ducked as another boulder flew above her head. She jumped to the side, coiling the Force around the behemoth and yanking forward to make it fall on its face. She was also concerned that the large amount of movements would make the cave collapse.

 

[Darth Kravos]

Kravos didn't answer her question. It was more rhetorical than anything, and the monster up ahead gave him a good out. It was the ugly fact that if they wanted to bring Cregan back, they were going to have to go through this very unpleasant situation first.

Andraste stopped the boulder short, and Kravos began to move. He didn't like leaving Andraste, but he also had come to accept a long time ago that she was capable of taking care of herself in virtually every situation. The instinct to protect her, though, never really went away.

While using the Force in here likely would have been more effective against this creature, it had the risk of bringing the entire cave down on them, and that was something he'd really rather avoid. Instead, his saber ignited in his palm, casting a deep red glow off the cave that illuminated the creature further in the darkness. As Andraste pulled it down into the dirt, he swung down. The saber blade glanced off the outer stone-like armor, and if the situation hadn't been so dire, Kravos would have muttered a "typical."

Time to get more creative. He leapt back, glancing at the creature's body as it tried to swipe at him, still pinned down by Andraste's hold, but struggling to break free. No doubt in a few moments more, it would manage, and they needed to be ready.

The belly of the creature seemed to be the least armored area, with a tan-ish color that didn't look to be the same rocky material. Knock it on its back! he shouted to Andraste, hoping they could expose its belly and hold it in place long enough for him to cut a hole in its belly they could use to rip it in half. If all went well, they could each grip a half of the laceration in the Force and rip everything in two apart from its outer rock-like carapace.