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bright_ephemera
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09.15.2012
, 07:18 AM
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Eee, drabbles!
And eee, Watcher One! When you put it that way, with the Doctor Godera capture, it'd actually be a horrible horrible eventuality, but Watcher One was definitely one of my favorite characters in the Knight line.
Now, The Sword of Mercy: Life and Death 3, an alternate reality for Sith Warrior Ruth along with Agent Wynston and Jedi Master Rho. Today's entry is 1700 words. Significant spoiler elements are taken from SW Act 3 and IA Act 2 to set up this reality...
...in which our young LS-by-inclination Ruth is subject to brainwashing and Castellan restraints, and Quinn reveals himself much, much earlier as Baras's agent and Ruth's handler.
"Master," announced Jaesa, "while you were out I received word from Dromund Kaas. There is a Watcher Three of Imperial Intelligence who claims to have information on Darth Baras. He says a mutual friend recommended coming to you?"
"Interesting. Did he leave a holofrequency?"
"No. He seemed to be in a hurry, couldn't wait up for you. But he gave us coordinates for a meeting. Well away from Intelligence headquarters."
Out of the corner of her eye Ruth saw Quinn nodding very slightly. "We should go meet him, then," she said.
"He asked for you alone, but I want to come to cover you. I can conceal my presence easily."
"We'll all come," said Pierce.
"The last thing we want is to spook our sole lead in Intelligence," said Quinn. "I recommend accepting his terms, my lord. Except for myself with a stealth generator, to watch your back."
"My apprentice can come. I'll need her to evaluate him," she said. Quinn was usually good about allowing Jaesa along; the girl went along with everything Ruth said anyway. Jaesa wasn't a close friend. She was more of an attack dog. But it was one person to stand between her and Quinn. "Pierce, stay with Vette and Broonmark on the ship. If there's a problem, they'll find two Sith are tougher than one. Jaesa, set course at once."
"Yes, master."
*
The rendezvous point was a warehouse just inside the Dromund Kaas city limits. It was empty when Ruth entered.
"We're a little early," said Jaesa. She slid back into visibility and strolled toward the center of the warehouse.
Quinn unstealthed himself and laid a hand on his blaster, scowling.
"Jaesa," commanded Ruth. "Get back here."
"Her part in serving you is done," said a voice.
And, from the opposite end of the warehouse, Darth Baras entered.
Jaesa giggled. "Surprise!"
"It seems," said the masked Sith, "neither my assassins nor Ekkage's can touch you. So it is time I introduced you to true authority."
"Darth Baras. The false Voice himself."
"Little Ruth. The false Wrath. And her treacherous little keeper."
"You want to talk about treacherous? Jaesa, what are you doing?"
It was Baras who spoke, his voice heavy with self-satisfaction. "We've talked, your apprentice and I. You see, she was meant to receive the Castellan restraints. To serve under you, of course, but to use her power for my benefit and mine alone. So you can imagine my surprise when the time came for action and the keyword provided me by the captain failed to work."
Jaesa practically glowed with delight. "He explained everything then, after Draahg's attempt failed, after he called me to deal with our pretty captain. Finally explained the fractured spirit and the beautiful self-torture I'd been seeing in my master this whole time." She beamed at Ruth. "I wondered. I wondered for so long, and you had no answer. You were brainwashed. Darth Baras tells me that the serum course Quinn had been entrusted with for use on me is the one he saved to use on you after. I never got that leash put on me."
"I had no other means of obtaining the serum," said Quinn. "So long as I had the master I had the apprentice anyway. I did get a great deal of use out of you, Jaesa."
"I'm flattered," cooed Jaesa. "But, dear captain…Sith apprentices can't be trusted."
Baras spoke up. "You should have killed her the day you met her, Quinn, but I am most grateful you did not. Your arrogance has proved useful in the long run."
"It won't be enough, Baras," said Ruth. "She cannot match my strength."
"But it isn't just her you are confronting today, is it? A pity your power will be wasted."
"It was you who handed Quinn the tools that brought us here. You were a fool to do it."
"I was only a fool in letting him keep you that long, child. I thought I had the measure of his spinelessness. I'll bind someone again when I need fresh blood; I'll just keep the keyword myself."
"You won't live long enough to do it to anyone else."
Baras laughed. "Oh, you stupid creature. The weapon imagines she is relevant while the wielders stand all around her. Jaesa brought me a great gift for this occasion. Keyword invictus. Kill Quinn."
Pain lanced through Ruth's head. Her hands seized up and, for no reason she could understand, her legs gave out. She fell to her knees while pain pulsed out from her temples to everywhere.
"Oh, yes! Can you feel that pain?" squealed Jaesa. "I wanted so much to test it myself when I finally caught him saying it!"
"You fool!" Quinn yelled hoarsely. "Conflicting orders can tear her apart and you know it!"
"That brings the battle down to you and me, worm," said Baras. "That scenario is not a problem for me."
"Her existing programming will prevail. You know that, too."
"If she can recover fast enough. Your time is very limited."
Her vision was covered in white and red and agony, but she could sense Darth Baras's emotions moving as he approached Quinn. Her body screamed to stand up and defend the captain. That was the programming. But also if Quinn died here, like this, she would be bound to carry out the contingencies on her own friends.
She forced herself to her feet and activated her saber.
"Jaesa," said Baras. "Deal with your old master."
Baras raised his hands. The flare of his Force lightning arcing at Quinn burned Ruth's eyes, but she couldn't stop now. With a running start she leaped forward, propelling herself with all the power she had, and swung at Baras's arms. He dodged, turned, Force pushed her away, reached with one hand to send another stream of lightning at Quinn. Before Ruth could close she sensed Jaesa's approach and turned to block the girl's attack. Ruth was terribly, terribly aware of Quinn's pain, but even her conditioning allowed her to defend herself first.
Urgency pounded at her as she clashed with Jaesa. She landed a hit that shorted out one blade of Jaesa's saber. "Master," Jaesa called angrily. Baras turned, redirecting his blinding power at Ruth.
She caught it with her saber blade, willing it to sink harmlessly rather than hitting her. Jaesa backed off, just enough to get a new grip on her weapon. Desperately Ruth turned a little and, instead of absorbing the Force lightning, deflected and directed to Jaesa.
The fresh brutal pulse Baras had just sent rode the existing arc and flared on Ruth's saber blade, then ricocheted off to intercept Jaesa's lunge. She gave a short choking cry as she staggered back, her skin and robes starting to smoke. Before she could recover, Ruth was upon her with a killing blow.
"I would have expected you to train her into better strength," said Baras. "No matter. You are still badly out of your league, slave. Invictus. Tell me how he did it." She forced herself forward, step by step, in spite of the howling of her muscles, the pounding in her head. "Invictus," shouted Baras. "Wound yourself with your saber." His voice came on a stream of lightning. Her senses closed around it and his voice, those two alone nearly enough to overwhelm her. "Invictus," he boomed, "tell me what he's done."
All impossibilities, all thrust at her to keep her mind torn. She pushed forward with every ounce of pain, and hatred, and frustration; she met his lightning with her blade; and then she was upon him.
Baras finally drew his saber and started meeting her strikes. For all his weight and age, he fought well. Or at least, well enough to counter her as she was. She had trouble separating her own pain from the feeling of his anger, the premonitions she usually depended on in combat.
"Your life ends here," he announced as he blocked her strikes and swung into a heavy attack.
"My life ended ten months ago. I have nothing left to lose, old man." She dodged, thrust.
"And nothing to gain," he laughed. He Force swatted her sabers aside and brought his off hand up to shoot white-hot pain at her. "It is a mercy I'm granting you."
Maybe it is. She kept fighting. No. I have a chance. Just a matter of time, I have a chance. "You'll lose, Baras, and you will have brought it on yourself. You chose me for my strength. Now you'll see what it means to toy with it."
"Invictus. Attack the one you really blame for this."
She stumbled. Baras laughed again and struck.
She blocked it with a shield of raw will. She couldn't counterattack fast enough to throw off the chaos of her mind, but she still had power, and she drove him back, and knocked him down, and disarmed him, and everything in her was ready for the kill.
He shook his head wildly. "I will not be defeated! I am the Voice of the Emperor!"
"The last voice you'll ever hear is mine."
Ruth made an end of it.
For a long moment all was silent in the warehouse. Then she turned to seek Quinn. He was on the floor, slightly twisted, fumbling feebly with a medpac; his hands were raw and shaking, covered in burns from the Force lightning.
He looked bad. If he died now…no. Her hands moved themselves to take the medpac from him and start dealing with his injuries.
His eyes followed her movements. His breathing was too shallow, too fast, but he seemed almost happy anyway. "You did well, my lord," he whispered.
"Be quiet," she said. She kept working. His burns were brutal, but she could keep him together until they could get a proper regen treatment going.
He took a sharp pained breath when she moved his arm to reach his blistered chest, but his gaze on her face never wavered. "I never knew you could do so much under such direct, conflicting stress."
"Does it frighten you?" she asked.
He reached up with his less damaged arm to stroke her cheek. "No."
"It should."
And for a second, she thought, there was indeed fear somewhere deep in those eyes; but then it winked out and he smiled, very slightly, and relaxed to let her tend to him.
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