Assassin's arrival

[tonfa2]

Jerriko had landed his fighter in a clearing away from the new stronghold of the Sith. As he walked toward the new base, he allowed his senses to drift out. A smile came to his face as he thought of the planet’s inhabitants, prey to feed his hunger. Many of his fellow Sith had complained when Korriban was vacated, but Jerriko simply followed the exodus, taking the soup a few of the weaker protestors who lagged behind the others. Eventually, the Anzati assassin reached the entrance to the stronghold and rapped twice on the doors.

[Kayura]

From the frozen mists there seemed a second that coalesced into a shadow. That shadow darkened almost as if to become solid and finally, that shadow became a fully-fleshed, cloaked figure. A pair of acid yellow eyes stared back and a voice thundered, "Who approaches?"

[tonfa2]

Jerriko smiled as his hand dropped to the whip at his waist. He looked up at the illusion, the smile turning menacing as he spoke.

"I am the darkness that lies behind the shadows, feeding on the weak and the foolish. I am Lord Jerriko Kloss."

With that, Jerriko closed his eyes and created an illusion of his own; misty figures of his most recent Sith meals floating just behind his right shoulder. The illusion remained as Jerriko opened his eyes and stared through the illusion before him.

"Now, I suggest you allow me to enter unless you wish for me to step through your illusion and add another imbecile to their number."

[Kayura]

The figure vanishes into the dark, amorphous shadow, but a voice calls out, "Spoken like a true Sith. Enter, true believer."

All that's left is the sound of the frosty wind and the sound of snow blasting against the weathered runes. They were runes that spoke clearly of an ols stronghold and of the former glory of a long-faded empire. Some seemed to have been freshly-painted, as if they had been restored.

There was a loud thud and a massive scraping sound that echoed over the frozen tundra.

The doors groaned under protest of being opened, with what seemed a mighty if invisible hand. There was no figure on the other side, only a deep, forbidding darkness that lay on the other side of the massive, yawning doors.

[tonfa2]

Jerriko chuckled as he entered the empty room. Now his culling of the herd could once again begin in earnest. Until the Dark Lord had more important business for him, the Anzati shadow would spend his time ridding fools of their lives and allowing the Sith to strengthen with their absence.

[Kayura]

There was still the sense of latent anger. To some it was like a tension that could have been cut with a knife. To others it was that needed extra jolt. For others still, there was that sense that fight could have broken out at a moment's notice. Some seemed to still be simmmering and with the very recent work on what looked to be a long-abandoned stronghold, it was clear that they had only recently reclaimed it. The few that could be seen were moving about like ghosts, scurrying as if to avoid detection even in thier own stronghold. It was puzzling behavior.

Fear could be sensed and complimented the anger. There was the fear of the average apprentivce as some of thier masters still simmered with that undefined anger. Still even the rare warrior that could be seen was scurrying about with silent footfalls, straining to move without sound. There was an unease that had gripped the stronghold, an unease that made many act as if they were being hunted and perhaps they were. There were deep claw marks carved into the wall and from the looks of them, they were fresh. A pair of low howls ripped through the stone corridors, but did not echo. It was enough to make many suspect the place truly haunted. That fed the fear, even as one youngling scurried by hissing, "freaks!"

Drawing the stern look of a Lord standing in wait, the youngling scurried on in hushed silence and with a much faster pace. The hooded head turned to face the newcommer, "Welcome true believer."

[tonfa2]

Jerriko shook his head as the Lord spoke. Fear pervaded this place so fully that it was all the Anzat could do to keep from striking down the younglings on the spot; but there were witnesses, and some of those did not deserve death. Instead, Jerriko responded to the Lord's welcome. "I see few true believers here. There is much fear and anger through this place; it must be a den of Dark Jedi, it certainly is not filled with Sith." With that, the corpse-like Sith turned his face up to meet the Lord's. "In fact, I would say more Sith walk these halls dead than alive."

[Kayura]

The figure didn't visibly appear to stiffen, that was the reaction of a warrior or a first-year apprentice. Eyes of unknown color narrowed under the shadow of a low-reaching hood. The figure of the Sith Lord did appear to take on what could easily become a proper fighting stance. The ripples in the Force spoke of a man ready and waiting. The voice was deceptively calm as the deep voice returned, "That's a rather sharp tongue you have there, Assassin, pray you don't get cut by it."

There was one thing that did stop the Lord from attacking outright...there was merit in this one, anger enough and certainly a deep-seated hatred that was almost palpable in that moment. Perhaps with a little more training that one could have developed into something with a little more promise. Conflict would decide as it always did, what he was capable of. It was time to press this one into making the first move. At the same time he was all too prepared for kicking the proverbial Wampa in the tail. Ready for the metaphorical teeth, he added, "If there are to be more Sith walking here dead than alive, I am almost convinced you'd have a hand in it yourself. We welcome you as one of our own and this is how you thank us? Ingrate, I would have expected better from one of our own...unless you were simply some undead Republic science project gone horribly wrong. Fools and thier bloody cloning facilities."

It was no empty or clumsy provocation. Now it was a test. A hand had discretely passed over the pommel of a lightsaber. All he needed was a fraction of a second. If this creature was worth his salt, then there was a chance he'd have a good fight and an even better chance of seeing who conflict would favor.

[tonfa2]

A smile came to the almost corpse-like Sith's face as he slid his right foot back and dropped his hand near the whip at his side. The howls again came through the halls, closer this time. A few more moments and the time would be right; this Sith moved slowly enough that Jerriko would get those moments. The Anzati smiled as he once again taunted the Lord.

"I see your apprentice isn't with you. Perhaps he was one of the fools who lagged behind the others on Korriban? If so, you needn't worry about what to teach him next; he won't be coming."

Jerriko looked into the Sith Lord's eyes as he waited. If his calculations were correct, this would spur the lord to action.

[Kayura]

Eyes of some unknown color widened and then quickly narrowed. Hand at the ready on the pommel of the lightsaber, it seemed fairly obvious what would happen next. Crafty as this man was, instead, there was the wave of a hand and with it, the sheer power of the Force was enough to throw the brigand back into a wall.

There was no sign of mercy, nor pity in that black-cloaked figure. Only a hand made pale by the absence of light stood out and seemed transitively to hold his adversairy fast to the wall with crushing pressure. After a few seconds, there was the sound of strain in the rocky surface, threatening of cracking under the pressure.

The voice was cold, acidic and the power of it echoed as his anger flared, "I don't know which I should kill you for: the lie, or the complete lack of respect. I'll have you know, my apprentice is still among the living. If you have any designs on him, you'd better forget them and pray, do it quickly."

The hand rose, and with it, that immense pressure was enough to slide the Anzat man up the wall until the head smashed into the ceiling with enough force to render most unconscious.

Just behind him, there were others running, and very quickly. None of them made a sound and seemed almost afriad to. Not far behind them there was the horrid sound of growls and powerful barking that echoed with deafening power in the halls. With it came the sound of claws on stone and that horrid scraping sound was drawing closer by the heartbeat. There was a flash of black that sailed through the halls behind the fleeing lot.

Seconds later that flash of black seemed to reemerge as two very hungry and very strange beasts. The appearance of them behind the unknown lord was enough to make him simply drop his would-be victim without a second thought. He knew all too well what it was that loomed behind him. He knew there was only one that could fully control them and she was not on the planet. These two were fierce beasts of a sort never seen before.

Golden eyes flashed in the darkness with serrated white teeth. Poisonous black claws scraped against the stone as quilled hackles rose and threatened to scrape the walls and ceiling. A brace of massive wolf-beasts had them both cornered. There was hunger in thier eyes as they stalked, now hunkered down as if to pounce.

In a flash, the Sith Lord turned and set about making a defense out of an offense. Flashes of blue-white arcs zigzagged through the air to be met not by flesh, but by a strong if crude Force wall. That was enough to make the blood in his veins grow cold. These were creatures twisted to something unnatural and they were advancing with open, drooling, hungry jaws. Intelligent eyes peered almost through them both. Two black leathery noses sniffed, threatening to blow the lord's hood back. There is a low hiss over the low canine growls, "What is it you monsters fear most?...What will make you...GO AWAY!"

[tonfa2]

The Sith Lord caught Jerriko by surprise when he attacked with the force rather than his lightsaber, but the Anzat's underlying suspicion proved correct. Rather than kill him right away, the Sith Lord had attempted to torture him. As the dark wolves entered the room and his opponent's attention broke, Jerriko pushed himself away from the wall into a roll, drawing his whip as he fell. The Anzat's hunger had come to the fore and the room seemed to dissapear as he focused on the Lord he had managed to goad into the fight. As Jerriko rolled to his feet, he struck the distracted Lord with his whip, wrapping it around the Lord's wrist; with a flick of a switch, the whip dumped its charge into the Sith's body. As the shock-cycle ended, Jerriko charged the Sith, hitting him with a tackle that turned the Sith Lord to face Jerriko as they fell to the floor together. Jerriko laughed as he stabbed his proboscises through the Sith Lord's nose and into his brain. The Anzat Sith's laugh stopped as he absorbed the essence of his fallen foe and then looked at the dark wolves. The Anzat drew on his natural hypnotic abilities as he spoke. "Hunt on, wolves of darkness. You seek the living, not the dead."

[Kayura]

Her arrival would have been given a degree of paump and circumstance, fitting the return of one in her place. This time, it was remarkably silent as she arrived at the stronghold. It was too silent for her tastes. Immediately, her guard was up and she let out a telepathic call.

Right away two presences in the Force answered back with frightful glee, reverting from a state of being feral. That alone was enough to make her worry long before she heard the sound of claws against stone. Eyes widening briefley, she muttered, "Oh no..."

She kept scanning through the Force. There was a stong surge of emotion she felt upon her return: fear. It was lingering about like a dark miasma and giving her a slight charge as she wandered about in unusually perfect silence. That silence was broken as she heard heavy footsteps, the sound of galloping and claws on stone. She could sense glee and excitement as the two red forms approached. Opening her eyes, she saw two massive black shapes galloping and making a line straight for her. Low growls and grunts became excited whimpers of joy and reuinion.

A dark smile played on her face just before the two Kar Dogs knocked her off her feet. Warm wet tongues washed across her face and muzzles were pressed upon her as she struggled to her feet. "Well, that was one heck of a homecomming. Nas'ra, Hattal, you two didn't get into trouble while I was gone...did you?" The metamorphosis was astounding: the beasts had been the terror of the stronghold while she was away and now they were tame and happy to see thier master. Were it not for thier size, they would have seemed to be nothing more than well-loved pets. Poison-spiked tails coated in quills swiped through the air in excited, rapid arcs as she gave them both a proper scratch under the chin or behind the ear. There was a smell about them, a smell that told her they weren't entirely the perfect angels they seemed. A brow went up and her pale nose worked.

"What did you two eat...or rather who did you two eat?"

Reaching into thier minds produced a sudden change in thier demeanor. Suddenly the tails sank low, threatening to fall between the legs. Both squatted low as if in fear of a strike. Images of reaking havoc flowed through her mind in the disjoint and constantly in-the-moment view that these creatures had. Thier memories spoke volumes of things that had been smashed, people who had feld for thier lives, and then there was the image of them ranking between them who ate of a fallen lord's corpse first.

That went through her like a Jedi's lightsaber to the gut. A low grunt echoed over the hangar floor as she realized what she had seen. Letting go, she sighed and began to pick up her pace, now moving with near inhuman speed for a mere walking pace. Her attention had shifted to taking tally among the dead, searching for anyone that was more recent.

She was now the black figure streaking through the halls, her two pets and guards struggled to keep pace before hitting a trot. Her sulfur yellow eyes searched the silent, empty halls to find the remains of what was once a member of the Council. Immediately she was struck by a paradox. She was angry that he'd been killed, but happy all at once as he was one of the many who had threatened the Admiral.

She took a closer look at the corpse and was struck by something...something very odd. The corpse spoke of having been stripped of flesh below the head. Bones had even been chewed to oblivion and marrow had even been licked clean. Her eyes continued to search as she heard low whimpers come from them both. Anger flared in her. They did sink and tails flew between legs. Scanning through the Force she could sense many new dead, but none that once belonged to this body. There were at least a couple more absences in the Force that seemed strangely...permanent. Something was amiss and she knew it couldn't have been her dogs to blame for it.

There was conflicting evidence. Her pets had merely scavenged what someone or something else had already killed. She had to know for sure and stooped down to take a closer look. Dead, open eyes stared back and a bloody nose was the only clue that something had killed him. Whispers from the other side of that invisble veil and something in her gut told her she was not alone...not in the conventional way she was never fully alone. There was a new emotion welling in her replacing anger...dread...dread that she was next.

Slowly, a hand reached for the pommel of her scimitar. Sulfur yellow eyes narrowed and her reflexes began to grow faster by the milisecond as the war computer booted in full. In the blink of an eye, she was ready for an attack. Her voice was a pluming white whisper, "You have three seconds to show yourself."

[tonfa2]

Jerriko had fed, and his hunger was now sated. The Anzat withdrew his proboscises and walked to one of the darkened corners of the room. As the Anzat sat, he watched the dark wolves begin to fight over the corpse of his prey. When the victor began to feed; Jerriko mused that he really had more in common with these animals than the Sith who created their ilk. Neither he nor the wolves were motivated by political causes; instead, their combat was for food. The wolves had obviously been created by a powerful Sith, perhaps the Dark Lady herself, as they resisted his hypnosis even after he had absorbed the essence of the Sith that was now truly nothing more than food. Likewise, Jerriko had himself been altered by his use of the Dark Side of the force; becoming even more vampiric than the rest of his species. Most Anzat reveled in feeding on their inferiors and some could even control their hunger, but Jerriko had been warped; he was only truly sated by feeding on the force-sensitive. Non-sensitives could weaken his hunger, but only in larger amounts. Jerriko smirked as he noticed the wolves leaving the head of their meal as they fed. Professional courtesy perhaps?

---

Jerriko looked up as Kayura entered the room. The power radiating from her form matched that of the wolves; it seemed she had been the one to warp them. The Anzat stood and stepped from the shadows as Kayura spoke. The Anzat spread his hands wide as he stepped into the light. Jerriko smirked as the light hit his face, showing the blood that remained from the retraction of his proboscises.

“You can dismiss your guards if you wish, I am no threat to you or any worthy of following the Sith. The deceased was not a friend of yours, was he?”

[Kayura]

“You can dismiss your guards if you wish, I am no threat to you or any worthy of following the Sith. The deceased was not a friend of yours, was he?”

The dead were warning her screaming at her not to let her guard down while others merely taunted, pushing her to fight. For a split second a look as feral as the beasts beside her swept over her face as she fought all of it back. War computer booted in full, she was ready either for a duel or for nothing more dangerous than a conversation with something that was neither dead nor alive.

"I can't say we were drinking buddies, if that's what you're getting at. A dark thought translated into an equally dark smile, "Honestly, I don't know if I should kill you or thank you. In the greater insterests of restoring the peace around here, accept my thanks."

It was a dark thought that she quickly swallowed down, one that didn't bode well for anyone in the Council who would defy her and threaten critical personnel again. Hand still resting on the pommel of her scimiar with a deceptively casual manner, she continued to smile, but not as darkly or with that feral glint in her eyes. Head tilting and a curious expression coming over her face, she did maintain a respectable distance from a would-be attacker...even if he was appearing to be less than a threat. Some spectral voices whispered "Coward..." while others whispered thier collective approval. Her voice was a litling velvet whisper, "You must be a new arrival. I am familiar with nearly every face here both among the living and the dead, but yours is one I haven't seen here before."

Perhaps he'd find it insulting that she didn't even flich at the sight of the blood running red rivultes from what she could guess was his mouth. A lifetime of seeing the dead in thier myriad states, some appearing as they had died, took a great deal of shock out of the sight of gore or death. She was clearly dealing with one she would tentatively consider among the living as clearly this one still had to feed...and by the looks and smells of things, he already had. If he was alive, he had needs, needs that could be the starting point for negotiations... That dark thought threatened to come to the surface again, but masterfully she fought it back to the dark recess of her mind where it belonged for now.

She already knew the answer by the strange absences both among the living and the dead how long he had been there at the stronghold. "Well friend, don't be a stranger. Feel free to introduce yourself."

The creatures wouldn't have left her even if she'd told them to. They had thier master to protect and they would die to do it. Still showing that deceptively tame side, one rubbed against her shoulder as if it were a large kitten to be rewarded with a solid sctatch on the cheek. All three of them were quite alert, watching and waiting for treachery.

[tonfa2]

Jerriko smiled, the Dark Lord had not recoiled or attacked at his appearance. This one was worthy to follow after all, not hasty like the others. And she wanted an introduction... very well.

"I am Jerriko Kloss. But I suppose your question was seeking an explanation of what and why I am rather than who, Dark Lady. I am an Anzati, albeit somewhat warped by the dark side of the force. No longer do I find the soup of mere sentients filling but only those who have the ability to become force-users. I believe in your terms I would be an assassin; but hunter seems more appropriate."

Jerriko waited for Kayura's reaction, seemingly relaxed in the face of a more powerful Sith.