022 - Week 3 Day 4: Pernicious Darkness

Sitting on the bed finally Jaslyn pushed through the blocks. It had been hours of pushing or going around obstacles and she was tired. So tired that all I really want to do is fall into an exhausted sleep and I can't. I'm not even really angry anymore, just tired. 


As each sense came back Jaslyn had pushed harder. The struggle was taxing and time-consuming. Each one a different trigger and none of them enjoyable to get past. She couldn't even enjoy that. The things that she'd seen about herself and had to accept to push past each block was disturbing. Twisted. Warped. So much so that she wasn’t sure exactly what was wrong and what was right.


It had challenged the underlying core of her beliefs and she wasn't comfortable with it. But she couldn't think about that now. Leaning back exhausted, Jaslyn slumped against the wall. Unable to keep her eyes open she curled up in a fetal position facing the door. Her struggle to keep her eyes open ultimately took too much effort and her eyes drifted closed as her body relaxed. Sleep swept her away into oblivion. 


Caxal entered the cell block, his eyes narrowed as he didn’t hear the usual sounds he was expecting. He looked down at his prisoner, eyes beginning to fill with mirth at the padawan’s predicament. ’So she has more tenacity than I imagined,’ he thought to himself. He noted the time and sent a message to Nimm. “We will begin the fight in two hours. Make sure that your charge is prepared. I will administer the serum.” He gave one last look at Jas, lifting her and placing her on the bed with his Force. He had all the time to break her, and in the meantime, he’d be able to destroy a few other of these so-called Jedi.


Jolted awake just as she was getting to a deep sleep left Jaslyn disoriented. Placed on the bed she jolted upright her hands bracing herself against the wall and bed. Looking up at the Sith she felt the anger start to simmer. "Come to see if the little thorn in your side got the better of your little test?" 


“I’ll admit, you did well.” Caxal gave a deep sigh under his mask. “However you still have a long way to go. Your disorientation proves it. Or would you like a harder task?” He raises an eyebrow. “Say, I drop you from orbit and you survive planetfall? It’s possible, I’ve seen my master perform it, as I also have learned some of the technique. It was how he killed a traitor once… Left quite a mess behind.”


Jaslyn paled. "I'm not so arrogant that I would tell you that I'd survive that. And it's not like you gave me much choice. I'd be even more vulnerable if I hadn't finally pushed past the blocks. What are you here for? I mean besides trying to turn me." 


“Information, among other things.” Caxal shrugged. “Other than that, it’s not my place to know. But I will complete the tasks given to me.”


"And those are?" Jaslyn sat up straight. Weary but defiant.


“Need to know information.” Caxal shook his head. “You will see soon enough.”


"You know what I think I'll pass. You could just let me go and call it even. After all, I don’t really think a Padawan makes the scales tip anyway. Besides I'm not the best there is. Pretty insignificant really." Jaslyn scooted toward the far end of the bed from the Sith. "Besides it's not like I know your name and you have to keep me here cause of that." She was tired but managed to send a mental nudge to see what she was dealing with. 


Caxal’s mind was a wall of steel willpower, he slammed down upon her, momentarily trapping Jas in her own mind. “Don’t test me. It won’t end well.”


Jaslyn smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Can't be worse than presently. But visiting hours are over, come back later when you're in a better mood." She laid down as if to go to sleep. She kept her eyes, open eyebrow tipped up as if she didn't believe that he would believe her.

“You have no idea what the Sith are capable of, girl.” He turned on his heel and left the prison cell. It locked behind him.


Jaslyn yelled back at him. "And you have no idea what I am capable of Sithspawn!" Her eyes glowed along the lines of gold that threaded through her silver eyes.

Jaslyn stumbled into the arena and shivered. A muscle ticked in her jaw as she clutched a staff in her hands. Her eyes were haunted, her pupils shrunk so that there was a pin-point of black in a wealth of silver with golden streaks, like lightning across clouds. The Sith has Takryn in here somewhere. I can hear his screams. I have to save him! That Sith injected me with something vile I just know it. Hopefully it kills me.


It became clear that the injection took hold swiftly. Jaslyn’s posture straightened with an insidious air. Malevolence flavored the air growing slowly but steadily. The lighting in front of clouds that Jaslyn’s eyes resembled seemed to pulse slowly. 


The formerly almost heartbreaking look of deep concern was replaced with a cold burning rage that was frightening in its beauty. Jaslyn’s features were not flat or empty rather intense and volatile, as if from across the room she was counting the steps to engagement then how efficiently she could end your existence. 


Down the steps slowly Jaslyn made her way. She noted the empty arena screaming in her head focused in its concentration had led her here. The screams abandoned her as her foot fell on the sandy soil of the arena floor.


The predatory tilt of Jaslyn’s head as her rage filled eyes swept every inch of the area, committing it to memory, and a smile chilling in its utter lack of compassion graced her mouth. What was once beautiful and warm became a cold beauty that brought to mind the burn of ice. Something snapped within her and pure rage suffused her features as an aura of that rage poured off her with a deep fear following quickly behind it. 


The mixture was potent and flayed emotions on a visceral level. Jaslyn’s smile stretched for a moment as she pulled back. It was as if she had flexed a muscle and the atmosphere that was once choking with rage and fear throughout the arena drew back into her. It coiled around her like a loving loyal pet waiting in obedience for her word.