VE: Alive

[Medivh]

 Ord Radama
Sub Surface: Federation Facility

"Forgive my candor but may I ask who you are and how you know Mara, myself and my fiancé?"

The person on the monitor appeared amused.

“I would expect nothing but candor from you, my dear.  Karen Winton is not known for being afraid to speak her mind. For better or worse”

Mara couldn’t help but smile at the comment.  Meanwhile, he continued speaking.

“The questions you have asked are simple enough to answer – the questions you have not yet asked are more complex. But first.  As to who I am, it would probably be better to refer to me as who I was.  I was Medivh, the Viceroy of the Trade Federation.  That may in itself answer your questions.  I know your fiancé, Dementat, because he and I were allies  when his rule was young and before he had ever consolidated the imperial factions.  I know Mara because  well because she was responsible for my death and the death of that which I created.  Mara and I knew each other only briefly, just before Phage was destroyed – the second time.”

His words were fairly nonchalant, as if instead of speaking of death he was talking about, oh, say, a barbeque or a child’s soccer game

“As for you, I would say I know you best by reputation, both from the tabloids of what you have done, and by the prophesies of what you are expected to do – yes, before you ask, I have heard your mother’s prophesy – but we have also met in person, once, when you and your sister were very young.  Naboo was my home at one time too. And of course, I know your father. And in the past, I worked with him.”

He paused, his  face on the monitor souring from its previous smile.

“There was a time when an alliance between us  - me and your father – made sense.  We both were quite ambitious.  No – power hungry is more appropriate.  Undoubtedly, we both used each other to get to each other’s ends.  But my moral compass changed over time, and that which I wish for changed.  His grew darker and more selfish.  That was when it became necessary to part ways.  Before he could access the final results of the project we were working on.  Which brings us to why you are here.  Why both of you are here”

Medivh’s eyes moved between Mara and Karen and for a moment there was silence.  Several monitors surrounding the one with Medivh went blank for a minute, then lit up again with lines of text running across them.

“Karen, by now you have heard either all or most of the Persephone Prophesy.  I have seen it in its entirety, and have a copy of the text.  Your father attempted to hide parts of it from different sources, in order to manipulate his own ends, but I have come to the conclusion that it was unnecessary – the prophesy is vague enough that its final conclusion cannot be guessed in advance.  Regardless, you know that there are four key individuals in the prophesy, along with many other external individuals mentioned.  Two of the four – yourself and Melanie Masterton – are gifted in the ways of the Force.  The other two – Ms. Gellar and Ms. Patten – are touchstones.  Non Force users that each parallel one of you.  Valerie was your touchstone, and if I may be so bold, now Mara has taken on that role.  But it is not just you and Ms. Masterton that have touchstones.  At least, not for a long time.  You see, your father believed that the prophesy itself required a touchstone of sorts.  A non-Force operation that paralleled the prophesy.  This operation became known as the GURI Project.”

Mara’s mouth went wide as she heard the familiar name.  She glanced over at Karen, not entirely sure what to make of  the situation.  She had still never seen the prophesy, and here Medivh was calling her a touchstone of Karen?  And that the entire program of her creation was a touchstone of the prophesy that had dictated so much of Karen’s life?  Karen too seemed shocked, and in that moment, Mara felt more connected than ever to the socialite.

Medivh meanwhile, had more to say.

“The GURI Project was, on its face, an attempt to create an artificial life form that surpassed what any programmed droid could do.  That it could think, reason, laugh, decide, and in every way be a living person.  The project was based on a human replica droid that was a close starting point of that, a female droid named Guri who served Prince Xizor of Black Sun, during the Galactic Civil War. Guri’s whereabouts now  are unknown, but we managed to find the laboratory where she was created and programmed.  But the GURI Project had much loftier goals as well.  To not only create life, but to create immortality.  Both Alexander and I believed that we could live forever if a machine could be created to bear our cognitive selves.  Furthermore, we believed that this could give us something neither one of us were born with, and something no droid before was ever able to possess.  A connection with the Force.  The Force runs through only living things, but it was our goal to make it run through something that was artificially created.  Could there be anything more powerful, more terrifying than an immortal being with the power of the Force by his side? I think not.  But while I would be content with immortality – in fact, I ultimately shunned it – Alexander wanted more.  His goal through the GURI project was to ultimately command a force of droids and men, and create an empire with himself at the lead.  And there is Alexander Winton’s secret goal.  He doesn’t care so much about the fulfillment of the prophesy – he cares about the prophesy helping him fulfill the GURI Project.”



-TBC

[Syren]

Ord Radama

Sur Surface: Federation Facility

Her reputation precedes her.

Karen is floored by the information, her knees weak. So this is Medivh, the great and powerful. But how? Mara said he was dead. He confirms this in a casual tone greater than Karen could muster at her most nonchalant. Now it makes sense. He found a way to live on forever. Does that mean her father had as well? This sends a shockwave of chills through her entire being. And Medivh had met her mother on Naboo. Her family was powerful and social, so many surrounding them at all times. Karen remembers nothing but a blur of cocktail parties and events in which she and Melanie happily played together as Alexia sulked in the background.

Dementat never mentioned Medivh before, not even in relation to Phage. More questions spring into an already full mind. Why not say something sooner? She came to him for help when it became clear Valerie and Kimber were in grave danger. Still, he did nothing. Did Mara kill Medivh as she killed Scott? Would she have killed Valerie if Phage hadn't gotten to her first? How many more of them would she had gone through if she had not broken free of her programming? If she hadn't actualized and became what Medivh wanted her to become all along?

Then there was the issue of the prophecy.

Outside her father, she wasn't sure anyone knew what was really going on there. Everyone had bits and pieces, things they were shown to create the perfectly planned reaction. They all responded accordingly. But now, to hear it was virtually irrelevant in the larger scheme of things, deflates her. Their whole lives really had been a series of lies based on something that never mattered.

There must be some truth to it if their paths lead them here.

Mara has replaced Valerie as her touchstone? Karen turns to gaze at her. Mara stares back with the face of the one who came before her, the one called to run as her parallel. Something between them softens.

Was this meant to be? Was this foreseen?

Her father's plan. He's the one who connects them all. His ties to Medivh, Phage, Mara, Dementat, Kimber, Valerie, Melanie. Everyone, even those who never saw it coming, were connected to Alexander Winton. His secret agenda, beyond the superficial horrors, infuriates her. An army of Force-sensitive machines? To rule an Empire as his own? Was he conspiring to overthrow them with his army? Set them up only to knock them down?

Yet it returns her to the larger, looming question. It's a question she's not sure she can handle but one she must ask.
 
"My father..."

She chokes on her words, overcome with emotion. In this place, cut off from the Force, she is the Karen she was before. The Karen before the storm. She feels everything as her true self and it overpowers her.

"...we gave him to the Consortium, to pay for his treachery. He was to suffer and perish for all that he had done to us."

Heart pounding in her chest, Karen raises her eyes to him once more.

"But if you live on, does he...?"



-TBC

[Medivh]

 Ord Radama
Sub Surface: Federation Compex

 "My father...we gave him to the Consortium, to pay for his treachery. He was to suffer and perish for all that he had done to us.   But if you live on, does he...?"

The question hangs in the air for a moment, and even without the force, there was definite tension, an electricity.

I think you already know the answer to that question

On one of the monitors, a photo lit up, a place that Karen and Mara had been too not that long ago.  The Winton residence on Byss.  Only the picture showed it as it appeared now – a charred, blasted ruin.

Next to that picture, a video began playing.  No people were in the video, but whoever was holding it was going down a familiar path – down that hidden stairway to that basement unit.  The room, filled with runes and similarities to ancient sith markings.  And that computer unit.  Notably, the pedestal that held the prophesy was absent in this video.

You have already seen your fathers program, and I imagine either you or Mara recognized the patterns.  Your father was killed at the hands of the Hapan Consortium.  But you will recall that it was not the first time he set up his own death.  What greater cover could exist?  It is not clear to me whether he intended for his demise in the way it happened or at the time, but it suited his purposes.  When your father was killed by the Hapans, it triggered the next phase of his plan

A monitor lit up with a diagram,s howing the shadow-profile of Alexander Winton’s head.  The image became more detailed, and a portion became highlighted.

”This is a neural recorder.  A fairly simple device, designed to help people recall memory, especially as they grow older and their own neural pathways begin to degrade.  The product was one of many designed by the Trade Federation, and is currently available on the open market, at least for the fairly wealthy.  Your father’s though was enhanced.  First of all, it had a greater capacity than the market variety, capable of storing not just a portion of memories, but an entire synaptic system.  It also had a burst transmitter.  Roughly once a day, it would transmit a copy of the recordings elsewhere.  The design was such that it would stop transmitting once the brain stopped sending signals to it – once he was dead.”

The image disappeared, replaced by a map of the Hapan cluster.  There was a time display in the bottom corner, showing the image had been sped up significantly.  The cluster sparkled continuously, but every few seconds, there was a flash, brighter than any other

”This map shows transmission signals from the Hapan cluster.  You can see that there is a constant stream of standard signals going on.  But once a day, a much stronger signal –that brighter flash  - would appear.  That was Winton sending out his update.  The last day it appeared was the day he died”

A much larger map now appeared, one of the entire galaxy.  This map actually took up several monitors all at once, and Medivh’s  image disappeared so that the map was centered in front of them. They could still hear his voice though

”When your father died, that would trigger the activation of a backup program.  It is the same as the method by which Phage recreated himself after he was killed the first time.  Alexander Winton’s signal was relayed across the galaxy”

The map lit up in several places, spread throughout.

”Some of the locations were mere holding stations – storing the information as a backup.  Others are more prepared facilities.  There are a handful of locations secured that would be capable of creating a bio-engineered being. A human replica droid, like the lovely Mara.  Only a handful more have the facilities to construct a less flattering droid that was capable of storing the kind of information necessary to maintain that living consciousness.  Most of them were prepared either by myself or by Phage, all to maintain our immortality. Some have no doubt been destroyed or permanently disabled.  Some are still under my control, and I have been watchful to make sure they stay out of their hands – I say out of their hands because both Phage and Alexander Winton have their fates intertwined.  Winton corrupted the Phage fallback program.  Meaning the next assault on the galaxy will not be led by Phage, but by Alexander Winton. Phage’s program is just a screen.  Winton used Phage, but doesn’t want to compete with another out-of-hand droid.  That is also why he will never create more than one copy of himself at the same time.  And that is where his weakness lies.”

Medivh’s image reappeared now, on a different monitor.

”Your father is not all powerful, nor, despite his wide web, is he omnipotent.  He can be destroyed, permanently.  But that would require destroying the facilities he has set up to reincarnate himself.  And make sure no such facility exists when he is again destroyed.  I have highlighted the locations I know of – but Winton is crafty and may have somehow developed such a facility without my knowing.  Furthermore, he is not working alone.   He has assistance from an outsider.  Or rather, from an insider within the imperial intelligence.  Someone who is remarkably loyal to him.”

An image of the Byss Winton residence reappeared, this time showing a familiar face entering the door.

”Marius Guile. Guile has a loyalty to an Empire of the past, and Winton has used that loyalty to manipulate him, as he has to manipulate others. ”

Maps and pictures began to disappear and Medivh ‘walked’ from one monitor back to the one in the center.

” Alexander Winton has remained undetected by relying on Agent Guile.  As I have remained undetected by not broadcasting my existence either.  We counter-balance each other, just as you, Karen Winton, counter-balance Ms. Masterton.  Which brings us back to the infamous prophesy”





Words familiar to Karen, spoken aloud by a being who was remarkably removed from  them.


True identity is revealed to them, a test of will and a challenge of loyalty will spawn the tyrant and the idealist. One murder, one betrayal, tied to one sinner, one savior, and the one who lives but does not have life.

In the day of reckoning the daughter of darkness shall slay the beast and be consumed by her rage. Friend becomes foe becomes the second abomination. A tribulation of justice shall follow and of The Four only one can survive.

The One will bear a child out of true love, tempered and tainted by good and evil, dark and light that shall be baptized by the essence of the Force and hold power to give back what the Abominations took away.

Master and daughter of darkness together, a rule eternal, so long as the child does not live.

So it is written, so it shall come to pass.

Medivh read these latter parts of the prophesy aloud, then offered his own words to them.  It was not all for Karen though – Mara still stood beside her, trying to soak in all of this information.  She was an experiment, a step in the road toward others reaching eternal life and galactic domination.  It made her feel huge and small at the same tim.  But she had never heard any part of the prophesy, and its words were in itself a revelation

” This is the latter portion of the prophesy – the part that we are now in phase to carry through.  There are assumptions made of what it means It has been assumed the tyrant was Valerie Gellar, the idealist Kimber Patten. The first and second abominations, Alexia and Karen Winton.  The Master, Dementat.

 But prophesies are a mystery, and not always in order.  The tyrant may be Saga Judec, current ruler of Corellia.  And the idealist may be someone else, someone we still do not know of.

The daughter of darkness, slayed the beast, was consumed by rage. Lady Kyja, the prophesy has declared you to be the second abomination.  Unless of course it actually means something else.  It may be that I myself, or Phage, or Alexander Winton may be the first and or second abomination.  Phage was born twice, and carried with him the rage of being killed the first time.  Alexander Winton carries with him the darkness  of his  own past.  He is now a foe of those who once called him friend.  And he too was one of four individuals who created the GURI Project.  And may be the only one to survive.

Then there is the child – able to ‘give back’ what the abominations took away.  If you, Lady Kyja, are an abomination, then what is it that you have or will take away, and how would the child bring it back?”

It was Mara who had been invited down here, but Medivh seemed to have the most to speak to Karen Winton.

“Karen – it says only one of the four will survive, and that the rule of the master and daughter of darkness – assumed to be you and dementat – will be eternal until the child lives.  You have no doubt been sent on a path to prevent the child from living.  You are expected to kill those you once called friends – Melanie and Kimber – in order to eternalize the rule of you and the Emperor.  But listen to the words of the prophesy.  It says the child will live and if it refers to who you think it does, it says the child will give back what you take.  You cannot prevent the child’s birth.   I do not believe you are the one of the four who will survive.  Nor does your father.
There is another translation of these words – a rule eternal – can also mean a rule immortal, neither destroyable, nor truly alive.  Alexander Winton thinks the master and daughter in the latter portion of the prophesy are not the same as in the beginning.  He wants the child dead so that HE will be the master immortalized.”

TBC

[Syren]

Ord Radama

Sub Surface: Federation Facility

Imagine a picture of your life unraveling. Sparkling spools of reality spiraling farther and farther apart, through your fingers, beyond your reach. Fragments of everything you thought you knew swallowed by the infinite blackness of deceit. A series of assuptions in all the wrong directions.

"This is the game that moves as you play."

"Anger and hate. It's all you have, it's all you are."

"Vicious cycles."

"Together."

"You will never get away with being who you are."

"Behind every sacrifice is an agenda."

The voices crescendo into a shriek that becomes streaks of blood streaming down a white wall in the corners of her mind.
 
Karen has been anguishing over a singular goal, one she believed includes murdering the rest of her friends. It was a blind belief tailored to fit someone else's agenda. She thought it was the only way she and Dementat could be free to rule the galaxy. To discover her father will also make a play for this, again banking on her reactions to a premeditated set of circumstances, is sickening. Alexander Winton had them doing his dirty work under the pretense of a future set in stone and baptized by fire. He made Alexia take out the first wave. Phage and Mara tied up the loose ends. Guile hunts down any stragglers. Karen would reduce the competition down to her and Dementat, leaving them wide open for Alexander and his army to make a move.

It changes everything.
 
Again.

How many times have you been wrong about who you are?

Princess, sister, friend, student, cheerleader, model, socialite, victim, survivor, diplomat, bitch, pawn, lover, sinner, Sith, Empress, savior?

What the [expletive deleted]?

It's not all about you.

It never was.

They were merely led to believe The Four - Karen, Melanie, Kimber and Valerie - were the only ones referenced in the latter half of the prophecy. They were manipulated into thinking there could be no one else. It played into their enormous self-involvement to fan the flames of their hopes and fears. But what if Medivh is right? What if what was supposed to happen to them already did? Alexia rampaged through their perfect lives, murdering five of their friends and leaving four alive. This calls into question all of her formative years. High school. North Coruscant. How is it they wound up with exactly five people they trusted? Are her surviving friends still a threat if their purposes are now altered by interpretation of the prophecy? Has she become an abomination like Alexia before her? What has she taken that a child would give back? Can they halt something already in motion?

The words, spoken aloud, become emotional explosives.

...the one who lives but does not have life.

Phage, Mara; their existence was foreseen.
 
The One will bear a child out of true love...

Valerie's out. Melanie, eh, not so much. Her? And ruin those abs? She thinks not.

There is a flash from Hesperidium - the heartbroken girl mourning a dead lover.

Karen was once that girl on Coruscant.

They all had been at one time.

Only true love could produce such grief.
   
She was just the most recent.

"Kimber," Karen says suddenly, loudly. "Kimber is the One. The child is hers."

Master and daughter of darkness together, a rule eternal, so long as the child does not live..

What if those are separate things?

She and Dementat are together. They found each other because it was meant to be. She had been in his heart long before they met. Perhaps the "rule" in question isn't even theirs. The child would not threaten them but significantly compromise Alexander's goal of overthrowing them to rule in the completion of the GURI project.

So now she must...protect the child?

Save her friends?

Lose her father a third time?
 
Become a villain redeemed?

Is that even possible?

Could she fight off the darkness once they leave this place?
 
Confliction, emotion, and obligation all rage within her.
 
Her frayed mind swings back to her companion.

Something has become quite clear in relation to a father reborn.
 
Karen moves closer to Mara, her voice steady but urgent.

"If my father is still operating behind the scenes, it's a good bet he got his claws into Judec. You were set-up and labeled a traitor. They didn't discover you, he sold you out. You were programmed to infiltrate, to dig. Allowing you to stay would risk discovery. That is also why he wouldn't continue discussions with Dementat. He was instructed not to. If he wants you, me and the Empire away from Corellia, it's likely it plays a pivotal role in his plans. It's just another in a long list of twisted angles. He knew I would face down Alexia. He, through Phage, filled her head with all the right things to say, made certain choices seem like the only way forward. He wants my friends gone and the child dead so there will be no one left but you, me and Dementat to overcome in his quest for domination."

Karen swallows a sob, knowing full well she was going to use Mara to further these goals, to hurt the ones she loves most because she believed it. She believed him. Her father the liar, the traitor, the lunatic..

Never again.

"Forgive me, Mara."

She is trembling, emerald eyes burning.

"We will play this game no longer. Alexander Winton or whatever incarnation he lives on through must be destroyed."
 


-TBC

[Medivh]

 Ord Radama

Sub Surface: Federation Facility

"If my father is still operating behind the scenes, it's a good bet he got his claws into Judec. You were set-up and labeled a traitor. They didn't discover you, he sold you out. You were programmed to infiltrate, to dig. Allowing you to stay would risk discovery. That is also why he wouldn't continue discussions with Dementat. He was instructed not to. If he wants you, me and the Empire away from Corellia, it's likely it plays a pivotal role in his plans. It's just another in a long list of twisted angles. He knew I would face down Alexia. He, through Phage, filled her head with all the right things to say, made certain choices seem like the only way forward. He wants my friends gone and the child dead so there will be no one left but you, me and Dementat to overcome in his quest for domination."

Mara looks over at Karen who for the first time, isn’t putting up a shiny, plastic exterior.  She is barely holding back tears.

Mara looks from Karen to Medivh.  So much was going through her thoughts that even her cerebral processors weren’t making much sense of it.

This prophesy – apparently, there was a prophesy, but its interpretation had all been a hoax.  Hadn’t Mara said something like that to Karen not a week ago?  That prophesies cannot be relied upon?  She hadn’t even thought that it would be an utter falsehood – just that they were unpredictable.

And then there was the GURI Project, the secret behind the prophesy.  Medivh created Phage – Phage created her.  And she?  What was she in all of this?  Was she a prototype?  The next in a long line of droids designed to kill?  Just an experiment?

Since meeting Medivh the first time, she had pondered what it meant to be alive, and whether she fit into that category.  Now she learned that those feelings were no accident – she was designed to be a living being, so that another could use the same technology on himself.  To live forever.

But as far as Mara was concerned, she agreed with Medivh – or, Medivh after having his own self reflection. To be immortal meant you couldn’t be alive.  Living meant developing, changing, and then passing on to the next generation.  For Medivh, Phage and Mara were not just an experiment.  They were the children he never had.  He had lived and had died (Medivh, for all his intelligence and far reaching influence, did not consider this current manifestation of himself to be alive). Mara may be alive, but she was not going to construct another droid monster – like herself or not.  And she couldn’t bear children.  How could she ever really be alive then?

And now that she knew what the GURI Project was about, her living/not living dilemma seemed even more complicated.  What was she supposed to do next?

"Forgive me, Mara. We will play this game no longer. Alexander Winton or whatever incarnation he lives on through must be destroyed."

Mara had grown attached to things – to Corellia, above all.  To Medivh and his fatherly wisdom.  Even to Karen, despite her, well, socialite-ness.  She had developed a sense of fairness. That everyone should play by the same rules – that even in war, there was only so much deceit that could be allowed.  Know who the enemy is. Know who the good guys and bad guys are.  Alexander Winton had made it that no one knew who was supposed to be fighting whom.   Friends become foes because of this hoax of destiny?  No.  It could not be allowed.  Alexander Winton would not be allowed to keep up his deceptions, and hurt everything that Mara had come to know.  Mara, Karen – both had been tools.  Not any longer.  And with a firm nod, she looked at Karen

”Yes – Alexander Winton must be destroyed.  And we must make sure he can never, ever come back.”

There was a certain weight of accepting a huge challenge upon themselves, a heaviness of taking on a solemn duty. Not a fight between good and evil. But a fight against one who tried twisting what good and evil were.

Medivh himself seemed to acknowledge the task ahead of them

”It will not be easy to do.  He had many resources.  But I will provide you with a list of locations with the facilities that I know of.  You cannot go in huge force – if he knows you are coming, he will make contingency plans and disappear until he comes back stronger.  I must recommend you go alone – just the two of you.”

A list of locations appeared on one of the screens. Destinations. Targets.
Naboo, near the city of Harte Secur
Kamino, Bio-clone development center
Geonosis, Droid Construction Plant
Holowan, PhlutDroid Station
Mechis III, Droid Construction Plant
Lok, Nym’s Factory Compound
Coruscant Asteroid Field, Phage’s command platform
Center Point Station, Corellian Space

Naboo may have been the most surprising, in that it was not known to construct droids, but least surprising because of Winton’s  prior residence there.
The other locations – Kamino, Geonosis, Holowan, Mechis III, and Lok – all of them had histories of droid construction, and their facilities, though supposedly abandoned, had apparently been retaken to be used by Winton.
Phage’s platform, of course, was capable of droid construction, and though damaged, still posed a threat unless it was utterly destroyed.
Center Point Station, the last on the list, was probably the most famous.  A facility created long before Corellia was settled, it was being used for secret research by the Corellians now.  It also had powerful gravity well and tractor beam technology that could, if properly controlled, wield great affect on many star systems in the galaxy.  Apparently, there was something there that would allow Alexander Winton to fulfill his master plan.

”If these facilities are destroyed, Winton will  be vulnerable. Able to be destroyed, permanently.  You must do this quickly though.  The Empire, the Republic,  and the Corellian Confederation will soon be at war, due to Winton’s actions”

Another set of displays appeared, showing groupings of fleets.  A Corellian fleet in one, an imperial fleet in another, and a republic fleet in a third.  The Galaxy was going to war.

”Things are in motion now.  You must move quickly.”

Mara nodded, turning to Karen

”We’ll need explosives – a lot of them.  There can be no remnants of these facilities if we are to make sure that the program is destroyed permanently.”

”I wish you both the best. Mara Anna Gellar, Lady Kyja.  I do not know if I will be able to help at all.  But if I can, you will know it is me. Now, go!”

The two women turned and began making their exit.  Even as they left, Mara could feel Medivh transmit a message into her thoughts.

”Do not grow too attached to Karen Winton”

Mara turned giving an inquisitive look to Medivh.  But all she saw were blank screens.

-TBC

[Syren]

Ord Radama

Surface

Panic - terror - flight.

Karen cannot get out of the facility fast enough. Once the lift doors open, she sprints past Mara. The blast doors seem to open with the same urgency as if sensing her reaction to it all. Karen bolts down the corridor until she passes the broken blast door Mara had used the saber to open. Coughing, she drops to her knees and heaves, vomiting into the lush foliage. The emotional tidal wave crests and she slumps sideways to sob.

How could she have been so wrong about everything?

Taking Alexia's life showed her a destiny she thought was certain. She had convinced herself the path she had chosen was the only one. Now, through Medivh's revelations, she finds herself composed of nothing but lies spewed from the mouth of her devious father. Her entire life has been a beautiful facade acted out on a stage larger than any of them realized. Now they finally know what was hiding beyond the bright lights. They were never the ones everyone should have feared. It was him. The Four were merely gorgeous harbingers. Amusement for the audience while something sinister transpired behind them.   

Karen is overcome with grief, guilt and a seething rage and loathing for what she was prepared to do to keep the power and position she had obtained. There is another way. She could keep her friends, future husband and Empire so long as they bring Alexander Winton's plans to a screeching halt.

Her father must suffer and be stopped at all costs.

Karen tries to compose herself, a useless gesture, as Mara appears at the blast door.

"I'm sorry, that was just intense and...unexpected."

She laughs hollowly, shaking her head. The tears cannot be contained. She's not fooling anyone.

Mara watches her closely.

Karen unloads - unabashedly, unashamed - as she works through the pain.

"My sister, the first abomination, took five beloved friends from us. They were a sacrifice upon an altar with our names on it. The names of blasphemy. Still, I wanted to believe she could be saved, that the darkness within her that had always been there could be fought back and defeated. She was my sister. The only family I thought I had left. When I confronted her on Roon, she was the closest thing to true evil I have ever seen. She was my worst fear realized. That is when I knew the only way we would ever be free from her terror was if she died. The galaxy was not big enough for the both of us. Our fight was epic but in the end, I could not bring myself to finish her off. I left her there out of some sick sibling bond. She would have perished had my father not sent Phage to save her. We still had one more round to go."

Her eyes are wide.

"When I killed her, something happened to me. I felt myself change. The moments of clarity were electrifying but everything else was cloudy, colorful and confusing. I see those who have died for us and can feel the void of hatred that consumed Alexia. I would have murdered Melanie and Kimber, two people I care for deeply, if you had not brought me here. Their deaths at my hands would have severed any hope I had of crossing back over. Her darkness, her curse would have made me the second abomination. My fall would have been complete."

Alexander had planned it that way.

She lowers her head.

"Alexia, like celebrity, wealth, power, career and coverage were just distractions. Medivh's words solidified that for me. All the pretty things we thought we controlled made us slaves to a faux-destiny orchestrated and executed by those who created us. Until now."

Finally, she raises her eyes to Mara, echoing Valerie's words.

"Guess we're more alike than we care to admit."

A silence settles over the swamp. She hesitates confessing a deeper fear of the possible repercussions when her connection to the Force is restored. Can she fight the darkness inside herself? It is a bridge she will have to cross when she comes to it.
There is more at stake than her insipid self-absorption.

Karen clears her throat, "How about those targets? Not a short list."

She stands, shaking off the fragments of her soul she had just bared to Mara as they begin walking back toward the shuttle. Her steps are slow but steady. She must focus on the task at hand.

"If we destroy these facilities together, how is he not going to catch on after the second or third strike? The tactical locations would not appear random for long."



-TBC

[Medivh]

Ord Radama
Surface

Mara is deep in thought in the turbolift, silently stoic, thinking about Medivh’s parting words to her. ? She glanced over at Karen, wondering what it meant. ? Karen was just the opposite. She was barely able to stand still, and she looked sick. ? Out of the turbolift, the blast doors open, letting in a rush of fresh air. ? Karen doesn’t find relief, Mara walking slowly as Karen tries to escape the Complex in haste.

Mara watches as Karen makes it past the hole she had created, and then hurls into the swamp.
Mara is cautious as she approaches, wondering how to provide sympathy for Karen. Mara knew that she was a machine, built for the purpose of others. The revelation for her was not as shocking. ? But Karen? She had just been told that her existence had all been set up. Was a lie.

 "I'm sorry, that was just intense and...unexpected."

Karen laughs. And cries. ? For the first time completely vulnerable to Mara. ? She starts rambling on. ? About her past,her sister, the life she led and was told to lead. ? The plan to make her not a sith, but someone with a dark insanity, much like Alexia.

Karen recovers some, looking up at Mara

"Guess we're more alike than we care to admit."

That thought was only slightly comforting to Mara. ? She felt like she now had more than just a co-conspirator. She had an ally. And a shared mission to do something for the benefit of themselves and others.

Karen clears her throat, "How about those targets? Not a short list."

“No, it’s not”

Karen stands, looking as if she has somehow been reborn after the cathartic moment she had.

"If we destroy these facilities together, how is he not going to catch on after the second or third strike? The tactical locations would not appear random for long."

They are traversing through the soft ground ? toward the shuttle. ? That thought had already occurred to Mara. ? What had Medivh said? ? He had remained secret by not broadcasting his continued existence. ? If Alexander Winton wanted to keep these facilities a secret.

“They aren’t sending out messages …”

Karen looks over at Mara curiously. ? Mara blinked for a moment, thinking out loud, but the explanation was good enough.

“He isn’t getting messages from any of these facilities. ? They aren’t equipped with transmitters – only receivers. ? He keeps their secret by making sure no one can trace a signal from them. ? These facilities only receive the signal he sends to them. ? So he wouldn’t know if one is damaged or hit. ? He can’t go around inspecting them – he has to rely on their secrecy to keep them safe. ? Only Phage’s platform is capable of transmitting signals.”

Karen nods and Mara now feels more sure of herself. ? Wiping off her boots as they came up the ramp, she made her way to the cockpit, powering up the ship as she thought about the plan, looking to Karen who was making her way to the seat next to her.

“I think we need to hit the lower ? known targets first – Kamino, Geonosis, Holowan, Mechis III, and Lok. ? Then we’ll hit his facility on Naboo. ? Then Phage’s platform. ? By the time he realizes there is a problem, we should have him cornered at center point station. ? That would be the only active facility of all of them.”

The ship protested a bit as the landing gear escaped from the soft earth, but soon, they were heading high up, out of the atmosphere. ? Mara had her eyes on the controls, but now looked over to Karen. ? There was a look in her eye – fear of something? Determination? ? It was hard to tell. But Mara now offered the closest thing she could to words of encouragement

“Like you said, we are more alike than we care to admit. ? You are like me. ? Your entire existence, you were taught, trained, programmed, whatever that you had a role in life, and a responsibility to carry out. ? But you are also like me. ? What you were told in the past does not need to define your future. ? You can live, by choosing your own destiny. ? And what’s more, you have skills that can still be used, even if how you gained them was part of the lie”

Mara pulled the light saber out, reaching over and offering it to Karen

“You are like me – not like Alexia. ? Alexia became angry, and the anger took over. ? But you can be like me. ? You can use what you know and have and take control of your life. ? The difference between the darkness you fear, and the sith you wish to be is not whether you have that anger. ? It is whether you control the anger, or the anger controls you. ? If you control the anger, you have a power that is unmatched in the galaxy. ? Something even your father cannot ? beat.”

The ship went full speed ahead, out of the atmosphere toward space, and out of the reach of the Ysalamiri.

-TBC

[Syren]

Ord Radama

As the shuttle roars away from the planet, Mara pulls the light saber out, reaching over and offering it to Karen.

“You are like me – not like Alexia. Alexia became angry, and the anger took over. But you can be like me. You can use what you know and have and take control of your life. The difference between the darkness you fear, and the Sith you wish to be is not whether you have that anger. It is whether you control the anger, or the anger controls you. If you control the anger, you have a power that is unmatched in the galaxy. Something even your father cannot beat.”

She declines the saber and hands over the blaster.

Fringes of darkness pull at her periphery.

The whispers have returned.

"I appreciate that, more than you know but there is something I must do first. I can't explain it but I must be alone. Keep the weapons for now."

Karen moves out of the chair, pausing in the doorway.

"Set a course for Hesperidium. You can recharge while we stock up on all the explosives we can get our hands on. I'll call Commander Price and have him put together a care package on the Quandary when they meet us there. Don't worry, he's discreet and doesn't ask questions. We need to be rested and prepared if we are to take out all eight targets."

Walking back through the shuttle, she sends Price her instructions. The whispers are getting louder now, crying out for attention. The darkness is like a riptide puling her out to sea. She tries to keep her breathing steady as she approaches the stateroom but it is too late. Her eyes grow into pools of blackness as she taps the controls and steps inside.



-TBC

[Medivh]

Ord Radama

Mara thought the show of confidence would help karen out, but she not only refused the saber but hands over her blaster. ? Afraid to be near weapons? That wouldn't bode well for their upcoming assaults. ? Karen seems to be holding something back, trying to get out of the cockpit before - well, Mara wasn't sure what.

In the doorway, she paused, only for a minute.

"Set a course for Hesperidium. You can recharge while we stock up on all the explosives we can get our hands on. I'll call Commander Price and have him put together a care package on the Quandary when they meet us there. Don't worry, he's discreet and doesn't ask questions. We need to be rested and prepared if we are to take out all eight targets."

Karen disappears quickly, leaving Mara alone to her thoughts. ? She can sense a storm coming, but not in the same type of tangible way that seemed to send Karen running. It's more in the distance.

Hesperidium - Mara had never been there before, but sensed that it was a prudent decision. ? They did need equipment before making an assault. explosives and the like. ? Plus they did need to do some healing - Karen, emotionally, before she was ready to fight. and Mara too - still feeling incomplete from her injuries on Corellia, still feeling vulnerable, weak - she could use some shop/repair time, see if she could get a better diagnosis without being rushed by pursuers.

No, now it was her turn to be a pursuer.

Setting the course for Hesperidium, she waited to escape the pull of the gravity well and sent the ship into hyperspace.

FLASH

Battle between Valerie and Phage goes on, like so many times before. ? Valerie is losing, like in real life. ? Mara remembered that battle well, and was one of the only ones to have seen it.

Phage is prepared to make the killing blow - but suddenly, something changes - Valerie turns away from Phage, looking to Mara and with a disembodied voice, she speaks out.

"I am you"

The electrostaff Phage is clutching comes down, killing Valerie. ? Mara looks down, feeling pain throughout her torso. ? She sees blood, feels herself growing faint. ? She looks back up, Phage now staring at her, as so many times before

"TRAITOR"

Mara feels weak, lightheaded as blood trips from her body, but she is firm

"No - I am not yours. ? You don't control me"

"I will always control you, INFILTRATOR-01. ? I am the reason you exist. ? To betray me is to betray your existence"

"Creators don't control those they create. ? Fathers do not control sons and daughters. ? You may have created me, brought me to life, but in being alive, I have a choice"

"You think you are alive? ? We'll see about that"

And even in her dream, she passes out from the pain

FLASH

-TBC

[Syren]

Hyperspace

The haze clears to reveal an epic mindscape.

Alexia waits for her on the warm sands of Korriban. She appears as she was before Phage transformed her, crimson hair cropped short around her shoulders, black jumpsuit, sinister smile. She could have been beautiful, if she only tried.

"Coward."

Karen smirks as they begin to circle each other.

"Tell me something."

"Oh, this should be good."

"Why don't the dead stay dead?"

Alexia shrugs.

"I would say we live on in your heart, if you could find it. So we live on in your mind."

"I defeated you once and I will do so again."

"Is that what you think, dear sister? Take a look at yourself. All those horrible things you've done to get where you are. The lies you've told, people you trampled over without so much as blinking. You are me."

"Not even close."

"I suppose we tell ourselves what we must in order to go on but you cannot escape what is written."

"What's written is complete bullshit. You were just too stupid to realize it."

Alexia laughs, morphing into Valerie.

"I wonder if that's what Melanie and Kimber believe."

"Stop."

Valerie moves slowly and purposefully, hips sliding back and forth as she approaches. She grabs Karen's face and kisses her deeply. Karen tenses, pushing her away. Valerie sneers.

"You know you love it. Just like you love the power, the fame and the money. You could have it all."

Karen glares, crossing her arms, "I will."

Valerie licks her lips.

"You can if you play it right. Tip Dementat off, send the Imperial fleets crashing against the Confederation, stop daddy dearest and take what he's built to use as your own. Imagine, a droid army to do your bidding? A selfish yet practical solution that cuts down on labor costs. More credits for shoes."

"That is a good point."

"But not until-"

"I'm not going to kill them."

Valerie becomes D'Arcy and Billy, holding hands. Half his head is blown outward, her flesh is charred. She smiles sadly.

"A little late for that, isn't it?"

They become Reef and Lucas, slashed up and missing limbs. Reef sighs.

"We all died for you."

Then Skyler, mangled and broken.

"For your cause. For your future."

Karen gasps, mouth agape.

Skyler smiles, becoming Agent Venko.

"Surviving was never an option."

Then Agent St. Claire, "Not for any of us."

Finally, he becomes Governor Indew Strye.

"We had to die just like they must."

He becomes Valerie again, still laughing maniacally as she reaches toward the sky.

"Fate hinges on their demise."

Valerie's dark eyes spark as thunder rolls.

"You can't be number one unless you're the only one."

Above them, the pulsing clouds are parted by jagged block letters. The words of the prophecy, bold and hanging in the air begin to snap off and fall. They whistle like bombs as they hurl downward. Words shatter to become letters that bounce and spiral across the sands. Karen is running, leaping and diving to avoid being crushed.

Valerie's laughter echoes as the winds kick up, swirling the sands into cyclones.

Karen trips, falling into a pit that begins to fill up with sand.

Valerie's voice is like the echo off a canyon.

"Kill them or risk losing it all!"

She struggles but the pit is filling up too quickly. She raises a hand, clawing for something, anything that would save her but the sand pours into her open screaming mouth. As she begins to suffocate, Karen clings to a confidence that she is stronger than this. She has risen above what is written, what was chosen for them -

- Karen coughs, gasping and comes to sitting at a lavish dinner table. Classical music plays softly in the background. Candles flicker in the cavernous room. Everyone she knows surrounds the table, mingling, drinking, as a newborn human baby lies quietly on a serving platter as a centerpiece. As the guests talk amongst themselves, Alexia rises and moves toward the center of the table. She gazes out over the crowd, winking at Karen as she raises two carving blades. The baby coos, reaching up. Alexia presses one blade against the arm, pinning it back to the platter while using the other to begin carving. Sections of flesh peel away from bone as the child wails. No one seems to notice as conversation continues uninterrupted. Alexia places a piece on a plate and hands it to Lucas. Skyler leans over to whisper something to Billy. D'Arcy watches expectantly and compliments Carli on her dress. Scott makes eyes at Agent Venko. Melanie takes a bite off Lucas' fork. Reef reaches below the table, fingers creeping up Valerie's skirt as she raises a glass. Kimber giggles, pushing her chair back to stand. Blood soaks the bottom of her dress, thin rivulets winding down her shapely legs.

"It's okay, Kar. It had to be this way, the way it was written."

"No," Karen says, shaking her head as she grips the table. "No, it doesn't."

"Who told you that?" Melanie says.

Valerie scoffs, "What have we always said? Never trust a knock off."

Kimber steps forward, placing a bloody hand on Karen's arm.

"What matters is that we're together now."

Felicia leans forward, swallowing a mouthful. Her neck is covered in blood. Karen stares at her strangely. Felicia offers up a plate.

"You should really try this. It's delicious."

Karen heaves, backing away from the table. She turns and flees through an archway to find herself standing in the throne room of the Emperor's Citadel on Byss. She wears a spectacular white dress. Instead of a veil, a glittering crown rises from the crimson ringlets of her hair. A room full of people stand at attention as music begins to play. Someone hands her a bouquet of flowers and she walks down a deep purple carpet toward a formally dressed Dementat. His blue eyes shimmer as he watches her approach. He extends a hand. She accepts, turning to face him.

"I always knew you could do it."

They exchange vows and kiss passionately. He turns to the crowd and proclaims.

"Behold! Our Empress."

The entire room bows before them.

A shot rings out, piercing Dementat's chest, sending him crumpling to the floor. People are screaming, dashing for cover. Guards are scrambling. Karen drops to his side, covering the wound with her hands. The ring on her finger is blinding as Dementat dies in her arms.

Marius Guile steps out of the chaos holding a blaster rifle.

"If you will not take their lives..."

He raises the blaster at Karen.

"...I will take yours."

The shot roars and everything fades to black.

She stands alone beneath a spot light.

Alexander Winton appears, taking her hands.

"My daughter. My beautiful, talented daughter."

"Father?"

"You have made me so proud."

"Have I?"

"You've come so far. You are almost there."

The flesh on his hands split apart, falling off mechanical limbs. He grips her wrists tightly.

"Fulfill your destiny, the one I made just for you."

And in that moment, she makes her choice.

"No."

"You dare defy me?"

Karen's eyes are clear and focused.

"Our actions only further your goals. Your lies have costs us everything. You may have fooled them but you will not fool me. I am the one with power. Not you. It is my destiny to fulfill, not one you have created to use as leverage against our happiness and freedom."

Kinetic energy crackles in the air, striking between them and forcing them apart. She extends a hand to graze his cheek as she levitates.

"You've pulled our strings long enough."

Karen peels Alexander's flesh away, the metallic droid skeleton beneath now revealed. She takes a Force-hold of it and smiles. He knows what is happening but is powerless to stop it. She pulls him apart. The pieces fall away into the darkness, leaving her alone-

- Screaming, Karen thrashes across the small bed in the stateroom. She is drenched in sweat but filled with relief. The darkness is no longer threatening to consume her. She was free of her family curse to correct the course of her own destiny.

One she decided for herself.

Exhaling loudly, Karen turns over and smiles.

This is how her story should end.


-TBC

[Medivh]

Hyperspace

Droids don't dream.  Even when powered down, when a droid is 'sleeping' there is no dream. only darkness.  Because there is no power.  When not entirely powered down, most droids have a 'power saving' mode, where their systems run self diagnostics while their bodies use less energy than while awake.  Mara had never powered down entirely - turned off, she wouldn't be able to turn herself back on. But she had gone into that power saving mode, necessary for her very survival when she was leaking power, to run self diagnostics, etc.

It had been in that power-saving mode that Mara first experienced those flashbacks.  She couldn't call them dreams - droids don't dream.  Even if she was alive, the capacity to dream was beyond her. Wasn't it?  It must be.  Droids have memory recall, a system to retrieve information, records.  that was how the flashbacks had started - recalled events as they had happened. She attributed it to a short circuit that triggered memory recall involuntarily

But they had then begun to change.  Since her return to Coruscant and Phage's platform there amidst the asteroid field, her flashbacks had been changed, to see things she never had.  Even this Mara had been able to explain, citing her own damaged systems as messing with the memory recall, mixing images from the platform's memory and her own together.

But things had become odder.  Suddenly, it wasn't just her watching. She was participating.  And that made her question these random "flashbacks."  How could she be interacting with a memory?  Diagnostics hadn't been able to explain it.  Nothing showed what could cause the flaw.

Even as she experienced her most recent flashback - to be honest, she was calling them dreams now too, whatever they were -she was trying to discern what was allowing her to see it, to experience it, to talk with the image of Phage.  She felt herself go into blackness, being killed, stabbed by Phage.

Then she felt alone, surrounded by blackness.  Her body wasn't waking up.  Was this what death was like? How was she stuck here?

Then ahead of her, she saw a brief, dim light, coming from a window in the darkness. She walked toward it, the light getting brighter until she was looking through it.

It was a desert world, Korriban.  Alexia and Karen are facing against each other, but talking rather than sparring

"I defeated you once and I will do so again."

"Is that what you think, dear sister? Take a look at yourself. All those horrible things you've done to get where you are. The lies you've told, people you trampled over without so much as blinking. You are me."

"Not even close."

"I suppose we tell ourselves what we must in order to go on but you cannot escape what is written."

"What's written is complete bullshit. You were just too stupid to realize it."

Mara was confused by the conversation - two sisters who understood each other's language, but clearly disagreed, even hated each other.  That fit Karen's own description of her relationship to Alexia.  But what was she seeing?  This wasn't in her memory, and certainly not what happened on Phage's platform between the two sisters.  This was Karen telling Alexia she was wrong about the prophesy - that revelation was new.  Suddenly, Mara watches as Alexia's image disappears, transforming into a figure quite familiar to her - Valerie Gellar

"I wonder if that's what Melanie and Kimber believe."
"Stop."
Valerie kisses Karen before Karen pushes her away
"You know you love it. Just like you love the power, the fame and the money. You could have it all."
"I will."
"You can if you play it right. Tip Dementat off, send the Imperial fleets crashing against the Confederation, stop daddy dearest and take what he's built to use as your own. Imagine, a droid army to do your bidding? A selfish yet practical solution that cuts down on labor costs. More credits for shoes."
"That is a good point."

It certainly sounded like Valerie, though lacked the self-sacrificing part that Mara had come to admire.  This seemed more like the Valerie that Karen was most familiar with.  But that would mean - Mara took a step back from the window as a thought occurred to her.  It wasn't her dream she was watching. It was Karen's.  Karen was having a conversation with those around her. While Mara watched on.

How could that be possible?  Mara turns back to the window, bewildered, watching as valerie transforms into others that Mara recalled from pictures of Karen from back in high school or from obituaries.  These were Karen's friends. Then more shifting, imperial agents.  It looked like Karen was going through a 'memory recall' of her own, visiting those of her past. More images and words of doom, and Mara watches as Karen struggles to escape a pit filling with sand.  Karen vanishes beneath the sand, and Mara stares for a moment before the window image transforms entirely - a grotesque scene of Karen and her friends and family, carving up a baby for dinner.

Karen runs from the table, the window from which Mara is watching follows, then her view pans out, showing the throne room on Byss -something Mara herself had never seen. Mara watches as Karen is crowned Empress, only to have life dashed away by Agent Marius Guile.  Again, the view changes, and Karen is face to face with a man Mara did not recognize.  But there is something so similar between them- they share something in their face.  And Mara knows who it is - Alexander Winton.  Karen's dream plays on, but the window begins to move away from Mara, and disappears, leaving her alone again in her darkness.

She screams, seeing if sound would come out of her voice.  Seeing if it would somehow break the darkness, explain WHAT and HOW she was having visions, seeing others dreams?

And then a new image flashed before her - not the present or future, not anything she would remember.  it was on Phage's Platform, when it was whole, new, shiny.  There in a large tank, Mara could see an endo-skeleton, a spinal cord, being injected with real bone tissue.  Droids surrounded the tank, watching.  The image sped up, the tissue over the spinal cord grew, and the metal structure within disappeared beneath flesh.  image panned away from the being within to a small tube that was injecting something into the tank, into the being within.  The syringe had a label that read 'midichlorian injection solution.'  Mara suddenly heard a voice, familiar and reassuring.


"The Force runs through only living things, but it was our goal to make it run through something that was artificially created. "

Medivh had said that to them.  They had been trying to create an artificial being that had the power of the Force.  That could wield the Force.  That must be what this was. An experiment, done in Phage's platform, to use a midichlorian implantation into this being that was being newly created and try to instill it with the power of the Force.

Could there be anything more powerful, more terrifying than an immortal being with the power of the Force by his side?"

This must be Alexander Winton, or one of his newest forms.  Mara watched in horror as sinew and tissue began to grow, watching as Alexander Winton was slowly being reborn, and, if it worked, with a power he never had in his past.

But then Mara noticed something different.  it was not a male that was forming inside that tank - it was a female.  And as she watched, she began to recognize the being far more clearly.  Because the person inside that tank was not Alexander Winton.

It was her.

The images sped up, and she watched herself, stepping out of the tank, nude, kneeling before Phage, and accepting his first comamnds.
Fast forward.  Phage and Valerie in heated battle. Valerie loses.  Mara prepares to gun down Phage.  He turns to face her.

"TRAITOR"[/color]

Mara drops the gun.  Extends out her hands.  She could feel something new coursing through her. Something that had always been there but was always dormant.  She pushed out, feeling a rush of energy escape her palms.  Phage falls flat to the ground, parts dismantling to the floor.

Images go dark, and again she finds herself alone in blackness.  realization strikes her, hard.  She wasn't just a droid - she had something no droid before her had.  She had a connection to other living things.  A connection not even most humans had.  Standing there in the darkness, she looked down at her palms.  She knew what the Force was, knew what it could do.  And apparently, it was inside her.

Phage, Medivh, Alexander Winton.  All had been a part of creating her, in some way.  Even Valerie Gellar.  And she carried a part of each of them inside her.  But she was her own person.  She would control her own programming, her own destiny.

And the first step, was to harness control of the dream.  Lifting her hands up, she imagined herself parting the black cloud around her.  nothing happened at first, but she kept trying and trying and trying

Flash

The nav computer was flashing, a sign that the vessel had reached Hesperidium.  Pulling back on the lever, the streaks of hyperspace became points of distant stars, and Hesperidium lay ahead of them.  it was time to get Karen, wherever in her dreams she may be.

They had much to plan, to discuss.  And Mara needed Karen to teach her about the Force.

TBC

[Syren]

Hyperspace

Karen bolts upright, recharged and enlightened. No heaviness clings to her soul, no darkness threatens to pull her under. She can see clearly now for the first time in what seems like forever. There are no if's, ands or buts.

She felt something there in her mind, someone else - watching.

It does not, however, change facts. Her father must be eliminated. Normally, people would feel conflicted about this but he had long ago forfeited any right to fuzzy memories of days gone by. Alexander had stopping being a parent a long time ago - right around the time he decided his agenda was more important than his family or their lives. How many times had they barely survived peril because of him? Think back - how many times has she almost died? Too many. She almost cannot believe the lengths he's gone to, the magnitude of the deceptions and the rookie way they all followed along to the music. He banked on their selfishness and they all played right into his hands. Now she knows exactly where Alexia got her twisted nature. Their father just took it to the extreme. She wonders if her mother got competitive with it or became a liability.

Is her whole family completely evil?

Now there's a sobering thought.

This dampens the personal victory, if only momentarily.

Shuttering, Karen grabs her com to call Felicia. Seeing her in the mindscape was terribly disturbing and she wanted to tell her all about it. The baby feast thing is so something Felicia would get a kick out of. The com beeps and beeps with no answer. She sighs, tossing it aside. Perhaps the doctor was in one of her moods.

She falls back onto the bed, drifting.

Hours later, she opens her eyes. She can feel the shuttle shift around her as it comes out of hyperspace. They must have arrived.

Karen showers quickly and slips into a silver sequined jersey tank dress. They are going to the resort moon and it's hot this time of year. It's not like she could ever face her crew looking like hell, no matter how emotionally wrecked she might be. There would be time for healing. She would need to refocus and gather her strength for the coming storm. She slips on a pair of strappy heels and dabs on some lip gloss, suddenly filled with a rush of familiar warmth. A connection through the Force with something on the shuttle is established even though nothing else on the ship lives. She turns, stepping out of the stateroom and following the feeling down the narrow hall.

Mara is still sitting at the controls, staring up at her with wide eyes. The blue shimmer of Hesperidium hangs in the distance. She radiates in a way Karen cannot explain. It's not the first time either. She felt a glimmer of it when they broke into the Winton estate on Byss. It was brief but surprising, quickly lost in the mental pile of her own motives. Mara seems to be in a state of disbelief, if that were somehow possible.

Karen gazes at her curiously.

"I can....feel you."


-TBC

[Medivh]

Hesperidium

"I can....feel you."

Mara knows what she means.  but as yet, the feeling is not mutual.  Or maybe it was - Mara closed her eyes, trying to figure out what she felt.  Apparently, simply realizing the gift she had had triggered something, had enabled her to have what she could only describe as heightened senses - heightened even for a droid.  But making that type of distinction, feeling out the difference between Karen, and say, the steel door next to her - to Mara, it was all just an overflow of sensations.  There was a connection between her and everything around her, but it felt like it was through a fog, with everything still unclear.

"Karen - do you remember what Medivh said?  About creating droids that had a connection with the Force?  i thought he was just talking about your father, the model he used for himself.  But I think I was a prototype for that particular experiment"

Mara turned from the viewport, looking at Karen standing there in an outfit far too stylish for the mission they had ahead.  Well, they had at least some time - let karen be karen while on hesperidium, and hope she can transform into something more appropriate when they finally set out.

But Mara's thoughts are, at least for the moment, not on the mission.  they are on this new self realization.  And this new connection she has with everything, and especially with Karen makes her want to reveal what until now, Mara deemed as a weakness, a defect.

"Since I escaped from Coronet City, I've been having flashbacks.  At first, it seemed like they were caused by an injury that I suffered, a short circuit that kept triggering my memory recall.  I kept seeing ... I kept seeing that last battle, between Valerie Gellar and Phage.  And I kept seeing me killing him.  But then those flashbacks, those memories, began to change. I began seeing flashbacks of things I never saw - you fighting your sister. You fighting with Melanie Masterson, talking to Valerie.  Phage talking to me, but things he never actually said.  Me talking back to all of them.  They weren't memories, and I assumed it was just my damaged subroutines mixing up a slew of downloaded information that I've collected, that my own malfunction sought to scramble and reinterpret into these flashbacks.

But I don't think that anymore.  Not after what Medivh said.  Not after I saw what I saw - I saw you. You talking with Valerie, with your father. With Alexia.  I think I saw your own dreams. And I think Medivh was right - Alexander Winton was trying to create a droid that could tap into the Force. And I think that I was the first prototype of that.  i think somehow, while I was having those flashbacks, or dreams, or whatever they were called, I was so close to your, and your dreams were so powerful, that they actually leaked into my consciousness.  I don't think what I have is a malfunction - I think I was supposed to have these dreams.  I think that I can tap into the power of the Force"

Mara smiled.  A rare action, for someone who had so often been on the run, programmed to infiltrate and kill.  the smile was short lived though.  Mara was, afterall, still a warrior.

"That means your father has command of the Force as well. He's going to be a droid with built in super-human strength, and a connection to the Force.

Karen - I need you to teach me how to use this connection.  My knowledge and subroutines can help, make the learning process faster, but the Force is organic. It doesn't run on set algorythms. I need to experience it in a way that I've never integrated information before.  Can you teach me?"

-TBC

[Syren]

Hesperidium

"Karen - do you remember what Medivh said? About creating droids that had a connection with the Force? i thought he was just talking about your father, the model he used for himself. But I think I was a prototype for that particular experiment."

Karen gasps, moving forward reflexively. "How do you know?"

Mara glances at her, eyes flickering over her outfit with a hint of distain. Karen shrugs. There are some things about herself she could never change, the small things she clings to in order to retain a sense of normalcy in the ever escalating nightmare their lives have become. She listens closely as Mara explains the flashbacks she's been having, the dreams involving those they both know. Karen is surprised as she rationalizes that her own plight in the mindscape had leaked into something Mara could access. So that is who she felt watching from a distance, the presence she could not explain or deny.

"I think that I can tap into the power of the Force."

Karen kneels beside her, the connection between them stronger than ever.

"That means your father has command of the Force as well. He's going to be a droid with built in super-human strength, and a connection to the Force."

"Maker Almighty..."

"Karen - I need you to teach me how to use this connection. My knowledge and subroutines can help, make the learning process faster, but the Force is organic. It doesn't run on set algorithms. I need to experience it in a way that I've never integrated information before. Can you teach me?"

Karen stares up at Mara, placing a hand on her arm. Their eyes lock. Something emotional solidifies. Perhaps this is what Medivh meant when he spoke of Mara's fate intertwined in her own. Valerie had accepted her destiny and heroically laid down her life for Corellia and those she loved never knowing another was created to take her place.

The one who lives but does not have life.

In this moment she is certain.

Mara and Karen are meant to share this gift to fight a common enemy.

They would need each other to defeat the evil created by her father. They would free the galaxy and everyone held hostage by a meaningless prediction that had ruined so many lives.

"Of course I will."

Karen rises, taking her hand. She squeezes it tightly.

"Bring the saber. We'll need it for practice. I will teach you what Dementat taught me and together, we will stop him. I swear on the life Valerie gave and those we will save. Take us down."

Mara returns to the controls, easing the shuttle below the shimmering hulk of the Corporeal Quandary. Karen pulls the com from her purse. The connection is instantaneous, as if he had been waiting for it.

"Welcome back, your Highness."

"Thank you, Commander Price. Has my package arrived?"

"In the cargo bay as instructed."

"Excellent. You serve me well, Commander."

"Thank you, your Highness. May I assist you with anything else?"

"Yes," Karen says, feeling a sense of warmth as they break through the clouds to reveal the sparkling beaches and white sand shores. "Send doctor Kensington to meet us on the surface. We'll need some diagnostics run."

The Commander pauses, "That may be a problem, your Highness."

"You know how I feel about that word."

"I know, and I apologize but it seems the doctor has gone missing."

"Missing? Well, it is a big ship. Try looking."

"We're on it, your Highness."

"Call me the instant you find her. We've got a lot of work to do."

She clicks off and sighs. What the hell is Felicia doing that's so important? Unless she's banging a feisty new female intern, there's no excuse. Karen directs Mara past the spaceport to the glorious wonder known as the Bolerathon Tower. She guides the shuttle down onto the private landing platform at the top of the tower. Karen gathers her belongings and steps onto the ramp. The salty sea air is refreshing and she walks to the railing to gaze down at the pristine sands of Imperial Beach.

She turns as Mara joins her on the platform.

"My father and Henrick Masterton built this place. They were once as close as Melanie and I. Upon their death's, heavy on the air quotes, the title was transferred in equal shares to Melanie and myself. Not that she ever visits."

She says this sadly, feeling a pang.

Is their friendship, their special bond, headed for the same horrific climax?

A bit of history repeating...

Karen sighs, motioning toward the access door. They enter the silent corridor that is finely polished and minimally decorated with large and colorful abstract paintings commissioned from Skyler's father, Bastien McNeal.   

Karen stops by the door with a giant cursive W. Laughing, she points as it while glancing at Mara.

"See, it's like a thing."

She taps in her access code and the door hisses open. Her heels echo on the foyer floor, so many warm memories rushing back. The summers they spent here, the parties they threw, all the childish drama that unfolded.

"It's so good to be..."

Her voice trails off, bags slipping from her hands. Mara would follow the line of sight where Karen's eyes were now focused.

Doctor Felicia Kensington lies draped across the couch, purposefully positioned to imply she was somehow relaxing. Her skin is a deep blue, eyes milky and glazed over, blood covering her neck and lab coat. On the wall behind her, written in blood, is a message.

You're Welcome

Karen screams.


-TBC

[Medivh]

Hesperidium

"Karen - I need you to teach me how to use this connection. My knowledge and subroutines can help, make the learning process faster, but the Force is organic. It doesn't run on set algorithms. I need to experience it in a way that I've never integrated information before. Can you teach me?"

"Of course I will."
Karen squeezes her hand, offering mara a sentimentality she is not used to.  Offering her a first set of instructions and guiding her down to the Winton's private tower.

Pleasantries are exchanged between Karen and her own capital flagship.  The fact that Kensington is missing seems to annoy Karen, but Mara has an odd suspicion in the back of her mind.  Getting from one end of a star destroyer to another is time consuming, but checking in on someone?  That should be easy.

Bolerathon Tower approaches ahead and the shuttle touches down, Mara holstering her blaster on one side and Karen's saber on the other.  Carrying weapons was habit for her, plus Karen had said she should bring the saber.

"My father and Henrick Masterton built this place. They were once as close as Melanie and I. Upon their death's, heavy on the air quotes, the title was transferred in equal shares to Melanie and myself. Not that she ever visits."

Karen stops by the door with a giant cursive W. Laughing, she points as it while glancing at Mara.

"See, it's like a thing."


"I guess the joint ownership thing wasn't reflected in the initials - unless you count the W as an upside down M"

The comment was lighthearted sarcasm, but the fact that a building jointly owned by Masterton and Winton only proclaimed one showed the dominance that Alexander Winton had over the parents of the children.

Karen types in her access code and the door opens, light air conditioning breezing out to greet them.

"It's so good to be..."

Mara was looking around the room when karen screams, redirecting her attention.  Doctor Kensington is dead and lying in her own blood.

You're Welcome

The sight was groteque, shocking, but Mara's primary programming kicked into gear - blaster was out in split second timing as she inventoried the room.  keeping eyes up, Mara bent down and grabbed Karen's commlink from where she had dropped it.  Clicking it on.

"Commander Price, this is Mara Gellar,with Kar ... with her highness.  We need immediate backup at Bolerathon Tower, and you are to track any vessels that are leaving the system."

"What? What's happened?"

"We found Dr. Kensington. She's been murdered.  And I think the murderer is still here."

Mara is doing calculations in her head, keeping the gun in a steady arc, looking for movements. Kensington had been onboard the Quandary, and her disappearance was new.  That meant that her body had been brought to Bolerathon ON the Quandary, and then smuggled off, or was removed from the Quandary and brought here only hours before the Quandary itself left Byss.  Either way, the perpetrator would not have had more than an hour to bring the body to the tower, break in, spread the body, put up the writing and escape before they arrived.  breaking in to the tower had to be time consuming, as well as carrying a dead body - with or without a lift.

"We are sending down a team now. Is her highness alright?"

Mara glanced over at Karen, who had stopped screaming but had a look of shock on her face as she stared blankly ahead at the bloody scene.


"She is ininjured, but as I said, if the perpetrator is still here, there is danger."

"Understood.  A team is launching now."

Mara kept the commlink on standby, again sweeping the room, activating her scanners to see if they showed anything.  Nothing could be detected, but Mara had learned that being undetected didn't mean not present.

She glanced over at Karen who still looked in shock.  This would not do.  Pulling out the saber, she pushed it at Karen.

"We aren't running anymore, and we aren't going to be victims anymore.  From here on in, we are the hunters.  I need your head in the game, or your going to get yourself killed, and your father will win"