VE: Vogue Empire

[Syren]

Centerpoint Station

Melanie bears down as Karen raises her own saber to defend. The hissing sound the blades make upon contact is surprisingly loud but Karen stands and forces her friend back. The slash, parry, twirl, parry, strike is almost like a macabre dance as the women circle each other. The Magna-Guards have dispatched most of the dark troopers but the droids themselves can barely function with the damage they have sustained. For the most part, they are alone, surrounded by bodies, flaming shuttles and overturned crates. By now, the Empire has landed in other points of the station and pushed their way in. The droid presence would be an unexpected and dangerous adversary had Karen not alerted the fleets but she cannot think about that right now. This fight with Melanie is startling in its own bare reality, a confrontation she feels may have always been coming. They had been so close yet so different from one another. Karen was always the selfish one where as Melanie empathized with the human struggle. Funny how she had convinced her their powers were not necessary for them to be considered special yet here they are in full display. Both had received the training they had shunned in the past only in opposite fields of study.

Karen defends herself but does not go for the offensive strike nor does she unleash the telekinetic fury she has recently mastered. A part of her, foolishly or not, believes she can still reason with Melanie, make her understand how they had all been duped from the get-go. There is a way to be free of the prophecy if only she would hear her out. Mara had taught her that self-centered wanton destruction does not often bring about the results one hopes for.

And that is why she deactivates her saber.

At first, Melanie does not know how to react to this gesture, keeping her own glowing blade firmly in a defensive position.

Karen speaks slowly as she continues to circle.

"Melanie, listen to me. I know a lot has changed since we last saw one another. The galaxy is different now and a part of that is on me. It's on all of us. We helped shape what the worlds have become, the lives at stake and those that have been lost. The paths we have taken are not solely our own. They are the design of another. We have made choices based on tragic misdirection, purposefully placed before us to achieve a certain outcome. My father, still very much alive, has outdone himself yet again. Us, here, now - this is what he wants."

Melanie draws in a long breath, "Be that as it may, you are not guiltless. He is not the only reason we are here and I am in awe at your audacity to stand before me and claim otherwise."

"None of us are guiltless. We have all compromised ourselves in order to survive. While blame does lie in the choices we have made, the fault in our belief does not."

"You say that like you can simply brush aside what you came for."

Karen shakes her head, "You have no idea what I came for."

"Yes, I do. You came to murder the rest spoken of in the prophecy so that you and your Emperor can rule. So it is written, so shall it be."

"The prophecy is a lie!" Karen screams. "Melanie, don't you see that? It's always been a lie! My father took what my mother uncovered and Alexia dug up then twisted it to fit his own purpose."

Melanie blinks away the tears now stinging her eyes, emotions from the past and present boiling over and she verbally fires back.

"Your mother is the one who gave it to me in the first place. Do you know what that was like, Karen? Do you? Having our fates placed in my hands? The pressure to keep the secret in fear it would risk all our lives? All the times I wanted to tell you or Kimber or even Valerie but kept it in. I was only fifteen! I was so frightened and confused that I confided only in the Jedi who came for me."

"What Jedi?"

"The one your mother sold your father out to. She knew that his intentions for us were never pure. So did my mother. So did a lot of people. He lied to our parents, made them believe we were destined for great things when really all we ever did was leave a path of destruction and death in our wakes. All the friends we lost, the people who suffered and died simply because they knew us! How do you expect to atone for that? How can any of us expect to find solace in what we have done? It was my responsibility to protect the truth for as long as I did. I honored your mother's wishes at the expense of people's lives."

Karen arches a brow, keeping a comfortable distance between them.

"And you think it's just a coincidence it was you she turned to? We were all deceived, Melanie. Every single action taken was meticulously plotted out to set in motion the next pre-planned reaction. He filled my mother's head with notions that you would save us all from big bad Alexia then big bad me. She may have believed she was doing the right thing after so much time doing nothing that she never stopped to realize she was playing right into his hands. So were you, so was I. We are playing into them right now! Don't you think it's time we break those vicious cycles my father is so fond of?"

Melanie narrows her gaze.

"And how, pre-tell, do you suppose we do that? Let my guard down? Trust you after you and your Empire have hunted us across the galaxy?"

"Despite what you have  been led to believe, I am not here to kill you or Kimber. I came to save my friends after realizing the error in my judgment almost cost me everything. I came to finally destroy my father and that dreadful prophecy he's been lording over us our entire lives! I want us to be free from it all, to go our own ways, separately or together, but on our own terms. I can't even imagine what you must think of me after all the damage I've done and I don't blame you. I have to live with the mistakes I made along the way, the brash and irresponsible way I conducted myself. You have every right to hate me, hell, you even have the right to withhold forgiveness or mercy but I beseech you to stop and think carefully about who's agenda you are actually trying to accomplish. Yours or his?"

Melanie lowers the saber and steps closer. Karen does not back away.

"You are right."

Relief floods through her, propelling her forward.
 
"I'm so sorry, Melanie. For everything."

"You may not be the problem," Melanie replies softly, stepping forward and twirling the blade before plunging it all the way through Karen's stomach.

Karen gasps, hands outstretched, staring first at the blue saber then raising her eyes to Melanie's face. The speed and brutality of these actions is not how she saw this heartfelt moment ending. She had been deceived by someone whom she thought was never capable of such things, someone who always fared on the lighter side of life. In this moment, it dawns on Karen that there is darkness in everyone, even those who shine the brightest.

Melanie withdraws the weapon, "But you are not part of the solution either."

Karen drops to her knees.

"I never came here...to hurt you."

She sags forward, one hand clamped over her stomach, feeling the rush of air pass through her entire body.

Melanie glares down at her coldly, "I am afraid that is not a risk I can afford to take."

Karen smirks, one last time, before falling forward and lying still on the hangar bay floor.

Melanie kneels beside her, surprised that her feelings are not more conflicted. This had to be done. It was foreseen. It was her or them and there was no other way.

The shuttle swooping in behind her barely registers until it is on the ground.

Melanie stands, turning.

As the ramp touches the floor, Emperor Dementat strides out into the hangar, lit saber in his hand. His electric blue eyes flare as they focus first on Melanie then on Karen's body lying beside her feet. The rage is far from subtle. He charges with every ounce of anger and fury he has. Melanie swings her own saber around as the blades connect. They slash and parry as he attacks her viciously with his perfected Vaapad style. She counters, barely, before leaping high into a back flip to land on the other side of the hangar. Fueled by grief, Dementat purses her without hesitation.

"You will pay for this, Jedi!"

Melanie regains her footing and assumes a defensive neutral stance.

"What is done cannot be undone. My actions serve only to save those I have sworn to protect."

"None will live after you have fallen. Of that I am certain."

He speeds forward in a swift flank, sailing by her and sideswiping her left arm. She spins, caught off guard by the minute but painful wound and thrusts her hand out. He narrowly misses the Force push as he leaps over her, landing solidly, keeping low and firing back with a pushing slash across her midsection. Melanie reels, slamming up and over the nose of an overturned shuttle. He does not allow time for her to recover and advances with vornskr's ferocity. She barely has time to right herself when the saber bares down, slicing off the flowing fabric of her sleeve. She counters and moves to a more Ataru style combat, hoping to gain a defensive edge. She needed to subdue him and quickly. Dementat shows no signs of slowing and continues his assault, pressing her back into a corner. Despite her efforts, he is far more powerful than she and driven by a dark rage she simply does not possess. Melanie struggles as each of his powerful strikes weakens her. Soon her body is riddled with small scorch marks. He swings low and she deflects when he steps back, twirls and takes her head clean off at the neck. Her lovely face is caught in a perpetual gasp of surprise as it spirals through the air, blond curls spinning freely until the head lands at his feet. Her body drops forward and crumples over, blue saber still clutched firmly in her hand.

Dementat inhales sharply, invigorated by the kill.

Yet he cannot escape what he has lost.

He deactivates his saber walks steadily to Karen's body and drops beside her. Turning her over, Dementat cradles her in his arms, brushing away strands of crimson hair from her serene face. She is still very warm and he is overcome with grief that her life was taken as she tried to stop her father's unrelenting invasion into their world. Her death would not be in vain and he silently swears this to himself. He sets her body down gently, as if handling a child, and folds her arms across her chest.
 
"Revenge will be mine, lover. It will be mine."

The room seems to hum with energy as Dementat stands, turns and storms deep into the station to punish the one responsible for it all.



-TBC

[Syren]

Centerpoint Station

The ISD-II Corporeal Quandary flares out of hyperspace into the explosive battle. Admiral Price targets the station as instructed.

"If all else fails you," she had said. "Strike at its heart."

*

Kimber fights back the waves of fear and grinds her teeth. The pain is unlike anything she has experienced before. They say childbirth is a miracle and right now, she'd like to punch those people in the mouth. Rydan is gone, her outfit is destroyed and she is utterly alone. For the briefest of moments, she considers this might have been her fate all along. The prophecy, their roles in everything, may have led them here. Perhaps Karen and Melanie were meant to face one another - light versus dark. That's the way it's supposed to go down, right? Yet who comes out the victor when everything is shades of gray?  She is going to bear the child foretold who would grow to give back all the things the abominations took away. That's what that damn prophecy said, the one Melanie clung so desperately to. How many times can you read something before it becomes self-fulfilling? She wonders if maybe they were all abominations in some way. They had all taken, selfishly and vigorously. Maybe her baby would restore what had been lost along the way. But how does one give back all the lives that have been lost? So many had fallen because of them. Not just those she could name by memory. There are countless innocents, even now, who perish for the Persephonea Prophecy. Kimber clutches her stomach and rides out another contraction, this one much closer to the last, cursing Alexander Winton and his stupid games.

There is a hiss in the distance then footsteps, drawing closer.

Closer.

She inhales, suddenly terrified, and grabs the blaster lying beside her and trains it shakily on the door.

It dawns on her how ridiculous she must look.

Someone passes the room who doesn't appear to be a droid so she calls out.

"Wait!"

The footsteps stop then return.

It's a woman, dark hair, injured yet still remarkably stunning.
 
Mara would find the girl in the blood splattered pink designer dress lying on a table with a deceased Mandalorian warrior slumped beside it. While her sensors will recognize her face, the irony here is that Mara also shares a genetic link with Kimber Patten and had taken the life of Rydan's lover Scott St. Claire in her own struggle to free herself from her programming. And seeing that Kimber is delusional from the pain and Mara looks so much like the one she was modeled after, Kimber allows herself to believe her mind's lie only because she wants it so badly.

"Valerie..."

Mara blinks, moving closer, slowly.

"Valerie, help me."



-TBC

[Medivh]

Centerpoint Station

Admiral Schrag was grimacing, watching as the fleet was bit by bit torn assunder.  They were outnumbered so severely.  How had the calculations been so wrong?  Rumors were flying, reports coming in from the station.  Droids.

He could barely believe it.  How could Corellia be employing droids?

They couldn't even get close, couldn't even reach the station to attack it directly.  Too much stood in the way.

And then, as if someone had flipped off a switch, two-thirds of the Corellian ships stopped firing entirely.  Apparently, the droids onboard had shut down.

Then he saw it, the ISD-II Corporeal Quandary appearing out of hyperspace.  But instead of joining the battle, suddenly turned in imperial favor, it headed for the station itself.

"Sir?"
"I see it.  That's Darth Kyja's ship.  It is not under my command.  But prepare for an attack on the station itself"

"Sir - the station.  It's firing again"

They watched as the satellite appeared, the glow increasing in brightness, and then boom, it flashed out, the energy lancing out into space.  It went far - beyond the entire battle.  And then, just as quickly it began to loop around.

As the Corporeal Quandary reached the center sphere of the massive station, the energy fired from the station itself, circled around and impacted on the rear engines.

Admiral Schrag watched - the front of the imperial star destroyer smashed into the station, just as the rear of it began to buckle under the weapon's influence.  Then he knew.

"Order all imperials to evacuate, and pull every ship we have as far away from the station as possible."

"But sir, the attack - we cannot leave the station in place!"

"We won't have to.  The station just destroyed itself.  We just have to make sure we aren't around when it finishes the process"

The star destroyers that remained of the imperial fleet, every ship that could still move began turning around, turning to get as far away from Centerpoint as they could get.

And even as they did so, they saw what was beginning to happen.  That central sphere slowly began to buckle, the last vestiges of the Corporeal Quandary disappearing into the huge space in the middle.  A massive explosion erupted out of the breached walls.  And then more of the station began to IMPLODE.  They could see the energy source, the power that made Centerpoint so dangerous.  Through the breach, they saw the orb of light, now growing larger as it was sucking in everything around it.  Gravity at its most potent.

"Pull everything away, full engines.  And let's pray for those that don't make it out in time"

==============================

Alexander Winton - the many version of him now activated - felt the impact of the ship.  And then the crushing sounds of metal around him as he fought Dementat, who was doing remarkably well despite being outnumbered.

"You cannot beat me, Dementat"

"I already have Alex.  You aren't escaping"

"If every body I have on Centerpoint is killed, I still have others, spread throughout the galaxy"

Dementat nodded

"I know, Alex.  They've already been destroyed.  All of them"

For the first time, Alexander Winton's face showed neither anger nor cleverness, nor ruthlessness.  No. For the first time, in a very, very long time, he had an expression of fear.

Dementat stood up straight, deactivating his lightsaber and closing his eyes, letting the force permeate his body, the floors, walls, and ceiling around them buckling.

The explosion rocked through the corridor.  Everything there was sucked into the energy beam.  one screamed. one went peacefully.  But both of the titans of the galaxy were gone.

TBC

[Syren]

***


Kimber Patten stares at her reflection in the finely polished lift doors. She wears the pink cupcake dress she made famous in the first Raga'Ana campaign with glittering round-toe heels and an impressive array of fine jewelry. Her auburn hair is kept in place by a pink headband and flips off the corners of her exposed shoulders. It's after nine on this summer night and she is running late. She is not worried, in fact, she does not have a care in the worlds. There are others to get things started. By now it should be in full swing. She smiles serenely at her reflection, the button nose and thin, shapely legs then steps off the lift and walks down a long, white corridor, stopping at the door with a cursive W hanging in the center. Seneca Cirque and Trace Denton stand guard on either side of the door and greet her warmly.

"Good evening, miss Patten."

She giggles sweetly,"Indeed it is."

Kimber steps inside where beyond the foyer a party rages on. Laughter and conversation drift from every direction to the backdrop of the latest ambient house. It's quite the diverse crowd tonight but that was always half the fun. She passes Carli Cole and Caprial Bronson catching up with Tenley Price. Maxi Marx smirks as she wanders by, yammering away into a com-link. Rydan Stratford and Scott St. Claire lean into one another in a corner, all whispers and smoldering feelings. Lux Linus stares thoughtfully at the expressionist work hanging on the walls. Doctor Felicia Kensington makes eyes at D'Arcy Saunders who dances in the arms of Billy St. James in the center of the living room. Nikoli Venko watches curiously from the sidelines, amused but cautious. Lucas Maxwell jokes around with Reef Stratford on the sectional while Skyler McNeal waves. Frank Farmer looks annoyed as Kent Carlson goes on and on about galactic headlines. Emperor Dementat is engaged in a rather intense Sabacc game with Landon Price, Doctor Ariq Osiris and Violet Wyndam with the stakes getting higher by the microsecond. Tanner Graves broods over Sin Serif and Elam Kenniick. Lena Fayr gets her groove on next to Alexia Winton who is showing her how it's done. The Corellian crew, Owin Vyse and Etienne Osgood, hang on Cecelia Vail's every word. Yon Reverand and Kel Morrison are locked in an ale-slamming contest while Governor Indew Strye tries not watch on in horror. Walt Voltaire nudges Rex Rheinholdt as they lewdly rate the quality females in the room. Mod Navris catches her as she passes, pulling her into a slow and passionate kiss before excusing himself to grab another round from the kitchen.

Kimber weaves through the crowd, waving and smiling and dancing along until she steps out onto the patio. The night is refreshingly cool and far below the crash of waves against Imperial Beach compliment the mood perfectly. Karen, Melanie and Valerie hold colorful drinks and beam as she moves closer. They all wear their signature gown of choice.
 
"Late much?" Valerie says, faux-sternly.

Karen nods, "We were waiting for you."

"Yes," Melanie says softly. "We were."

"You know me, always running a bit behind. I hope you saved me a drink."

"Just one?"

They laugh as Valerie hands her a glass.

"A toast?"

"Don't be so trite, Mel."

"It's a special occasion."

"You're a special occasion!"

"Oh, knock it off, you two."

"A toast might be nice. It's a lovely night."

"Well, what should we toast to?"

Kimber bites her lower lip and consider this, "Um, to...friendship?"

Valerie makes a face.

"Cheesy!"

Melanie nods.

"And dreadfully predictable. This needs something else. Something special."

"How about..." Karen says, raising her glass. "To never letting these moments pass? No one knows if it may be their last."

As this settles over the group, the bonds between them solidifies in the summer night air.

"To these moments," Valerie says without a touch of sarcasm.

"These moments."

"These moments."

"These moments."

As their four glasses touch, the sky turns from black to grey and from grey to a blinding white as a perfection that escaped them in life unites them in death. There are so few things in life that truly matter and of those, the most important are the people who share in the experiences. Those are the ones who can be counted on to never let you down, no matter what the cost. Through these adventures, on into the night, they face the unknown.

Together.



-Fin





I want to say a very special thank you to Medivh for allowing me into his world so that our stories could blend as they were told. What began as a simple diplomatic mission for a sim grew into a fantastical story that has really taken on a life of its own. It will not be the last. 

Cheers to you, Med.

XO

K-Lish: The E-Surance Girl