(ooc: sorry about the delay all, but I am back now so we can continue)

Dark eyes remained closed, consciousness kept hidden deep within, though she was aware of everything going on about her. The medical personel bustled about, frantically trying to save her life. Little did they know that she fed off the life energy they wasted, using that energy to knit broken bones and bleeding insides with a thought.

As they continued in their examinations, the droids and doctors were satified that she had not been injured as severly as originally thought. All the wounds they now tended to were superficial cuts and bruises. The chaos that was the medical ward returned to normal as they finished looking to her injuries and were content that both the woman and the Admiral were going to be fine.

Arai waited until she felt the presence of the Medical staff leave before she allowed herself to open her eyes. She could feel the weight of metal of the medical bed restraint on her wrists and ankles, and scoffed. Nothing could keep her from her objective. Her mind reached out, feeling for the bed's controls. It didn't take long for her to find them and force the restraints back into the bed.

A soft moan of awakening next to her drew her attention to the Admiral that lay sleeping on the bed a few meters from her. Her use of her dark force powers was bringing him out of his slumber.

Moving quickly she leapt for the bed's controls and activated the restraints that snapped around his arms and legs. His eyes flew open and she smiled sweetly at him, her hand resting on the metal of the shackles and fusing them in place.

" I told you, Dak. I won't be stopped."

She leaned down to him, her blood red lips kissing his as she took his remaining saber from his belt. Arai smirked and licked her tongue over her lips.

" Don't feel left out, I'll be back to deal with you when I've dealt with Daddy Dearest."

In tattered and torn clothing, and with the lightsaber glowing in her hand, she would not have been an imposing figure were it not for the look of sheer hatred shimmering beneath her dark eyes. Arai could feel the Emperor approaching, even as she cut down the doctor that dared to stop her as she walked out of the Medical bay.

Stepping over the corpse and into the corridor she started in the direction she felt Fearson's presence. It would not do to keep the Emperor waiting.

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Although Arai herself did not notice, he did. The hand in which she held his sabre, a relic of the greatest Shadow Jedi, was smoking slightly. The presence of a Sith holding the blade was too much for the soul of the weapon, and it was burning already.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Taking a Shadow Jedi relic to battle a Shadow Jedi Master,<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> he thought, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--> I knew Sith were stupid but puhlease!<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> As she stepped out the door, clarity returned to his mind, a sense of purpose that would crush anything that opposed it. His battle was over, but Arai would suffer horribly before she was defeated.

Fearsons was crushed by her leaving, and could have been killed had he still been so, but Jade had come, and Fearsons was reborn. Arai's strength was a strength no longer.

Closing his eyes, he reached out with his mind, his soul, and using the force, implanted them right into Arais mind. She couldn't sense it yet, but he was going to cause some serious trouble in here... And she had no way of being able to stop him. Especially if she went after Fearsons...<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

((ooc: waited two weeks for Chadd to respond, done waiting.))


Her heals clicked on the sterile floors of the palace of the Rogue Empire. Most people that she came across moved when she approached, those that did not or tried to stop her were removed from her way. The saber in her hand had begun to irritate her and she chuckled at the thought that she could no longer wield the weapon of a Shadow Jedi. Still, it suited her purposes for now, and a little discomfort was a small inconvenience.

She turned a corner, running straight into a stunned cleaning woman. Without a second thought Arai brought the stolen saber around in a deadly arc, removing the head from the woman as she had any other that had gotten in her way.

" Hold!"

The shout echoed through the hall as the headless corpse collapsed to the now blood stained floor. Arai looked behind her and at the black clad Royal Guard that stood there. Sneering, she turned completely. " Does the Emperor think so little of me that he only sends on PeFauna to stop me?"

The PeFauna stepped in her direction. " You play a dangerous game, Mistress Heishi."

" I assure, I am not playing and this is no game."

" Please lower your weapon, Mistress. I would hate to have to kill you."

The way he spoke and held himself reminded her of someone. A smile formed on her lips as she remembered.



Marta and the PeFauna looked to her when she spoke, the older woman’s face filled with dread. With a nudge from the Lieutenant, Marta left the main room and into Arai’s private chambers.

" Mistress Heishi," The Lieutenant said briskly, " We must get you away from this place. It is no longer safe for you here."

She steeled herself, trying to appear unfazed, even though the prickling feeling was growing more persistent. " What’s happened?"



"Lieutenant?" Arai laughed. " Is that you?"

" Please Mistress, it’s still not too late."

" Really, Lieutenant, you were my assigned protector for almost an entire year. You should know I always finish what I start. And I intend to finish this."

" My assignment to you is the only reasons you are not dead at this very moment." He held his hand out to her, palm up. " I will ask you one more time, Mistress, surrender your weapons and stop this!"

Arai pursed her lips, as if thinking. After a moment she smirked and shook her head. " I don’t think so."

The force pike that was standard issue for the PeFauna of the Rogue Empire ignited in his hands. " I’m sorry it came to this, Mistress."

She twirled the saber in her hand. " I’m not."

Their weapons collided, but the lieutenant reacted a hair faster than she and his gloved fist connected with her cheekbone. Dazed and driven back by the blow, she narrowly brought the stolen saber up in time to block a swing of the pike. Again the PeFauna was the quicker and kicked her in the chest, sending her stumbling. Regaining her balance in time, Arai spun on her heal and brought her other leg around in a round-house style kick to the guard’s helmet. Using the momentum she leapt into the air, kicking her heal up into the chin mask.

The PeFauna’s head snapped back, though the blows did not faze him. As she landed on the tiled floor he brought the staff of his pike around, knocking her off her feet. As she tried to rise, his fist backhanded her squarely across her temple and she crumbled back to the floor.

" Alright!" She yelled through the dizzying pain in her head. " Alright! Enough!"

The force pike was pointed down at her, only inches from her throat. " Throw away the weapon, Mistress." Arai glared at the royal guard. Defeated, she deactivated the saber and slid it across the floor toward him. Without moving the pike, he picked up her discarded weapon. " Now get up."

Rolling her eyes, she started to stand but as she put her weight onto her right foot she cried out in pain and was once again on the floor. Her hand rested on her ankle and looked up at the Lieutenant. " I must have landed wrong, I think its broken." She could feel his hesitation and chuckled. " You’ve beaten me, Lieutenant, I have no weapons. I can’t hurt you, but it’s nice to know I can still instill some fear around here."

The force pike deactivated and he rested it against the wall. He knelt beside her, shifting to lift her up in his arms. Her hand slid up her calf to the top of her boot. As he picked her up off the floor her hand slid beneath the leather boot and pulled out the blade she had hidden within. Before he could react, Arai used the force to push all her strength behind the weapon and drove the blade through the robes and armor, and into the flesh of his neck. In a heap the two of them fell to the floor, Arai on top of the gasping Lieutenant. Her features twisted into a sadistic smile and she twisted the blade in the wound. The Lieutenant stilled, never to move again.

The adrenaline coursed through her veins, revitalizing her every muscle. She stood, her ankle uninjured, and took the saber from the PeFauna’s corpse. Something about that kill felt different than the rest, she had enjoyed it much more than the others this day.

Pulling the bloodied blade from the body, she cleaned it on the Lieutenant’s robes and slid it back into her boot. One again making her way through the corridors of the palace she found herself anxious for what was to come next.

All that remained was Fearsons.

OOC

hehe and I have no intention of responding until Arai's in my throne room.

((ooc: atually, in your only other post in this thread you stated you were heading for the medical bay. Since I assumed that meant you were getting up off your butt and moving.... but if you insist. I can kill more people on my way there.))

OOC

No problem, I got hundreds of people lined up around the general vacinity, I could use an employee cut back.

And thus it happened, the emperor, whom had raised the child as well as he could when he refound her after the Empress Teta incident, gazed back into the glaring eyes of his daughter. She too noticed something far different about him...he was old...not a wrinkly pruned form of old, but rather the foreshadowing glimpse of his eyes, the way his shoulders drooped, the way he could barely support himself without the Force.

His PeFauna had been ordered back, and though they had not been pleased with such an order they did not disobey, and now waited near his private quarters. Fearsons simply stared at Arai.

"Well welcome back," he said. There was no sly come back to her actions, no glib remark, no horrified glance at the corpse she left on the floor. He simply stared at her, a dying gaze of a loving father.

Arai's crimson lips turned up into a cruel smile when the Emperor came to stand before her. This was the moment she had been waiting for for a very long time. She glanced over her shoulder, at the cleaning woman and Lieutenant's corpses that lay on the floor behind her. Her tonge flicked over her lips hungrilly as she brought her head back around to look at Fearsons.

With a soft chuckle, and the ever familiar snaphiss, she activated the saber in her hand. Ignoring the pain of the weapon against her palm, the adopted daughter of the Emperor took a menacing step toward him.

"I was just looking for you, Chadd. What took you so long?"