Sianid Ascendant: Chapter 22

Sianid could feel that she was commanding greater power in the Force than before--MUCH greater. She could even feel the wispy presence of Lord Kallig within her--not as strongly as when she controlled Dianiss directly, but still enough to know that his power was there and was not a part of her. After all that had happened, she finally did command the power that she craved.

"I suppose I should thank you, my dear Zarvell, for rescuing me . . . but I won't."

"You've lost." he replied. "Just leave now." He looked over to see if Dianiss was okay, and saw that she had collapsed on the floor from the otherwise-fatal wounds she'd suffered that were only partially healed. At least she was breathing.

"Have I, now? The Lifeforce Walk may not have been exactly what I expected, but I have taken her power for my own. You, on the other hand, are at my mercy now, drained and weak from the Blood Possession--I have some experience with this, you see. It will pass, after a few hours of deep sleep . . . which you will not live to enjoy."

Denevee was already trying to summon yet another Death Strike attack when Sianid started channeling lightning at her, saying, "Now, now, none of that." in a condescending tone. Sianid smiled a cocky little smirk as she said "But, just for fun, let's see how much power I have taken."

Zarvell was too weak to do anything to stop her as Sianid's lightning increased in intensity and volume, to the point where Denevee's saber was useless at deflecting it and where it was completely overpowering her own electrical shield.

Zarvell had never seen anything like it, there was so much lightning that it completely engulfed his apprentice to the point that he couldn't even SEE her, and he could barely hear her cries of pain over the roar of the thunderclaps that accompanied it. But even if he couldn't hear her, he could FEEL her pain himself; there was still a bond between them that could not be broken.

...until suddenly it WAS broken. The pain stopped. The cries went silent. Zarvell felt the loss deeply, and--possibly worst of all--he felt the regret of knowing that in her last moments, she had embraced the dark side.

When Sianid ended the attack, Denevee's body was barely recognizable, with electrical burns completely covering her, leaving no trace of her beautiful green skin still visible.

Sianid turned back to Zarvell and said "I hope you felt that, deeply." Despite his normally stoic temperament, he was unable to hide the fact that he did.

Before Zarvell could say a word, Sianid pointed at Drellik without looking at him and simply said "Take him."

Talos fell to the ground in an instant, as a loud 'pop' sound came from the side of the room.

A droid's voice replied, "Confirmation: Target eliminated."

Sianid was laughing again. "So that leaves your precious little girl, Zarvell. You have no idea how much it DISGUSTED me to allow the likes of you to TOUCH ME so that I could create her. But now, she no longer serves any purpose to me . . . except as a means of hurting you."

Qyzen had been crawling towards Dianiss, not sure whether to attack her or protect her. "And him." Sianid said, nodding her head in Qyzen's direction.

POP. "Confirmation: Target eliminated."

Zarvell heard Violet's voice in his earpiece. "I have the shot! I can take her--her and that damned Droid!" she said.

"No . . . or this never ends." he whispered back.

"Wake up, little girl." Sianid said, as she reached into a pocket and pulled out a remote control. When she used it, the shock collar on the back of Dianiss' neck activated and gave her a short, painful shock.

Dianiss did awaken, startled. As she sat up, she began to recognize the room from having seen it--in a way--in the Dream Walk. She also was surprised to feel a couple of painful wounds in her shoulder and side, along with difficulty breathing that came with it.

Sianid waited for Dianiss to stand. "I want you to know that your life . . . is over." she said. "AND, I want your father to HEAR . . . YOUR . . . SCREAMS."

All Zarvell could do was call out "Nooooo!!!" as Sianid unleashed electrical Hell over Dianiss' wounded and bleeding body.  He started to call out Take The Shot but before the words came out, he noticed something astonishing--so much so that it completely derailed what he was about to say.

Sianid was, by all appearances, using as much power in her attack as she could.

Yet . . . the attack quickly went from large-and-powerful to small-and-weak, hardly hurting Dianiss at all. Sianid kept channeling it, kept struggling to increase its effectiveness, but it simply wouldn't. "What's going on?!?" she yelled.

Dianiss simply looked distracted, like she was examining something no one else could see. "Father!" she called out, with a smile on her face. "I'm okay.  It's Kallig. It . . . his power . . . he won't let it be used to harm his own descendants."

As more of a demonstration than an actual attack, Dianiss used the Force to cast a destructive sphere of Force power at Sianid. When it hit, it simply dissipated harmlessly.

"What?!?" Sianid yelled. She fired a bolt of lightning directly at Zarvell, and it was similarly ineffective.

Sianid was angry, but ended her attack on Dianiss. "SO...." she said. "I can't harm you. You can't harm me. No matter. I have other ways...."

Sianid took the shock collar control and turned it to maximum, locking it into a continuous, pulsating current. For the Sith torture device, this was essentially the ultimate 'execution' setting, creating as much physical pain as possible by applying the electrical charges directly into the victim's spinal column via incisions underneath the device itself. At this setting, the shocks would eventually induce cardiac arrest while at the same time acting as a sort of pacemaker, keeping the victim functioning just enough to still feel the pain even after the heart failure it causes.

The pain Dianiss received from the collar was unbelievable, felt simultaneously throughout the entire nervous system with no way to soften it, nearly paralyzing her whole body while skyrocketing her heart rate. But she managed, through it all, to get out three words that Sianid would remember for the rest of her life.


"So do I."


Zarvell had seen Jedi in action before, and knew what a Jedi healer's most powerful ability looked like: bright light, with a yellow tint like the Tython sun, forming a circle. And inside that circle, a place is created where the Force simply bubbles over with LIFE, the ultimate manifestation of the light side of the Force.

The thing Dianiss did . . . was was not that.

Well, yes it was.

But Dianiss had put ALL of her power into it, and all of Kallig's power into it, something she had never done before. Doing THAT transformed it into . . . something else.

The entire room was filled with bright yellowish-white light, which was almost blinding, except that it felt warm, inviting, and invigorating. All pain was gone. Zarvell could feel his energy returning.

Around the room, he could also see its effect on the others, both friend and foe. Even the moss growing on the damper parts of the stonework seemed to bloom a bright green and spread out a bit.

Zedemm was the first to wake up, followed shortly after by Kari. The smile on Kari's face was one of pure, undiluted joy as she felt the unmistakable presence of her best friend once again.

Drellik and Qyzen woke up soon after, the wounds from the sniper rifle completely healed. Drellik even watched in fascination as Qyzen's severed leg regenerated from the stump right before his eyes. Qyzen had lost claws before (even an arm, once), and they had eventually regenerated--but never THIS quickly. In fact, even Qyzen himself had never seen nor even heard of any Trandoshan regenerating a limb this quickly.

Ashara was next to awaken. Her wounds and burns were more severe than the others, and so took longer to heal. Zarvell was . . . overjoyed.

Denevee took longer than the others as well, but was soon looking green and healthy again, with no sign of the electrical burns that covered her before.

Even Khem's chest wound was healing, the effect inhibited somewhat by his Dashade physiology. But soon his eyes were open as well.

Dianiss herself, at the center of it all, looked the picture of health. There was no visible sign of any of the wounds that she had suffered.


Only Galadina still lay on the stone floor, lifeless.


Dianiss could still feel the pain of the shock collar, but the effects of the overcharged healing circle that now filled the room were dulling the pain and keeping her heart slow and steady--temporarily preventing the fibrillation that was almost upon her. "Zed, I need a favor." she said very calmly.

"Of course." he replied just as calmly, and a lightsaber flashed across the room. It passed just behind her head, slicing a neat gash through the shock collar, causing its power supply to burst in a small shower of sparks, shattering the shell of the collar itself. As the pieces fell to the ground, the spinal incisions below it quickly closed and healed.

As the effect of Dianiss' massive healing channel dimmed, and came to an end, Zarvell was able to stand up, feeling strong and alert.

He looked Sianid sternly in the eyes. "As I said, you've lost. Leave. Now."

Looking around the room, and seeing that everyone but Khem and HK-51 were arrayed against her, she opted for a strategic retreat.

"I am still a member of the Dark Council." she said to Zarvell. The look on her face was pure hatred. "Even if I can't kill you here and now, you and your little cabal of traitors--ESPECIALLY YOU, ASHARA--will not last long against the Empire itself. Khem! HK! Come. We're leaving."

As the three of them backed slowly out of the room towards the door, she said to Zarvell, "You cannot oppose the Dark Council. They will know of what has happened here."

"Yes." Zarvell said under his breath.  "Yes . . . they . . . will."

Zedemm was now kneeling next to Galadina, puzzled at why she had not awakened. "Father, I trust you have a plan for dealing with the Dark Council. But this..." He pointed at Galadina's lifeless body. "...is a greater problem."