Satisfy My Soul, Attn; Seras!

[Izu-Dar-Mauli]

Life was darkness. It was without guidance, save for random smatterings of memory coming to her mind in dreams, scenes from some kind of fantasy; The sweltering eye of the sun beating down on an endless stretch of white desert. A beached vessel, its dusty, bloated black form degrading beneath the elements. Feet sinking into the burning sand, grains swelling up over her claws, the wind hissing, carrying the tiny pebbles to impact against her scales...

The Tiss’shar didn’t know where the images came from. Everything the creature’s newborn eyes had ever looked upon was metal, neon, and filth, on the planet where she was born, and this planet too. No sand brushed over her scales here, no sun penetrated the deep depths of Coruscant. No, down here the chill fingers of cold dug themselves beneath her scales and the darkness left her blind.

Though... She didn’t mind the darkness as much. With nothing to distract her senses, she could think. ‘Think’. Or meditate. Or whatever it was. She did not know how to describe it, but when she nestled in the gloom she could feel... The other one.

It was something else, something alien pulling on her consciousness. It was this distant, sad call that brought her from the nothing into flesh, and this same call that she followed. But the Tiss’shar was frustrated. How could she know where to follow the call if she didn’t even know her own name? How did she know she had to follow it?

So many pieces, so much missing.

Steam jetted from a nearby heating vent, blowing condensation over the creature’s ebony scales. She drew closer to it, poking her nose against the grate, dry scales rustling in the shadows. The last time she truly feasted was on her birth planet, clearing the laboratory of sentient life, her mind remembering martial skills that her new muscles couldn’t quite carry out. Still it had all been enough to get her off the rock, on a ship bound for anywhere, the pilot’s mind devastated by the creature’s will. In her wake was a massacre that was sure to make the holonews.

But she was hungry again. The beings that lived down in Coruscant’s underbelly were scrawny, ill-kept foodstock. The creature’s long tail tapped a bored tattoo on the dirty durasteel under foot, rattling the yellowing bones that were scattered around her lair. She would wait until the night hours; less witnesses that way, less chance of someone happening upon her...

Fingertips brushed across the back of her neck, scratching at the base of her skull. Spines shivering, the reptilian head snapped up, whipping around, golden eyes flashing in the barest light. She’d slept, returning to her desert dreams, but now it was time to hunt.

---

It was the flash of platinum blonde hair that caught the hunter’s eye. A slender creature same as everything else in the lower levels, but, she was alone and helpless... She would do. Lines of yellow light broke through the high alleyway windows and flowed over the shadow-clad shape of the Tiss’shar as she prowled forward, sinuous length winding between the trash bins and discarded crates. Her lips were pulled back from her teeth, anticipation surging just before the attack– The girl stopped, suddenly aware.

This might not have stopped the Tiss’shar, but she could feel the girl looking around, peering into the shadows, the gaze brushing over, not her physical body, but her aura. It was familiar, it stilled the hunter’s instinct. Moments passed in silence before the creature slipped from her hiding space, golden eyes fixed on her prey’s face, nostrils flaring as she drew in her scent. What the creature knew as a name drawn from her memory, was hissed between the wicked ivory teeth, and to any in the galaxy it sounded as a consolation. Hush, little child, don’t be afraid.

Far from consoling, coming from the black-scaled beast, but she didn’t want the girl to run. She didn’t want to kill her either. The girl reminded the creature of something, and that was precious.

[Seras Amadis]

Life was darkness. It was all the Miraluka thought about these days. Working at Deltares was an unwanted distraction from her true work. But she knew that each plate she scraped and each dish she cleaned worked towards a greater purpose; it kept a roof over her head and her belly full. The humble life of a dishwasher was one of monotonous boredom and the repetition was mind-numbing. She could feel herself slipping into complacency and it took a great deal of effort to keep motivated. Her true work was what she focused upon as she scrubbed and cleaned, it was her light on the horizon, her gem in the rough. It was her everything.

It was dark out, then it always was in the depths of Coruscant, when Seras Amadis shouldered through the back door to Deltares with a steel bin hiked up to her hip. She wore a dirty apron and the sleeves of her shirt were rolled up to her elbows. The muscles in her forearms were tense with the load and she walked with stiffness, heaving the bin in waddling steps, her expression cast into concentration with her lower lip bit between her teeth. The alley stank, but it was a smell that she was unwillingly becoming accustomed to. The underbelly of Coruscant had a smell to it that couldn't be denied. It was rot and decay, waste and trash. It was pervasive and touched everything. Seras could smell it on her when she collapsed exhausted on the small lumpy bed of the apartment she rented from Dua and it seemed that not even showering could remove the stench.

The heavy door slammed shut behind her, but she could still hear the sounds from the kitchen filtering through the air vents situated overhead. The smells of the kitchen wafted through and mixed with the pervasive rot of the street to make a unique bouquet that was both repulsive and alluring at the same time. The bang the steel bin made as it knocked into the dumpster echoed loudly off the tightly enclosed space and Seras let her burden crash to the floor. She sighed deeply, feeling exhaustion pressing at the edges of her mind and flexed her aching fingers. Crouching down, she inhaled sharply and heaved the bin from the floor, struggling to reach head height and tip the refuse into the dumpster.

It struck her that she could have accomplished this with a simple thought. The Force was her ally in many things, but Seras made a conscious effort to use the mundane way whenever possible. It was a difficult decision to make and one that went against the grain of her thinking, but she understood the necessity of keeping who she was a secret. The fewer who knew she was used to be a Jedi, the safer she would be. The consequences of that decision made chores like this physically difficult and exhausting. But there was a part of her who enjoyed the labor.

There were some gifts possessed to her that weren't as easy to disregard. Her senses were one of those permanent aspects of her existence that she could not simply do without or struggle to overcome. As she was banging the contents of the steel bin into the trash, a presence became known to her and Seras knew that she was not alone. The empty bin crashed to the floor on its base and the former Jedi rested her palms on the rim. She was a little out of breath and allowed herself a moment to recover and also get a better reading on whatever lurked in the alley.

Her mind caressed a hideous presence. Just brushing against it in the most benign of ways caused a shudder of apprehension ripple through her mind. The sensation was familiar and Seras felt fear bubbling inside her. She was fixed on the presence now, unable to tear her mind away and unable to look away. It was only after a repressed memory was dragged kicking and screaming to the forefront of her consciousness that Seras realized where she had felt such a thing before on Corbos. It was different, even in her mounting terror, she could recognize that fact, but the core held the same taint. Stumbling back, away from the serpentine predator that edged towards her with malice, Seras gulped hard.

It took the former Padawan a moment to realize that it had spoken to her, or at least she heard words in that wicked hiss. Hush. Now she was thinking about screaming for help, but the logical part of her mind cowed in fear managed to tell her that it wouldn't do any good. She would be dead before a cry could be raised. Little child, don't be afraid. Seras knew that she had been away from the Jedi for too long now, because she believed the fearsome creature and knew its intent.

The Force gave one skilled in its manipulation powerful insight into the feelings and intentions of sentient beings. She had been trained to block out these thoughts, to ignore them as background static and not intrude upon the privacy of others. However, privacy was the least of her concerns. Every ethereal sensing technique and mental dowsing method available to her was called upon and every iota of her focus was paid to the corrupted beast that crept towards her.

Her hands raised ever so slowly, careful not to make any rash movements that would call upon a swift and painful death. Seras took another step back. Her throat was dry and she swallowed hard.
"What do you want?" She asked hoarsely and there was a tremor of fear that made her voice crackle.

[Izu-Dar-Mauli]

A long forked tongue slipped out between the scaly lips, flittering in the girl’s face. Scenting her prey brought the creature thousands of motes of information, her predatory mind sifting out the important shreds. Fear caused the flutter of a pulse at the girl’s delicate throat to speed. A scream expanded in her chest but was swallowed. The creature’s heartbeat started to accelerate, the trepidation she tasted on the girl making her wish for the chase, to take back her promise of peace and send the girl running so she could sink her razor teeth into that pale flesh...

The sensation of the girl’s familiar gaze sweeping across her brought her back from succumbing to her hunger, and the creature withdrew her tongue with a low growl, closed her lips over the teeth she’d unwittingly bared. The predator was not of the mind to shield herself from scrutiny, and all that was contained within her mind was plain for the girl to see.

Though her ravenous hunger was clear, but only a glaze over the lizard’s true purpose. The sense of longing, of feeling lost, lurked just below that as did the hatred of her vulnerability. Her bloodlust, her love of the darkness and of violence was also apparent. Entwined with everything was intense interest in the girl herself, in what lay below the cloth which obscured the upper half of her face, and why she felt so familiar.

Her aura was stunted as well, cut off far too soon before the girl could delve into memories. There were no memories, except the ones of the desert, which were readily presented. However, these sensations were not all that freely given however. When the creature felt the other’s mind touching hers, she grasped for it, looking to follow the searching tendril back to the origin.

"What do you want?"

The spoken words echoed in the alleyway breaking what felt like years of silence. The hunter blinked, eyelids flicking, and then settled on her haunches before the small girl, lowering her head so that they were eye-to-eye.

Yes, yes, that was a good question. What did she want? The desert, the sun, the turquoise flesh, the metal claw, the eyeless one. She wanted that back whatever it was, and this need was made known to the girl with more intensity than before. That was what she wanted. Could the familiar one give that?

Then a deep rumbling sounded in the creature’s midsection. Nostrils widening, she sucked in that unique musk of the alley way, filtering out the trash and focusing on the aromas of food frying, the sounds of the kitchen reaching them through the high set windows. Breaking away from the girl’s face, the creature turned to look at the slightly glowing windows, a low trilling sound making her throat vibrate.

Some of that, then, she wanted that too. Bring her the desert planet and a hamburger.

[Seras Amadis]

As the forked tongue slid past the mouth of knives and scaly lips, Seras took an involuntary step back and rose onto the balls of her feet. She was preparing to run if the situation turned sour, but she saw the power in the hind legs and the curve of claws starkly against the tainted creature's aura. It didn't take much of an imagination to see her sprinting for dear life as this black creature lopped after her and pounced, claws rending flesh and gripping, forcing her to the ground to be devoured. Seras saw her death in her mind's eye and swallowed. Her muscles tensed as she fought the urge to flee and make her imagination manifest.

Something changed within the beast. The primal hunger that almost had the girl fleeing had been restrained and with the same hesitance that she saw in corrupted lizard, Seras lowered herself onto her heels. The probes she put out, both passive and active, listened and sought answers to questions that had yet to fully form in her mind. She was frowning beneath the bandage wrapped around her head and felt little resistance as their minds touched briefly.

It was like diving into a hurricane. Emotional symbiosis linked them and Seras felt an intense hunger. Her frown deepened as she explored this feeling, letting the emotion that wasn't hers wash over her. It wasn't a hunger that she knew, it wasn't the need to eat, though that was part of it. It went deeper than that. It was a compulsion to consume, an instinctual habit that was writing into the genes and couldn't be easily circumvented with logic or thought. The primal nature of the sensation froze Seras to the spot.

Then she felt something groping her mind and in that instant she knew that she had been drawn too far into the new sensation. She had lost herself and her focus in the roiling turmoil that was so alien to her delicate nature. The contact between them was broken, but not before the damage had been done. Seras was unsure how much the beast had ripped from her, but she could feel the dark touch marring her mind. She felt soiled and made an ugly face.

The thing seemed to sit down and Seras' skin crawled with the intensity of its stare. She waited for an answer. As she waited, the absurdity of her situation settled over her mind like a gentle fog. She grinned despite herself, wondering who else in this big wide galaxy could have her bad luck. Then the humor of the situation faded like waking from a dream. She struggled to keep hold of it but the details slipped her mind and Seras was left with abstract feelings and glimpses into things she couldn't fully comprehend.

Then a trilling from the beast drew Seras back to the present against her will.
"What?" she asked, wrinkling her nose, apparently dense to the creatures mewing. Then she caught on, sniffing the air and smelling the aromas from the kitchen amongst the detritus of the alley. "Hungry?" She had learnt that nothing in this world away from the Order was free, everything cost something. "You can go 'round front and order something if you have the creds." Seras said, but something sick inside her said that the tainted black-scaled beast wasn't looking for a salad with fat-free vinaigrette.

[Izu-Dar-Mauli]

Touching on the girl’s mind was ripping through a gossamer curtain. The creature’s own entrance was not gentle, but not overly cruel. Just clumsy, the reptile’s mind unable to interpret the sensations and feelings she received in return. Images were dark, illustrated in abstract ways, in colors that didn’t exist, and the feelings were... Unfamiliar. Almost? She didn’t know affection, or warmth, or safety. The new feelings were not unwelcome, however. They were sweet, like morning dew on a flower petal, the quiet burble of a stream...

The creature knew when the girl became aware of her intrusion, and then the bond was severed. She fought, just for a moment, but the girl was strong in pushing her out and eventually, she relented. The desire for more was palpable though, an indelible mark having been left on the creature’s mind. If only she could taste more of that delicate contentment, those images of that tall blond boy, the stone walls, meditation... It felt nice, a drop of light in the gloom.

Something was shared between them as well, something which had already been planted firmly in both minds. Loss, confusion. Darkness. The creature considered the frown that marred the girl’s face. Seras’ face. The melding of their minds had presented the girl’s identity as if it was already in her memory, and it left the creature wondering why she had forgotten.

The lizard didn’t like the frown. She wanted it to go away.

"What?" The moment of contemplation was broken by Seras’ answer. Well, hadn’t she been clear? "Hungry?" Another trill in response, the creature’s thick tail sliding across the dirty duracrete. Yes, wasn’t that obvious? She was very hungry.

"You can go 'round front and order something if you have the creds."

The lizard blinked both golden eyes, tilting her head. She could... Go around front? Confusion bubbled up to the surface. She knew the pattern. Her appearance combined with the silent demand usually yielded quick results. But the girl was... Telling her to go about it the traditional way? For a moment, the creature’s mind slipped back, wondering if she did have credits, and then ripped back into focus.

A growl rumbled in her chest, her lips sliding back from her teeth. Nobody just said ‘no’ to her. She hated that. Hated it. She got what she wanted and that was the end of it. The creature’s spines clattered as she flexed, the ripple running down her body. Retaliation was difficult, however. One did not simply link minds with another to just kill them seconds later. The lizard wanted to, wanted to take the price of Seras’ answer from her soft flesh... But she didn’t.

Her head swung from the impudent girl and to the door she’d emerged from. Well, fine. If she wouldn’t bring it to her, then she would take it herself. Sliding past the Miraluka, the creature sidled up to the door, eying the handle. After a long moment, she slipped her claws into the metal loop and tested it, pulling the door open by a few inches. With a rude snort, she threw the door wide, stressing its hinges and started to duck through the portal.

[Seras Amadis]

She could feel the anger rolling off the black thing in the alley and for a split second, the intensity confused Seras. She faltered, taking a step back and raising her hands to put some distance between them. The intent and the danger were real. A cry caught in her throat and she felt herself prepare to run. Deep down she knew that it would make no difference, and if anything, running would only ensure matters. She stood before a predator now, and giving it the thrill of the chase was the last thing that she wanted.

But what were her other alternatives? Negotiate? That seemed unlikely. Fight? That was simply out of the question. Then the moment was upon her and the lizard was moving towards her. Seras stood tall and accepted her fate like a martyr. The dark-sided thing continued past, deciding not to eat her. This was both unexpected and left her with a joyous sensation that lasted for a paltry second before she realized what was happening.
"No!" she shouted, spinning on the balls of her feet and facing the lizard-thing.

With a flick of her wrist, the door the clawed creature had opened slammed shut with a resounding clang. Her mind worked the lock, bolting the door. Though she doubted it would have done much to stop the reptile. Seras knew what would have happened if she allowed this thing inside the kitchen. There would be screaming, fear, the drawing of knives, blood. Her friends' blood would slick the tiles and this thing would feast. That would not be allowed to come to pass. She would not allow it. Now she slipped between the door and the razor-lined maw of the black beast, her arms out stretched to either side. Her face below the blindfold was grim and resolute.
"No." the meat-shield said again and the word was augmented with command, the denial laced with Force-bound influence.

Seras wasn't stupid. She understood the risk she was taking. She understood that this could have been her last precious seconds of life. Before the jaws and claws of this Dark power that had discovered her in an alleyway, she would not survive the first blow. It would be over for her in an instant. The realization brought anguish, but the resolve did not falter. This was how she conducted her form of extreme pacifism and it was far more dangerous than the way of the fist. Her way also demanded more determination. Seras knew it didn't take strength to kill your enemy.

[Izu-Dar-Mauli]

The first denial went unheard until the surge and swell of power called on the creature’s attention back to the girl. Only for a bare few seconds, however. The door, which was already ricocheting off the duracrete wall, was now speeding back into place, and the lizard barely jerked her head back on her long neck in time, avoiding getting a crack in the head from the swinging sheet of metal.

It slammed back into place with a noise that echoed off the walls of the alleyway, and drew the attention of those within. The creature, however, had eyes only for the the slight girl who was sliding between her and her goal. Standing nearly nose to nose with Seras, both golden eyes were wide in surprise. The girl hadn’t even moved, how did she...?

"No."

Ebony body flinching back, the word came down on her mind like a great hammer, knocking her intentions away. No. Great head shaking back and forth, the lizard fell back on her haunches. No, she didn’t really want to go inside but... There was something wrong. The sensation of knowing something but unable to recall it made the creature’s gut clench in frustration, and she exhaled violently, hot air ripping through Seras’ hair.

The taint of anger overwhelmed the persuasion, and like a dam breaking, the withheld rage rushed forth, full force. Yes! was the creature’s answer, her own will laced into the word. The lizard rushed forward, propelled from her crouched position by powerful back legs. The long tail whipped at the air as both claws hands dented the door on either side of Seras’ head, and with a great inhale, the great maw opened, unleashing a thunderous roar not inches from the girl’s face.

Yes! She would go inside, she would have her feast, because she was hungry. That bodily need was impressed on the girl, only to splash against a wall of determination and though it was strung tight with fear, it was high enough that even the creature was daunted. Snapping her jaws shut, razor teeth sliding against one another millimeters from the girl’s face, the great head was turned to focus one golden eye on her face. Why? Why couldn’t she go in?

Images and impressions flashed across the lizard’s mind, directed at the girl. The ebony teeth sliding into pale skin, Seras lying on the dirty duracrete, and the lizard disappearing into the doorway anyway to a chorus of screams. Why even bother? The query was pressed on the girl, even as the lizard’s claws flexed, digging furrows into the metal. The urge to kill was only getting higher, but it didn’t have to be the small girl before her. The lizard was fond of her; she was familiar in ways the creature didn't understand but that made her a connection to the memory dreams. That was precious, and she didn’t want to kill the girl. Why did she test her so? Why did she try to stop her?

[Seras Amadis]

Frick. On the list of things that Seras regretted most, this trumped them all. The leviathan was nothing compared to this cold blooded killer that she had just thrown herself in front of. There had been a moment when she thought herself capable of dissuading the beast. The weight of the negative upon the corrupted creature's mind brought the sliver of hope that things would turn out okay. The air blown from the flared nostrils was uncomfortably hot and the condensation cooled against her face, chilling her seconds later, but the thing was relenting to her command.

Her mouth was a thin line of determination, uncharacteristically grim, and the bottom lip trembled ever so slightly. It was taking all her courage and training to stand before so defiantly when all she wanted to do was run. A thread of panic began to unspool inside her as she caught the streak of rebellion rising within the Tiss'shar. Then she saw her world crumble. She should have known better than to have hope.

As the thing that would surely kill her lunged forward, Seras jerked back on reflex, the back of her head striking the door hard. The pain disrupted her focus and she gasped at the intensity of it. What had been a trembling in the lip moments before had spread to her body. Her body shivered like she had been doused with water and left exposed in a polar region. The hands that had been boldly outstretched to bar entry now wrapped around her slender frame in an instinctive maneuver to protect her body from harm.

The rage was too much. Her will crumbled about her and she didn't even have the presence of mind to pick up the pieces. The breath on her face was hot and flecked with spittle. She could feel the waves of convection lapping her face. Her legs gave way and Seras collapsed as if she had been dealt a mortal blow. She lay on the floor, one arm around her drawn up knees, the other cradling her head, with her back to the door. Her ears rang with the deafening roar and her mind was awash with the undiluted anger of denying a primal need.

Some semblance of a wall remained around her mind. How it still stood, Seras couldn't begin to imagine, but she felt the sensation of hunger crash against her mind and pour through the cracks. She had been hungry before, recently even, but this was not the hunger that she had experienced. A thin line of saliva drooled from the corner of her mouth. She was salivating. She too wanted to eat. She wanted to tear into warm flesh with her nails and teeth, ripping chunks away and chewing too quickly, swallowing, and burying her head back into the wound for another helping. She wanted to gorge herself to the point of sickness on the flesh of the living thing she had brought down. She needed to kill and feed and repeat. For a second it was all she knew and all she needed for survival.

Through the dull ache of her mind, Seras heard a banging against metal and someone calling out her name. Her mind blinked, remembering that she had a name. The hunter-killer had not required a name. Then reality crashed back onto her and she recognized the sound of someone banging on the inside of the scarred door. Another mental blink later and she recognized the shouter on the other side, fumbling with the locked door and trying to open it.

Accompanying the crashing of reality came the Jedi principle of protecting the innocent that Seras had twisted into her own special form of pacifism. The banging on the door was a reminder of what was really important, and it wasn't her. Then she saw herself dead on the duracrete, her belly slashed to ribbons, one arm bleeding and broken, the other missing at the shoulder. Blood was everywhere. The images flashed through her mind and she knew them to be a product of the beast. Her brows furrowed and an odd smile broke on her lips. How wrong this murderous thing was if it believed to scare her with apparitions of her own death.

She sat slowly and with great effort, her arms still trembling. She wiped the saliva that dripped from her mouth with the back of her hand. The hands were folded on her knees and she came to sit on her heels. There was an odd serenity about her, an acceptance of fate that took away all the power that the threat of death held. Noting the creature's tense wait for some kind of response, Seras waited in turn, drawing out their waiting in a prolonged silence. Each second that ticked by felt like an eternity and with each one Seras felt the end drawing nearer. She was pushing her luck.

Her mind was orderly again, aligned towards a goal. Her breathing was easy and moderated, and her heart rate was brought under control. She was a bastion of tranquility in the face of a raging typhoon.
"My name is Seras Amadis, the former padawan said in a quiet forcefulness, "and I will not fight you, but..." She paused and took a deep breath, focusing her mind on the exposed essence that the creature displayed like a still target.

"I will not let you pass." The words were soft, almost a whisper on the evening, but the psychic weight behind each was a lance aimed at the heart of the thing. She put all the effort she could muster into the push, knowing that if it failed she would have to hold the beast back with her mind. Seras wished she was more skilled in the arts of persuasion. Healing had always been her focus and she had never truly considered that this could be a tool that could save. Accompanying the words, Seras projected calmness upon the open mind, and in a moment of inspiration, a sense of fullness. It struck her as she made contact that this beast needed to eat, it needed to feel full. If that's what it desired so badly, she would fulfill that desire… but not with her flesh.

[Izu-Dar-Mauli]

The girl’s terror radiated off of her as if she were a small sun going supernova. The creature felt it, heard it, tasted it, permeating the air around her, and it only drove her into a higher frenzy. She loved the sensation, fed off of it, and tilting her head back, added to the chaos with another roar. As the sound echoed off the alleyway walls, petering off into nothing but a ringing in the ears, the banging on the other side of the door came to the creature’s attention. There were others, now, wanting to get through. Let them come! She would feast!

But then, an island of light in the sea of darkness appeared on the horizon, a pinprick, growing larger with every passing second. The creature saw the order, the strict lines of control building a fortress around the girl’s mind, and then Seras was there again, no fear showing beyond her mind’s walls, determination written on every aspect of her appearance.

"My name is Seras Amadis, and I will not fight you, but..."

The creature’s mind flinched back as it felt itself come under scrutiny, as did the creature herself, dry scales shivering against each other. The golden eyes which had been drawn away from Seras by the sound of other beings trying to get through the door, were focused back on the girl. She was ready this time, her wave of rage swelling beneath the waters of her chaotic mind.

"I will not let you pass."

The hammer again brought on by whispers, a great force coming down to clap on the surface of her mind, breaking the wave, shattering her resolve. The lizard’s mind was so open, so very exposed, there was nowhere she could hide, nowhere she could go for respite, to recall her anger. No, Seras was building a fortress within her aggressor’s own mind, expanding the peace. The slit pupils dilated and then contracted feverishly. She tried to fight, she fought until a great ache started at the base of her skull and worked its way down her spine to nestle between her thick shoulder blades.

But it was too great a force, too invasive, and her mind was unprepared for the onslaught. Peace; a droplet of water in to the ocean of chaos, the ripples expanding out to smooth the waters to mirrors, bringing tranquility. And then, the sensation of a tight, empty stomach disappeared, and the great ebony body shuddered along its serpentine length. With a creak of metal, the lizard withdrew her claws from either side of Seras’ head, a dazed, confused look shining in her eyes. There was control, for as long as the Miraluka could keep it up.

Settling back on her haunches, the lizard sucked in a breath, and then exhaled, slowly, giving off a brittle heat. This was strange... She could... think. Past the hunger, past the pain, and frustration and... A low rumble vibrated in the lizard’s chest, and then she slid forward, snout brushing against Seras’ face. She was sorry, truly sorry for having frightened her.

Long tongue slipping out, the creature could still taste the terror in the air, and she crooned. No, she didn’t like that, she didn’t mean for it to happen. Scooting forward, the creature lifted herself from her forelegs, and straightened her back and shoulders. Though the lizard remained crouched, the position was distinctly more humanoid, more civilized. Finally, she held out a clawed hand to the girl, offering to help her to her feet.

[Seras Amadis]

She tried to forget her coworkers banging on the door, trying to open it, trying to figure out how it had locked without a key, trying to get through. She could hear them, and more distractingly, she could feel their fears and panic cresting against her mind. Seras had enough fear already without others laying theirs at her feet also. Somehow, Seras managed to make them take a backseat to her lizard problem and actually found the banging and cries comforting in an odd way. It gave substance to what she was trying to protect.

There was a twinkle of surprise in her mind as Seras managed to get the beast to shudder away. It was tempting to let herself get washed away in her minor victory. However, she kept focus on what was important and turned her mind away from the warming feelings of accomplishment. She could not allow herself to wander, not here, not now, not when this twisted misalignment of the Force threatened to consume her and her coworkers.

It was only as she felt the rage subside and a measure of calm instill within the creature's mind that Seras allowed herself a moment to breathe. She had not liked inflicting her will upon another's mind, even with good reason. It felt invasive and wrong and reminded the former Padawan of lessons in the Jedi Temple of Ossus when she was first learning to peer into the minds of others. The Masters had warned of the temptation to invade the privacy of other sentients and how this was a path to the Dark Side.

The defences, what little there were, had been bulldozed by Seras' onslaught and many things were laid bare before her mind's eye. She felt the hot sands of some unknown world beneath her feet, rubbing between clawed toes. She saw a Twi'lek with a steel hand and anger in her eyes, a man with a blindfold, a large spider. She felt the sensation of the kill, of butchery, and of massacre. She felt her razor-like incisors rip into flesh and crunch bone. Seras' throat tightened as the sense-imprinted sensation of hot blood dribbled down her chin. She felt the familiar darkness of a Leviathan lurking in the shadows, the telltale sign of corruption scarring the creature's soul.

Before Seras knew what was happening or that she had achieved the impossible, the beast was sitting and patiently watching her. Seras swallowed hard and an exhaled breath shuddered from her chest. She uncurled her hands and felt them ache, realizing she had taken pleats of the apron she wore in her clenched fists. This was so surreal.

Her mind's eye couldn't have diverted from the beast if Seras had wanted it to. She regarded it warily even though she knew with certainty of the beast's pacification. It brought a timid and secretive smile to her lips. She was proud of this, prouder than she should have been, proud that she had overcome this natural born killer with peace and tranquility. How Master Stone would have hated to see her succeed so. She had been thinking of him again as the beast jerked forward. Seras made a small, frightened, sound in the back of her throat before the snout brushed against her face with the utmost tenderness. It shocked her that something so dark and filled with rage could be so affectionate. Against her better judgment, Seras ran a hand across the scaled brow and along a muscular jawline.

She had half expected to lose the hand.

Seras regarded the creature with mild amusement as it crooned in apology. Now she felt silly and shook her head, clicking her tongue in disappointment. She still saw the galaxy through the lens of a Jedi. She saw this creature as nothing more than a tainted abomination to be feared and destroyed. She felt ashamed and knew she still had a long way to go before she could cast off the Jedi bigotry she had been indoctrinated with. The galaxy was not black and white. There were not absolutes. Everything was a spectrum… even this creature.

As the clawed hand was extended towards her, she took it confidently to prove to herself that she was not afraid and show that the beast could be more than a killer. Even so, her water-pruned hands caught on the ridges of the claws and she could feel the sharpness to them. Involuntarily, her mind went slack with the rending of imagined flesh.

"Thank you," Seras whispered after climbing to her feet. The sounds at the door had ceased and Seras saw a caravan of concerned kitchen staff moving through the restaurant to round the alley from the other direction. In an odd shift in priorities, she now feared more for the beast than the Deltare's staff. They could not understand what she had felt, what she knew, and she could not explain it to them. Fear was a powerful thing and this creature was skilled at imparting it upon others.

"You must leave… quickly." Seras said, and felt the creature's hesitance to leave her side. "Go… they will not hurt me. They are my friends." She tried to explain, but didn't know if she was getting through or not. "Go," she said again, placing the same influence behind her words that she had used to pacify the beast. Now she just had to convince the others that everything was okay. She smiled ruefully, wondering if this would be the true battle of wills.

[Izu-Dar-Mauli]

There was still a part of the creature that fought. Somewhere beneath the calm surface of her mind, darkness lurked, pacified for the moment, but unwilling to let itself be forgotten. Seras’ attitude towards her did not feel like one who considered her an equal; rather it was victory over an unthinking, animal danger. The creature had never been so aware of her bestial nature as she was now.

A memory bloomed in her mind’s eye, more solid than anything before. Black durasteel bulkheads, forming a throne room... Slinking up stone steps to sit at the foot of the throne. Resting the jaw the Miraluka’s slender fingers now caressed on turquoise thighs. There was surprise in the air, and mistrust. The creature had said something, said it with her lips, tongue, and voice and... She hadn’t been expecting it. She thought of her hunter the same way as Seras did now.

The lizard hadn’t thought of it then, in the memory, or dream, or whatever it was, but she did now. She didn’t like being thought of as a mere beast to be controlled and pacified. The darkness surged, pushed at the surface, but the creature held it back. The revelation didn’t– wouldn’t anger her, nor did Seras’ continued treatment. The ebony creature found the lucidity in her mind allowed her a moment of thought; instead of rushing through the tangle of emotions, giving up and jumping towards an enraged attack, she followed a linear glowing path, ignoring the darkness that writhed beneath the mirror waters. She would have to show this girl what she was truly dealing with.

The thick scaled digits closed around the girl’s pale hand, engulfing it, and with a tug of her arm pulled Seras upright. Her head still close to the girl’s face, she caught the whispered thanks just before it was overwhelmed by the sounds of other voices, yelling, calling Seras’ name. Both golden eyes were turned away, towards the shadows on the side walk, cast by beings marching around the corner.

"You must leave… quickly."

She blinked, head swinging back around but didn’t move, her spines flexing as her body did. She didn’t know who these people were– fear and alarm tainted their auras. Seras’ safety was not quite foremost in her mind, but the creature was loathe to lose the first being she was able to connect with in a long time.

"Go… they will not hurt me. They are my friends... Go."

The hurried explanation did little to persuade, but when the girl put her will behind her words and the creature felt the pressure on her mind, she relented. Her body, formerly statue still, broke away into liquid darkness, sliding away among the trash bins and debris of the alley and into the city depths. Just before the creature disappeared, she threw one last glance in Seras’ direction. She wasn’t leaving, not forever. She would find her again, soon.

~~

That promise was almost broken. The further the lizard drew from the girl’s calming aura, the stronger the blackness beneath the surface of her calm became. She wanted it, cherished it, but at the same time, fought it. She could think right now, she could remember and that was what she wanted... But she was so hungry.

Finally, the control snapped, and the lizard’s mind became awash in blood, fury, and hunger. An unfortunate victim was found, claws tore into flesh, and she sated herself, sucking on the bones until not even the marrow was left. It was only after the hunt, after her belly was thick and full of food, and the daylight had seeped away from Coruscant’s lower levels that she remembered something of the eyeless girl. The lizard wanted to see her again, to see what else she could pull from her mind.

Finding her way back was not difficult. She took unconventional routes, scaling the sides of buildings, crawling beneath walkways and moving in the shadows of the alleyways. Finding the girl again was, however. Golden eyes peered through the darkened restaurant front, seeing the dim glow of a security light in the kitchen, but nothing else. She was not here.

Slipping around the alley way, she discovered the girl’s scent, nearly overpowered by the trash and grime, but enough there. Head low to the ground, bracing herself on all fours, the lizard’s tongue slipped out, tracing the scent and following it away from the restaurant. Walking on her hind legs, not many gave her a second glance, though the constant pausing and scenting at the air was cause for sidewalk traffic jams that earned her a few curses. These went ignored.

Eventually, her nose led her to an apartment complex, and, standing at the front entrance, she craned her head up, eying each of the levels. She wasn’t likely to be let in, no, not from the wary look the security guard was giving her, but maybe... It was an unfamiliar sensation, but at the same time, she felt as though she ought to have always known how to do it. Seeking tendrils were extended, and then petered out. The edges of her mouth turned down into a frown, and she snorted. Again, she tried to seek Seras’ familiar presence out and brushed against it at the very edge of her range, just before her power failed. It was enough however, and the creature slipped away from the front and into an alleyway, only to leap at the wall, digging her claws into any handhold she could find and scaling the side.

[Seras Amadis]

The rest of her shift had been spent in a buzz of fear and excitement. The foreign emotions from her colleagues washed off her and contaminated the calmness she was struggling to maintain. She found herself swept up in their fervor. What passed as a police force to the under-city had been called and a report lodged, but everyone knew, even if they did not wish to admit it, that no patrol would show up.

Her work colleagues had quizzed her mercilessly about what had happened and what she had seen, although seen had been used informally. Seras had answered truthfully when she told the others that she didn't know what it was. Their reaction to this seemed equal parts disappointment and intrigue. Their disappointment stemmed from the desire to know what exactly was prowling the under-city of Coruscant and their intrigue stemmed from their imagining escaped zoo animals, mutant monstrosities from the deeper under-city, and any number of outlandish ideas, each more ludicrous than the next. Seras had smiled at a few of the suggestions, but was more lost in thought than anything. She was secretly pleased that none of the suggestions came close to what she had shared the alley with.

She had conversed with the beast and touched its mind, the former padawan told them none of this, of course, but she held unique insight into where the tainted thing had come from. The sands of some far away world brushed through her mind and for a split second she felt the warmth of a bright sun upon her cheeks and the grains of hot sand between her toes. The assimilated memories were dismissed with a shudder and she scrubbed a pot, unable to not listen to the conversations around her. For once the kitchen was not a place focused on productivity and Seras speculated that was because Dua was elsewhere.

Things calmed eventually, but Seras could still feel the hint of apprehension in the air and her mind snagged on the errant thoughts from those around her that strayed towards the steel door that led into the alley. It had taken a while for the corrupted beast to slip from her mental gaze and become a memory Seras wished that she could forget. That would have been folly, she realized, as she knew that the thing would be waiting for her.

So it was with a great deal of apprehension that Seras accepted Olivar's offer to walk her home. She had refused ever of politely when he broached the subject, not wanting to put any other lives in danger when the beast came upon her. He had then insisted and Seras got the impression that this was an offer that she could not refuse. She considered denying him, but she didn't know how to go about it without significant explanation or hurting his feelings. In the end she let him take her home.

It seemed that Olivar could sense her unease as they walked even though he was blunted to the Force. Neither of them said much and the majority of the distance was covered in silence. Olivar took to glancing around, as if on guard, and Seras fretted what would happen if the beast came back for her. She got the feeling that influencing the beast a second time would be more difficult, especially with fresh meat walking around. For all her fretting and Olivar's watchful attentiveness, they reached Seras' front door without incident. They said their goodbyes and Seras thought she felt a pang of disappointment from Olivar as he walked away. She frowned and dismissed the moment, choosing to check her traps; empty.

The hours passed and Seras tried to get a little sleep. She tossed and turned on the thing that passed for a mattress and couldn't stop replaying what had happened through her mind. She was still alert, monitoring the edges of her consciousness for the presence of the beast. With each passing minute, the idea that maybe it wouldn’t return began to solidify in her head. Just as she was about to discount the encounter in the alley as a one off and will herself to relax, that familiar taint came into view and her stomach churned. She wouldn't have been so lucky.

Still fully awake, Seras hopped from bed and dressed quickly. A part of her considered fleeing, but that would have only given the beast reason to pursue her. That was not what she wanted. Hiding was equally discounted. Seras knew that she would have to face both it and her fears. She unlocked the front door and cracked it open. Seras remembered how easily its claws had crumpled the steel kitchen door. The wooden thing that stood across the portal to her humble abode would not deter the beast. It seemed best to allow the inevitable to happen.

Seras knelt in the middle of the single room apartment and faced the door. Her face was composed into a serene mask of calm and worked to bring her body under control. Slowly her heartbeat came within normal resting levels and her breathing became slow and easy. The beast was getting closer now and her brain tingled with familiarity. Seras suppressed a shudder at the sensation and awaited the beast, knowing very well that these could be her last moments alive.

[Izu-Dar-Mauli]

The outer faces of most Coruscanti buildings appeared smooth from a distance, a curving durasteel shell filled with life and misery. But upon closer inspection, one saw the rivets and flaws that marked the surface. It was even more apparent in the lower levels, and it was these blemishes that the creature used to scale the building’s side. A psychic gaze was kept on her goal, several stories up, while her serpentine length slid up between windows and tiny balconies, claws digging into notches and gaps in the metal.

It wasn’t long before the creature drew level with the presence it sought, and she was presented with a tiny window. Pushing her snout close to the portal, golden eyes peered in on a dimmed apartment, and she spied Seras, sitting rigidly before the flimsy door. One claw was lifted to tap on the glass barrier, but the creature thought better off it and went to seek out another entrance. A large air vent, its grating nearly falling off was her ticket in, and sliding in out of the wind, the creature’s spines scraped against the sides of the vent as she wriggled through.

Her bulk was nearly too much to spill into the hallway when she discovered an access point in the ceiling, but by flattening her spines against her body, the creature managed it, her landing nearly silent save the bits plaster that also dropped around her, leaving white streaks on her ebony scales. At this time of night, she could sense surrounding minds deep in sleep, their dreams drifting into the hallway, mingling. Aside from the security guard at the lift, only one on this level was conscious and the creature followed that. Seras was expectant, and again, the beast could taste the girl’s fear, like the metallic tang of blood.

Slowly, the wooden door was edged open, letting the outside light spill across the girl kneeling on the floor, and upon seeing her, a wide smile stretched over the creature’s face. Pulling her self inside, ducking her head to avoid the ceiling, she pushed the door closed with a nudge of her tail and then crouched before Seras, knuckles bracing against the floor, golden eyes fixed on her shrouded face.

Drawing closer to her did not have the effect of calming the beast, but her mindset was different, regardless. There was no physical hunger there, no demand, just simple dark curiosity. What had the girl done, and could she do it again? It took effort, thinking how they’d touched minds before, but the memory returned quickly, as if she’d done it thousands of times before, instead of just once mere hours previous. Another note of confusion in the beast’s mind. How did she know these things?

A searching tendril extended from the creature’s mind to Seras, seeking connection, and probing again for that fortress of calm that laid clear pathways of thought and memory before her mind’s eye. At first touch, the scent of fear was there, but beneath that the coveted calm; the smell of a calm pool of water, the sound of quiet waterfall – A meditation garden.

This time, the creature was inviting, willingly open to this girl and wanting to share. To the creature, they had a connection, however tentative, and somewhere in her predatory mind, she thought that another brain to sort through her broken memories would be useful.

[Seras Amadis]

She was trembling as the beast came into view through her mind's eye. It took every ounce of self-control she had to sit here when every cell in her body begged and screamed to flee. Even with the calming techniques and mind over body mastery of the Jedi, she failed to control her fear – and her excitement. Yes, she was conscious enough to recognize the tingle of excitement rushing through her veins, comingling with the fear to make a potent cocktail of adrenaline and evolutionary based flight responses that slid like ice along her spine and down her arms and legs. This shouldn't have been thrilling, Seras knew that. She understood that this was dangerous, that she may die, and she did not want to die. But there was a part of her that thrived at being in the presence of such a beast.

Seras did not understand it and she did not wish to. A surge of guilt washed over her and nervous sweat sheened off her pale flesh and made her hands clammy. Seras wiped her hands on her light trousers and clenched the small hands into fists bunched in the fabric. Her fingertips began to hurt with the pressure, but that was the last thing on her mind as the beast nudged into her domain. There was that curiosity that Seras had seen in the beast during their first meeting and she imagined herself as some plaything, little more than a distracting bauble that would soon be discarded.

The closing of the door was unexpectedly loud and Seras flinched despite herself. She felt her self-control falter and a few blocks of her mental defenses toppled from the parapets of her mind. Inhaling sharply, the former Padawan locked down the rebellious portion of her psyche that threatened to undo everything. Her lips were moving quickly in hushed breaths, Jedi idioms and mental cleansing techniques that she had not recited since being a youngling crashed into the forefront of her mind. She found reassurance in the memories they conjured and a calm that belied the present and true danger of her situation was instilled within her.

Why was she doing this, the former Padawan wondered. Why had she invited this beast into her home? Why was she not fleeing or using every asset available to her to keep the beast from reaching her? The answer to those questions was simple and utterly defeatist. To the chagrin of everyone in the Jedi Order, and a few beyond, she was known as an extreme pacifist. Seras refused to raise her hand against another, and as such that removed many options available to her. With physical conflict ruled out as barbaric, that only left fleeing and that would have been next to useless in the presence of such an alpha predator.

The tendril of consciousness that reached out to her met blank refusal and Seras' mouth pressed into a thin line. She would not permit her mind to be penetrated as it had been during her lapse in concentration earlier. She would not give up more of herself to this beast. She almost dismissed the brushing of minds and clamped down further, but some aspect of her peaked over the ramparts of her mind and saw the truth behind the invitation. The openness confused her.

Probing threads of thought expanded from Seras and they hesitantly sought the beast's invitation. It was turned over in her mind and she had the forethought to imagine some trap to take her unawares. That caused a rueful snort. If the beast craved a fight, he would not find it in her. She would die pathetically at the beast's claws and teeth. The more she probed, the more that the offer seemed genuine, but she was still hesitant of making another connection. After a somewhat awkward pause in which she began to read agitation within the beast, Seras relented and tried to put aside her worry.

[Izu-Dar-Mauli]

The creature’s searching mind was curbed by the wall, the feelers of thought hesitating at the Seras’ refusal. Then, nostrils flaring, she started moving again, probing the wall for weakness, in a sense, surrounding the girl’s form with her mind. Denial wasn’t nice, she didn’t like it and anger ignited a tiny spark to roil around in her belly. Yet, the creature knew that the girl could’ve pushed her away, and she didn’t. That said that there was reluctance on the Seras’ part to simply drive her away, and that was what kept the anger away from manifesting.

Withdrawing, her open mind began to instead beckon, leaving the invitation on her doorstep rather than rattling at the door handle. That was when the girl began to open up, slowly, ever so slowly... A long pause passed between the strange mismatched pair sitting in the dark apartment on Coruscant, the ebony beast with darkness in her heart, and the white-clad girl with pure intentions. And then there was a connection, and a shiver coursed its way down the beast’s scaled body, black pupils becoming wide and round, reflecting the bare light streaming through the tiny window.

This time, it was easier for the dark waters to calm themselves, but simply because the lizard wanted it, and she knew what else she wanted. Her grip was not strong, her connection with the Force having only just been renewed, but she still pulled on Seras, urged her to follow as she dove into the ocean’s depths.

There were memories in the inky blackness that soon surrounded them, massive and oppressive, but only black shapes swimming the gloom. They were unfinished, sensations and images pattering against their consciousness as they swam past. The taste of blood on the tongue, bones cracking in the jaws; that was recent, towards the surface. Then, another mile down, and there was the sensation of pain at the throat, teeth sinking into flesh. The creature flinched away from that one, her physical claw going to touch her neck.

Down where an ocean’s pressure would’ve crushed them into bits of bone and flesh, yet another one brushed against them, a more pleasant one. Sunshine on scales, sand between toes... Fingers digging into the itchy place just behind her head, stroking the fan of bright feathers. The creature was not shy about enjoying that one, and a low purr resounded in her chest. But she was not stopping there, and pushing away from the memory, she ensured that Seras still followed.

There was a light then, a light below them... Yet, they were swimming upwards now. Suddenly, their lungs were burning, they needed to reach the surface, quick! Struggling upwards, they exploded out in looked like a pond, felt steam brushing against their faces, smoking from the mirror-like surface. The water around them was warm, almost hot, heated by the blazing eye of a sun high over head. All around them was desert, white sands blinding in the daylight.

Yet, a cool breeze drifted over their heads, shifting grains of sand into the water to dribble down into the abyss. Or up? Even the creature was confused. Pulling herself from the pool, she shed the water as if her scales were a raincoat, and then turned to offer a hand to Seras. In every way, the memory seemed complete, but at the same time, it was a product of surreal imagination.

The sky arcing overhead was a mass of blues, from a dark, almost black straight above, to a cerulean blue at the horizon. The colors were saturated, thick with vibrant life, lovely, but utterly unnatural. Hanging low, next to the massive moon that peeked over the horizon was a planet, too close to not have some kind of gravitational pull on wherever they were, yet... It seemed to be Coruscant. And there was another, a planet a little further off, and while the creature had no way of seeing from this distance, she knew it was an ice ball, with dead frozen forests and mutants lurking beneath the surface. Seras knew too, inherently sharing the half-formed memory.

Trilling low in her throat, the creature turned away from these spectacles to gaze behind her, at the rolling dunes that stretched across the desert to a rise of red mountains. From here, she could see clouds, dark clouds, and lightning.

All of this seemed to only be in the distance, though. What surrounded them was merely an empty expanse of desert sand, them standing next to their portal, whose water was flat again and crystal clear, as if they’d never disturbed it. Another look at the rolling dunes, however, told the creature that they weren’t alone, and she crouched next to Seras, tail protectively swinging around so that she arced around the young girl. Mental or not, she’d never been here before, she was uncertain and wary.

Figures were moving towards them, their shadows long and mingling with the mounds of sand. Somehow, the sun had started to set, turning the sands red with the fiery light, and the newly-night sky overhead showed a constellation of stars. Two people were coming towards them, swathed in thick desert gear, though the ragged brown cloth did not disguise the metallic arm that glinted in the blood-light.