Briza's skyscraper
In the meantime, Tikala have suggested Briza and Mathorn, to begin training in the use of their shared force link ability.
"So how do I do it, again?" Mathorn ask for third time this day, as he stood opposite Briza with his blade in a high guard position.
"Just relax and let my presence flow into you." Tikala replied in a calm voice.
Tikala and Mathorn had practiced similar skills in the past. They was very use to each others energies, and could make them intertwine easily. But for Mathorn, this was still on a completely different level, as he now could feel a vast amount of energy streaming into him, which both made him awe inspired and very nervous. "This... Feels awesome," it felt like he had just found the force... for a second time.
"Remember, only use simple strikes and simple force abilities. Don't test it's capabilities before you have gotten used to the wheedling external force powers." Tikala explained the predicaments.
Briza just awaited her half brother to get ready, she stood with her two training blades in a low guard, ready to respond to any aggressive movement. She wondered a bit how difficult he could get in a fight, or if he would be able to keep himself in check at all.
"Okay I think I got it now," Mathorn declared as he attacked with a simple series of shi-cho slashes.
Briza immediately noticed the increase in speed and strength, but it was nothing she couldn't easily content with. Especially when she could just sidestep everything, as Mathorn's precession was too often off the mark.
Mathorn, could feel the burning pain of his older sister's blade stabbing him in the stomach. Ignoring the pain, he changed style to the acrobatic fighting form of Ataru, which have served him well against Briza in the past. He jumped up and over Briza to slash at her in mid air... Or... so was the plan.
Briza witnessed Mathorn jump up, head first... into the ceiling made of durosteel and collapsed on the ground at the spot where she stood a moment ago. She was tempted to give him the painful lesson, but she decided a verbal one would suffice for now, "Had this been a real battle, you would have been cut in half." she harshly pointed out.
"I know." Mathorn growled, as he got up again and shook of his concussion.
"Let's change," Tikala directed them. "Briza, it's your turn."
Briza nodded complainant and relaxed herself. "Yes my sister, I am ready to receive your might."
Tikala closed her eyes and let for force presents flow into her sister.
Briza could feel the power coming into her body, it still felt extremely warm, so she had to prepare herself mentally, before finally declaring. "I'm ready."
With one nod from her siblings, Briza attacked in a fury of motion. Her blinding fast blade work, completely overwhelmed Mathorn's defensive guard and was about pound him to the floor... When her speed and concentration came to sudden halt.
At first, Mathorn could not fathom how fast those two blades were. But for some reason it looked to him like time had slowed Briza down. Giving him more than enough time to recover and mount a counter offensive.
Briza found herself in a strange scenario. She still had the full power of Tikala's and her own force present, but was unable to use any of them effectively. Despite fully believing she wouldn't overextend the connection, her quick outburst against Mathorn, had made her very unbalanced and not capable of putting up a proper defense against a strong cleave aimed at her chest. She staggered a bit, as she tried to regain control of her shaken body and the force within.
"Sis... Are you okay? You look like-" Mathorn asked before being cut off.
"Shut up and attack me!" Briza demanded in a angry voice, as she positioned herself in a defensive stand.
"If you say so sis." Mathorn muttered, as he began attacking with precise and heavy cleaves.
Briza had to backpedal constantly, as she in this state was neither strong nor fast enough to counteract any attacks, nor avoid the incoming slashes. She even lost one of her blades, as it was hammered out of her hand.
At this point, even Mathorn's old friend Urr'tar, was a more worthy opponent, although Briza tried using force based attacks. "This is becoming boring," Mathorn complained, his force bobble alone could withstand anything, only feeling the occasional pressure of the wind in his face from the force pushes that seemed out of fuel. SLAM! Without realizing what just happened, he flew backwards, colliding with and crashing through two pillars before finally coming to a halt meeting the cold solid wall. His head was ringing from the impact and as he slowly regained the ability to feel again, he felt a crazy back pain, "O-ouch!" He complained in a low voice.
"Are you okay Mathorn?" Tikala called worriedly.
"I'll live Sis... Nothing broken." Mathorn muttered, as he used his force heal ability, to mend the painful bruises.
When Briza went on the offensive again, she was as slow as before.
Tikala could sense her sister was still very imbalanced, so she decided they should all have a rest. "Let's take a little break, and afterwards, I would like to try something new."
Briza could feel regaining control over herself, as the link to Tikala was turned off. "What went wrong! Why are we not in sync? resembling the power and control we achieved last night?!" she asked a bit frustrated.
"It's a lot easier to remain connected when at peace, than when fighting in the heat of a battle," Tikala explained to best of her ability. But she had to admit, it didn't turn out as she had anticipated. "But I agree, it puzzles me too. That's why I want to try something new, after our well earned little break."
Briza nodded with a hint of irritation. Getting lectured and ordered by a jedi, was not something she would have imagined being willing to do, just few standard weeks ago. If it hadn't been for the fact that she herself had experienced the power of their force link, she would have dismissed it as jedi blabbering.
During the break, they were served water and snacks by the droids. After a little while, seated cross legged on the floor in a triangle, they centered themselves and refocused on each others presence in the force, as to get ready for force-link test two.
In the meantime, in the slave quarter. Terrow was assembling his new star fighter simulator, while three Twi'leks, two boys and a girl, was watching the construction project unfold.
"Do you need any assistance... Mr Terrow?" one of the young males asked in a clearly accent version of basic. As hutess was banned by Lord Briza in this very building.
Terrow thought of how they could assist him. "Sure, you can help Ju'ats," he accepted, and began showing Ju'ats how to assemble the tubes and wires. The two other twi'leks joined in, as Terrow found some other small task the two twi'lek's could help with.
An hour later once they were finally done, Terrow asked them, "So who wants to be the first test it?" Curious to see if any of them had the courage to accept the challenge.
The young Ju'ats put his hand in the air almost immediately, "I would like to try," he volunteered, with both nervousness and excitement, evident in his voice.
Terrow smiled, as he spoke as an elder officer, "Very well young pilot, the seat is yours."
Ju'ats entered the simulator and sat down in the pilot seat, in this nearly claustrophobic small chamber. Terrow could barely look over Ju'ats' shoulders to guide. It was hard for him to stand upright and Ju'ats' head-tails were blocking the view of half the instrument panel.
Ju'ats was mentally blown away by how utterly immersive this simulator could replicate a real space battle. Terrow had on purpose, not installed the pain simulator in the seat, so they wouldn't be shocked every time the virtual plane blow up. After explaining how to pilot the fictional starfighter, Ju'ats was shooting down virtual ships, like there was no tomorrow. It didn't take long before a line of emission was formed in front the entrance to the simulator, every Twi'lek wanted a go at it.
Now that Terrow could congratulate himself for a job well done. He decided to take a look inside the training hall, as he hadn't seen his siblings all day.
As he entered the training hall, he felt a surreal sense of multiple persons in one person. "What kind of training have they been doing all this time?" he wondered. Although his force connection was very weak, he was still able to sense abnormalities and danger. So far, he was watching a simple standout between Briza and Mathorn, while Tikala was sitting in a deep concentration, eyes shut. Somehow it still felt a bit chaotic, as if the faces, he saw, only partly matched the people in front of his eyes.
As his siblings engaged each other again, they seemed very fast, but at the same time unusually unstable. It was like they were wearing booster shoes, without any practice in how to use them. It took awhile before Terrow realized, that Tikala was the one making them surpass beyond their normal capacities. "So that's what they have been practicing all night," he thought to himself.
To Terrow's surprise, Mathorn clearly seems to be the dominating one, as he use the extra power to make himself faster when attacking with heavy thrusts and strikes. Briza on the other hand, seemed to be fighting against herself, her usual finesses not even remotely on par with her typical performance.
Tikala had split her energy between Briza and Mathorn, each of them receiving half of her force connection. With this lighter pressure, Mathorn experienced a decent control over the extra force boost he receives. Briza unfortunately still had issues trying to combine her own force connection to with powers from the force-link.
Briza was dodging left and right to get out of harm's way, as countering properly to her brothers both heavy and very fast cleaves and thrusts, was proving troublesome. Usually she could either block or redirect the opponents blade, but because Mathorn was now faster than she, and Briza didn't have proper control over Tikala's energy, the fight was very one sided… and not in her favor. "It work before! WHY can't I control it!" She mentally cursed herself.
Briza's frustration grew, as she could only sporadically use the force-link to empower her. Then it hit her, "Wait a second? If sister Tikala is using her lightside force connection to guide my actions, while I'm using the dark... Then... I should be able to use both at the same time? Let's test it." To make some distance, Briza jump up high and somersaulted backwards, then calmly refocused on her force-link and let frustration fuel her hatred... separately.
Tikala could feel threads of dark side abnormalities in the force-link, she could sense Briza was both fueling herself in rage, while calmly maintaining their connection to each other. Tikala felt both an uneasiness and a curiosity to see what her elder sister was up to.
As soon as Mathorn was about to slash at her, Briza first used the force with her left hand to temporally slow him in mid air, she then used the right with the focus of her frustration, redirecting the incoming blade with her own, and retaliated with an onslaught of fast jabs and thrusts. Effectively yet very unsynchronized bladework, given her hands worked with separate force connections.
To the surprised Mathorn, it seemed like he was fighting two people at the same time. One a friendly sparing jedi, the other a sith with the intend on ending his life. He had received numerous of cuts from Briza's painful, yet non lethal blades. Over time though, he had grown numb to these blade cuts, so the pain was virtually non existing at this point. Had it been a real battle, he would have been dead from all the those injures.
As the battle continued for the next hour, Mathorn managed to figure out a way of countering the very aggressive two-person-in-one-body fighting style and get a somewhat more even fight with his sister. By aiming at Briza's blades, he could disrupt her unpredictable fighting patterns, but that only worked as a defensive strategy, as she recovered too fast to go on the offensive. It worked pretty well, at least until Briza just moved out of his way in a back flip motion. Next thing, Mathorn thought he was about to knock her blades away with a heavy slash, but instead hitting the pillar made of durosteel, his blade shattered, culminating in sharp blade pieces flying in all directions.
Briza had to deflect three blade pieces flying her way, "Oops," Mathorn muttered in an apologizing tone, looking a bit off, due to two splinters burrowed in his left cheek.
"Nevermind, I got spare blade," Briza replied nonchalantly.
"Let's say it's enough for now. Later today I would like to test our force-link, combined with force abilities." Tikala suggested softly.
"Very well," Briza acknowledged, despite preferring to keep training for a little longer, she did however notice the state her half brother was in and commented. "Mathorn! Get yourself fixed up, you are bleeding on my floor."
"Okay Sis, I'll drown myself in Kolto." Mathorn mumbled sarcastically, as he headed towards the turbo lift.
"It's really an interesting way you are using the force-link Briza." Tikala sincerely congratulated, "I just really wish, if you would rely less on the darkside. I feel your inner darkness too you know. It makes it much harder for me to concentrate with your destructive energies eating at our calmness."
"We went over this already! I believe you´ll figure out a way, cause I'm not going to play jedi... ever." Briza just bit off her little sister.
Tikala sighed as she replied. "If it can be no other way... so be it-"
"No, it can't," Briza chuckled slightly in a light hearted manner. "Come on little sister, let's have lunch together."
Tikala smiled in return, "let's do that." Meanwhile she was thinking, "I may never convince her to join the lightside. But I might help her become a warmhearted sith lord." She smiled inside herself, as they both entered the turbo lift.
