"Master Burke?" Lady L'anyn knocked lightly on her master's chamber door before gently opening it, "Master Burke, I was wondering if I could speak with you for a moment?"
"Enter you may, Lady Oumarin," Burke nodded and beckoned her in, "Troubling you, something is?"
"Master, I'm concerned for Ira," she admitted as she sat down beside the small Jedi, "Sometimes it's just a subconscious twitch, a choice of words, his tone of voice even. He worries me. Sometimes he even terrifies me. I just… I don't know what to do at this point. Do you have any idea about what the Council plans to do with him?"
"The Council's plan I know not," he shook his head sorrowfully, "But worried I am for both you and your apprentice. Troubling he has become since the untimely death of Master Vorschen."
"That's why, you know," L'anyn nodded her head slowly, recalling Ira's troubled and gruesome memory of the slaughtering of his mentor, "He had to watch as that creature butchered Master Vorschen. He feels that it's his duty to avenge Master Vorschen's death. Although, I dare not say I feel any different. However, I know how to harness my emotions and use them as an asset of my own. His emotions are detrimental to him."
"Detrimental can be your own emotions as well, young Lady Oumarin," Burke reminded her, "Believe you not that you have much more wisdom in dealing with these matters. Experience you have, but wisdom you have not. Deal with you both the Council will."
"Then is there no way for us to redeem ourselves, master?"
"Your second offence this is, Lady Oumarin," he stated plainly, "Facing harsher repercussions you will be. Not sure of the outcome am I. Many different ways it could go."
--
"L'anyn Oumarin! You destroyed me, L'anyn!" Ira shouted at the sliding door of his master's private quarters, hurling a bottle of questionable liquids into the plasteel portal, "I wanted to be a true respectable Jedi! Not some Sith apprentice of yours! I'm ruined because of you!"
The door slid open, revealing his mentor's bronze protocol droid, its stiff metal hands on its equally stiff metal hips. He shouldered past the mechanical watchdog, rolling his eyes, which now glowed saffron-yellow and were rimmed in scarlet.
"The Lady is not here," the droid stated as it chased Ira down the hall toward L'anyn's private bedchamber, "When the Lady is not present, no one is allowed in her personal quarters."
"It's all good," he Force shoved the droid into the wall with a sneer and continued into his master's innermost sanctum, "The Lady and I have some business that I need to take care of."
--
Master Burke shuddered as he sensed a Dark shadow move through the temple, first destroying the contents of a training chamber, then he moved on to Lady Oumarin's own bedchamber. Master Burke was unable to see exactly what Ira was doing, but he knew it had to be violent and uncouth based merely on the fact that the padawan was young and burning with rage. Burke shook his head and looked up at L'anyn, "Especially troubling your padawan is."
"And yet, predictable," L'anyn commented as she watched her apprentice search through her bedchamber. Ira her thought echoed through to him, catching him by surprise. Ira, what do you think you're doing? She suddenly felt something completely different pass over Ira. He was not the young man she had left behind. This was a completely different being-- a Sith lord's apprentice. She smiled to herself and continued watch him tear her room apart in his search for what ever it was that he needed to find. Ira, you don't even know what you're looking for.
I'm looking for proof, Kamyra.
She was taken aback by his sudden response as it intruded upon her mind. Ira, you've completely lost yourself as you were. I applaud you.
Hey, this is all your fault, Kamyra. You don't mind me calling you Kamyra, do you?
She laughed, surprising Master Burke. "Don't worry, sir. He's simply succumbed to his own rage. Something that I'm sure I shall be forced to do very soon." She pulled up the hood of her long, flowing cloak, casting a heavy shadow over her eyes. "Have no fear, sir, I'll be nice to Allyah." Ira, remember what I told you about killing younglings? You can start with the group in the dining hall.
"Misjudged you I have," Burke hung his head, "Disappointing this is."
Kamyra, you said you would not ask me to do such a thing.
Ira, I told you that I was not asking you to do such a thing at that time. "Master Burke, surely you are not so naïve as to expect me to be confined by the rules of your Council. I mean, did you really believe, deep down, that you had changed me somehow?"
"Hoped I had that changed you were," he admitted, drawing out a small lightsaber, "But surprised I am not."
"So you're trying to say that you saw this coming?" L'anyn raised her eyebrows and scoffed, "You know nothing of the way I work." Ira, you will do as I have told you, or else I will make your life more miserable than I am going to make Master Burke's.
"True this may be," he unsheathed his short blue lightsaber and began circling around L'anyn, "But expected it myself as the Council did."
L'anyn, you disgust me.
But you love me. She grinned broadly and revealed her crimson sabers, moving faster than Master Burke could follow. Her attack removed him of his hands and sliced his lightsaber in half. "Normally, I would tell the victim to kneel so that I can remove him of the rest of his life, however, Master Burke, I just can't bring myself to ask you to kneel. I'd have to bend down to do you any damage!" she laughed and raised the Jedi into the air with the Force, holding him firmly in place just inches below the ceiling. "Oh, look. It's the first time in your life you've ever had the chance to look down on something."
"Vain you have become… and disappointed I am," Burke glowered, glaring down at Kamyra, "Tainted are both you and Ira. Fall will you both. Unable will you be to return to the Light."
"Look, you're going to die now," Kamyra sneered, "Not because you've done anything wrong… but because you irritate me. I spent ten years listening to your so-called 'words of wisdom'… ten years wasted! I could have been someone in this universe! Instead I got stuck here with you. Master Vorschen understood me… but even he had his time to die. Everyone dies, Master Burke."
Kamyra, why didn't you tell me you killed him? You said there had to be trust between us. Why didn't you tell me? I trusted you!
Ira… what is trust? It's an illusion of safety. Don't trust anyone. Question everything. It's the only way. She slashed the Jedi master across his chest and dropped him to the floor, grinding her heel into his back. "Such a disappointment. Such a pity."
--
"Master Lady L'anyn Oumarin sent me," Ira growled to the dining hall attendant who was watching the youngest class of younglings as they ate, "She wanted me to take over for you."
"I don't care who sent you," the attendant raised an eyebrow and sneered at Ira slightly, "I'm not abandoning my post for Master Lady L'anyn Oumarin's latest muck-up. Master Burke could've sent you himself and I still wouldn't leave you in charge of these children."
"Then I shall have to take the hold by force," Ira seemed to move in slow motion as he spun and threw a kick to the attendant's jaw, knocking his face into the wall behind him. The boy fell to the floor unconscious. Ira stamped his boot heel into the back of his head, grinding the youth's face into the ground. He snickered and moved onto the younglings. "Children, I've come to play."
"Master Ira," the nearest young girl stepped up to him, carrying a cup of some sort of juice, "My cup has a leak."
"Let me just fix that for you," he smiled then took the small cup and concentrated on the dynamics of it, forcing the leak shut. He handed the glass back to the young girl then patted her back and sent her back to her seat.
"You!" a petite and tormented-looking woman screamed across the hall, pointing to Ira, "You've been tainted! Corrupted! You've been destroyed by her!"
"Silence! I'll kill you, Karla!" he retaliated with a growl, whipping out his lightsaber, "I really will. Don't even push me. I'm here for the younglings-- but I'll remove you if I must."
"You don't have the guts," she sneered, levitating toward him quickly, drawing out her green lightsaber, "You couldn't kill anyone. Not even to save your own life."
He leapt into the air, sending a well-aimed kick to her abdomen, knocking her out of the air and onto the cold, hard floor. "I warned you."
He moved quickly to the center of the room, pulling out a set of frag-charges, which he set upon a pillar and primed for detonation. Kamyra… this better work. I don't want to murder them by hand… I just can't.
Ira, I love you for your youth and boyish valor. Thank you for doing this while I'm away. We both know that I can't be in two places at once. You could think of this as your initiation. You're doing so very well, Ira. The Master would be proud.
Please… don't call me Ira… I can't do this and be Ira Solaris. It just doesn't feel right. He fled the room, not caring to look back at the dozens of children that were about to suffer through the inferno that he had just set to occur. I've changed… so should my name. You're L'anyn and Darth Kamyra… who am I?
My name means something… Karma and Irony… it's a vicious circle, really. It's my reason for life and despair. I am Kamyra. It's who I am. You have to decide who you are for yourself. I can't tell you who you are.
The charges detonated.
--
L'anyn threw her hood back and forced her eyes to return to their natural colour as she retracted her crimson saber blades and tucked them into her robes for easy access. She ran into the common area of the ship where Allyah and several Jedi Knights were seated going over battle plans. She filled her eyes with fear and threw herself to the floor beside the feet of the oldest knight. She burst into tears.
"Lady Oumarin, what's wrong?" the knight asked, kneeling down beside the sobbing master. He put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "What is it, m'lady?"
"Master Burke!" she cried out, throwing her arms around his neck and wept into his shoulder, "Master Burke is dead!"
All of the Jedi leapt to their feet and gathered around the Lady Oumarin, their faces filled with worry and concern.
"He was murdered!" L'anyn's chest was heaving and her entire body was shaking with her sobs. "There's a Sith onboard. I saw it all happen! Oh, how she tortured him! The images will haunt me forever!"
"Where did this Sith go?" asked the knight who was still wrapped in L'anyn's arms, "It's got to still be on the ship. Where could it be?"
"She… not 'it'," L'anyn corrected him, rising up from the floor and then, for added measure, a few feet off the ground, "Where is she? Well, the answer is simple. She's standing right behind you."
All ten of the Jedi Knights spun on their heels to look where the Lady was pointing. They had all drawn their lightsabers but found no use for them when they saw that there was nothing behind them.
"Ha! Back here, boys!" Kamyra shouted out after pulling her hood down and taking out both of her sabers, "You should've seen your faces! You were all like 'oh, where's she at?' and then," she had to pause to laugh, "And then, well, here I am!"
"You!" one of them shouted, pointing to her fiercely, "You murdered Master Burke! You're Darth Kamyra!"
"No I'm not!" she laughed and Forced them all back into the wall and closed door that separated them from Master Burke's quarters, "I'm Lady L'anyn Oumarin. Darth Kamyra is simply a shadow, a part of me. She's not truly me, however."
"What?" asked the one, taking care to keep his lightsaber pointing toward the hooded and shadowed character before them all, "What is that supposed to mean? How can you be two people?"
"Well, I'm not literally two people, you see," Kamyra explained, "Not corporeally, anyway. But figuratively, in spirit, I am two separate people. Anyway, this is all immaterial, because you're all about to die and you really don't want to know all about my eccentricities. So… let's go."
Every one of the knights had dropped his guard immensely while listening to Kamyra prate on about herself. The only being in the room with any sense of what Kamyra had just said was cowering behind her own high-back chair at the far end of the room. Poor Allyah was terrified but still maintained her wits. She slunk around the circle of chairs, picking up a fallen vibrosword as she crept up behind the Sith Lady who had crossed her master and murdered him so viciously. She stood up to full height and swung the sword high over her head and brought it down upon the Lady's head, meaning to bury the blade in the redhead's cranium.
Kamyra spun around and knocked the sword from Allyah's hand, cackling all the while. "You foolish little girl! You think this toy could injure me? Foolish girl… as foolish as your master!"
Allyah burst into tears and fell to the floor, cowering at Kamyra's feet, "Please, Lady Oumarin, don't hurt me! Please! I beg of you! I'll do anything you ask of me… just don't hurt me!"
"Please, don't spill your tears on my boots," Kamyra took a step back, "You'll ruin the finely tanned taunton hide. It's not quite completely water-proof and tears really are quite evasive."
The crimson blades slashed across Allyah's petite body, leaving deep smoldering gashes in her midsection and chest. She gasped and fell to the floor. Kamyra spun to face the fearful squadron of Jedi Knights, her silver-gray eyes burning with icy fury.
"Now… who wants to go first?"
--
(end chapter)