Imperial Army Chronicals: Inner Chaos -Jento

Chapter 1 ((ATC 9 - THE RELENTLESS)) Chaos : <noun> Complete disorder and confusion. <in physics> Behavior so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions. ‘Will I ever escape this? Is THIS my destiny?’ Questions raced through Jento’s mind as he knelt in the darkness preparing... or was he Obsidius.. he didn’t know anymore. He’d not let his facade down, not yet, he needed some time to make sure it was safe. He always did. Yes he was Jento… he was sure of it, he couldn’t feel them yet. Once upon a time this meditation had been a pleasure, a release, a chance to be himself again and escape this life he’d been thrust into somewhat against his will. Sure there had been plenty of benefits and the power and influence he’s already made would have been impossible without Jadus’ help, but having to keep this facade every single day was a chore. ‘I must find a balance, a way to stop slipping away,’ Jento thought to himself as he closed his eyes. It didn’t matter if his mind raced or he’d started to talk to himself, he’d meditated in such a regimented fashion nearly all his life it was more like passing into an approaching slumber then entering a trance like state. As the facade slipped away, so did the Jento personality and all the rigid features he’d built into it. He felt the Force again, the energy flowing back into his body. The minds on the Relentless, thousands of them each with a separate set of thoughts and emotions swirled through the darkness adding to the chaotic aura which was already starting to build all around him. Obsidius was the opposite of Jento. Jento is stoic, emotionless, cold, calculating, and completely devoid of anything like the Force. Obsidius on the other hand was chaos, he’d been caged away for so long that when released the chaotic nature he’d naturally had poured out with a vengeance seeking to reach out and devour anything in its path. Only Obsidius’ sheer will kept the dark chaos at bay, but he loved the darkness. Sometimes he wondered if he’d always had the lust for darkness inside him since he couldn’t remember it ever having reached out and touched him. It just always seemed to be there. Perhaps he just didn’t remember or perhaps the darkness didn’t want him to remember any time before it. It didn’t matter. To the casual observer were they to walk through Obsidius’ library it would appear that he has an extreme love of all things related to the Force. Books, documents, artifacts, scrolls, they were all there carefully cataloged and often used. But there was a rhyme and reason to the collection, at least the one he kept with him on the Relentless. Half the library was dedicated to rituals both Jedi and Sith. There were texts about all sorts of rituals but most importantly were ones which dealt with masking the Force and recovering from it. Obsidius hated that the method he used to create the facade was a Jedi technique and drew from the Light side of the Force. The quandary had been tearing at his psyche for years maybe even decades. Despite his best efforts he’d never found anything which was as infallible as the method he’d always used. The other half of the library was an assortment of knowledge and artifacts all having to do with the darkness in the Force. Obsidius is a believer in the One Emotion which is a system of philosophies which relates all emotions to the one single master emotion, Love. Love by far is the most powerful force in all the emotional states and is easily arguable branches of to all the others, the most important to him darkness. Oddly most people think of darkness as an all negative state but in reality nearly all emotions can exist in a dark form. A lover driven to seek his beloved at all costs will plunge into darkness to achieve those means and might very well stay there to keep them. Naturally the negative emotions are the easily pathway since by their very nature they don’t have a lighter version. This balance of all the elements of the One Emotion and their pathway into the darkness was Obsidius’ true obsession. The world fully slipped away as he entered his meditation. He embraced the darkness as it crept from him out into the room testing the walls and finding that his defenses kept it all locked away inside this chamber. The seduction of the darkness sang to him causing him to forget the questions he’d had and soon all he cared about was this feeling. This was a dangerous state and fortunately he’d been trained to always leave breadcrumbs so he could find his way back out when the time was right. After some time he was able to find the Force again and the universe of things which come when you commune with it returned. His perception was always a bit twisted by his chaotic nature but he’d learned to not trust simply what he felt or saw especially if they were places or people he recognized. Hours passed, only EV-X1 entered and exited the room, no one else was allowed for their own protection. Obsidius’ visions took shape and he saw a desolate planet. Shapes and faces he didn’t fully recognize, one face with black markings, no doubt a Zabrak. The scene changed and he saw his brother Scelestus walking through what looked like wreckage, his lightsaber drawn. The vision ended without more detail and he slipped from his meditation.

Jento watched from the observation deck as the hundreds of soldiers gathered their few belongings from the neatly stacked pallets and made their way out into the ship. 'So many minds,' he thought watching them but feeling nothing, both shielded and blocked by the facade this personality existed in. It had been years since he was surrounded by thousands of people when not hidden within the facade of Jento, he was both looking forward to it and uneasy as to how he would react to it. Given, a majority of those who will be aboard will be the simple minds of troops and their commanders, thinking only of the worries of life in service and where to find the next distraction. The real test would be from the contingent of Sith who would be arriving later today notably his own friend and confidant Darth Xionia, that is Obsidius' friend... She seemed to hate Jento, odd that she locked onto and focused that disdain almost immediately when the two were in the same vicinity. Most likely her feelings came from the utter lack of the Force when Jento was around. Many describe the sensation as if something was very wrong but unable to pinpoint where it was coming from, as if there was a cold spot in the Force, a void. Naturally disturbing to someone who has spent the majority of her life studying and practicing the manipulation and harnessing of the Force, she seemed to hate it with a special flare. His earlier vision still bothered him. He wasn't used to seeing glimpses into what must be the future and not knowing what events would lead to it or what had triggered the vision itself, but there wasn't time right now to try to delve back into it.. or even coax it back into being. Besides, harnessing that level of darkness right now would be tactically dangerous, he needed to continue to show face, this face, before Darth Obsidius started to make his presence known. 'Maybe after the Sith arrive....' his thoughts trailed off watching the docking bay doors close and he made haste to the bridge. One of his favorite parts was watching the little ships scramble way as they bullied their way back into space.

The hours had ticked by. He was trying to ignore them, but as timed pressed on, so did the pressure in his mind. 'Not yet..' he kept driving himself onward, through the hallways, inspecting how the crew was settling in, checking on the fighter craft, doing everything he could to avoid that meditation chamber. The first of the Sith had arrived much earlier in the day. They'd come aboard quietly and as expected not bothered to come see him as Jento, instead requesting an audience with Darth Obsidius. What was he doing? He'd dropped his facade and been around crowds of people before, directly around them. Why was this any different? Had it really been so long that he feared what would happen? There's that word again ... fear. What could he possibly be afraid of? As he tolled with the questions in his mind he'd not been paying attention to where his feet had been taking him. He was outside his quarters, he'd only noticed when he heard the click of the guard's boots as he approached. "As you were," he nodded and went inside. 'No point in looking like I'm lost...' he thought tugging on the top button of his uniform, ready to be free of the damn thing. Tossing his jacket onto his desk chair he caught a glimpse of his hand.. the effects of the dark side were starting to show physically. He looked curiously at the now pale skin and the blackened veins. 'I'm loosing it,' he thought walking over to a mirror and seeing the evidence on his face was much more obvious than his hand. For a moment he wondered if he need be concerned about what the guard's saw outside and glanced back up at his reflection. Pulling at an eyelid, 'I just look like I need sleep... or I've drank too much,' he thought convincing himself. He couldn't risk waiting any longer. If he fully lost his facade without being ready who knows what would happen. Grabbing a robe on his way, the doors to the inner chamber quietly slid open as he approached. Instantly he felt better, even before doing anything. "Darkness," he said outloud, greeting the void of light in the room as if it were a friend who'd been patiently waiting for his return. Kneeling down in the center of the room he let go.... Without warning the voices and emotions of all aboard flooded his mind just as his own chaotic darkness lept out from it's hiding place deep inside him. Clutching at his temples he screamed out... the scream echoed not only through the room but also through the Force. He put a hand on the floor to steady himself but the battle between what was inside him versus what was bombarding him from the outside was unrelenting. He'd not felt this since he'd been at the Academy nearly a lifetime ago. He fought on... Every Sith on board seemed to stop in their tracks. Unlike the regular crew, they'd all gathered in a central part of the ship which had been designated specifically for Force users. They'd been expecting their patron Sith to make an appearance personally. The Force hurt inside their minds... waves and waves of pure darkness shot out in every direction. Only one seemed to no be taken aback by what was happening. Setting her wine glass down, the Sith pureblood pushed her way through the stunned crowd and towards the nearest lift. As it made its way towards the upper deck she started to feel real concern for what was going to happen when she entered that room. The pair of guards laying dead, bleeding from their eyes did little to stay her fears. "Obsidius!" Xionia shouted as she entered the meditation chamber, one of the few people who were actually allowed entry. She hoped that abruptly addressing him might rattle his senses enough that she could reach him. Each step forward was a struggle, as if walking through a wind storm, only this was invisible and more powerful. "Obsidius, it's me, Xionia... reach out to me!" She shouted as if trying to be heard through a storm. Obsidius looked up hearing whisper of a voice approaching him and turned to face her. He reached out... but not as she had hoped. His perception was skewed.. what he saw before him was a twisted phantom of the Force and he had no intention of letting it attack him. Through the darkness his found tables and chairs, books, objects, and hurled them towards his perception of her. Luckily the majority of that image wasn't real and she was able to easily avoid being hit. Xionia was only steps away, she could see the struggle on his face. She only knew him as Obsidius, but she knew that within him were more halves then made a whole, she knew he always fought to keep control. This darkness, this was new, the emotions which were seeping out from him were raw and unfocused but not savage as would be expected. Fighting forward she took a leap of faith and grabbed the side of his head. "Obsidius! Hear me.. focus on my voice, find me within this storm," she pressed her hand firmly trying to channel her own power to not only help him but to protect herself. He grabbed her hands, his skin cold but his grasp was a death grip. "Xionia..." he murmured looking up at her. She stood out in the darkness like a crimson beacon and he locked onto it driving away all the other voices and emotions until all was left was her and the darkness. The storm was over. "Why didn't you call for me?" she pulled her hands away from his grip and knelt down to face him. "What happened? You've never fallen so deeply into the chaos before." Annoyed, his brow furrowed and he made his way to his feet. "I'll be fine," he kicked away a random bowl which had rolled into the center of the room. "I'm sure it's just having so many Sith aboard." He looked over hearing a clattering of what sounded like footsteps in the recesses of the room. "Oh dear.. oh dear," the quiet voice of EV-1X commented chasing down scattered pages of a tome which had decided the strain was too much and gifted its contents all over the northern end of the room. Xionia wasn't buying in and wasn't intimidated by his change in tone, "You'll be fine... too many Sith? You realize every Sith aboard felt what was going on up here. That wasn't just a momentary moment of weakness my Lord.. that was a full blown storm." She pointed towards the doors, "The two dead and bleeding guards outside are proof of that." Obsidius looked towards the doors with a look of disappointment, "Aww... I really liked those two." He sounded like he was joking, even he wasn't sure if he was. He looked back to Xionia, "It's of no matter. I spent months around those emotionless Chiss. They might as well been statues, perhaps I'm just a bit out of sorts, I'm sure it won't happen again." It wasn't quite a lie, he really did believe that. She still wasn't convinced and the feeling he was giving off wasn't helping. "Will you at least call me before you attempt to meditate again?" she implored him. "You know as well as I that meditation isn't something Sith do well or commonly... you are unique and where that meditation takes you has to be in control." "Fine," he relented hoping she wouldn't make further demands. She'd always loyally stood by his side, he couldn't very well just push her away. "But not tonight, I need to be alone." Bowing her head and taking the hint she retreated towards the doorway, "Of course my lord." She gestured again towards the hallway, "I'll get these bodies taken care of."

Collapsing into a chair, Jento tugged open the top button of his jacket. His office was still a bit sparse by his standards, most of his collected belonging were still packed in crates over in the far corner. He'd felt no reason to unpack while the ship was still in the shipyards, after all who was going to visit his office? Now it seemed like it was going to be needed... perfect job for the droid. He looked at his desk. Standing alone was a small wooden totem. Something many wouldn't notice and even fewer would realize where it came from. Picking it up and running his fingertips along the smooth sanded edges Jento smiled thinking back to a memory, a pleasant one which inhabited a very precarious period of time in his past. <Flashback fade> The sun was barely cresting above the horizon and the air was still crisp and clean. It was always like this on Tython, a preverbal 'ideal' natural environment the Jedi said. Internally he missed the rain, the dark stormy clouds looming above and bolts of lightning dancing through the sky. Being here was necessary he reminded himself, but he didn't think he would ever grow to like it. Odd really, he'd come to appreciate and enjoy many similar worlds, so it wasn't just the lack of Drommond Kaas like qualities which spawn this disdain, it was most likely rooted in the inhabitants. Admittedly the Jedi libraries housed an enormous wealth of knowledge, not just of Jedi teachings but of the Force itself. It'd taken almost three months of maneuvering, meditating, fighting training droids, and various other things to blend into the crowd and convince the Masters that he had indeed transferred in from the remote training facility his records claimed, but once he walked into that repository of knowledge it felt worth it. The funny thing was he didn't really have to dig through the archives to look for the practices he was looking for, since the techniques weren't really considered forbidden by the Jedi the librarians were only to happy to help the disguised Sith in finding every scrap of material which even mentioned something like a facade. "There must be a way," Obsidius muttered to himself pulling back the hood of his tan cloak and opening the next tome in the stack to his left. He still had not reached even the midpoint of all the books and holocrons the librarians had found but so far nothing seemed even remotely similar to what he'd learned to do so many years ago. Finding the mention of the word facade in the book he'd opened he signed seeing yet again it was more about camolfauging then actual Force control. 'Surely it wasn't all a trick, he was so reluctant to admit that it was a Jedi technique,' he thought back to the forced confession by Darth Henkai he'd extracted at saberpoint. 'There would have been no gain at all, he was so fearful, he wouldn't risk me one day discovering that it wasn't true.' He pushed the thoughts from his mind, this wasn't the place to be thinking much on memories of Korriban. It was already taking most of his concentration to mask his chaotic nature, anything else and he might as well stand on the table and announce himself. He shook his head closed the book and moved onto the next one, at least he was learning some patience these blasted Jedi kept droning on about. Minutes turned into hours. Hours melded into days. Days became weeks, then months. Four months... The Jedi seemed elated that Obsidius had been spending so much time pouring over old books in the library. He heard them whispering when he walked by, several claiming to have influenced him to study more and spend a lot less time saber training. That little rumor might have indirectly become true, he hadn't diligently kept up with his saber training for weeks now. Truth was, his saber felt completely wrong in his hands. The green blade seemed to slice through the air completely different than the proper red would have. Supposedly the two crystals did actually operate different from each other but Obsidius hadn't fully bought into that conjecture, and he still wasn't sure if the difference he felt now was real or just his mind playing tricks. It didn't really matter, his obsession now was finding answers and it felt like he was getting closer to what he was looking for. "Obsidius, you are back already?" the surprised voice of Jedi Master Yonas piped up as he walked by. "It's only been a few hours since you left, surely you've not slept. The books will still be here later, you know." She was trying to be helpful but it was quickly taking on a patronizing tone to Obsidius' singularly focused mind. He shrugged off the annoyance, resetting his mind to be appropriate to where he was, "Perhaps Master Yonas, but questions still cloud my mind. I am sure they will quiet when I find the answers, then I shall take a very long rest." Long rest indeed, all the way back to Drommond Kaas. The aged woman nodded, she didn't really have a serious objection. Few were here this early in the morning since most chose to spar in the cool breeze outside. It was almost like having company even though she knew he wouldn't be speaking much to her. "Very well. Let me know if you need me to search for any more reference material." She bowed her head, "May the Force be with you." He tried to return the sentiment, but still he couldn't force the words out of his mouth. 'Be with you.. idiots,' he thought to himself, still amused to listen to how the Jedi refer to the Force as some friend to walk hand in hand with rather than a powerful servant to fuel ones emotion and power. During his time among the more peaceful Jedi, he'd become surprised to learn how much further away from the Mastery of the One Emotion than the Sith he'd studied. The Sith embraced emotions, at least some of them, unfortunately it was a narrow collection of emotions and almost all viewed them as separate, never finding the power in linking them together. The Jedi were a different puzzle all together, they repressed so many emotions and actively shunned the pure core of what the One Emotion is, love. Love is, after all, the cement of attachment and Jedi fear attachment above all else. 'Their loss,' he mused to himself as he sat down at the table he'd claimed for himself for the last few months. 'In the end that will be their undoing. One day they will find they do love something, and everything they stand for will unravel.' It'd been a while since he'd even thought about how he should be looking for ways to actually defeat these people, but the longer he stayed here the more he realized that they will end up defeating themselves. Hopefully before the Sith do the same. Once again he started at the top of a stack of books which had been thoughtfully placed on the table by one of the library staff. They quietly would come by every so often and collect the discard pile which would form on the opposite side of the table as Obsidius sifted through the tomes searching. The feeling the search was hopeless was growing, as he knew the supply of material would soon run out, he thumbed to the appropriate section of the book in front of him and there it was. It had no name attached but the meditative procedure what all to familiar to him to be mistaken. It was the preparation to slip into the Force facade. He read over the words slowly, finding that a good deal of the book was dedicated to what this author considered the ancient art form. Obsidius flipped through the book, looked on the cover, even flagged down Master Yonas but neither the author's name or the name of the art could be found. Luckily the database had identified parts of the meditation, which was how it'd found it in the initial query. Starting back at the begining Obsidius set out to consume this book, bit by bit and learn every ounce of knowledge it had. The first few chapters were quite philosophical, develing into the reason one would deliberately separate themselves from the Force. The author claimed that separation created a yearning to seek out a stronger connection to the living Force, therefore strengthening the bond each time the user shifted from the facade. An example 'journey,' as the book called it, was detailed in which the author entered the facade and pushed himself to what he called the limit, walking among his peers for an entire weekend then resting from the ordeal for a week. 'A week..' Obsidius thought to himself. For decades now he meditated for a few hours each day after holding his facade. Only recently had he actually walked around without the facade in place, he almost felt naked without it, especially here like this on Tython. At least when he presented himself trully as Obsidius the call of the darkness vastly overpowered any feeling or longing he felt, and it was a good feeling, one he craved above all else. He looked to the book again, the words weren't coming into focus as he was still lost in thought. 'What have I done to myself? They knew.. surely they knew that I wasn't supposed to do this day after day for all these years.' He ran his fingers through his auburn hair trying to keep his thoughts inside his head rather than being broadcast to any nosey Jedi who might be walking by. Trying to force questions from his mind he turned back to the book. Surely the answer was here. The patience reading he'd been doing had long slipped from him and he was flipping through pages, scanning looking for something which might give him more information. Nothing. It wasn't here... everything documented here just simply notes a short term event which had a recovery period. Nothing even remotely like he'd been doing. Dejected he closed the book, tucking it under his arm and walked towards the entrance hall. "I'm going to borrow this book to study further," he held it up so the droid could scan it. Nodding, "Very well Obsidius," Master Yanas replied, "Will you be needing any of the others?" she gestured towards his table. "No, I think I found what I was looking for," he tucked the book back under his arm. "It's just not quite what I was expecting. Hopefully further study will reveal more than the simple words are saying." He surprised himself with how 'Jedi' what he'd just said sounded. Yanas seemed to think so to by the look on her face but she said nothing further. Nodding he left the library and walked out of the temple back out into the now afternoon sunshine. The steps and ajoining courtyard was full of eager young padawans, some chasing after their associated masters, others engaging each other. Obsidius wasn't in the mood to be around this, not in the slightest. He kept walking, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone. "Not so fast," a voice called out and a hand caught him on the shoulder. "You've been avoiding me long enough," the graveling but unmistakable voice of Liam Dentiri truthfully stated. Indeed he had been avoiding the man and for good reason. The level of concentration it took to do any serious lightsaber battle was almost too taxing for Obsidius when combined with fighting back his natural Sith tendencies. He knew he'd not be able to avoid him completely, but now was a really bad time. Or was it? "My apologies, I've been researching something," Obsidius patted the cover of the book under his arm. "It's been consuming almost all of my time." It was the whole truth, with the exception of eating and sleeping, he'd been in the library as much as the librarians. They will probably notice him not visiting in the morning. Unwavering Dentiri persisted, "Well you aren't researching right now. Set down that book and let me set up some droids for you." The man smiled, "You trained for too many years to just let all that work become rusty and dusty." He referred to the fake recorded that Obsidius had brought along with him when he first arrived on Tython. It documented years of training, which was true... albeit several decades had passed since all that training had taken place. "Very well," Obsidius relented setting down the book and walking out into the center of one of the training rings. Hopefully indulging Dentiri now would keep him from pestering several other days. "You may start your program." Obsidius nodded waiting before pulling his weapon. "We shall start with some Mark IV droids, we both know you'll damage the others," Liam smirked typing in the command on his console. Soon the mechanisms beneath the training pad locked in and four droids emerged in each corner, pausing before engaging Obsidius in the center of the ring. His saber lept into his hand, the twin green blades searing to life as he twirled and found his footing. He fought to only use his saber and not open with a burst of Force lightening, but a perhaps a bit of pulling would be okay... Focusing with his free hand he reached out, picking up the droid to his left and flinging it into the droid on his right, both falling to the ground having reached their tolerance of damage. Obsidius gave a half grin to Liam and then shifted in the Force, becoming invisible for a few short moments... the shaft of his green saberblade searing through the chest from behind of one of the two remaining droids. It fell to the ground destroyed. One final droid. It fired at Obsidius, he deflected the bolts as the shot towards him. Some he deliberately didn't deflect choosing to dodge with his movements as he drew closer to his attacker. Liam Dentiri shook his head looking at the destroyed droids and only one remaining. "This will not do," and he quickly started typing something into the console. An override command it turns out. As Obsidius approached the final Mark IV droid a Mark V droid emerged from the lift and wasted no time engaging him. Angered, Obsidius, threw his saber at the Mark IV droid. It whirled through the air, spinning like a giant green disc through the air, slicing the droid in half before returning to its master's waiting hand. Liam frowned at the obvious overly aggressive move, but was interested to see how he deal with the final opponent. This droid was armed with an electrostaff. The droid twirled the blade much like Obsidius was doing with his own lightsaber. It swung as him and they locked weapons, the ligthsaber hissing and sparking against the field of the electrostaff. The droid jumped back, juking to the side then running back to the center coming down with a powerful overhead blow. Obsidius retracted one side of his saber's blade and met the downward thrust with the single activated side. His eyes narrowed and he pushed the droid back with the Force and it skidded across the ground, metal screeching has the claws on its feet grabbed and locked on. Leaping into the air Obsidius engaged the droid, his lightsaber becoming a blur, moving left and right, trying to find a hole in the droid's programmed defenses. Fortunately for Obsidius it was all programming and couldn't perceive that he was toying with the machine and with a rudimentary and out of sync move, he swung upwards and cut the elecrostaff in two. Not giving a chance for the droid to respond, he thrust the green blade through the droid's head. Covered in sweat and feeling very weary and nearly unfocused, Obsidius clipped his saber back in place and walked back to Dentiri. "Not quite as rusty as I would have expected," he half smiled. Liam paused not quite sure what to say, "Well, that was certainly effective," he looked at the collection of completely ruined droids. "I'm a bit concerned at how aggressively you addressed those last few, Obsidius. You must remember to always keep your focus and not give in to the easier more aggressive approach. The cool hand will often find advantages that weren't immediately obvious." These speeches, he won't miss these damn speeches when he finally leaves this place. But for now he had to keep playing the part, "Of course Master Dentiri. I'm sure it is because I am rather tired and unfocused. I will practice further after I'd had some rest." "And meditation," Liam added, completely unaware how accurate his addition was. A little shocked, Obsidius could only nod and then walked away towards the open fields which lay beyond the training complex. <Flashback fade in> Jento set the figure back on his desk. "I'm not sure a cool hand will help now, but I'm sure some meditation will.. that damn Captain has me in a mood," Jento stood up to leave once he realized he was now talking to a wooden thing.

Obsidius collapsed the moment he stumbled into his meditation chamber. Somewhere inside he knew it was the safest place for him to be, the Force Storm he could create if unshielded could kill every Sith aboard. Ripping his helmet free and tossing it aside he clutched at his temples, his mind felt torn in half and the two halves were fighting against each other. The Dark Side of the Force was running rampage through his mind, back and forth like cannon volleys. "My Lord!" EV-1X exclaimed scuttering into the room finding him on the floor bent over in agony. She dared not draw too close but instead went over to the com panel. "Darth Xionia, you are needing in the Master's meditation chamber immediately. Something is terribly wrong." She didn't even wait for a reply before closing the channel, the Sith woman wasn't much of a conversationalist anyway. The droid watched helplessly as Obsidius remained knelt in pain holding the side of his head. A few short minutes later the wall opened and Xionia rushed into the room and to Obsidius' side. She didn't say a word before placing her own hands on his and whispering, "Obsidius, hear me. Follow my voice.. find me in," she was cut off in mid sentence when Obsidius looked up at her, his eyes glowing hot and a fevered expression on his face. "What have you done?!" She exclaimed pushing his hands out of the way and replacing them with her own. She could feel the rush of chaotic energy and his dark aura, but it all felt terrible wrong. She'd communed with him in this way often enough that she could tell something was foreign and he was filled with more darkness than ever before and since he was dressed as Jento it wasn't done on purpose. Obsidius mumbled, "...everything I touch suffers... everything I touch suffers." He shook his head and then exclaimed into the room, "NO STOP!" Xionia peered at him, he didn't appear to be speaking to her but more to himself and then answering himself. Nothing about this could be good and it seemed to be building in strength. Placing her palm on his forehead she drew upon the Force and used a technique she'd long avoided. Chanting to herself to find focus she unleashed a pulse into Obsidius' mind and he fell limp, unconscious. "Rest my Master.. I will find a way to make you whole," she looked down at him with pained eyes. "And I will make whoever did this to you suffer."

Days passed. Obsidius tossed and turned in his Force induced slumber, sometimes speaking to himself and often times answering. Xionia stayed vigilant by his side while EV-X1 wheeled in various tomes and scrolls from Obsidius' personal library as she attempted to discover exactly what had happened to her master. She was quickly running out of material and her confidence that the answer she sought had been previously discovered was dwindling fast. Life aboard the Relentless had grown quiet. Naval personnel seemed to be enjoying the brief pause and used the time to catch up on the many things which had been overlooked during the ship's refit. Schedules were formed, duty rosters were completed and training regiments were created. The ship seemed to be operating perfectly despite the total absence of its commander. Whispers began as rumors started forming about where the Brigadier had vanished too. Many believed he'd been called away and wasn't aboard at all, others seemed to think it was all a test and that he was observing them and how they were going to function in their new duty posts. Both of these rumors seemed to drive the crew towards perfection rather than slipping into laziness, most of this due to the paranoia that seemed to have gripped the Colonel. --- Colonel Crahn seemed nervous, pacing back and forth across the training room. It was well known that he was a stickler for running drills and exercises but as of late the demands on the troops went far beyond what would be expected of normal soldiers outside of basic training. "No no no! You must end on your left foot," Crahn made a show of marching the route himself, exaggerating as he ended the parade on his left foot. "It is paramount that each step is done perfectly. There could be an inspection at any time," he spat out as he took his position back at the front of the room. The soldiers all turned and looked at each other. The Colonel had repeated exactly the same thing they'd done before, ending on the left foot. In fact they'd done it perfectly almost ten times in a row and were getting quite frustrated at the fact that he seemed to be unable to notice they weren't making a mistake. Sergeant Tull stepped out of line, "Beg pardon, Sir," he stated trying to get Crahn's attention. "I'm not sure if its the angle you've been view'n the men at, but we's been ended on the left boot fer the last eight runs." He patted his left knee to drive home the point. This seemed to wake Crahn from the stupor he'd been in at the front of the room and he looked at the much larger man and tried to think of a way to save face. "Ah then, very good Sergeant. Must be the lightning from over here," he pointed towards the ceiling. "Make one more run through then you are all dismissed for chow," Crahn gestured with his hand and make a hasty exit from the training room. Tull watched him leave and waited for the doors to close. "Well, I's not sure what's got his knickers in a twist but we've run this enough. Stow your gear gents, see you in the mess hall." Tull grinned pulling off his helmet and lighting up a cigarra as made his way over to the weapons rack. --- Crahn sat in his quarters, his cup of caf growing cold on his desk as he kept running his fingers through his thinning hair as if trying to find piece somewhere in the strands of salt and pepper hair. He'd felt no peace in days, a constant tugging back and forth in his mind as if he was having an argument with himself. He'd tried stims, exercise, walking, even hours on the firing range and nothing seemed to offer any sort of relief. Ever since they'd broke orbit from Kalo 6 he's been a wreck and he didn't even leave the ship. He wasn't alone, several other members of the crew had reported trouble sleeping, nightmares, difficulty concentrating, even seeing ghosts, but he was by far the worst. He had avoided sickbay and making eye contact with any of the Sith afraid they'd relieve him of duty. "I CAN control myself...." he chanted over and over again, not noticing he was slowly pulling his hair out as his fingers gripped the grey strands in frustration.