Shadow of the Witch

Shadow of the Witch
Date of Scene:	11 July 2025
Location:	Aklyrr Bend - Tenoo - Outer Rim
Synopsis:	Navi attempts to reason with Malgabar.
Cast of Characters:	159, Navi

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Athena (159) has posed:
Navi will find herself next to a screeching female teenaged Chadra Fan, as they spiral into a strange green vortex of energy that will make the young Sephi girl feel as if she'd been thrown into a hyperspace tunnel but without a ship. Time and space seems to be meaningless here.

When they finally exit the weird swirling tunnel, her stomach will jolt at the sudden halt and she'll find herself flying face forward into a bush full of not so soft leaves.

"Ow!" Peeka cries out next to her. ".... ugh!"

As for the young witch herself, she's less than a meter away, her back facing them, arms folded.

Navi has posed:
Navi tries to get an arm around Peeka, to protect her, having even forgotten about being covered in Dead Bird Gunk (tm) in the throes of the stress of an uncanny situation. She barely manages it, which leaves her only one arm to throw up in front of her face as the horrifying green vortex gives way to more forest... and a less-than-soft bush that only halfway cushions her fall.

She stands slowly, helping Peeka to her feet as best she can. Sore and scratched all over, she turns to Mal, keeping hold of one of Peeka's hands to reassure her.

"Mal? Why have you brought us here?" she asks, speaking to the young witch as if she were another person, and not the terrifying apparition that had appeared to herself and her friends mere moments before. "And what do you want with Peeka?"

Athena (159) has posed:
For once Peeka doesn't say anything. She clings to Navi's hand tightly, trembling.

"Don't call me that," the witch suddenly snaps, turning to face Navi. Her eyes flash angrily and green flames wisp out from under her clenched fists. Then she calms down slightly. "She's running away from her family," she says haughtily. "I was just bringing her back to the fold."

Navi has posed:
"Where is Peeka's family? Are they here, too?" Navi asks. "And what's happened to you? Does it have something to do with Cayde?" She hadn't missed Cayde's rushed attack on Mal, or its conclusion. That was more than just trying to protect himself and his friends... it seemed much too personal.

Athena (159) has posed:
The young witch doesn't answer, but Peeka nods quickly, glancing around desperately.

After a moment, Mal says, "What a strange thing for you to ask," her tone bored. "What does it concern you if it does, or doesn't? You are all fools. Ignorant. Blind." She starts walking, heading towards a strange, looming structure in the distance, whose details are obscured by the immense amount of fog.

Navi has posed:
"Considering that he just tried to /kill you/, the question doesn't seem so strange to me," Navi replies, moving to follow Mal. She keeps her hold of Peeka's hand, to reassure her, even if she lacks some of that assurance herself.

"And maybe I'm an ignorant, blind fool, but I do love you like a sister. We've always been friends. You know I'd never hurt you," she continues.

Athena (159) has posed:
"Bah!" The young witch says, "A sister, a friend, a child. These labels are all beneath me," she says, "Cayde, you, the colonists, everyone. They fail to see who and what I truly am. They treat me like a peasant, reject my advances, discard me like a nuisance, though I could end their insignificant existences with the snap of my finger."

"Now they -will- know and recognize that I am a Mother, a queen, a supreme being. Or they will die for their ignorance." The fog suddenly thickens, obscuring Navi's view of the Dathomirian girl. Yet, the structure ahead still looms clear -- shadowy and much bigger than Navi might have originally thought it looked.

Navi has posed:
"Is /that/ what started this? Someone rejected you? Maybe Cayde?" Navi asks, keeping her tone level and sympathetic, with effort, remembering how Mal had been so close to Cayde on the voyage to Tenoo, and had seemed to want to be even closer to him. "You can't /force/ someone to love you... it just doesn't work that way. It never has, and never will. Sure, you can kill Cayde, or whoever, if he doesn't love you, but what does that actually get you? In the end you're just left all alone."

As the fog wraps Mal, Navi studies the towering structure she has led her to. It gives her a bad feeling, between its size and its shadowy appearance. Somewhat against her better judgement, she opens herself to the Force, searching for signs of presences in the Force besides Mal, and anything she can sense from the towering structure wreathed in shadows. There is too much going on for her eyes and ears alone to register and comprehend, that much is clear to her.

Athena (159) has posed:
"Better alone, than to exist knowing that those who scorned me are still alive and breathing, leading their petty and vapid lives, pitying me, regarding me as pathetic and insignificant as they are," the young witch's disembodied voice floats back towards the young Sephi.

There are several people in the structure, some a larger beacon in the Force than others, all of them suffering or afraid to a degree. Some of them feel familiar, but Navi will be too far away at the moment to determine who they are exactly. The structure itself is labyrinthine, massive and twisting, almost unnavigable. What it might have been once upon a time, will remain a mystery for now.

Navi has posed:
"That's the Dark Side talking. It's feeding into your feelings, inflating the negative and squelching the positive... for /its/ gain, not yours," Navi replies, her tone unchanged. "That's what the Dark Side does. It offers you quick and easy power, but that power always comes at too high a price. It feeds on everyone around you, but it feeds on you, too. In the end, it will consume you completely. If you're lucky, nothing will remain. If you're not, all that will be left is a tormented ghost, lost in the Dark Side and its own twisted emotions."

"I've seen one of those ghosts. Seen what it did. I don't want that fate for you, Mal... I love you too much to want you to suffer so," she pleads gently.

Athena (159) has posed:
Laughter floats back to Navi, and it's a chilling sound, though faint. "You saw only what you wanted to see," the disembodied voice says, "I -am- the Dark Side. I was once like what you said. A ghost. A shell. Ignorable. Tormented, miserable. Now, I'm free. Nothing is forbidden to me!"

And then Navi will be able to sense that she's vanished into the looming structure and beyond hearing range. If she wanted to find her and talk to her, they'd need to go inside, and perhaps Navi might locate her using telepathy.

"Oh gods!" Peeka cries, "she is -crazy-!!"

Navi has posed:
"Somehow I'm not convinced. I'm betting the vergence has something to do with your newfound power," Navi observes softly. She squeezes Peeka's hand again. "She's inside that tower, whatever it is. We're going to have to go in and find her. And I can feel others inside, too, but I can't tell who they are... they're too far away."

"I don't know what's in there, or what will happen once I go in. If you want to stay here, I won't hold it against you," she says, taking a knee and looking into the Chadra Fan's eyes.

Athena (159) has posed:
"What?! No, of course I'm going with you! You don't know anything about that slimy old keep, you'll probably die without me," the tiny Chadra Fan says, skipping ahead of the young Sephi girl. "Come on, hurry up. We have to rescue my family. And stop the crazy witch girl. She is really looking at planetary domination, I'm sure of it..."

Navi has posed:
"I can't argue with /that/ logic... lead the way," Navi replies, jogging after Peeka. "I don't know if you've ever met her before now, but she wasn't like this until very recently. She was a much sweeter person. Confused, but sweet."

Athena (159) has posed:
"I know," Peeka says, "I saw her before. We weren't friends or anything, but I knew who she was."

But Peeka sounds kind of skeptical, so it might be prudent for the young Sephi girl to take what Peeka is saying with a grain of salt.

Once inside the graying fortress, Navi will see that Mal definitely hadn't used those reanimated corpses to do any cleaning whatsoever. There's cobwebs, ash, dust, and debris everywhere. This place looks very much like a dungeon, that hasn't been lived in or visited for decades. Peeka is making her way over to a shaft carrying a lift that does not look like it works anymore.

"Come on!" she beckons, although everything about it looks unstable.

Navi has posed:
"The Dark Side's lack of taste is just... /ugh/!" Navi murmurs, unable to keep back a shudder at the filthy dungeon. "I'd bet nobody's been here in forever."

She hesitates at the lift. "Are you sure that thing works at all? Or is even safe?" she asks, reluctantly stepping onto the lift, holding on to the edge of the shaft to steady herself... and hopefully some protection against falling if the lift /isn't/ safe!

Athena (159) has posed:
"What?" Peeka says, "you wanna take... the stairs?" she points across the hall to a decrepit staircase that looks like it's about to fall apart at any second.

"Hurry up. My family and everyone else here don't have forever."

She climbs onto the rusty bars attached to the wall of the lift, then leaps through a hole in the top of it. Then she peers down at Navi. "Well, are you coming? The cells are all on the upper levels."

Navi has posed:
"Okay... and you might want to duck," Navi replies, a bit hesitantly. She draws upon the Force, tweaking the flow of it through her body, tenses, and /leaps/...

A moment later she's through the gap Peeka had leapt through, several meters above the top of the lift, claiming handholds and footholds in the shaft walls. "You're a lot better built for this kind of stuff than me. But lead on. I'll manage."

Athena (159) has posed:
"Oh," Peeka says, looking up the shaft, frowning. "I..." she pauses. "Maybe I was wrong about that. This castle... it's really weird. Sometimes I start seeing shit, and then all of a sudden it's gone."

"I think... I think we should actually go down. The upstairs... I don't think we can go up there."

She points upward, indicating a multitude of collapsed rafters blocking their passage.

Then she skitters to edge of the lift and looks down the shaft. "Oh, gods," she says, "it's so dark and I can't see the bottom..." But then she hops over the edge, disappearing from Navi's line of vision...

Navi has posed:
"Oh..." Navi murmurs, deflating a little and dropping back to the roof of the lift. Fishing a mini high-intensity glowrod from her jacket pocket, she turns it on and secures its lanyard to the back belt loop of her pants, so her legs won't block the light or shift it around too much, and so her hands will still be free.

"Peeka, slow down! It's way too hard to tell what's real in this place and what's not," she cautions the Chadra Fan as she begins to climb down the shaft behind her, hoping the light will illuminate any real threats coming at them. The walls and the empty shaft both seem fuzzy and less than real to her eyes...

Athena (159) has posed:
But before Peeka can even respond to Navi, there's a horrible jolt, and suddenly, Navi will find the lift plummeting, plummeting into pitch blackness!

After what will feel both too long and too short, there's a horrible crashing sound as the lift hits what appears to be rock bottom. The vibration from the crash may be enough to knock Navi off her feet, if she doesn't catch herself!

Navi has posed:
Fortunately for Navi, she learned long ago how to take a fall without getting hurt, through a natural sense of balance and more than a little gymnastics and acrobatics training. As the lift hits bottom, she's thrown off of her feet, but she hits the ground on her backside, rolling partway onto her shoulders and slapping both arms and hands down, with force, on the floor of the lift, before rolling to her feet, her hands and arms stinging and practically vibrating from the force of it all.

But she's alive and more or less unhurt. The glowrod seems to still be working, so she unsecures it from her belt loop and shines it around. "Peeka! Are you okay?!" she cries, looking for any sign of the Chadra Fan.

Athena (159) has posed:
Navi will immediately be able to feel that the Dark Side here is ... overwhelming. In the Force, it feels discordant, suffocating, and overwhelming. She'll be able to feel that Mal is somewhere nearby, but she won't be able to see her.. or anything, really.

The glowrod works, but it's not shedding light on anything that would be even remotely useful to Navi at the moment. Just the floor, and a hallway that she cannot see the end of...

Peeka doesn't respond, and Navi won't be able to see her, either.

Navi has posed:
Navi shivers, hard enough to make her teeth chatter for a moment, hugging her elbows against an intense chill that seems to come from inside as well as outside of her body. The strength of the Dark Side here is almost overwhelming, seeming to radiate from the very walls, turning her breathing to laborious, anxious sobs, and causing her skin to crawl as if it were not her own...

Or is it her skin at all..? She realizes with a start that the filth of dead creatures covering her clothes and hair is what's actually crawling!

"EEUUGH!" she cries shrilly, inarticulately, dropping the glowrod and all but tearing at her jacket and pants and boots, trying to get them off as quickly as she can. "Away, away, /get AWAY/!!!" she almost screams in her terror. After several frantic minutes of struggling and thrashing and panicked sobbing, the frightened Sephi girl has violently stripped down to her shirt, underwear, and socks, and is using the lining of her jacket to scrape and scrub the muck from her hair.

Flinging her ruined hair ties and her jacket to the floor, she leaps back from her discarded clothes, sobbing more softly as her racing heart begins to calm down a little. Slowly she looks around as her wits begin to return. After a long, long moment, she retrieves her satchel and glowrod from the floor, taking a long look around the room.

"Peeka? Where are you?" she calls softly, looking around in confusion for the missing Chadra Fan. But all she can see besides the floor is that long hallway, a hall so dark she can't even see the end. It appears to lead into far-off blackness, but she knows that is an illusion. But the darkness is quite real. She knows there is more to this room, or series of rooms, more accurately, but she can see nothing of any of it... and Mal is still nowhere in sight, either.

Athena (159) has posed:
No response, nothing, from Peeka. Navi may start to feel a sense of utter loneliness and permanent separation seeping into her soul, chilling her, maybe even starting to immobilize her from the inside out.

She may even be on the brink of collapsing emotionally and physically when she suddenly feels a gentle hand closing around her forearm and tugging her gently towards... somewhere.

Wait, the presence is familiar! Someone she's deeply connected to in the Force. someone whose heartbeat she'd recognize in a crowd. Someone who's attempting to project to her the feeling of her favorite color - blue, calm, serenity. Someone who feels like... home.

<Navi> the Tholothian says to her, quietly, unobtrusively.

But what is he doing here, of all places?!

Navi has posed:
Navi almost screams when that hand closes around her wrist. By the time she realizes she's being led, she has her emotions better under control, and is receptive to the sense of comforting blue intruding so subtly into her thoughts. Slowly her calm returns, bouyed by that serene presence.

"Amarik..? How did /you/ get here?" she asks softly. "Why are /you/ in this awful place?"

Athena (159) has posed:
"She took one of our people," he says.

Then he tugs her into a comforting embrace. "I missed you," he says quietly. "And I didn't get tell you before you left, that I love you, too."

Navi has posed:
Navi doesn't resist the embrace, craving closeness with another sentient when she's surrounded by the preternatural darkness of the Dark Side.

"I... I missed you, too," she whispers, though her heart sinks at his words of love. This really isn't the time or place...

"The cells... they're at the end of this hall," she says, a bit more urgently. "It's getting a little easier to tell the illusions from the reality now. We'd better free those captives, quick." Taking her lightsaber hilt into her hand, she starts toward the cells. "And let me know if you see a Chadra Fan girl... her name's Peeka. I haven't seen her since the lift crashed down the shaft."

Athena (159) has posed:
The Tholothian man hesitates upon sensing her disappointment, but doesn't comment.

Perhaps he didn't really get an opportunity to anyway, at that moment, Peeka materializes, for real. "Oh, there are you are," she says, sounding slightly annoyed. "of course you had to make a pit stop to hug your Not Boyfriend while in your underwear," she comments sarcastically, "while my family is, oh you know, locked away in a cell, rotting their asses off." Then she skitters off, hurrying down the hallway towards the cells.

Amarik starts following the Chadra Fan. "No use in freeing them when the witch is still at large," he says. "She must be taken care of, first."

Navi has posed:
"Long story," Navi says softly to Peeka, blushing faintly. "We'll discuss it later. If there /is/ a later." She falls in behind Amarik and the Chadra Fan.

"I just wish I knew /how/ to take care of her. She won't listen to me. The Dark Side has her wholly in its grasp, and it's feeding on her emotions. Poisoning her mind with power fantasies, unless I've missed my guess," she adds. "Cayde played a role in this, going by the guilt he's evidenced and his fatalistic desire to kill her or be killed by her. I don't think it was even a voluntary role, but Mal was always fragile."

Athena (159) has posed:
The Tholothian man doesn't say anything. Which might not bode well, and Navi might already have an idea about why he's not commenting - once they reach the area with the cells, there will be a bit more light, and she'll be able to see that he's armed pretty heavily. Two throwing knives, a small hand blaster, and... a sniper rifle.

Navi might not be that surprised to find that the cells carry the Dug, Wensicio, and as Peeka had pointed out earlier, Hedicole and his family. There's also an elderly Latero that Navi won't recognize - he's not one of the colonists, that's for sure. And then there is someone Navi will definitely also recognize who isn't one of the colonists either - Dart, the Twi'lek marauder she'd seen hanging around Pop before. She's unconscious, though.

Navi has posed:
"She's been busy," Navi observes softly, looking into each of the cells in turn. "I don't even recognize this poor guy," she says, indicating the poor Latero's cell.

And then the Force sends her a warning, and she is instantly aware of something even more pressing. "She's close by... be ready," she whispers to the pair

"Mal," she calls softly. "I know you're here. Can we talk about this? I'm sure the others are on their way. I don't want anyone to get hurt, so can we please just end this without anyone else getting hurt?"

Athena (159) has posed:
"Yeah," Peeka says, "but I think my family is kind of priority, don't you think?" But then Navi warns her to be ready as Mal is close by, and she hides behind Navi. Even though there's not much to obscure her as Navi is pantless.

At first, no response. And then, the young witch drifts eerily into the hallway, still floating on that strange fiery green aura. Her head is tilted to one side, regarding Navi with a dangerous kind of calm. "You followed me here successfully," she says. And then her voice becomes amplified, distorted, wicked sounding, impassioned. "How did you do it?!"

Navi may or may not also notice that Amarik is no longer by her side, and she won't be able to see or pinpoint where he'd gone, other than a general feeling that he's in the vicinity.

Navi has posed:
"Peeka led me here, and the Force was with me," Navi replies calmly, although her heart is racing once more. "Why are you keeping prisoners in this awful place? They've done nothing to you, or so I'm guessing, and it's not like you to wish to hurt anyone."

Athena (159) has posed:
"YOU DON'T KONW ME!" she suddenly rages. "How DARE you assume ANYTHING about me!"

She rises up, her aura growing and her eyes becoming like twin suns emanating radioactive energy. "THESE FOOLS SCORN ME. PITY ME! THEY THINK OF ME AS PATHETIC. WEAK! JUST AS YOU DO. YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" Her voice crescendos to a roar, distorted, evil, reeking of the Dark Side. She raises a hand, green lightning crackling from her palm.

Navi has posed:
Navi's lightsaber comes up in a flash, the bluish-white blade still igniting as the lightning strikes it. The force behind the bolt is so intense that it presses the glowing blade back toward her face and body. Summoning every last bit of her strength, she tilts the blade and touches the tip to the floor, sending the blast harmlessly into the stone.

"No one who ever cared about you scorned you, Mal. Let go of your rage," she says softly. "Remember your sister, who cared for you and loved you. She is alive, and should recover. She wants her little sister back. We all want you back."

Athena (159) has posed:
"LIES! MORE LIES!" She screams, and raises her hand again, once again crackling with energy.

But then suddenly Navi will feel a nudge in the Force. Mal is in fatal danger. How, or why, she might not know. But she'll know that if she doesn't do or say something in the next less than a second, Mal will be dead.

Navi has posed:
Moving on impulse, Navi deactivates her lightsaber and rushes toward Mal, intent only on saving the girl's life. She leaps, tackling the girl to the floor. In spite of the impressive height the creepy green lightning gives her, Mal is still the archetypical slip of a girl, and even Navi's relatively petite frame is enough to overbalance her and bring her down.

"Please tell me you're all right..." she says softly, looking around for the source of the attack. She has a feeling she knows who had been the source of the attack; Amarik had been carrying a /sniper rifle/, of all things.

Athena (159) has posed:
Sure enough, not even a split second later, a red sniper bolt whizzes through the air right where Mal's head had been moments before. Peeka yelps, and the air in the musty dungeon suddenly stinks of ozone.

Navi will find the source of the attack is gone. Disappeared. Vanished to somewhere far away, a location that Navi cannot pinpoint in this maze of a dungeon.

The expression on Mal's face suddenly changes from one of pure rage to one of... fear. The green in her eyes vanishes, and she squirms out from under Navi, looking panicked and terrified. "Where-- where am I?" she cries. "What happened?? I...I... "

Navi has posed:
Navi rolls onto her side, letting Mal rise before getting to her feet and hugging the girl gently. "Oh, Mal... it's kind of a long story," she says. "The important part is that you're alive and safe."

Athena (159) has posed:
"Uh, well, you almost died," Peeka suddenly says bluntly. "Pretty sure Navi's Not Boyfriend just tried to kill you."

At this, the young Dathomirian girl seems to spiral even more into anxiety and fear. "W-what? Why? What did I do?" She worms her way out of Navi's grip suddenly, looking horrified. "What is this place?" Her face suddenly crumples. "G-Gael..n-no..where..." And then she turns and starts running down the hallway, abruptly disappearing in a cloud of green and black smoke half way down.

Navi has posed:
"Um... yeah. He did. I can't take him anywhere," murmurs Navi as Mal runs off. "Or her. At least she's okay now, hopefully."

She looks to Peeka. "Let's get everyone out of those cells, so we can all get back to town. I'm dying for a shower and some fresh clothes. And maybe an explanation as to what just happened. Gods..." she murmurs, rubbing her left palm against her forehead.

Athena (159) has posed:
Peeka peers at the cells, frowning. "Uh, right. So we get my family out, but I kinda forgot to mention that I don't think this is all the hostages. I don't know where they went, though. They tried to escape, like me, but I don't know if they were successful."

She jiggles the lock on her family's cell. "Oh well. Priorities, am I right?"

Navi has posed:
"You are. Mustn't forget priorities," Navi replies, with a wan smile. "And fortunately, I brought along a good lockpick," she adds, picking up her lightsaber hilt from the floor. "Let's get to it."