Log:Knights of Ren: The Last Knight
Behold.
OOC Date: February 20th, 2022
Location: Spearhead Base
Participants: Knights of Ren, Sebek, Tamsin Cas, Tarq Najjic, Sith Empire
[ Sebek (SE)]
At the front of the Training Room, in the intersection of the four training mats, was the Last Knight.
The fall of He Who Leads had done a proverbial number on Sebek the Lost, and he had never been the same. Departing on long missions, the only reports being news of mayhem and misery, and returning as enigmatically as he'd departed. When the Knights were absorbed by the Sith Eternal, the Falleen was nowhere to be found. Such had been the state of affairs for some months now, so for him to be here, at his old home, working for a long departed master, was surely a surprise.
Sebek of the Desert, Flagbearer of Coret, Conqueror of the Sixteenth Deck, Consumer of Hounds, Wielder of Tei Tenga, He Who Hunts sat on his knees, hands on his thighs, his eyes closed and Tei Tenga unlit and hungry on the floor in front of him like a side-boss in an old hologame. His skin was the deepest green of contentment, or perhaps control. For must one not be in control before confronting all they hold anathema? Yes, of course. Glorious battle was to be had. Just who was fighting who was no recourse.
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
They sensed something. They both sensed it. The two former Knights who joined within weeks met each other's eyes. Without discussing anything, without even a mental exchange, they moved as one towards the training area. The assault could wait: they sensed a presence, a presence they had not felt for some time: their old comrade.
First through the door by a hair is the Kuati. Who knows how many iterations of this velvet cape, silk shirt, and linen pants he went through in the assault on Coruscant? This one is fresh, the black with purple trim and stitching fit for a ball. He sweeps his cape out with a flick of his left hand and a swish, his lightsaber visible at his belt. It's been modified somewhat, which Sebek might notice: it looks as though the saber staff could part in the middle to become two one-handed hilts.
His lips are pursed. "Tarq Najjic hoped could speak to you long before. May still be time."
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
There was absolutely, without question, no possible way in any iteration of this galaxy or any galaxy, that Tarq Najjic, human, Son of Kuat and Tamsin Cas, Firrerreo, Daughter of Muun, could be twins. And yet, there was some element of that silent communication between them, as there had always been in the time that they had known each other, as the sensation of one long thought lost, of his essence and presence was felt. The realization, the glance which had never needed words passing between them before the two former(?) Knights broke away from the group, following that essence to its source, and Tamsin's steps came only a pace or two behind Tarq's, the pair moving as they always did, one, Tarq, this time, guarding from the front, and Tamsin from behind.
"Sebek of the Desert, Flagbearer of Coret, Conqueror of the Sixteenth Deck, Consumer of Hounds, Wielder of Tei Tenga, He Who Hunts." She did not often have cause to use Sebek's full name, but Tamsin found cause now, acknowledging everything he was and had been. And perhaps, would be again, "We have searched long and long for you."
[ Sebek (SE)]
"Time?" The Falleen's eyes did not open, but there was a slow and loud nasal inhale. Then, a long sigh from his lips. "Time has passed and time has come, He Who Jests." The oozy velvety voice of his, the thick accent ever-present, barely even tried to hide the flecks of irritation that had crept into his tone. Tei Tenga bayed through the Force, hungry and wanting. There was a faint "Shhhshshshsh," as Sebek chastised his blade, then his eyes snapped open.
Behold, the Gold Within Red! Behold the sign of darkness! Behold, the fallen!
The fury simmering in the air around Sebek of the Desert was almost palpable as his rage churned underneath the enforced serenity. "So eager were you both to leech upon the teat of power knowing that your souls were thrice-damned! To bind yourself to the yoke of betrayal and doom!" Shimmers of lime green and yellow flicked across the Falleen's skin as he struggled to bring himself back under control. "I behold you, students of yore, and I gaze upon your eyes I see that I have failed you." His feet pivoted from underneath him and, rocking backwards, he pushed himself up into a standing position, with nary a movement of his arms. Almost of its own accord, Tei Tenga fwipped up into his hand.
"Completely, and utterly."
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
"Sith follow leader. Is their way. When Knight overthrows Ferren, replaces his master, we will have better chance to destroy Jedi and Sith than any follower of Ren has /ever/ had. Jedi from without; Sith from within." Tarq's words are urgent, lacking any banter or direct engagement with Sebek's disappointment. "Ferren has /no/ councilor loyal to cause. We all seek their destruction, even one you have not met."
"There is still time. Time to feign loyalty. Time to kill Jedi. Time to corrupt Sith. Do not waste it." He watches Tei Tenga rise into Sebek's hand, then his gaze rises back to Sebek's eyes.
He stops walking when he reaches one of the four squares in the sparring area, where the Falleen previously knelt. 'Enough room to practice foot work and maneuvering, but small enough to keep the presence of each combatant up close and dangerous.' "Do not do this."
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Tamsin drew no blade, nor did she exert her will in Sebek's direction. Now, she used only words. "Malik bid me, bid all of us, to carry on the work, Sebek. And so I have done. We did not have the strength to destroy this thing from the outside." Tamsin's words mirrored Tarq's, but they were no less heartfelt for all of that. She spoke in earnest, now, to the Knight who had been, more than any other, even the Master of the Knights of Ren, her master. "And so, we made the choice to find a place within its folds, to bide our time, and plan the moment of reckoning." There was no lie in Tamsin's voice. "I would have shared our plan with you, urged you to come with us, to help and to teach us, to guide us, as you had always done, but we could not find you. And so we had only our own counsel to show us the way." Tamsin paused, as she moved, still keeping that closeness to Tarq, but now bracketing Sebek, "You could help us, Sebek, teach and guide us now, as you have always done."
[ Sebek (SE)]
"And still you persist. Fight from the inside. You have embraced the fool's crusade, both of you!" snapped the Falleen, his reptilian manner becoming dangerously apparently as the oozing voice devolved into a sharp hiss. Ever warmer grew his skin tone, and ever more furious grew his attitude. "Freedom from the yoke of the Jeedai and Sith! That was our goal!" he raved, pacing left and right and clenching a taloned hand into a fist. Was his topknot starting to fray? Possible, but that eyeliner was /always/ on point. Could be tattooed, could just be a really good job. "They are insidious! Stay among them and become them! I behold it now, morphing my two best and brightest into /schemers/!" That last word was spat, a glob of moisture landing on the mat.
There was a sharp inhale and another deep sigh, an attempt to remain collected and calm. "But what you say is truth. Remove the head, become the head. So that is what must be done." Uh oh, the velvet was back. Fury had become tranquility and resolve. "I shall slay your puppeteer, and become your leader, and destroy your newfound cult with the fervour He Who Leads demanded of us."
/snap-hiss/
"Then, alive or dead, you shall be free." Tei Tenga hummed furiously, twirled through the air and brought into the high ready stance of Ataru. "Now get out of my way, or show me what passes for fury amongst your misbegotten kind."
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
"You will give it away, Sebek." He shakes his head slowly. "If we let you pass, and pass not as one of us, whole effort will be for naught. No cause, no memory. Just empty sepulcher with no names, filled with ash."
For a moment the masquerade slips, and Tarq's expression has no joy in it, real or pretended. "I cannot let you do that. This is our only /chance/!" His hand dips once and then his lightsaber is in his hand, igniting, in the blink of an eye. The corner of his lip curls up. "Man gave Tarq Najjic insight and purpose. His cause - must - survive." He doesn't get out of the way.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
"He is the leader only of this single head of the snake, Sebek. There is another, his master, whom we have yet to meet, to confront. You will fight and perhaps, you will die or he will, but it would be all for naught, for his master will persist. And we will be no closer to our goal. And should you fall, you would leave those Knights who remain outside of this new Sith alone, without guidance. Do you not see that? Do not do this, Sebek. Please." Like Tarq, Tamsin also did not move out of Sebek's way, shifting only a few steps, so that she could maintain the bracketing in the Falleen. Her own saber, the one Sebek himself had helped her to craft, was called to her hand, the blade igniting as soon as her fingers curled around it.
[ Sebek (SE)]
"Doomed to scheme like a Sith and dither like a Jeedai! My failure is complete and my shame knows no bounds!" Rage was a powerful anaesthetic for logic, and Sebek never really had much of that to begin with. His mouth begat a howl of fury and pain as Tei Tenga spun defensively, his stance widening as he commenced his assault!
The key to fighting two opponents, Sebek taught, was to make sure they couldn't split up. To begin with, his attacks went wide, attempting to hem He Who Jests and She Who Rages together. Wide strike to one, cross defense, second to the other, cross defense, and straight back to the first. "Fight with honour or die screaming for your god! You find no leniency here!"
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
The Kuati gymnast's sidestep to flank the Falleen is slowed by the wide swing, but not stopped. Once Sebek attacks Tamsin, Tarq raises his blade to point straight at his erstwhile mentor's heart in a sharp lunge with his full momentum behind it. When the blade is blocked, he keeps coming, pushing their sabers together with the sound of static and the plasma containment fields scraping along each other.
"Rage blinds you, my friend. You fight more Sith than Sith do." He slides the blade down to slice at Sebek's legs, but finds no connect, and his third swipe is more of a testing poke to keep him busy.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Tamsin, who knew Sebek well enough to know when words would have lost the power to affect him, if they ever even did, spoke no more. She had done all that she could, walking the diplomat's road as long as she was able. Now that road was ended. Instead of words, she moved in concert with Tarq, blade raised, forward to strike, but held up and high to guard against the clash of blade on blade as Sebek, the most skilled of the Knights she had trained with, found strength and skill enough to attack both of his former students at once. The clash of her blade on his caused a keening, the hunger of one blade meeting the hunger of the other before they broke apart and Tamsin attempted to remove the arm which held Tei Tenga, but the flesh of the Falleen eluded her.
[ Sebek (SE)]
"Blind? Sayeth he who has forgotten the face of his mentor," the Falleen spat ruefully, gold-in-red eyes glowing in the heat of clashing beams of red. Tei Tenga whirled to fend off He Who Jests while at the same time he spied an opening on his taciturn former student. The pommel of his weapon slid through towards her gut, aiming to shove backwards, while his attention focused on the man with the lethal tongue. "Join me. Against three true Knights of Ren, your puppet master and his stand no chance." The saber swung again, whiffing over empty air. "Join or die."
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
Does he remember Malik Ren's face? It so rarely held expression beyond impatience, annoyance, and occasionally a small, brief smile. Without content, it is more difficult to recall the medium.
Doubt rises in the others' sense of Tarq for a moment before being quashed back down. "Sith are relentless. Need - patience." His saber twirls as he slices down in a chop and a similar backswing to draw his guard down to his legs.
Then with both hands on the hilt, he brings down a powerful overhead swing towards Sebek's shoulder.
The main difference in Tarq's fighting style since Sebek lasted fenced with him is how quick he is to bring his guard back up after every attack, indeed defending with an equal and opposite attack. Malik Ren always chastised him for recklessness. In the last year, that lesson seems to have finally sunk into his mind and muscles.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
The strike aimed to disembowel drove Tamsin back, but only for so long. She had studied at Sebek's feet, and she took from his lessons now, as she refused to retreat, but pushed forward, stepping to flank the Falleen, allowing Tarq room to strike, moving so that, perhaps, Sebek would be forced to spread himself too wide to cover both of his opponents. Was there honour in that? Perhaps not, as Tamsin clashed with the Falleen, but this was not about honour now. Not in any way that counted. Now, it was only about the building emotion inside of her, the rage that she had felt imposed on her, so long ago, in that frozen cave on Hoth, when she had worn a diadem of pain. A rage she had since then, learned to hone and harness. Rage drawn from deep within, given form and expression in her blade. Each clash of their blades only fed that rage.
[ Sebek (SE)]
"And we are not?" retorted Sebek. This was as much a war of words as it was with deeds, an ideological battle that demanded a victory. And Sebek of the Desert, the Last Knight, was not about to let all that he held dear end here, with a whimper. Tei Tenga was raised and caught the massive overhead blow, and the Falleen was driven down to one knee. "Would that I could take pride in your development, He Who Jests, not knowing of the poisons clouding your mind!"
With a mighty roar, Sebek pushed up from his position of supplication and weaved a defensive net to intercept She Who Rages. One must not forget his other student, and the Falleen had not. "You cannot protect her," he hissed, right in the face of He Who Jests. "Know that they will divide you and break you. They are no family. They are an insidious force with a figure-head pulling your strings."
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
Tarq steps back when Sebek shoves his blade back, with no qualms about a tactical retreat. A high thrust right towards Sebek's face with a forward lunge, batted aside, with a twist of the blade becomes another stab, again swept away. He lets the force of the block pivot him around one foot and sends his saber rising up from his feet towards Sebek's thigh.
Relentless, as they had all been instructed. "She needs no one's protection now, Sebek." If she ever did, that time has passed. "She will not - fall - to you." His calm is somewhat frayed, but so far restraint and that balanced calm of fighting more traditionally ascribed to the Jedi, though in this case matched with ruthless blows they might disapprove of, remains.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Just as they often thought and moved, and responded together, so two they often finished each other's thoughts, spoke word which seemed crafted in one mind and uttered in another's voice. And so, when Tarq spoke, Tamsin's sentiments were carried on the Kuati's voice, and she offered no other comment. Not now, not yet. She only strove to fight, to distract, to force Sebek's hand as he clashed blade on blade, first one of his former students and then the other. And then, yes, there were words, "We were family once. Now you are dividing us."
[ Sebek (SE)]
"You have done that yourself," stated Sebek so remarkably plainly that it did nothing to hide the betrayal he was feeling. Even now, his body was going on autopilot, defense apathetically easy, but his offensive blows were being repelled with similar ease.
Perhaps now we come to regard Sebek the Lost as being just that, bereft of the fury that had sustained him since the passing of He Who Leads. These were kids he had tutored, and now he was gazing upon his own failure. Perhaps that was the greatest blow to be rent in this duel of the fates.
A foot slammed to the ground and a wave of power erupted, fueled by rage and despair, sending a wind of pure wrongness through the training hall. "I would have DIED for you, the day they took you! This failure is /mine/! Now I must end you, to save you from your fates! None should be consigned to your eventual end!"
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
The Kuati stumbles backwards as the telekinetic and telepathic wave crashes over him, driving his lightsaber into the floor to hold him in place as he slides across the floor of the training room, leaving a molten line. He raises his blade and points it out past the wall. "In minutes, a Star Destroyer is going to come out of hyperspace and barrage this base. None but we will escape. You can /live/ for us, if you will bend one false knee, say one single lie."
He runs towards Sebek, arms pumping, only to lower his weight into a deliberate slide under and past Sebek's blade with his own fending it upwards. The net effect? He's closer to Tamsin. "Tamsin is smarter than both of us put together. This is /her/ plan. We Knights trust each other's strengths. Have faith - in - hers, brother!"
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
The sheer force of Sebek's will that exploded out of him was like a raging inferno, washing over Tamsin in a wave that, had it been true flame and not only a thing of the mind and the soul, might have burned her flesh from her bones. But it was not. And so, in its wake, it only stoked the rage within her, as she struck and was repelled, struck and was repelled again. "We are dying for you right now, Sebek, and you are too blinded by rage to see it. Do you think we would set aside the work so easily? Do you know us so little that you would believe that? That we would not have a way to preserve what we were in the face of who we have had to pretend to become?" Tamsin did not look towards Tarq as he approached, she did not need to.
[ Sebek (SE)]
"It is ever so clear! For you both are blinded and blighted by your new masters!" erupted the Falleen as the tenuous grip he had on power began to loosen. His strikes were devolving, becoming animalistic in nature without any of the poise or precision behind them which he had been sure to instill over the time he had spent with his pupils. Another footfall sent a lashing wave of telekinetic energy throughout the room, ripping weapons off stands and sending the loosely secured training equipment at the back flying.
A meltdown was coming.
"Where is your FURY?! Have I taught you nothing?!"
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
This time the blast is not unexpected and the Force is with the finest Sith Councilor duelist. He leans into it, and he's driven back feet, not yards.
Tarq leaps into the air to bring down all his weight and force against Sebek, driving his foe's lightsaber down into the ground for a moment. He follows up with another thrust, starting low and rising, and as he is blocked, he steps back, pivots into a spin, and drives Sebek's lightsaber arm wide, breaking his guard for a brief moment - sending the arm towards Tamsin.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Thought, word and deed, the two moved together, falling back and surging forward, each finding that space which they felt but did not need to see between them, strike timed to strike, as they were buffeted by the force of Sebek's will. Not the pure rage of the Falleen warrior they had both known, but broken now, and truly lost. Did Tamsin, somewhere within her, actually possess a heart? If she did, it was breaking, as she danced this dance that perhaps they had all three of them known was coming, blade flipped back, allowing her to move in time to Tarq, the scent of flesh roasting, and blood boiling adding a sickening stench to the air as Tamsin sheered the Falleen's saber arm from his body, the saber flipping back around to strike at her downed, and now former master. To end his misery. But not her own.
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
Tamsin's killing blow meets a lightsaber, but it's not Sebek's. Crimson blade strikes against crimson blade, driving the Firrereo's weapon down.
There are a few tears running down Tarq's face as he brings his blade to point his blade at Sebek's heart. "Can still protect her - from this."
There's no faltering in his form or doubts in his mind as he drives his lightsaber forward, only regret at necessity.
A few whispered words, ones Tarq Najjic never says - "I love you" - and the red lightsaber goes right into the Falleen's chest, then slides back out, quickly and cleanly.
[ Sebek (SE)]
Outplayed. Outgambitted. Outdone.
The Last Knight barely had time to react as he went one way and Tei Tenga went another, the weapon screaming to be reunited to its master. Before he knew it was over, a lightsaber went through his chest, and straight back out. Sebek collapsed to his knees and his one free hand, overwhelmed with pain, anger... and sadness. There was a racking cough and up came vivid green blood, painting the combat mats with a colourful stain. Pain overwhelmed him and his skin flickered shades of green, red, yellow, all the colours between.
When he looked up, his eyes were cool amber.
"And so it is," was the wavering, pain-flooded voice. "Use this." Another racking cough, more blood on the floor. Black was creeping into the edges of his vision and Sebek was so, very, tired. "Take Tei Tenga. Claim your victory. And with it, destroy them." His elbow buckled, and the searing pain numbed along with the rest of his nerves. Not much time, now.
"Behold," he proclaimed, shakily. "The last Knights of Ren."
And Sebek of the Desert, Flagbearer of Coret, Conqueror of the Sixteenth Deck, Consumer of Hounds, Wielder of Tei Tenga, He Who Hunts fell for the final time.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Light and dark, good and evil, pain and relief. They were all bound together, in this moment, in this tryptic. A master and his two students, as Tarq saved Tamsin from striking the killing blow. As he took that pain and grief onto himself, to spare her, as Tarq always tried to spare her.
But the work was not done, nor the road come to its end.
As soon as Sebek began to collapse, Tamsin's saber died, the hilt somehow ending up back on her belt as she tore off the helm she wore, her body falling, as she caught the Falleen, so that they found the floor together, Sebek's dying form cradled in Tamsin's arms, her head bent as she held him. The blood that coated Sebek's lips was washed away as Tamsin's tears, freed to fall, splashed onto his skin. She has allowed one whom she had loved to die alone, she would not allow another to do the same. When she spoke, her voice was a hushed thing, only barely holding back the keening of grief that tore at her throat.
"Behold, the last Knights of Ren."
