Vancil’s armoured boots resounded upon the metal floor of the hexagonal hallway in time with his master’s, their footsteps echoing throughout the now empty halls of the ancient ship. He appraised the perfectly smooth surface on the walls to either side of him through the eye slits in his mask. The purpose of making the walls smooth to such an extent ultimately meant nothing to him, but who knows what such an action could have meant to the Rakatans and their society.
Perhaps it was this impossible smoothness that was related to the mystical pieces of technology that his master sought, although Vancil found that unlikely.
His gaze drifted back to the slack black hooded cloak ahead of him that was his master, Darth Ominit. The reason for the seemingly impractical Sith clothing item was to instil a sense of dread and fear in whichever poor sod was their opponent, a tactic which both Ominit and Vancil had decided to undertake. This effect was also afforded by the masks which the both of them wore, however Ominit’s was undoubtedly more effective due to the harsh and jagged spikes which jutted forth from his crimson mask.
“You look nervous Vancil, feeling scared?” A mocking voice echoed from his side, causing a scowl to grow along the Sith’s face beneath his mask.
Vancil didn’t even glance in her direction as he replied sharply, his tone curt and dismissive, “I’ve been scared of two things in my entire life, neither of which is an abandoned hallway. You’ll need someone else to validate your own fears, Phoenix.”
The fiery haired woman cackled in response, the sass not leaving her tone one bit, “Very funny, because unlike you, I’ve never been scared of anything.”
Vancil bristled at that jab however kept his cool so as to not lash out completely. To do as such would essentially be admitting that she had gotten the better of him in their verbal spar, “Well aren’t you a brave little girl. If I remember correctly you…”
Vancil paused and frowned beneath his mask as the memory slipped away. What was it he was trying to remember? The world seemed to fade out of focus for a second as he rooted through his memories.
Was it something on Korriban? No, Phoenix had never been at the Sith Academy. Was it during a fight with Jedi? No, despite both being apprentices of Darth Ominit they had never fought side by side. The last thing he remembered of her was… boarding this ancient ship alongside their master.
Vancil flicked his gaze over the intricate engravings in the walls as he tried to instead work backwards in his memories from this point. His feet continued to carry him forward, following the vague shape of Darth Ominit while he completely ignored Phoenix.
Before they had boarded this vessel, they had been on a mission in some backwater asteroid belt. Before that they had been a part of a boarding action for a Republic cruiser. Before that he and Kandria had been on Mandalore dealing with some Deathwatch. Before that he and Ominit were enjoying some relaxation on-
Vancil’s steps paused as he froze in place, not moving a muscle. Kandria? That was Jedi Master Coval’s apprentice. His frown deepened as he held a hand to his head, a small headache coming on. Wait, how did he know that? He had never met either of those Jedi before. Suddenly the world around him changed. He was being carried through a familiar control room by a woman dressed in purple robes, one he somehow instinctively knew to be Kandria. His limbs wouldn’t respond when he tried to move them, and in a blink, he was back in the Rakatan ship.
Vancil groaned as his headache spiked, causing him to hold a hand to his head. What was that? A vision of the future? A memory? Vancil had no idea. Thankfully there were two other Sith with him to answer his question. He looked ahead to Ominit again, opening his mouth to voice his concerns about the vision.
The words caught in his throat as he finally noticed Ominit. It wasn’t just Vancil going out of focus and not paying attention to the world. Ominit really was just a vague shape. He somehow had no substance, and trying to focus in on anything would cause the whole body to slip away. Ominit had stopped moving a few metres in front of Vancil, standing stock still with his back to the young Sith.
Vancil glanced to the right, his eyes glancing over the blue flowers which now covered the walls to land on Phoenix. Unlike Ominit, she held her shape and didn’t have the sense that she was fading away from existence. In fact, upon closer inspection she seemed to be the most solid thing in sight. Upon second glance however it didn’t make her appearance any less strange.
She wore what looked to be the simple brown clothes of a backwater farmer or peasant on the worlds where technology had not quite advanced. Surrounding those clothes was a tough leather cloak, the tail end of it singed and slightly torn as it reached down to her legs. A stark difference to the almost entirely black modern cloaks of the Sith, so much of a difference Vancil was shocked that he hadn’t noticed it before.
Phoenix stood directly to Vancil’s right, her lips pursed in frustration as her red eyes, eerily similar to his own, remained locked on the hallway ahead which now seemed to have no end or beginning. Vancil remained absolutely silent as the slow realisation dawned on him. He didn’t know this woman. He had never met her before in his life, and she wasn’t here when he and Ominit had conducted their operation on the Rakatan ship. She had never been in his life, whether briefly or for a long time.
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How did he know her name then?
As his thoughts raced, Phoenix finally spoke without even looking in Vancil’s direction, her voice lacking the sass it had before, instead being laced with annoyance and frustration, “Well shit, you broke out of that quicker than expected. Knew I should’ve kept it to a minor event.”
The words sent a chill down Vancil’s spine for reasons he did not fully understand. Regardless, he had no response to her words, especially not when he didn’t even know their meaning. Phoenix, for her part, didn’t seem to mind as she sighed with a half-disappointed shake of her head.
“You know, I kind of hoped it would last longer. I’ve grown fond of you. Then again after a couple millennium you do eventually grow fond of someone, whether you like it or not.” She said, finally turning her head to look at Vancil.
Unlike her words, there was no sign of such fondness in the cold expression she had. Vancil tensed up, his hand instinctively and blatantly shooting to the lightsaber at his side as his danger senses kicked. It certainly didn’t help calm his nerves as she raised an amused eyebrow at his actions, glancing at the lightsaber lazily than back at Vancil.
“…Who the fuck are you.” Vancil managed to force out, his gaze never leaving hers.
It was a strange question. He knew her. Remembered her name, recognised her voice and how she looked. Yet he didn’t remember where the memories came from. It was like someone had applied a miniscule patch into the code which changed none of the other code and simply existed in the back end. There were memories of her somewhere, but they were faint, too faint for him to properly review but strong enough that he could still parse out her name and looks.
Phoenix hummed leisurely as she seemed to ponder the question, tapping her chin in exaggerated thought, “Hmmmm, bit of a loaded question. In my current state I don’t even have the full answer. Oversimplified, I’m the chick that’s been sitting in your head for the better part of 3000 years. Probably could’ve stayed longer too if you hadn’t gone ahead and listened to that asshole you call a master.”
Vancil blinked and suddenly the hallway around them was gone, leaving them standing in a black, featureless void. It wasn’t just dark… it was nothing. There was absolutely nothing in this space, nothing except for Vancil and Phoenix. His mask was gone, vanished into thin air, but he had the idea that it would do nothing to protect him.
Vancil licked his lips as he tried to calm his nerves, which screamed at him to turn tail and run, “Alright, better question. What are you?”
Phoenix smirked at that, as though she found something about his words quite funny, “Another loaded question, another oversimplified answer. I’m essentially the scorch marks that were left on your broken corpse of a master. Enough of me to form coherent assessments and understand my place, not enough to be considered my own being.”
She wagged a finger pointedly at Vancil, causing him to inadvertently flinch, however she continued on unbothered, “I’m in your head specifically because that fucker kicked me out and crammed me into your mind. You got to admire his handy work though, pushed me down so far and effectively I couldn’t do jack shit the entire time I was in there. Most that changed with you was that my eyes bled out into yours.
“I’m a bit worse for wear though. Being stuck in an isolated box for such a long amount of time isn’t fun. Just ask Rand.” Phoenix’s smirk fell as she continued, “Then you had to go ahead and get into some time travel shenanigans. Yeah, it was a couple of minutes to you, but to me? I lived through it for so long I actually developed a conscience.”
Vancil winced as a dull pain settled over his mind with each word, causing a groan to emanate from him, “That… I don’t understand a lick of what you said…”
A sympathetic and pitying look came over Phoenix’s face, “Yeah, I wouldn’t blame you. I mean, I’m not the only person who’s been messing around in your head. Including me you’ve had a total of three people messing around in your mind; me, your asshole master, and that matchmaker Kavir.”
Vancil frowned at her words and the implications. People had been messing around in his head? Either he was far more weak-willed than he thought, or the influence had been so subtle he hadn’t even noticed it. Neither had welcoming implications. Then again…
“Why the fuck should I trust a word you say?” He said as his eyes narrowed accusingly.
Phoenix simply snorted and shrugged, “Heh, you shouldn’t, instinctually or logically. Logically speaking I’m most likely some strange imagination conjured up by your mind in a moment of crisis. Not like it matters anyway. Pretty soon I’m going to get killed, and you’ll be free of me.” As she said those final words she suddenly clapped her hands together, causing a large white screen to appear to Vancil’s left.
“It’s been a while since I’ve used this, but I’m sure you want to know what’s going on out there in the real world? It’s even got an option to replay moments.” A bean bag suddenly appeared beneath both of them, with Phoenix dropping down into hers with a satisfied sigh while Vancil remained standing, his gaze locked on the blue Storm Petals which were littered around the bean bag.
Something else was bothering Vancil though, “Wait, if this is my mind… shouldn’t I have more power than you? I don’t feel… in control.”
Phoenix hummed as she summoned a remote in her hands, not even looking to Vancil as she spoke, “True, you got home advantage. Except, you’ve never been in here. Properly at least. I’ve had over three millennia to experiment and discover things. Are you gonna sit down or not?”
Vancil looked to the screen, which was still a blinding white, then down to the bean bag. There was so much he wanted to know, so much he was still confused about. She had somehow answered none of his questions and simultaneously created hundreds more. How did she know Ominit? Why did she seem to have such a low opinion of him? What did she mean by calling Ominit a broken corpse and herself a ‘scorch mark’? Who the hell was Rand, and why did Vancil instinctively think of wheels and boxes?
He held himself back though. She was good at hiding it, but there was a strange sadness to her; as though she was in her final moments and knew there was nothing, she could do about it. She had said she was going to be killed, but by whom and what it meant for Vancil, whose mind she currently inhabited, was unknown. In an eery way it was frighteningly similar to the video of Ominit he had just seen.
Working his jaw Vancil unceremoniously dropped into the bean bag, the blue flowers that had sprouted around it providing a strange comfort to him, “What we watching?”
It seemed he was a sucker for the dying wishes of people.
Drallig and flipped him off"
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