RPlog:Palpatine Seduces Jessalyn

The nights on Chandrila are enchanting, brilliant moon and starlight casting silvery shadows across the meadow whose flowers are closed and bent over in slumber. Jessalyn is there, alone, her pale gray-green cloak dragging through the dewy grass that clings to her legs. Her smile is serene and expectant, and she pauses in the middle of the clearing to look up at the night sky and its calming array of stars. But not for long -- soon her eyes are scanning the road in the distance, other senses extending to search for signs of another's approach. Her heart is beating as loud as a drum in her chest, and she has to calm herself with a wry chuckle. "Just enjoy it," she sighs quietly. "It'll never last, anyway."

When you find yourself turned away from the Empire you built, when you find yourself having to build up support, you learn to be a shadow. No matter how degrading moving around in the dark is, it had to be done. And that is why the Emperor has been moving through the shadows, making sure Jessalyn Valios is a long way away from town... as she is now... before finally making his presence known to the Jedi. Just another dark shape in the night, he just seems to... appear in front of her. "Jessalyn Valios," The low rasp of his voice carries all the evil that has been built up, and with a single flick of his hand a light appears above them, casting a glow on his wrinkled and pale face. A moment later his hand flicks again, towards her, and if all is successful, she will find herself frozen in place, unable to move. To cap it all, a smirk touches the Emperor's lips, "You Jedi have been free to play your little games for too long."

The first emotion that courses through Jessalyn is betrayal, that her Force-senses did not warn her, and that this being who seems permeated with hatred has appeared before her and caught her in his grasp before she had time to do more than gasp. Eyes widening, she struggles in the invisible grip, while at the same time sending out her own call that will waken any Force-sensitive this evening. The situation seems beyond words, until she starts to look into the face in front of her. It was hard not to scream at the very sight. "Who are you?" she demands haughtily.

Of all things Palpatine smirks at the question, twisting his face into a more grotesque form than it usually takes, "You'll learn to have respect, with time, Valios." He slowly moves closer towards her, the light moving along beside him, until he is just a metre away from her, "Respect for the one who destroyed your pathetic order once. Respect for the one who will use -you- to destroy it, again." His voice is still a low rasp, yet it is as if it comes from all directions, "I am your Emperor, your ruler, and you will learn to bow to me." He doesn't move any further forward, and just watches her struggle for a long moment. The sight makes his smirk widen, and he brings his hands up. Curling them into balls at first, black eyes flash as his fingers splay out. And from their tips come dark purple light, slicing jaggedly through the half-light to connect with her body. It is a wrenching pain, a fiery pain... "You will serve me, Jedi." The lightning disappears as quickly as it came, but only once it has pushed her far past her pain barrier, and his hands fall back to his side. "And I no longer need you, or your pathetic allies, to join the Dark Side. It will be forced on you."

While being held in place against her will, Jessalyn watches the ghoul defiantly, not wanting to believe his words. No! Of all people, -he- could not be alive. But a slice of fear cuts her to the quick, and as she senses the gathering of power before he unleashes the evil lightning, a cry of horror and realization rattles her throat. All she can do is throw up her arms as she's knocked to the ground, writhing in unbelievable agony, hearing the dew on the grass sizzle beneath her. Pitifully, she draws on her own powers, trying to somehow deflect the deadly bolts, feeling the life draining out of her as the pain takes over.

Bewildered, and still defiant, her tearful green eyes glare at this nemesis from where she has fallen, her body writhing in agony. "You -- you won't turn me! You'll have to kill me first!"

Is it a chuckle or a cackle that comes from the pit of Palpatine's stomach. Somewhere inbetween. But it is slow, and deliberate, mocking her words - and her defiance, even her attempts to ward off the power he has unleashed against her. With a slow shake of his head, he moves a little closer to her, "You Jedi are fools. I don't have to turn you or kill you. I have a punishment a thousand times worse, for you, Jessalyn." The fact he calls her by her first name, the hate he instills in its pronounciation makes it all the more terrifying. "You will become a vessel for my will and whim, you will follow my orders, but see through your eyes. You will kill... you will maim... you will destroy everything that Skywalker, you.. the rebels.. you will destroy them all, and know what you are doing at the same time." Another step closer, "You will see the eyes that scream betrayal as you follow my orders.. There will be blood on your hands. And when I have finished with you, when all you love has been destroyed, you will be forced to live over those memories. Every day. Every minute. Every -second-... you will remember the blood and the pain that your hands have caused." Another gesture, and the palm of his hand is pointed at her, and pain erupts through her body again; the breath cut off from her lungs until they are about to burst, and only then does the power withdraw again. "Your soul is mine, Jessalyn."

She tries to take her eyes away from him, but she can't. While the blue lightning flashes eerily in the otherwise calm, perfect starlit night, Jessalyn struggles against the words and the will and the pain that are being inflicted on her. What he was saying wasn't possible. He couldn't take away her very being, destroy all that she was. She would let herself die first. It would be so easy, after all, the pain was so much that really all Jessalyn wants to do is close her eyes and die so that it will end. Instead she screams, clawing the dirt until her fingernails bleed, tasting her own tears and grass and the blood that bubbles up from her throat.

Feebly lifting her head, the Jedi stares daggers at the self-proclaimed Emperor, feeling the hatred in his voice when he speaks her name. "I will... not... join you..." she whispers, her voice growing sparse and ragged, and her eyes rolling back in her head. The essence that was Jessalyn was slipping away, fleeing the pain that racked her physical shell, and she doesn't try to resist its pull.

... Which is exactly what Palpatine was waiting for. This one precious moment, when the blackness is beckoning Jessalyn's mind away. Sneering down at her, the last words she will hear.. at least for the moment.. are: "But my dear Jessalyn, you.. do.. not.. have.. a.. choice." The almost paternal sound that comes into his voice sounds so out of place, so wrong, that in anyone's mind it would twist itself to something horrible. The Emperor slowly leans down, until his face is just a couple of feet away from hers, and he places deathly cold palms against her cheeks. Black eyes mist over for a moment, as the Force almost visibly gathers around him - sucking any remaining vitality from his pallid skin -. Then it is discharged. One short, sharp burst of power. One that the Jedi on the planet will feel, but will be far too late to do anything about. He has pushed Jessalyn's consciousness away, as it tried to flee the pain, and has placed a little bit of himself (his very essence) into her mind. When she next wakes, unless Palpatine wills it, she will not be able to touch the Force. In a mocking croon his voice echoes hollowly in her mind, "You are mine now, Jessalyn. You will not attack me or mine, you will not contact your friends if you get the chance, you will follow my orders alone.. and you will attack your Jedi friends on sight, if ever you see them." A pause, and then the venemous voice says three more words, even if she cannot hear them, "Goodnight, my daughter."

The only thing keeping Jessalyn from complete despair is the sweet promise of death, the void that will take all the pain away at last. As she curls in around herself, some part of her reaches out, across the Force, seeking out a mind that she touches with infinite tenderness and sadness...

And then Palpatine's gruesome cold hands are on her face, and her eyes fly open as she stares into that twisted visage. She can feel everything that he does, but is too weak to stop him, feel the invasion of his mind and will, and the squelching of her own Self. Even as she struggles, she knows she cannot fight it... she is at the brink of death, her lungs aching from having forgotten to breathe...

Then suddenly she sucks in a fatal breath, a scream that is torn off as soon as its begun... her actions are no longer her own. Her mind flails against this new prison of the mind, worse than waking death, worse than the horrible prison of the Sith mind trap. But her soft lips can't even move to form words of denial or pain. She simply goes slack, blacking out at last as she hears him whispering the word, "daughter..."

The Emperor's arms slide around the waist of his new slave, another small smile coming to his lips. When they're back on Calamari, he'll give her mind back for just a little bit... just so that she can scream at him, how she will not be owned, then he'll get her to kill one of those aliens that run across the surface in cold blood. This thought keeps his mind off the menial work that he does, using the force to lighten the load of Jessalyn's body...    He begins to move off with her, disappearing into the woods, to the distant landing spot on which his shuttle sits, a pilot ready and waiting to take him and his catch back to their new home. It is the first triumph of many to come.. over those who have defied him and those who have stolen his throne. The light that was being spread through his power winks out, plunging the road and the singed grass into darkness.