Citadel of the Ren

Soontir looked unimpressed by all the displays of Harnan, at least he managed to keep face across the whole deal. Certainly the Ren cared about power, all Harnan did since he landed was a demonstration of his control and pure strenght. He did sense the dark side emanating from the whole place, like a dark beacon. It was an impressive structure. He remains silent during Harnan's speech, emotionless, lips tight and pale.

"You did not understand me, at all, master of Ren. I was born with it, you do not crave or desire something you already have. I have an empty title and a vacuous name: I am already nothing, nothing I want to be"

He said, clenching the left fist. His voice was deep and booming, powerful.

"The past can and will die, burnt to ashes. I do not care"

Soontir calls the force and the tools come to his hands. Then, he proceeds to chisel the words in aurabesh on the polished obsidian surface, a stiff back. He could see his own reflection, the dark troubled eyes and the prominent nose. Soontir frowns as he wrote the name, letter by letter and he certainly could have wavered a little when finishing the last cut; which looked raw and unfinished. Then, the dark-clothed man calls his lightsaber to his open right hand: the bleeding ragged blade erupts from the saber's hilt with a hiss. The man formerly known as Soontir slashes his own name, leaving a burning, deep and dark mark. He puts the blade to a side and looks at Harnan. A name called him from within.

"I am Vardus Ren, no-one and... nothing else"

His eyes were lit by the red lightsaber's ominous light.

Vardus had turned off the blade, its ragged edge returning to deep within the empty socket of the lightsaber's emiter. The red light bathing the new Ren's face disappeared, leaving him with the appareance of a trouble and weary young man. He returned the saber to its place on the belt with a smooth motion. Vardus nodded to Harnan's words and followed him silently across the austere hallways. He didn't flinch when the men were slaughtered, no matter if part of him mourned it, the feeling was supressed and suffocated inside his chest. The newest knight of Ren still remained silent with Harnan's speech to his former captain, neither did he openly react when his new master said that he was to be branded a traitor and forgotten, he did not mind and his face remained emotionless. The only thing he said was:

"Yes, master"

He flexed his arms' muscles, closing and opening the hands, clad in black leather.

"What is thy bidding?"

Vardus felt a surge of emotions and raw power flowing through his veins. The past was dead, finally it had succumbed with a cry of silent agony. Now, he would be able to unleash the full potential holed within his chest. A last flickering though crossed his mind before embracing the dark and the new future. A distant shout.

Soontir...

The man now called Vardus Ren saw for a moment the face of his sister, ravaged by sorrow. However, the would-be knight of Ren mentally dismissed the image, focusing again on the man before him and letting dark powers surround his mind like tar.

He, again, followed Harnan without a single word, but he allowed himself a faint smile when they arrived to the training ring. That was what he truly needed and... enjoyed. He could sense the Force, surrounding him. Vardus started to summon the grief, the hate and the sense of loss he had felt, fueling his inner turmoil, his power. The saber was soon lit, the ragged blade burning ozone and filling the air with that characteristic smell. So, Harnan used a shield? That was unheard off, felt primitive. He held the sword pointing to the ground as he walked towards Ren. And, without notice, he dashed forward, delivering an upwards blow. Every strike had weight, it was like he intended to maul or maim every single time. The sword felt with sheer strenght, with force, channeling all his inner rage and hatred. His style was aggresive, dominating. He delivered the bows with confidence, sometimes inverting the grip on his sword and slashing with the ragged blade. Often he parried and blocked Harnan's responses with his bare hand, using the force to stop the blade and strike from the other side.

"I've seen rocks that move less"

Vardus grunted, like an animal, but he lowered his weapon and dashed back. He looked frustrated. Then, the former baron reversed his grip and put both hilt and blade behind his back. Like a predator, he started to circle Harnan, the hair falling over his eyes, sweaty. He starts to channel the Force using his anger to fuel himself. The man motions with his free hand to throw an object on the room in Harnan's direction, but coming from the opposite side Vardus was standing and inmediately dashed forward, lowering his body and moving close to the ground, slashing from behind with momentum, upwards with the inverted grip, trying to get under Ren's defense.

Vardus struggled frantically, trying to free himself from the grip of Harnan: the new Ren even tried to command the force to push or move his opponent, with no avail. Then, he remained still, as if defeated, but a pearl of sweat formed on his forehead, frowning. And, then, Harnan could feel something, like a spear made of pure thought trying to pierce through the veils protecting and shielding his mind. Vardus was using an almost heretical form of a Jedi mind trick, trying to unravel Harnan's mind and demolish his defenses. Cold tentacles of dark and invisible power, thick like tar, probed violently through the master of Ren's mind, seeking to freeze and incapacitate him.

"I see... a woman..."

The former baron's gaze was unflinching.

"...Vaylin"

He allowed himself a slight smile.

Vardus allowed himself a faint smile.

"She is but a ghost"

He said, with a mirthless chuckle.

"The past is long gone, let it die"

His voice sounds booming and deep, like the song of a broken bell.

"Part of you clings to that memory, somehow. Despite your charade of getting rid of our names and life, you're a man who was born in the past and was moulded by it"

There was some cold resolve in the mind grip of Vardus, an edge of cruelty, but deep within laid a sense of loss and despair. His mind was in turmoil, a black abyss of sadness and grief. The young man was channeling those feelings, strengthening his own power. There were some hints of a mechanical breath, the cold feeling of metallic limbs attached to burnt flesh. His mental projection was dark and tall, the face masked and hidden behind a helmet.

"I just wanted to know if the rock could be broken, if the water could still leak into your very foundations and make yourself crumble"

He stepped forward, hand raised: the cold ethereal limbs of many inquisitive hands grabbed Harnan's mind with ferocious strenght for a second, for a moment that lasted hours. And then, released the grip. The figure lost its shadow and its helmet, revealing the young man underneath, troubled and worried.

"I wanted to see if you were human, like me. If you suffered and had reasons to grief. If you weren't like Jedi and Sith, too lost in their ways to even comprehend there're no limits and that imbalance is not unnatural, it's not disorder... and that what they seek, is, actually, a farce"

He seemed to shrink and then they both were back to the training room.

"You win. I yield, master"

Vardus turns off the lightsaber, releasing it from his clunched fist. The crossguarded-weapon drops with a little thud.

Vardus let the river of thoughts flow. He saw Illaria and the shared times with the newly-appointed Master of Ren. There was something beyond a mere camaderie in there, the memories were shaped and surrounded by many entangled feelings. And a profound sense of loss flooded the shared mental connection to the point it was hard to bear. The knight could see the grief provoked by the said character, as much as he could feel the dark emanating like a fountain from the slayed former Master of Ren. It was intoxicating. Once the mindscape was shattered and the world returned to itself Vardus found himself free, and used Harnan's help to regain his footing.

"There're those who believe they're beyond of that, or who're buried too deep within their own ego to be redeemed"

He picks up the crossguarded saber and places it on the belt.

"Both are flawed. Both are weak. And both should be cleansed from this Galaxy, with fire. The world cannot be changed by the whim of two decadent orders. The Sith are flawed, for they're mirrored images of the Jedi, born from them, and the Imperial knights, a travesty"

He puts both arms akimbo, pensive.

"Teach me, master, and let me destroy our enemies"

Vardus raises and clenches one fist.

"I have power. But I need you to teach me how to fully unleash it and wield it: to kill the past and its heinous worshippers"

There was a shadow on Vardus' face for a moment, but it was gone as soon as it had arrived.

"Understood, master"

The path of the Sith was something treaded over by quite a few on his line: even the most sanctimonious among them had toyed with the Dark Side sometimes. It was a call from the abyss they all knew too well.