Kneeling, defeated, before the black obelisk in the Korriban desert, Zen cast his eyes upward as the sun started to set behind the stone. is eyes were blackened and cold, a testament to the darkness that penetrated his very being and took hold of his soul. He looked straight ahead and reached out his hand to lay it on the Obelisk. It was colder than any substance he has ever encountered in his 187 years of life. His hand froze to the spot as blackened ice formed over it and spread up to his forearm, freezing his cloak to his skin. He sat motionless for nary a half second before a bloody red hand clamped down on his wrist. He looked up to see her. The mistress with the golden mask on his right, and on his left a second grabbed his other hand and placed it against the obelisk, mirroring his right hand and freezing it. He watched the woman turn and show that she too had a golden mask, but he recognized her. Long, pitch black hair, slender body. It was Nyrette, somewhere inside, he knew it.  All at once, starting from the middle, cracks along their masks formed and carved an unnatural swath across the metal and to the outer edges. Time seemed to come to a standstill. Wind stopped whipping across his face and the sun ceased it's drooping. 

Their faces opened. A deathly screech became everything he knew or could ever know all within an instant. Behind the masks was...nothing. Darkness. Void-No. Not even the void has the level of darkness that made it's home behind the golden masks. He felt ribbons of cloth tightly wrap around his ankles and legs, pinning him in place as the darkness drew closer to engulf him. He was to be one with the darkness now, with no chance of survival. He laughed.

There never was any chance of survival.

______

Awaking with a start, Zen swung his legs out over the bed and planted them on the floor. His eyes were sunken and his bed was almost soaked with sweat from the nightmare. But he knew that it wasn't a nightmare at all. It was a premonition. Darkness was coming, an unending shadow that would engulf the galaxy. Not to conquer or subjugate it, but to snuff it out.

And there was nothing he could do. One of the most powerful things in the galaxy, able to crush cruise ships in his hands and fend off cannon fire with nothing but his mind...and there was nothing he could do to stop the oncoming slaughter of trillions. This was not even a question of how to balance the force. This 'thing' coming to the galaxy was neither light nor dark. It was a creature beyond any labels or conventional trappings. It was beyond evil and malicious.

Darth Scurus. 

None, Not even the force itself would be safe.
______

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgWFzHRvlm8]In the morning[/url], the crew took off from Nal Hutta, having grown tired of the smell of muck and burning factory. They had difficulty deciding where to go next as now everything was back to normal. They had the whole crew here and healthy. There was love blossoming in certain parts of the ship, Marquis didn't turn into a maniacal robot from the power core in his chest, Zen was actually training Iisska again and they were already catching up on what was missed, plus, Zen was a...lot calmer and less of an ass already. For once, Quin might just smile.

Sitting in the lounge in the same area they were last night, the crew discussed their next destination. Marquis wanted to return to find a tropical world and actually have a proper vacation with Trinity and she agreed. Nyrette wanted to find an outer rim world and get away from the wars and Quin agreed on that. Cheshik was in between on the two and was just happy if everybody was happy, cause he was a bubbly kind of person that didn't care about where they went as long as family was together. Iisska tried to speak, but Zen said that he wouldn't get to get a vacation because they had a lot of force studies to catch up on.

Arguing as they normally did, Zen stood up and planted a foot on the coffee table and threw down a datapad that he had been looking at. "See he number there? We have four hundred seventy three million credits. Everything Radon owned. WE. ARE. GOING. CHRISTMAS. SHOPPING. YOU ALL FORGOT CHRISTMAS WAS NEXT WEEK, DIDN'T YOU?!" Everybody got sheepish and quiet for several moments as Zen chastised them. He ignored Quin's rambly crap about how they had been locked up, tortured, shot at, nearly killed, poisoned once, slapped, and in Iisska's case: made fun of for being a virgin.

"We're going to Coruscant and we are going shopping. Any objections? No? Then set a course! Christmas!"

"But I don't like Christmas." Said Iisska, crossing his arms. Before he knew it, there was four blasters and two lightsabers at his throat.

He changed his tune.

____

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOOaH6BAwvY]Taking[/url] the ship to Coruscant, they slipped by Republic security and went down into the city. The crew had a relatively decent time, not getting mugged for once and Iisska actually getting hit on by a very masculine looking woman. It almost went somewheres if Nyrette hadn't told him about the woman's 'special qualities' that she was hiding. Long story short, trip ruined.

The crew had purchased one another gifts over the following week and got a tree that Zen would no doubt refuse to be let taken down until next christmas and decorated the lounge in a smattering of lights and decorations. Christmas lights were hung above the bar and about the room, each chair had snowflakes on them, Kobel got a christmas sweater that he almost immediately destroyed for being too ugly and even tasting disgusting, snickers was forced to wear a santa hat, and various presents went under the tree. By the time the crew was done, there was more presents than there was tree. Every night the lights would be dimmed and the room cast into a green and red light that pulsed between the two slowly. Fake piles of snow were placed into the corners and Zen went into excruciating detail making sure that every part of the room was ready for christmas.

When it finally came time for christmas day, (Zen was pissy because nobody let him open a single present a day early)hot chocolate was passed around and everybody sat around the christmas tree. A tall white tree flaked with fake snow and with a big lightsaber-star-thing on top. Everybody was confused at how it worked but was told "CHRISTMASMAGICSHUTUP!" and they just lived with it. Plus, it cleared out bugs that had infested the ship as it was a convenient bug-melter.

For space-christmas, everybody received gifts from one another.

Iisska was given a new blaster, another super heavy pistol in fact, from Zen. He had it commissioned a little while back and it was custom made for him. The grip was enlarged to better fit his hand and the leather formed over the handle was formed to perfectly fit his palm. Barrel, receiver, and body were streamlined and almost looked like a completely normal blaster with several etchings and designs of their travels all over it. In truth, it was a custom made DT-57, just for Iisska. Plus, Zen had replaced the focus crystal inside with a rare white one from the Jedi Temple. He didn't explain how he got it, but Iisska didn't mind as it gave the blaster quite a bit more punch but less kick...and it was stylish as void.

From Nyrette, Iisska got a set of wraps for his Lekku that all matched so that when he was in public, he could wear a nice set of dark blue covers that went with his markings to hide the prosthetic. 

From Cheshik, whom didn't understand these customs at all, he got a warm, hand crafted red sweater. "I was told that ugly sweater was gift that would be appropriate. I thought sweater was ugly and got for you. I am not fan of color red." Iisska didn't mention the 500 credit price tag on it.

Marquis' present, which Trinity said came from her too, was a heavy pair of boots. "I had noticed that Zen was teaching you martial arts through the force. I thought you might enjoy a pair of boots that influenced and aided that style of fighting." They were well detailed and outright beautiful boots, but what was special was that they had steel lining in the toe and heel. As a bonus, a serrated kris popped out the sole of each boot on command that could even be triggered by Iisska's command of the force.

While each person could have gotten him a present that might have meant nothing to the gray sith master, the group decided to get Zen a single present. They pooled their money to get him a [url=https://i.imgur.com/EFfcyn2.png]speeder[/url] and set of armor that was so badass that, for the first time since knowing him, they saw Zenithar weep real tears of joy.

They had landed on a planet in the middle of it's winter cycle and were happy to watch as Zen immediately took the speeder out for a joy ride. Little did they know that he wouldn't take the armor off except to shower for the next six months.

Nyrette on the other hand was being a butt. She couldn't think of anything she wanted and nobody knew what she really liked, so the crew just grabbed nice things and gave them to her. From Zen, she got a very large bottle of pills. When she asked, he explained that they were pills Jedi masters used to silence their dreams and block outside mental disturbances so that they could get a peaceful sleep. He thought she was going to cry as he described them to her. From Cheshik, again, a sweater but this time it was a dark purple. Ooooh. She knew that Cheshik had no idea was a christmas was and just laughed and put it on. From Marquis and Trinity, going on the trend of "Super beautiful yet stupidly dangerous" clothing, she received a set of fighting gloves that had small ejection ports in the plate of the back of the hands that could eject a deadly neurotoxin. Cheshik started to get afraid of what Marquis was going to get him.

Speaking of Marquis, Cheshik got him...surprise surprise, a green sweater while Nyrette gave him a new pea coat to replace the one he lost during the heist. It was just like his old one, though with extra pockets on the inside. From Zen, however, Marquis received...his cane. Marquis was almost insulted until Zen explained that he got it upgraded to super heavy and had the handle reworked to be able to fire small concussion and stun bolts like a pistol.

As for Trinity, the group divided into twos to get her presents. Cheshik could not figure how how to fit a sweater on the A.I. core so enlisted Nyrette's help to get her a set of programs that would let her change everything about her avatar...and a sweater was one of the defaults as well, so, naturally, Trinity had a sweater now too.

Zen didn't need help and instead got the A.I. core upgraded. Though the programmers tried to wipe the memory to do a clean install of upgraded software, threat of a long, agonizing, death made them take the extra seven hours without pay to upgrade the A.I. core without compromising Trinity herself. 

As for Marquis, her lover, He refused to get her some generic trinket or upgrade to the ship that was going to be done regardless of Christmas time or not. He instead took her out into the more posh districts of Coruscant and had a long, beautiful evening with one another before leaving the planet.

Finally, it came to Cheshik and he was feeling down. Everybody received great gifts and he was with his closest friends, but even then he felt alone without his son. In an attempt to make him feel better, Nyrette hugged him and told him that he was with family that cared about him and that his son was thinking of him wherever he went. He seemed to cheer up from her comment and from the presents given to him.

From Zen, Cheshik got something very much unexpected. An exquisitely crafted [url=http://previewcf.turbosquid.com/Preview/2014/05/26__03_49_14/fl_th02.jpgbf5abce7-69af-44b9-8890-ae983926ea2bLarger.jpg]Zweihander[/url]. He had looked at Zen with disbelief that these still existed and Zen said that there were plenty of worlds out there that still created melee weapons like that and that universal elements made them even stronger than they could ever be. It was extremely light, light enough for Cheshik to treat it like it was a simple longsword.

From Nyrette, Cheshik received a book called: Intergalactic basic, it's idioms, it's words, and its' phrases. For dummies.

From Marquis and Trinity, Cheshik was given, strangely, a small music box that didn't explode. When it opened, a picture of the crew was underneath the lid and a tune he didn't quite recognize played. The tune stuck with him though.

To come to a close, Quin was last. From the man that ruined her life, Zen. She received something...unexpected. He handed her a box of chocolates. While not much, it, and the note inside describing his reasons behind such a 'sweet' gift, was his way of apologizing for the past year. Though whether or not she would either skewer him or hug him would be her choice alone.

From Marquis, again surprisingly, a new dress. The dark purple that made up the fashionable dress was almost shimmering in the light as it mingled with the golden colored patterns that were strewn across the dress, somewhat resembling wind. "Nyrette had informed me that you had only a single dress to call your own. I sought to remedy that."

From Trinity, a warm and fuzzy fleece blanket that had a design depicting a moon of unknown origin on it. A beautiful piece that would no doubt keep her warm on cold nights on the ship. A little bit to her embarrassment however...it was twice the width of her bed in the cabin, which naturally meant that Trin was accounting for Nyrette in her gift.

From Cheshik. The best thing ever. ANOTHER SWEATER. BUT THIS TIME PURPLE AND A SIZE TOO BIG. Cheshik was far too happy about giving it to her because of the blanket. "Oh! Now you wear while under warmth of blanket! You shall be like baby in womb of warmth!"

From Nyrette however...she gave nothing. There was no present from her. Least not in front of the others....

Once all gifts had been exchanged and the merriment started to come to a close, the group set up beds in the cafe and slept near each other for the night. The animals had come in to join them and lay with their masters. Nyrette had snuggled close to quin and had taken a couple of those pills Zen gave her. For the first time in half a year, she slept peacefully. Zen snuck out to sleep with his speeder.

Early the following morning however, Nyrette found Quin alone and presented her present in private.

Pulling her into her room, Nyrette held out a small black handle held it in both hands towards Quin. "I apologize for not giving this to you last night. It is a...deep and very personal gift to you." She clicked a button underneath the handle and a metal shard popped out of it and, within a few nano seconds, a highly deadly [url=http://static1.squarespace.com/static/551d20aae4b0720840698970/t/556f7a35e4b0ad9762169f4f/1433369173044/]vibro-knife[/url]. She presented it to quin and handed it to her gently. "I've had this knife with me since I joined the Empire. We were taught...that should the empire ever fall, the only thing that we will be able to trust for the rest of our lives will be our knives. It's saved me from...a lot of situations where I should have died. It's something that I've held close my entire life and...well. I have something else to hold close now." She said with a wink.

She took it from her from a moment and showed her a few tricks with it, such as twisting the handle after holding down the button used to sheathe it can break it in half and make it a Balisong knife. She showed her how sharp it was as well, taking the piece of HK armor that was reclaimed on Nal Hutta and treating it like it was paper. When she was done, she handed the knife over to Quin without a moment's hesitation. "Take good care of it." She said and hugged her.

After the morning coffee was passed around, morale was high and everybody was happy with one another for once. Zen walked about the ship with a cup of hot coco in hand just after turning the thermostat down enough so that everybody had to wear their warm clothing, when, in the cockpit, there was a popup!

Quin and Iisska were in the cockpit as they entered the Arkanis sector and a bright blue advert popped up with a video showing some arena on Geonosis. 

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8iOmVd1W_g]"Intrepid explorers and brigands!"[/url] the hologram screamed as Quin and Iisska covered their ears from the blaring. They scrambled to turn the volume down. "Are you blood thirsty?! Dangerous?! Some kind of crazy force wielder?! COME! To Geonosia! We have taken the most idiotic, cruel, ravenous, and horrible creatures and beings we could find and threw them here in an attempt to entertain the masses with blood!" Finally Iisska found the volume and turned it way down, though it was too late, Zen was at the door watching with a slacked jaw. The video played, showing heaps of monsters and prisoners with weapons ready to be pitted against. 

Quin shook her head and said that this was a trap. She looked back to see Zen in his armor. She looked at the video again and mentioned that there was even a timestamp that was twenty years old. She looked back to see Zen strapping weapons on and igniting a lightsaber. She looked at the vid again and sarcastically asked if he was serious. When she looked back Zen had his speeder in the doorway and was laughing. She jumped up and screamed "What the fu-HOW DID THAT GET IN THERE".

Before they could really fight Zen's decision, they were off to Geonosia instead of off to, ya know. Someplace with a beach.