SLASH FIC: [Stargate: Atlantis] Ascension (2/2) (NC-17)
Title: Ascension
Author: Soraya
Rating: Adults Only (NC-17)
Genre: Slash, First Time, AU
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Disclaimer: Not mine, Lucas owns everything Star Wars and Wright and Cooper own Stargate Atlantis etc.
Warnings: Male/Male sexual activity, dark themes with strong suggestions of violence
Summary: Sometimes, it takes Two to ascend
Part Two
Continued from Part One
Things were never the same after that.
Although J'hon tried to keep up the pretence that he was fine, in reality he was deeply disturbed by the path his thoughts had taken while Ro'dnee had been gasping in front of him. Thoughts of Ro'dnee gasping for reasons other than panic. Which tended to ambush him now at very inappropriate times before following him into his dreams at night, where Ro'dnee's face was always sweating and flushed red instead of blue. Along with that earlier defensiveness, he began to worry that this was yet another sign of a potential breakdown on his part. To make matters worse, it was clear from the thoughtful looks Ro'dnee kept giving him that Ro'dnee had noticed some sort of change in his demeanour.
After several more failed attempts on each other's lives, they reached an understanding of sorts. He didn't try to ambush Ro'dnee when Ro'dnee was genuinely busy working on something, while Ro'dnee no longer tried to sabotage him when he was on missions for his master. But through it all, J'hon could shake that roiling sense of unease that this was all just the start of a massive decline. And that worried him far more than any specific failure to close things out where Ro'dnee was concerned.
***
The decline J'hon feared progressed in ways so subtle even he had trouble noticing it.
Soon after his transition from Acolyte to Assassin, the Order began to suffer through a series of upheavals, which left none of its brethren unscathed. The Council moved swiftly to quell the growing number of separatist cabals. But the extensive nature of the culling and the reparations levied on survivors left a different kind of unrest, which festered in the lower ranks and which many a Dark Lord sought to exploit. Those with the means to do so expanded their interests to include minions from all walks of life; others simply formed alliances of intent, waiting for a new day to strike.
It was during this period that J'hon saw himself move from the enviable position of potential on the rise to the slightly trickier region of potential threat. This change brought with it several repercussions, the most significant of which was that it set him on his Path of Estrangement from Lord Niele. In accordance with tradition, his master became more remote as he grew in power, and the insights his master had previously provided grew even more remote with him. As a result, J'hon found that he had to resort to more esoteric means for guidance in his continuing bid to ascend.
Increasingly, he turned toward obscure prophecies by Revenant, looking for something, which would give him that edge over his master. And he got so consumed by his search that the only time he didn't spend on missions or trawling through ancient texts was spent with the other constant in his life: M'Ro'dneeth Kay.
There things were even less clear. Because at some point over the cycle, his relationship with Ro'dnee had eased into an almost tolerant brand of co-existence. Whenever he tried to kill Ro'dnee now, it was more to stave off boredom or for the sheer amusement value of seeing how Ro'dnee would choose to retaliate. It also served the more practical purpose of keeping Ro'dnee on his toes since Ro'dnee, too, was close to ascending, so he'd come under the radar of other ambitious Acolytes. As loathe as J'hon was to admit it, especially to himself, the last thing he wanted was for anyone else to kill his technosage.
***
He hit rock-bottom one day when he walked into Ro'dnee's lab to find Ro'dnee there alone picking through the remains of one of his data pads. Ro'dnee barely looked at him at all, muttering, "Gall, oh I know this was you, Gall," under his breath the whole time. And since J'hon had learned from experience that Ro'dnee was no use to him in this state, he decided to leave Ro'dnee alone with his fury and frustration.
It took him less than a day to find out exactly who this Gall was and why he'd targeted Ro'dnee. It took him even less time to arrange the kind of slow, painful death, which would give this technosage ample time to consider the error of his ways.
Later that evening, Gall was screaming in agony as Force conduits slowly sucked the life from his body. And as J'hon stood in the shadows watching, not once did it occur to him that perhaps he'd crossed a line here. He did an excellent job convincing himself that he was taking Gall out to keep Ro'dnee functioning with a clear mind and frankly because Ro'dnee was his to kill in the first place.
***
Even though Ro'dnee was living up to his reputation as the best technosage in the Order, with the power and position Niele had secured, J'hon knew he would need something truly spectacular to have any chance of ascending.
He found it in the rambling tomes of the Learned Sun-Jeck.
Where Revenant's prophecies held vague references to a tool of unspeakable power, Sun-Jeck in his writings spoke openly of the legendary star forge: Atlantis. A fusion of technology and dark side energy so vast even the Ancients, who built it, had tried to destroy it once they'd realized they couldn't control it.
At first, J'hon wasn't sure what to make of this. Because Atlantis was the stuff of myth, and Sun-Jeck himself had been so radical that the other Learneds of his day had discredited him as an agent of the Light before banishing him from the Order to walk among the stars. Ultimately, what swayed J'hon was that volumes of Sun-Jeck's teachings were recorded many cycles after his initial banishment, hinting at his reconciliation with the Order. For the Learneds later embraced Sun-Jeck, who had returned from his travels a changed man, to the extent that they assigned over twenty scribes to capture his supposedly insane ramblings until the time of his death several millennia ago.
These latter texts were the teachings that J'hon followed.
He spent weeks scratching for clues hidden among those words, trying to piece together a trail to the whereabouts of Atlantis. Until one day he stumbled across a small, as yet overlooked passage, which spoke of the heart of darkness encased in a vast white sea. He knew it was tenuous at best, desperate at the worst, but his instincts pointed him toward Hoth: a desolate arctic planet on the far reaches of the outer rim.
So, when his master sent him on a mission to the Anoat sector, J'hon decided to take a small detour to the Hoth system to check it out first.
***
Hoth was as barren and as inhospitable as its reputation suggested. And were it not for the dark presence J'hon sensed on landing, he would have abandoned the planet at once.
The darkness called out to him, faint in its song but pure. So pure that J'hon had never heard anything like it before. He let it lead him on a trek that covered miles of ice and snow, following its call relentlessly, feeling it grow stronger with each step he took toward it.
The trail ended in a cave, where he found the remains of what looked like a command console buried under a sheet of ice. He dug it out, feeling compelled to touch it, to bond with it; and when the tips of fingers finally scratched along its surface, the world around him lit up with a knowledge so vast his eyes went white with it.
For a long time after that, all J'hon could see were images of crystal spires and stealth ships and star drives set in a darkness so profound it nearly tore his mind apart.
***
He felt like he was floating, carried on currents of Force, which seemed to cushion him even as they drove him forward. Underneath him, the sea was white, stretching out for miles, but he wasn't interested in any of that because, all of a sudden, Ro'dnee was hovering beside him.
"Hey, Ro'dnee," he croaked. When Ro'dnee waved a hand in front of his face, he waved right back at him, not finding anything remotely strange about Ro'dnee being there, apart from the way Ro'dnee was bundled up in about fifty layers of clothing. It wasn't how his dreams with Ro'dnee usually went. So he smiled at Ro'dnee before suggesting, "You should probably take your clothes off," trying to be smooth about it.
Ro'dnee screamed something at him, which got lost under the howl of the wind, but which, from the expression on Ro'dnee's face, told him Ro'dnee wasn't very keen on that idea.
"Okay, fine," J'hon grumbled, though he wasn't too worried about the rejection. He knew his dream would get there in the end; they always did. While waiting for that to happen, he decided to change the subject and he said, "Hey, guess what: I found her!"
Ro'dnee's yell of: "What?" came through loud and clear this time.
"She just opened for me," he went on. "She said knew I was coming and that she'd been waiting for a long time. I think she wants me to take her home, to make her whole again." Even as he spoke, he could sense her on the edges of his mind, calling out to him, promising to make all his darkest dreams come true. "We have to go back," he whispered.
"What?" Ro'dnee yelled again.
"We have to go back for her!" J'hon started struggling in earnest to do just that. "Don't you get it? Atlantis is the key," J'hon suddenly felt compelled to explain, because he needed Ro'dnee with him on this. It was suddenly vitally important for Ro'dnee to understand; he just couldn't remember why. "The Ancients thought they'd found a way to destroy her, but they failed," he told him regardless. "They broke her into pieces, and what they couldn't burn they hid on different planets. But she's still alive, Ro'dnee, and she can help us ascend above anyone, who-"
Ro'dnee waved a hand in front of his face again.
And J'hon felt himself drifting as he followed the Force suggestion into sleep.
***
The next time he woke up, he was considerably more lucid, and Ro'dnee was leaning over him, face set in something that looked almost like concern. They were on his Infiltrator. Ro'dnee had one hand on his chest, but the minute he opened his eyes, Ro'dnee drew back and started tinkering with something while he lay there under a pile of thermals.
"Hey," he whispered, trying to get Ro'dnee's attention.
"Oh, at last he speaks," Ro'dnee muttered, obviously trying to cover his relief with exasperation but failing miserably.
J'hon didn't know quite what to make of that. It was clear he had a lot of catching up to do. He went for what he thought was a neutral topic and he asked, "How did you find me?" Because he sure as hell hadn't told anyone about his plans to visit Hoth.
"Well, with you trying to kill me all the time, I'm getting quite good at all this cloak and sabre stuff."
"Really?" J'hon drawled. He'd noticed this, of course. But over the cycles, he'd developed an inexplicable enjoyment in watching Ro'dnee brag or, at the very least, in winding him up. "So, you think you're good at this now?"
"Of course I am!" Ro'dnee scowled at him. Then Ro'dnee admitted: "Okay, that last sabre crystal I gave you emits a low level sub-space signal. It was easy enough to track you with that when you didn't come back from your mission. And a good thing too, otherwise who knows how long you would have been stuck on this Light-spawn planet."
J'hon stared at him incredulously. "I didn't come back, so you came all the way out here to find me?" Still struggling to wrap his mind around that, he chose to ignore, for the moment, that Ro'dnee had effectively tagged him!
"We had an appointment," Ro'dnee explained, quite defensive all of a sudden. "Which you missed, by the way," as though that were reason enough. "And since we've fallen into the habit of trying to kill each other, I decided to track you down. Because, you know, it was my turn to try to kill you."
It hit him then that despite Ro'dnee's blustering, when he'd gone missing, Ro'dnee had dropped whatever he was doing to come looking for him. And that triggered a rush of emotion in him so intense it made his chest suddenly feel very tight. "So why didn't you do it when you had the chance?" he whispered. "You could have destroyed me so many times when I was weak!"
"Please, are you trying to insult me?" Ro'dnee huffed. "When I destroy you, it'll be one hundred per cent me and not because someone else softened you up first."
Ro'dnee drew back then, looking vaguely uncomfortable. And things between them suddenly got very awkward, with neither one of them saying anything for a while.
For his part, J'hon didn't know what this meant for their already complicated relationship. He knew that somehow they'd crossed a line, but where it was taking them he couldn't tell. He spent a lot of time thinking about that, struggling with that faint sense of hysteria, which threatened whenever he tried to give a name to whatever was going on between them.
Until Ro'dnee drew him back to reality by pointing at the flight console, saying, "By the way, that thing has been flashing for at least two days."
At which point J'hon went from mild hysteria to near panic, because that thing, as Ro'dnee called it, only flashed when his master wanted him to report back. He imagined that, right then, several days overdue and mission incomplete, his master probably wasn't very pleased with him.
***
The conversation with his master began about as well as could be expected.
"Hey, J'hon," Niele said cheerfully. "So you really screwed up on this one, huh?" Before J'hon could say anything, Niele suggested: "Why don't we talk about it when you get back!"
Which J'hon knew actually meant: 'You'd better have a fucking good explanation for this!'
He decided to go with the equally cheerful: "Sounds like a plan," before taking a deep breath, watching the holo-projection of his master flicker a little. "It might take a few days, though," he added, trying to buy himself some time. "My Infiltrator got singed in an ion storm. I've got my technosage here with me now working on repairs."
"Ah, yes, the great M'Ro'dneeth Kay!" Niele pursed his lips, looking almost thoughtful. "Well, then, you kids take all the time you need," Niele told him, making one of those expansive gestures with his hands.
And J'hon closed his eyes for a second, because this was bad; this was far worse than he'd originally feared. "We'll be back as soon as we can," he promised.
He was about to terminate the connection when Niele said: "Oh, I almost forgot!"
J'hon leaned back, heart in this throat.
"I'm having a small ceremony tomorrow evening," Niele continued. "Nothing too fancy, I know how you hate that. Just, with the recent and unfortunate demise of Lord Dree Lan, it seemed like as good a time as any to mark my ascension to the Council." Niele gave a smile that chilled him to his bones. "It would be nice if you were here for that," he added very softly.
"I'm honoured you even thought to include me, my Lord," J'hon whispered, doing everything he could right then to shield his emotions. "Where are you having this ceremony, by the way?"
"In the Temple of Ages."
"Nice choice," he murmured.
"I thought so too," Niele told him. "You know how I like to do these things properly. Just call me a stickler for tradition!" At which point, Niele chuckled for several seconds.
J'hon decided the smart thing to do was to laugh along with him.
"Oh, well," Niele said after a while, when he'd obviously grown tired of the games. "As nice as it always is to catch up, I really need to get going. See you soon, J'hon!" Then Niele waved him off before terminating the connection from his end.
J'hon leaned back even further, breathing hard, watching Ro'dnee stare at him with those wide blue eyes.
"He's going to kill you," Ro'dnee whispered.
And J'hon just nodded, knowing he had no other choice but to move up his own plans to ascend.
***
Halfway through Ro'dnee's second rant, it occurred to him that, while he and Ro'dnee had spent cycles trying to destroy each other, they'd never really had a serious argument until then.
"But I'm not ready," Ro'dnee kept telling him. "I mean, you're not ready. Look at you! A Force-blind swamp rat could probably take you out in the state you're in. Plus, I haven't finished the sabre enhancements, or the Force pikes, not to mention the-"
"Ro'dnee," J'hon interrupted him before he could really get going. "It's okay; just forget about that now."
"He's going to kill you! How can you say that?"
"Because it's my rite of passage, Ro'dnee!" He shrugged then with a lightness he didn't feel. "I want to ascend, and Niele knows that. He has been expecting me to make a move on him for some time now. I guess he just got tired of waiting."
"Well, I still think meeting him on his terms is stupid," Ro'dnee complained, folding both arms across his chest.
Again, J'hon found himself struggling with that rush of emotion, which seemed to twist something inside him, leaving his chest feeling tight. It hit him then that he was going to miss all of this: the conversations, the insults, the endless assassination attempts. Even though they'd made him weak somehow and vulnerable enough for his master to smell the stench of failure on his skin. And despite knowing he was breaking all kinds of protocol by doing this, he still went on to say: "You do know if he succeeds he's going to come after you, right?"
Ro'dnee gulped before nodding, managing somehow to look annoyed about the whole thing.
"Good!" J'hon smiled a little easier after that. "Then you'll be ready for him," he said very softly, feeling what was definitely a surge of dark pleasure flowing through him. If he failed, he knew Ro'dnee would take Niele and the rest of his minions out, and they would never see it coming.
Ro'dnee gave him another annoyed looking glare. "We could-"
"No," J'hon cut in, not letting Ro'dnee say the words. "I'm a potential; I'm not going to run. This is my final trial. Either I ascend or I fall; that is the Sith way."
With that, he turned away to prepare for what would likely be the toughest battle of his life.
***
The Temple was the holiest of all grounds, for etched in her walls were the names of the ancestral dark. They were the ascended of all starters through the Ages: those, who had destroyed their peers to rise above them to glory. And by that virtue, those, who had earned the right to be called the darkest of all Sith.
Following ancient custom, J'hon walked in alone to take his place among them. He realized this was a fitting place to make his last stand, and a last stand he feared it might be. On any other day, he might have stood a chance. Today, however, with so much of his energy drained on Hoth, he had a feeling his destruction was inevitable.
When Niele strolled in with a retinue of guards, J'hon also realized that he'd been a fool. There were ten in total, all of them brash, Force-blind and obviously expendable. And it immediately became clear that his master's strategy was to tire him out first before moving in for the kill. "Now, this isn't very traditional of you," he complained before slicing the head off guard number one.
Niele just shrugged from the sidelines. "What can I say? I thought you might appreciate the workout!"
J'hon laughed mirthlessly. He knew that his master would also be watching his sabre technique, looking for areas to exploit. So he dealt with the second and third guards in the same crisp way in which he'd dealt with the first. Guards four, five and six gave him a few problems, because they decided to attack in formation. But ultimately they were no match for his years of training, and he struck them down using a complicated sequence of aerial moves. After that, he took out guard number seven with relative ease, but the eighth one was a real challenge because what there was of his strength had already started to wane. By the ninth he could barely stand, and on the tenth, it took all his will to complete the job.
Which, of course, was when his master chose to step in.
"Okay, then," Niele said brightly. "Let's move on to the main event, shall we?"
Then J'hon watched in horror as bolts of Force lightening shot from Niele's fingers. He couldn't move fast enough to get out of the way. And the next thing he knew he was on the ground clutching at his chest and writhing in agony while Niele stood over him, taunting him.
"Bet you didn't know I could do that, huh?" After which Niele hit him a few more times just for the hell of it. "You disappoint me, J'hon! I thought you would be more of a challenge."
"Come back tomorrow and I'm sure I'll do better," J'hon managed to wheeze out.
Only, Niele powered up his own sabre, evidently done with talking.
J'hon glared up at him, defiant to the last, watching that glowing blade descend, and ultimately watching it grind to a halt in a burst of green sparks mere inches from his face. He started laughing then, the sound so loud he almost didn't hear Niele's howl of frustration. But he did see Niele drop his guard for a second when Niele glanced round for the source of that shield barrier.
That was more than enough time for J'hon to strike him down, slicing first through the knees before reaching out with all he'd learnt of the Force to drain the last of his master's dark energy.
***
In the aftermath, J'hon stood over his master's desiccated corpse, revelling in the power of his ascension. Until he heard a familiar voice say: "Oh my God, I can't believe it worked!"
Turning round, he saw Ro'dnee emerge from behind one of the pillars nearby.
"I mean, I knew it was possible in theory," Ro'dnee went on. "But I had no idea I could extend a shield layer that far and still make it viable." Ro'dnee paused for a second, taking a deep breath. After which Ro'dnee suddenly seemed to notice all the carnage. He backed up a little, saying, "You know what, I think I left something on in the lab. I should probably go check on that," before making a run for it.
J'hon caught up with him by the doors to the vestry. "I thought we'd agreed I was going to handle this on my own," he murmured.
"Well, it's a good thing I don't listen to stupid ideas, isn't it?" Ro'dnee snapped, looking a bit guilty but sounding absolutely unrepentant.
J'hon couldn't decide whether he was annoyed or relieved about that. Which seemed to be the normal state of affairs where Ro'dnee was concerned. He reached out, aching to touch Ro'dnee all of a sudden, wanting to convey something of what he was feeling right then, only to get stung yet again by that personal shield. "Ro'dnee," he chided him gently.
"What?"
"Why don't you take down your shield."
"What?" Ro'dnee gasped. "Are you insane?"
Beyond a few vague scriptures, J'hon thought he just might be. There was no precedent for what he was about to propose. Still his instincts were screaming at him that this was right, that this was the way, and that all the supposed failures of the past had just been leading him to this moment. "Join me," he whispered. "Together we can restore the Sith to glory."
Ro'dnee gaped at him as though he'd completely lost his mind. "You and me as Master and Apprentice: that's what you want?"
J'hon shook his head. "We have to be more than that to succeed," he explained, trying to make Ro'dnee understand. "We can be so much more if we choose," he added, wanting that too. Because he could see now just how close Bane had been to True Ascension. But unlike him, his ancestor hadn't realized that the Two needed to be above the usual infighting to have any chance of success. Staring down at Ro'dnee, thinking about how Ro'dnee had stood by him and even saved his life, he didn't need Force urgings to convince him that the future lay right here in the hands of this man. "Take your shield down and join me," he said one more time, stretching out his hand.
Ro'dnee kept glancing at it warily. "You could kill me," he whispered. "How do I know you won't kill me the second I take it down?"
"You don't." And that was the crux of it: the first step, the one Ro'dnee had to take all by himself. J'hon refused to make it any easier than that.
The minutes he spent waiting for Ro'dnee to decide were the longest of his life. Ro'dnee kept giving him looks, which swung from terror to confusion to suspicion and irritation before swinging back to terror all over again. And through it all, J'hon stood there with his hand out-stretched, willing Ro'dnee to accept him.
He was seconds away from switching to more drastic measures when Ro'dnee muttered, "If you kill me, I swear I will haunt you for the rest of your life," before powering down his shield.
J'hon didn't waste a moment after that. He grabbed Ro'dnee's head in both hands and then he pushed hard with his mind, showing Ro'dnee all his dark plans, letting him see everything he wanted for the two of them.
"Oh!" Ro'dnee smiled when he got it at last. "That-That's perfect!"
"Yes," J'hon agreed with a dark smile of his own. He could see the wonder in Ro'dnee's eyes at his idea for their New Rule of Two. Not Master and Apprentice, but Two equals united in one goal: to ascend until no other Sith breathed in the galaxy and until all dark power was concentrated in their hands. The Light would be no match for them.
"We have to go back to Hoth," Ro'dnee whispered all of a sudden.
And again J'hon said, "Yes," seeing his plans begin to take shape. Somehow he'd known Ro'dnee would understand; they weren't strong enough yet to do this on their own. "Do you think you can fix her?"
Still grinning, Ro'dnee responded with: "Of course I can!"
And J'hon literally bared his teeth, almost drunk with the possibility of all that power. He'd expected Ro'dnee to say that. Only Ro'dnee had the strength to tame Atlantis, and he knew that for him Ro'dnee would find a way to bend her to their will. "We'll destroy them all, Ro'dnee," he promised, stroking his thumb along the curve of Ro'dnee's smile, watching the way Ro'dnee shivered before leaning into his touch.
"I know," Ro'dnee murmured, flicking his tongue out to taste him, making him shiver from head to toe. "We'll purge every trace of Light from this galaxy."
J'hon had to kiss Ro'dnee then. He had to lean forward, just for a moment, to catch the corner of Ro'dnee's mouth with his, before that flood of feeling had him bending down to Ro'dnee's neck and pressing his face there. He stayed like that for several seconds, breathing Ro'dnee in, trying to stifle the needy sounds that were clawing their way out of his throat. But once Ro'dnee drew him into his mind, showing him a darkness there too beautiful to be imagined, the moans just poured out of him openly now.
It was Ro'dnee, who forged the bond between them, and Ro'dnee, who later still curled a hand into his hair, gripping it gently, using that grip to tilt his head back.
"Ro'dnee," J'hon whispered, knowing what Ro'dnee wanted.
So he arched up to meet him halfway, while Ro'dnee sighed, "Yes," before fitting their mouths together.
J'hon opened for him at once, swamped by feelings of lust so intense he could barely handle them. He took control of the kiss, licking into Ro'dnee's mouth, tangling their tongues together, tasting Ro'dnee again and again as the power of their bond sang between them. And once he'd allowed those feelings free rein, the want raged inside him. So fiercely that when Ro'dnee wrenched his mouth away all of a sudden, panting raggedly and turning his head to one side, it spilled over into dominance, making him surge forward to keep Ro'dnee there.
"I want you," J'hon growled, nearly overwhelmed by it. "Now, Ro'dnee," he insisted, mouthing along Ro'dnee's jaw and biting at his throat. "Now," he said again, tearing at Ro'dnee's clothes, trying to get even closer.
"Okay, okay, just let me-" and then Ro'dnee floated something up to him. "Here, you can use this!"
J'hon snatched it out of the air, not paying too much attention to what it was, just knowing that it was slick and there and that it would have to do. Because he couldn't wait any more; he was already so close, he had to be in Ro'dnee right then.
He spun Ro'dnee around so that Ro'dnee was facing the wall. And Ro'dnee seemed to get that he was right on the edge. Because Ro'dnee just stretched both arms out to brace himself, saying nothing about his loss of control or about the lack of finesse with which he tugged their leggings down and then slicked himself up. As he pushed into Ro'dnee's body, Ro'dnee arched back to meet him, urging him on and whispering, "Yes, yes," while echoing lust and possessiveness back along their bond.
After that, J'hon really did lose it. He hunched over, pushed in as deep as he could go and pressed his forehead to Ro'dnee's nape. Then he was there, shuddering and grunting, gripping Ro'dnee's waist with both hands as he struggled to stay on his feet.
He wasn't surprised when Ro'dnee bucked him off almost immediately afterward, or when Ro'dnee turned around and then shoved him back against the wall. No, the surprise was that he wanted this too; he was aching for it, still hard and still desperate as if he hadn't come only seconds earlier.
Ro'dnee, though, was even more desperate than he was, practically tearing at his leggings to get them all the way off him. So he let Ro'dnee take what he needed, spreading his legs, letting Ro'dnee reach down and up behind him. Then Ro'dnee slid two fingers into him, getting him ready, rubbing over something that made his knees buckle from the sheer weight of pleasure that crashed onto him.
"It's okay, I've got you," Ro'dnee told him, catching him, pushing him back up against the wall. And J'hon wasn't sure which one of them was more surprised by the broken sound he made when Ro'dnee rubbed over that spot again.
"Ro'dnee," J'hon groaned, almost frantic now.
Only, Ro'dnee whispered, "Not yet," seeming suddenly to want to slow things down. And Ro'dnee kept rubbing his fingers inside him, keeping to that hard, slow rhythm, telling him: "Soon, J'hon, soon," when he broke and started begging very softly under his breath.
By the time Ro'dnee eased out of him, his thighs were trembling, his skin dripping with sweat, and he was chewing at the cloth covering Ro'dnee's shoulder, trying not to scream. He was so wrecked he barely understood what was happening as Ro'dnee moved him into position, lifting him up with Force-enhanced strength and wrapping both legs around his waist. Until Ro'dnee started pressing into him, slowly working his way inside, stretching him to the point of discomfort.
"Oh God," J'hon whispered, writhing through the burn. And as Ro'dnee slid in even further, he clutched at Ro'dnee's back, trying to hold on.
"That's it," Ro'dnee breathed in his ear, before Ro'dnee cupped one hand over his nape, soothing him, holding him there so he had to take it, so Ro'dnee could get all the way inside him. "Okay?" Ro'dnee asked a few moments later, after planting his feet and slowly circling his hips.
"Yes!" J'hon nodded, feeling the pleasure roll through him again, feeling it start from where Ro'dnee kept shifting inside him. "Yes, it's good," he managed to gasp.
Ro'dnee ground up into him hard, circling his hips again at the end of it. And before J'hon could stop himself he let out a loud sob of pleasure. "There?" Ro'dnee whispered, doing it again.
And this time, as the waves of heat and pleasure crashed over him, J'hon started clawing at Ro'dnee's back, panting, "Ro'dnee, please-I can't-" Because suddenly it was too much and the pleasure was destroying him like nothing else ever had.
But Ro'dnee just kept on moving inside him and Ro'dnee's hands held him there as Ro'dnee told him: "Yes, you can," rocking his hips up hard, grinding even harder, again and again.
So the only thing J'hon could do was try to ride it out, feeling the heat curl through him in waves, rising up from his stomach, flushing his chest and his face, leaking from his mouth in broken sobs. And when Ro'dnee eventually finished inside him, mouth open and trembling in the hollow of his throat, all of a sudden J'hon was there again, trembling just as hard, soaking the space between their bodies where Ro'dnee was pressed up against him.
***
He lost track of time for a while after that.
At some point, Ro'dnee set his legs back down on the ground. Not that it made much difference to him; he was still shaking so badly he could barely stand. He decided to use Ro'dnee to prop himself up, trying and failing not to smile at the intensely aggrieved sounds Ro'dnee made when he did that since the fingers combing gently through his hair gave away how Ro'dnee really felt.
"We should get out of here," Ro'dnee told him, still stroking his hair idly, like there was no real need to hurry.
J'hon nodded in any case. If the Force disturbance caused by the death of a Dark Lord hadn't shaken the Brotherhood, then the birth of a dark bond surely would have.
He said, "Let's take Niele's ship-well, technically, it's ours now." And he didn't need to see Ro'dnee's face to know that Ro'dnee was smirking with their shared triumph. "Anyway, it's Cruiser class, so we can take my Infiltrator and anything else you want."
"Good!" Ro'dnee stroked a thumb over the tip of his ear, making him shiver a little. "I'll need everything from the lab and a few things from my quarters as well."
"That's fine, I'll help you pack it all up!"
J'hon drew back then. He started pulling his clothes to order, watching Ro'dnee do the same. Finally, when they were both ready, they walked out of the Temple together and side by side.
The End.
Additional Notes: The following themes or ideas were borrowed from the Star Wars expanded universe, and in a few cases these have been altered to fit the purposes of this story:
01. The Academy - established by the Brotherhood to train Sith Acolytes
02. Acolyte - a rank of the Sith order, usually given to a Force-sensitive in training on the dark path
03. The Anoat Sector - a sector of space on the outer rim of the galaxy
04. Assassin - a sect or rank of covert Force-sensitive killers
05. Blademaster - a lightsaber combat instructor at the Sith Academy
06. The Brotherhood - a.k.a. the Brotherhood of Darkness: the mass collection of Sith Lords and their followers
07. The Council - the body of advisors to the ruling Dark Lord of the Sith
08. Dark Lord - a powerful master of Sith knowledge
09. The Force - a metaphysical power or energy created by all living beings, where the light side and dark side refer to the moral compass of its manifestation, i.e. good and evil
10. Galactic Standard - the most common and most used language in the galaxy
11. Hoth - an ice-covered planet located in the Anoat sector
12. Infiltrator - a type of space ship
13. The Republic (First and Second) - the system of democratic government for the galaxy that lasted for thousands of years
14. Rule by the Strong - a guiding principle that allowed for a number of Sith at one time (advocated by Lord Kaan)
15. Rule of Two - a guiding principle that promoted only two Sith in the galaxy: a Master and an Apprentice (advocated by Darth Bane and used to great effect by the Emperor Palpatine a.k.a. Darth Sidious to bring about the destruction of the Republic)
16. Ruusanian bat - non-sentient species indigenous to the planet Ruusan
17. Sabacc - a high stakes card game similar to Poker
18. Sabre - a.k.a. Lightsaber: the formal weapon of a Jedi Knight though also used by the Sith
19. Shadow Hand - a title given to the second in command of a Sith Master or Sith Lord
20. Sith - a sect of dark side Force users bent on destroying the Jedi, users of the light side of the Force
21. Star Forge - a semi-sentient space station and an immense tool of dark side power
22. Ugor - a unicellular sentient species capable of shape-shifting and native to the Paradise system of planets
23. Ugorian Spore Gruel - a type of food enjoyed by Ugors
Author: Soraya
Rating: Adults Only (NC-17)
Genre: Slash, First Time, AU
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Disclaimer: Not mine, Lucas owns everything Star Wars and Wright and Cooper own Stargate Atlantis etc.
Warnings: Male/Male sexual activity, dark themes with strong suggestions of violence
Summary: Sometimes, it takes Two to ascend
Part Two
Continued from Part One
Things were never the same after that.
Although J'hon tried to keep up the pretence that he was fine, in reality he was deeply disturbed by the path his thoughts had taken while Ro'dnee had been gasping in front of him. Thoughts of Ro'dnee gasping for reasons other than panic. Which tended to ambush him now at very inappropriate times before following him into his dreams at night, where Ro'dnee's face was always sweating and flushed red instead of blue. Along with that earlier defensiveness, he began to worry that this was yet another sign of a potential breakdown on his part. To make matters worse, it was clear from the thoughtful looks Ro'dnee kept giving him that Ro'dnee had noticed some sort of change in his demeanour.
After several more failed attempts on each other's lives, they reached an understanding of sorts. He didn't try to ambush Ro'dnee when Ro'dnee was genuinely busy working on something, while Ro'dnee no longer tried to sabotage him when he was on missions for his master. But through it all, J'hon could shake that roiling sense of unease that this was all just the start of a massive decline. And that worried him far more than any specific failure to close things out where Ro'dnee was concerned.
***
The decline J'hon feared progressed in ways so subtle even he had trouble noticing it.
Soon after his transition from Acolyte to Assassin, the Order began to suffer through a series of upheavals, which left none of its brethren unscathed. The Council moved swiftly to quell the growing number of separatist cabals. But the extensive nature of the culling and the reparations levied on survivors left a different kind of unrest, which festered in the lower ranks and which many a Dark Lord sought to exploit. Those with the means to do so expanded their interests to include minions from all walks of life; others simply formed alliances of intent, waiting for a new day to strike.
It was during this period that J'hon saw himself move from the enviable position of potential on the rise to the slightly trickier region of potential threat. This change brought with it several repercussions, the most significant of which was that it set him on his Path of Estrangement from Lord Niele. In accordance with tradition, his master became more remote as he grew in power, and the insights his master had previously provided grew even more remote with him. As a result, J'hon found that he had to resort to more esoteric means for guidance in his continuing bid to ascend.
Increasingly, he turned toward obscure prophecies by Revenant, looking for something, which would give him that edge over his master. And he got so consumed by his search that the only time he didn't spend on missions or trawling through ancient texts was spent with the other constant in his life: M'Ro'dneeth Kay.
There things were even less clear. Because at some point over the cycle, his relationship with Ro'dnee had eased into an almost tolerant brand of co-existence. Whenever he tried to kill Ro'dnee now, it was more to stave off boredom or for the sheer amusement value of seeing how Ro'dnee would choose to retaliate. It also served the more practical purpose of keeping Ro'dnee on his toes since Ro'dnee, too, was close to ascending, so he'd come under the radar of other ambitious Acolytes. As loathe as J'hon was to admit it, especially to himself, the last thing he wanted was for anyone else to kill his technosage.
***
He hit rock-bottom one day when he walked into Ro'dnee's lab to find Ro'dnee there alone picking through the remains of one of his data pads. Ro'dnee barely looked at him at all, muttering, "Gall, oh I know this was you, Gall," under his breath the whole time. And since J'hon had learned from experience that Ro'dnee was no use to him in this state, he decided to leave Ro'dnee alone with his fury and frustration.
It took him less than a day to find out exactly who this Gall was and why he'd targeted Ro'dnee. It took him even less time to arrange the kind of slow, painful death, which would give this technosage ample time to consider the error of his ways.
Later that evening, Gall was screaming in agony as Force conduits slowly sucked the life from his body. And as J'hon stood in the shadows watching, not once did it occur to him that perhaps he'd crossed a line here. He did an excellent job convincing himself that he was taking Gall out to keep Ro'dnee functioning with a clear mind and frankly because Ro'dnee was his to kill in the first place.
***
Even though Ro'dnee was living up to his reputation as the best technosage in the Order, with the power and position Niele had secured, J'hon knew he would need something truly spectacular to have any chance of ascending.
He found it in the rambling tomes of the Learned Sun-Jeck.
Where Revenant's prophecies held vague references to a tool of unspeakable power, Sun-Jeck in his writings spoke openly of the legendary star forge: Atlantis. A fusion of technology and dark side energy so vast even the Ancients, who built it, had tried to destroy it once they'd realized they couldn't control it.
At first, J'hon wasn't sure what to make of this. Because Atlantis was the stuff of myth, and Sun-Jeck himself had been so radical that the other Learneds of his day had discredited him as an agent of the Light before banishing him from the Order to walk among the stars. Ultimately, what swayed J'hon was that volumes of Sun-Jeck's teachings were recorded many cycles after his initial banishment, hinting at his reconciliation with the Order. For the Learneds later embraced Sun-Jeck, who had returned from his travels a changed man, to the extent that they assigned over twenty scribes to capture his supposedly insane ramblings until the time of his death several millennia ago.
These latter texts were the teachings that J'hon followed.
He spent weeks scratching for clues hidden among those words, trying to piece together a trail to the whereabouts of Atlantis. Until one day he stumbled across a small, as yet overlooked passage, which spoke of the heart of darkness encased in a vast white sea. He knew it was tenuous at best, desperate at the worst, but his instincts pointed him toward Hoth: a desolate arctic planet on the far reaches of the outer rim.
So, when his master sent him on a mission to the Anoat sector, J'hon decided to take a small detour to the Hoth system to check it out first.
***
Hoth was as barren and as inhospitable as its reputation suggested. And were it not for the dark presence J'hon sensed on landing, he would have abandoned the planet at once.
The darkness called out to him, faint in its song but pure. So pure that J'hon had never heard anything like it before. He let it lead him on a trek that covered miles of ice and snow, following its call relentlessly, feeling it grow stronger with each step he took toward it.
The trail ended in a cave, where he found the remains of what looked like a command console buried under a sheet of ice. He dug it out, feeling compelled to touch it, to bond with it; and when the tips of fingers finally scratched along its surface, the world around him lit up with a knowledge so vast his eyes went white with it.
For a long time after that, all J'hon could see were images of crystal spires and stealth ships and star drives set in a darkness so profound it nearly tore his mind apart.
***
He felt like he was floating, carried on currents of Force, which seemed to cushion him even as they drove him forward. Underneath him, the sea was white, stretching out for miles, but he wasn't interested in any of that because, all of a sudden, Ro'dnee was hovering beside him.
"Hey, Ro'dnee," he croaked. When Ro'dnee waved a hand in front of his face, he waved right back at him, not finding anything remotely strange about Ro'dnee being there, apart from the way Ro'dnee was bundled up in about fifty layers of clothing. It wasn't how his dreams with Ro'dnee usually went. So he smiled at Ro'dnee before suggesting, "You should probably take your clothes off," trying to be smooth about it.
Ro'dnee screamed something at him, which got lost under the howl of the wind, but which, from the expression on Ro'dnee's face, told him Ro'dnee wasn't very keen on that idea.
"Okay, fine," J'hon grumbled, though he wasn't too worried about the rejection. He knew his dream would get there in the end; they always did. While waiting for that to happen, he decided to change the subject and he said, "Hey, guess what: I found her!"
Ro'dnee's yell of: "What?" came through loud and clear this time.
"She just opened for me," he went on. "She said knew I was coming and that she'd been waiting for a long time. I think she wants me to take her home, to make her whole again." Even as he spoke, he could sense her on the edges of his mind, calling out to him, promising to make all his darkest dreams come true. "We have to go back," he whispered.
"What?" Ro'dnee yelled again.
"We have to go back for her!" J'hon started struggling in earnest to do just that. "Don't you get it? Atlantis is the key," J'hon suddenly felt compelled to explain, because he needed Ro'dnee with him on this. It was suddenly vitally important for Ro'dnee to understand; he just couldn't remember why. "The Ancients thought they'd found a way to destroy her, but they failed," he told him regardless. "They broke her into pieces, and what they couldn't burn they hid on different planets. But she's still alive, Ro'dnee, and she can help us ascend above anyone, who-"
Ro'dnee waved a hand in front of his face again.
And J'hon felt himself drifting as he followed the Force suggestion into sleep.
***
The next time he woke up, he was considerably more lucid, and Ro'dnee was leaning over him, face set in something that looked almost like concern. They were on his Infiltrator. Ro'dnee had one hand on his chest, but the minute he opened his eyes, Ro'dnee drew back and started tinkering with something while he lay there under a pile of thermals.
"Hey," he whispered, trying to get Ro'dnee's attention.
"Oh, at last he speaks," Ro'dnee muttered, obviously trying to cover his relief with exasperation but failing miserably.
J'hon didn't know quite what to make of that. It was clear he had a lot of catching up to do. He went for what he thought was a neutral topic and he asked, "How did you find me?" Because he sure as hell hadn't told anyone about his plans to visit Hoth.
"Well, with you trying to kill me all the time, I'm getting quite good at all this cloak and sabre stuff."
"Really?" J'hon drawled. He'd noticed this, of course. But over the cycles, he'd developed an inexplicable enjoyment in watching Ro'dnee brag or, at the very least, in winding him up. "So, you think you're good at this now?"
"Of course I am!" Ro'dnee scowled at him. Then Ro'dnee admitted: "Okay, that last sabre crystal I gave you emits a low level sub-space signal. It was easy enough to track you with that when you didn't come back from your mission. And a good thing too, otherwise who knows how long you would have been stuck on this Light-spawn planet."
J'hon stared at him incredulously. "I didn't come back, so you came all the way out here to find me?" Still struggling to wrap his mind around that, he chose to ignore, for the moment, that Ro'dnee had effectively tagged him!
"We had an appointment," Ro'dnee explained, quite defensive all of a sudden. "Which you missed, by the way," as though that were reason enough. "And since we've fallen into the habit of trying to kill each other, I decided to track you down. Because, you know, it was my turn to try to kill you."
It hit him then that despite Ro'dnee's blustering, when he'd gone missing, Ro'dnee had dropped whatever he was doing to come looking for him. And that triggered a rush of emotion in him so intense it made his chest suddenly feel very tight. "So why didn't you do it when you had the chance?" he whispered. "You could have destroyed me so many times when I was weak!"
"Please, are you trying to insult me?" Ro'dnee huffed. "When I destroy you, it'll be one hundred per cent me and not because someone else softened you up first."
Ro'dnee drew back then, looking vaguely uncomfortable. And things between them suddenly got very awkward, with neither one of them saying anything for a while.
For his part, J'hon didn't know what this meant for their already complicated relationship. He knew that somehow they'd crossed a line, but where it was taking them he couldn't tell. He spent a lot of time thinking about that, struggling with that faint sense of hysteria, which threatened whenever he tried to give a name to whatever was going on between them.
Until Ro'dnee drew him back to reality by pointing at the flight console, saying, "By the way, that thing has been flashing for at least two days."
At which point J'hon went from mild hysteria to near panic, because that thing, as Ro'dnee called it, only flashed when his master wanted him to report back. He imagined that, right then, several days overdue and mission incomplete, his master probably wasn't very pleased with him.
***
The conversation with his master began about as well as could be expected.
"Hey, J'hon," Niele said cheerfully. "So you really screwed up on this one, huh?" Before J'hon could say anything, Niele suggested: "Why don't we talk about it when you get back!"
Which J'hon knew actually meant: 'You'd better have a fucking good explanation for this!'
He decided to go with the equally cheerful: "Sounds like a plan," before taking a deep breath, watching the holo-projection of his master flicker a little. "It might take a few days, though," he added, trying to buy himself some time. "My Infiltrator got singed in an ion storm. I've got my technosage here with me now working on repairs."
"Ah, yes, the great M'Ro'dneeth Kay!" Niele pursed his lips, looking almost thoughtful. "Well, then, you kids take all the time you need," Niele told him, making one of those expansive gestures with his hands.
And J'hon closed his eyes for a second, because this was bad; this was far worse than he'd originally feared. "We'll be back as soon as we can," he promised.
He was about to terminate the connection when Niele said: "Oh, I almost forgot!"
J'hon leaned back, heart in this throat.
"I'm having a small ceremony tomorrow evening," Niele continued. "Nothing too fancy, I know how you hate that. Just, with the recent and unfortunate demise of Lord Dree Lan, it seemed like as good a time as any to mark my ascension to the Council." Niele gave a smile that chilled him to his bones. "It would be nice if you were here for that," he added very softly.
"I'm honoured you even thought to include me, my Lord," J'hon whispered, doing everything he could right then to shield his emotions. "Where are you having this ceremony, by the way?"
"In the Temple of Ages."
"Nice choice," he murmured.
"I thought so too," Niele told him. "You know how I like to do these things properly. Just call me a stickler for tradition!" At which point, Niele chuckled for several seconds.
J'hon decided the smart thing to do was to laugh along with him.
"Oh, well," Niele said after a while, when he'd obviously grown tired of the games. "As nice as it always is to catch up, I really need to get going. See you soon, J'hon!" Then Niele waved him off before terminating the connection from his end.
J'hon leaned back even further, breathing hard, watching Ro'dnee stare at him with those wide blue eyes.
"He's going to kill you," Ro'dnee whispered.
And J'hon just nodded, knowing he had no other choice but to move up his own plans to ascend.
***
Halfway through Ro'dnee's second rant, it occurred to him that, while he and Ro'dnee had spent cycles trying to destroy each other, they'd never really had a serious argument until then.
"But I'm not ready," Ro'dnee kept telling him. "I mean, you're not ready. Look at you! A Force-blind swamp rat could probably take you out in the state you're in. Plus, I haven't finished the sabre enhancements, or the Force pikes, not to mention the-"
"Ro'dnee," J'hon interrupted him before he could really get going. "It's okay; just forget about that now."
"He's going to kill you! How can you say that?"
"Because it's my rite of passage, Ro'dnee!" He shrugged then with a lightness he didn't feel. "I want to ascend, and Niele knows that. He has been expecting me to make a move on him for some time now. I guess he just got tired of waiting."
"Well, I still think meeting him on his terms is stupid," Ro'dnee complained, folding both arms across his chest.
Again, J'hon found himself struggling with that rush of emotion, which seemed to twist something inside him, leaving his chest feeling tight. It hit him then that he was going to miss all of this: the conversations, the insults, the endless assassination attempts. Even though they'd made him weak somehow and vulnerable enough for his master to smell the stench of failure on his skin. And despite knowing he was breaking all kinds of protocol by doing this, he still went on to say: "You do know if he succeeds he's going to come after you, right?"
Ro'dnee gulped before nodding, managing somehow to look annoyed about the whole thing.
"Good!" J'hon smiled a little easier after that. "Then you'll be ready for him," he said very softly, feeling what was definitely a surge of dark pleasure flowing through him. If he failed, he knew Ro'dnee would take Niele and the rest of his minions out, and they would never see it coming.
Ro'dnee gave him another annoyed looking glare. "We could-"
"No," J'hon cut in, not letting Ro'dnee say the words. "I'm a potential; I'm not going to run. This is my final trial. Either I ascend or I fall; that is the Sith way."
With that, he turned away to prepare for what would likely be the toughest battle of his life.
***
The Temple was the holiest of all grounds, for etched in her walls were the names of the ancestral dark. They were the ascended of all starters through the Ages: those, who had destroyed their peers to rise above them to glory. And by that virtue, those, who had earned the right to be called the darkest of all Sith.
Following ancient custom, J'hon walked in alone to take his place among them. He realized this was a fitting place to make his last stand, and a last stand he feared it might be. On any other day, he might have stood a chance. Today, however, with so much of his energy drained on Hoth, he had a feeling his destruction was inevitable.
When Niele strolled in with a retinue of guards, J'hon also realized that he'd been a fool. There were ten in total, all of them brash, Force-blind and obviously expendable. And it immediately became clear that his master's strategy was to tire him out first before moving in for the kill. "Now, this isn't very traditional of you," he complained before slicing the head off guard number one.
Niele just shrugged from the sidelines. "What can I say? I thought you might appreciate the workout!"
J'hon laughed mirthlessly. He knew that his master would also be watching his sabre technique, looking for areas to exploit. So he dealt with the second and third guards in the same crisp way in which he'd dealt with the first. Guards four, five and six gave him a few problems, because they decided to attack in formation. But ultimately they were no match for his years of training, and he struck them down using a complicated sequence of aerial moves. After that, he took out guard number seven with relative ease, but the eighth one was a real challenge because what there was of his strength had already started to wane. By the ninth he could barely stand, and on the tenth, it took all his will to complete the job.
Which, of course, was when his master chose to step in.
"Okay, then," Niele said brightly. "Let's move on to the main event, shall we?"
Then J'hon watched in horror as bolts of Force lightening shot from Niele's fingers. He couldn't move fast enough to get out of the way. And the next thing he knew he was on the ground clutching at his chest and writhing in agony while Niele stood over him, taunting him.
"Bet you didn't know I could do that, huh?" After which Niele hit him a few more times just for the hell of it. "You disappoint me, J'hon! I thought you would be more of a challenge."
"Come back tomorrow and I'm sure I'll do better," J'hon managed to wheeze out.
Only, Niele powered up his own sabre, evidently done with talking.
J'hon glared up at him, defiant to the last, watching that glowing blade descend, and ultimately watching it grind to a halt in a burst of green sparks mere inches from his face. He started laughing then, the sound so loud he almost didn't hear Niele's howl of frustration. But he did see Niele drop his guard for a second when Niele glanced round for the source of that shield barrier.
That was more than enough time for J'hon to strike him down, slicing first through the knees before reaching out with all he'd learnt of the Force to drain the last of his master's dark energy.
***
In the aftermath, J'hon stood over his master's desiccated corpse, revelling in the power of his ascension. Until he heard a familiar voice say: "Oh my God, I can't believe it worked!"
Turning round, he saw Ro'dnee emerge from behind one of the pillars nearby.
"I mean, I knew it was possible in theory," Ro'dnee went on. "But I had no idea I could extend a shield layer that far and still make it viable." Ro'dnee paused for a second, taking a deep breath. After which Ro'dnee suddenly seemed to notice all the carnage. He backed up a little, saying, "You know what, I think I left something on in the lab. I should probably go check on that," before making a run for it.
J'hon caught up with him by the doors to the vestry. "I thought we'd agreed I was going to handle this on my own," he murmured.
"Well, it's a good thing I don't listen to stupid ideas, isn't it?" Ro'dnee snapped, looking a bit guilty but sounding absolutely unrepentant.
J'hon couldn't decide whether he was annoyed or relieved about that. Which seemed to be the normal state of affairs where Ro'dnee was concerned. He reached out, aching to touch Ro'dnee all of a sudden, wanting to convey something of what he was feeling right then, only to get stung yet again by that personal shield. "Ro'dnee," he chided him gently.
"What?"
"Why don't you take down your shield."
"What?" Ro'dnee gasped. "Are you insane?"
Beyond a few vague scriptures, J'hon thought he just might be. There was no precedent for what he was about to propose. Still his instincts were screaming at him that this was right, that this was the way, and that all the supposed failures of the past had just been leading him to this moment. "Join me," he whispered. "Together we can restore the Sith to glory."
Ro'dnee gaped at him as though he'd completely lost his mind. "You and me as Master and Apprentice: that's what you want?"
J'hon shook his head. "We have to be more than that to succeed," he explained, trying to make Ro'dnee understand. "We can be so much more if we choose," he added, wanting that too. Because he could see now just how close Bane had been to True Ascension. But unlike him, his ancestor hadn't realized that the Two needed to be above the usual infighting to have any chance of success. Staring down at Ro'dnee, thinking about how Ro'dnee had stood by him and even saved his life, he didn't need Force urgings to convince him that the future lay right here in the hands of this man. "Take your shield down and join me," he said one more time, stretching out his hand.
Ro'dnee kept glancing at it warily. "You could kill me," he whispered. "How do I know you won't kill me the second I take it down?"
"You don't." And that was the crux of it: the first step, the one Ro'dnee had to take all by himself. J'hon refused to make it any easier than that.
The minutes he spent waiting for Ro'dnee to decide were the longest of his life. Ro'dnee kept giving him looks, which swung from terror to confusion to suspicion and irritation before swinging back to terror all over again. And through it all, J'hon stood there with his hand out-stretched, willing Ro'dnee to accept him.
He was seconds away from switching to more drastic measures when Ro'dnee muttered, "If you kill me, I swear I will haunt you for the rest of your life," before powering down his shield.
J'hon didn't waste a moment after that. He grabbed Ro'dnee's head in both hands and then he pushed hard with his mind, showing Ro'dnee all his dark plans, letting him see everything he wanted for the two of them.
"Oh!" Ro'dnee smiled when he got it at last. "That-That's perfect!"
"Yes," J'hon agreed with a dark smile of his own. He could see the wonder in Ro'dnee's eyes at his idea for their New Rule of Two. Not Master and Apprentice, but Two equals united in one goal: to ascend until no other Sith breathed in the galaxy and until all dark power was concentrated in their hands. The Light would be no match for them.
"We have to go back to Hoth," Ro'dnee whispered all of a sudden.
And again J'hon said, "Yes," seeing his plans begin to take shape. Somehow he'd known Ro'dnee would understand; they weren't strong enough yet to do this on their own. "Do you think you can fix her?"
Still grinning, Ro'dnee responded with: "Of course I can!"
And J'hon literally bared his teeth, almost drunk with the possibility of all that power. He'd expected Ro'dnee to say that. Only Ro'dnee had the strength to tame Atlantis, and he knew that for him Ro'dnee would find a way to bend her to their will. "We'll destroy them all, Ro'dnee," he promised, stroking his thumb along the curve of Ro'dnee's smile, watching the way Ro'dnee shivered before leaning into his touch.
"I know," Ro'dnee murmured, flicking his tongue out to taste him, making him shiver from head to toe. "We'll purge every trace of Light from this galaxy."
J'hon had to kiss Ro'dnee then. He had to lean forward, just for a moment, to catch the corner of Ro'dnee's mouth with his, before that flood of feeling had him bending down to Ro'dnee's neck and pressing his face there. He stayed like that for several seconds, breathing Ro'dnee in, trying to stifle the needy sounds that were clawing their way out of his throat. But once Ro'dnee drew him into his mind, showing him a darkness there too beautiful to be imagined, the moans just poured out of him openly now.
It was Ro'dnee, who forged the bond between them, and Ro'dnee, who later still curled a hand into his hair, gripping it gently, using that grip to tilt his head back.
"Ro'dnee," J'hon whispered, knowing what Ro'dnee wanted.
So he arched up to meet him halfway, while Ro'dnee sighed, "Yes," before fitting their mouths together.
J'hon opened for him at once, swamped by feelings of lust so intense he could barely handle them. He took control of the kiss, licking into Ro'dnee's mouth, tangling their tongues together, tasting Ro'dnee again and again as the power of their bond sang between them. And once he'd allowed those feelings free rein, the want raged inside him. So fiercely that when Ro'dnee wrenched his mouth away all of a sudden, panting raggedly and turning his head to one side, it spilled over into dominance, making him surge forward to keep Ro'dnee there.
"I want you," J'hon growled, nearly overwhelmed by it. "Now, Ro'dnee," he insisted, mouthing along Ro'dnee's jaw and biting at his throat. "Now," he said again, tearing at Ro'dnee's clothes, trying to get even closer.
"Okay, okay, just let me-" and then Ro'dnee floated something up to him. "Here, you can use this!"
J'hon snatched it out of the air, not paying too much attention to what it was, just knowing that it was slick and there and that it would have to do. Because he couldn't wait any more; he was already so close, he had to be in Ro'dnee right then.
He spun Ro'dnee around so that Ro'dnee was facing the wall. And Ro'dnee seemed to get that he was right on the edge. Because Ro'dnee just stretched both arms out to brace himself, saying nothing about his loss of control or about the lack of finesse with which he tugged their leggings down and then slicked himself up. As he pushed into Ro'dnee's body, Ro'dnee arched back to meet him, urging him on and whispering, "Yes, yes," while echoing lust and possessiveness back along their bond.
After that, J'hon really did lose it. He hunched over, pushed in as deep as he could go and pressed his forehead to Ro'dnee's nape. Then he was there, shuddering and grunting, gripping Ro'dnee's waist with both hands as he struggled to stay on his feet.
He wasn't surprised when Ro'dnee bucked him off almost immediately afterward, or when Ro'dnee turned around and then shoved him back against the wall. No, the surprise was that he wanted this too; he was aching for it, still hard and still desperate as if he hadn't come only seconds earlier.
Ro'dnee, though, was even more desperate than he was, practically tearing at his leggings to get them all the way off him. So he let Ro'dnee take what he needed, spreading his legs, letting Ro'dnee reach down and up behind him. Then Ro'dnee slid two fingers into him, getting him ready, rubbing over something that made his knees buckle from the sheer weight of pleasure that crashed onto him.
"It's okay, I've got you," Ro'dnee told him, catching him, pushing him back up against the wall. And J'hon wasn't sure which one of them was more surprised by the broken sound he made when Ro'dnee rubbed over that spot again.
"Ro'dnee," J'hon groaned, almost frantic now.
Only, Ro'dnee whispered, "Not yet," seeming suddenly to want to slow things down. And Ro'dnee kept rubbing his fingers inside him, keeping to that hard, slow rhythm, telling him: "Soon, J'hon, soon," when he broke and started begging very softly under his breath.
By the time Ro'dnee eased out of him, his thighs were trembling, his skin dripping with sweat, and he was chewing at the cloth covering Ro'dnee's shoulder, trying not to scream. He was so wrecked he barely understood what was happening as Ro'dnee moved him into position, lifting him up with Force-enhanced strength and wrapping both legs around his waist. Until Ro'dnee started pressing into him, slowly working his way inside, stretching him to the point of discomfort.
"Oh God," J'hon whispered, writhing through the burn. And as Ro'dnee slid in even further, he clutched at Ro'dnee's back, trying to hold on.
"That's it," Ro'dnee breathed in his ear, before Ro'dnee cupped one hand over his nape, soothing him, holding him there so he had to take it, so Ro'dnee could get all the way inside him. "Okay?" Ro'dnee asked a few moments later, after planting his feet and slowly circling his hips.
"Yes!" J'hon nodded, feeling the pleasure roll through him again, feeling it start from where Ro'dnee kept shifting inside him. "Yes, it's good," he managed to gasp.
Ro'dnee ground up into him hard, circling his hips again at the end of it. And before J'hon could stop himself he let out a loud sob of pleasure. "There?" Ro'dnee whispered, doing it again.
And this time, as the waves of heat and pleasure crashed over him, J'hon started clawing at Ro'dnee's back, panting, "Ro'dnee, please-I can't-" Because suddenly it was too much and the pleasure was destroying him like nothing else ever had.
But Ro'dnee just kept on moving inside him and Ro'dnee's hands held him there as Ro'dnee told him: "Yes, you can," rocking his hips up hard, grinding even harder, again and again.
So the only thing J'hon could do was try to ride it out, feeling the heat curl through him in waves, rising up from his stomach, flushing his chest and his face, leaking from his mouth in broken sobs. And when Ro'dnee eventually finished inside him, mouth open and trembling in the hollow of his throat, all of a sudden J'hon was there again, trembling just as hard, soaking the space between their bodies where Ro'dnee was pressed up against him.
***
He lost track of time for a while after that.
At some point, Ro'dnee set his legs back down on the ground. Not that it made much difference to him; he was still shaking so badly he could barely stand. He decided to use Ro'dnee to prop himself up, trying and failing not to smile at the intensely aggrieved sounds Ro'dnee made when he did that since the fingers combing gently through his hair gave away how Ro'dnee really felt.
"We should get out of here," Ro'dnee told him, still stroking his hair idly, like there was no real need to hurry.
J'hon nodded in any case. If the Force disturbance caused by the death of a Dark Lord hadn't shaken the Brotherhood, then the birth of a dark bond surely would have.
He said, "Let's take Niele's ship-well, technically, it's ours now." And he didn't need to see Ro'dnee's face to know that Ro'dnee was smirking with their shared triumph. "Anyway, it's Cruiser class, so we can take my Infiltrator and anything else you want."
"Good!" Ro'dnee stroked a thumb over the tip of his ear, making him shiver a little. "I'll need everything from the lab and a few things from my quarters as well."
"That's fine, I'll help you pack it all up!"
J'hon drew back then. He started pulling his clothes to order, watching Ro'dnee do the same. Finally, when they were both ready, they walked out of the Temple together and side by side.
The End.
Additional Notes: The following themes or ideas were borrowed from the Star Wars expanded universe, and in a few cases these have been altered to fit the purposes of this story:
01. The Academy - established by the Brotherhood to train Sith Acolytes
02. Acolyte - a rank of the Sith order, usually given to a Force-sensitive in training on the dark path
03. The Anoat Sector - a sector of space on the outer rim of the galaxy
04. Assassin - a sect or rank of covert Force-sensitive killers
05. Blademaster - a lightsaber combat instructor at the Sith Academy
06. The Brotherhood - a.k.a. the Brotherhood of Darkness: the mass collection of Sith Lords and their followers
07. The Council - the body of advisors to the ruling Dark Lord of the Sith
08. Dark Lord - a powerful master of Sith knowledge
09. The Force - a metaphysical power or energy created by all living beings, where the light side and dark side refer to the moral compass of its manifestation, i.e. good and evil
10. Galactic Standard - the most common and most used language in the galaxy
11. Hoth - an ice-covered planet located in the Anoat sector
12. Infiltrator - a type of space ship
13. The Republic (First and Second) - the system of democratic government for the galaxy that lasted for thousands of years
14. Rule by the Strong - a guiding principle that allowed for a number of Sith at one time (advocated by Lord Kaan)
15. Rule of Two - a guiding principle that promoted only two Sith in the galaxy: a Master and an Apprentice (advocated by Darth Bane and used to great effect by the Emperor Palpatine a.k.a. Darth Sidious to bring about the destruction of the Republic)
16. Ruusanian bat - non-sentient species indigenous to the planet Ruusan
17. Sabacc - a high stakes card game similar to Poker
18. Sabre - a.k.a. Lightsaber: the formal weapon of a Jedi Knight though also used by the Sith
19. Shadow Hand - a title given to the second in command of a Sith Master or Sith Lord
20. Sith - a sect of dark side Force users bent on destroying the Jedi, users of the light side of the Force
21. Star Forge - a semi-sentient space station and an immense tool of dark side power
22. Ugor - a unicellular sentient species capable of shape-shifting and native to the Paradise system of planets
23. Ugorian Spore Gruel - a type of food enjoyed by Ugors