Got it done guys! This part is a Xalek exclusive, a little parting gift from our favorite bloodthirsty apprentice before we enter the finale which will finish off this story arc! So say your goodbyes, because it will probably be a while before we see this Kaleesh again!

Ty Flame. Oh trust me, Nox is going to be permanently changed by what goes on inside the walls of the Dread Palace. The scars it will leave on his psyche will be there forever. And that's all I'll say about that. I'm cooking up the scariest hell I know to put Nox through, hopefully it will scare some of my readers too

If you're curious, the sound Nox heard can be found here. Specifically it's the noise heard from 0:08-0:10. If you liked the peek inside the darkest, deepest crevices of Nox's mind, buckle up. We're going down, down, down into the dark. It remains to be seen what parts of us will never come out...

Here it is guys! So I have some bad news. My boss has informed me that our typical winter schedule is now our usual schedule, meaning the hours I work now are going to consistently be my hours for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, I think this means I won't be able to return to my old episode-a-week schedule. Perhaps I will be able to manage it every now and again but consistently? It seems less and less likely. Nonetheless, I hope you guys still stick around. I'm planning on taking a break after completing this season/story arc to write a more normal-length fanfiction, one that will bring even more flavor and life to the world I'm creating here. I think my "dry spell" of inspiration is because I've been focused on a specific set of ideas for too long and my brain is getting tired of it, like when you eat nothing but cookies and chips for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday. Hopefully taking my mind off the bigger picture and moving down to the microcosmic level within a galaxy far, far away will bring fresh perspective for both you guys and me when I start the next story arc up.

I'm finding the attempt to bind V rather appropriate. It fit's Nox's character, and the failure of the attempt really was a no-brainer. For just a moment, I hoped that evil little vixen could pull it off, if only to see V's snark transform into shock and outrage...but when you crunch the numbers its the same everytime...unless Nox can get significantly more power than she has now, which would likely require "recruiting" some new ghosts. Either replacing her old ones with stronger specimens or (if she can handle it) binding an army or two.

Oh yeah, she's objectively beautiful I'd say. I wasn't referring to super skinny models though. I was just thinking more along the lines of "Does almost everyone who sees her objectively agree that she is an attractive member of the female sex? Or is she one of those people that is beautiful to a certain kind of person, once they get to know her?" BTW, what in the galaxy is that robe set she's wearing in the last picture? I absolutely MUST have it!

Good, I'm not intending on it being a mere passing detail, so we'll see what comes of it. Hell yeah! lol. Nothing terrifies Nox more than death! As much as he claims to have mastered it, he spends every moment looking subconsciously over his shoulder, expecting to one day see the Reaper standing there. I saw them as more terrifying. The orange spots, whatever they were, always creeped me out, like they were looking at me. I've always found giant squids to be nightmare fuel due to how their eyes are so f*cking huge and they just stare, and stare, and stare without blinking. *shudder* In this part I drew upon that fear, that private terror to try and make the reader feel the same kind of terror when I described "the eyes". So when I was thinking of something to replace the run-of-the-mill bossfight that was the borithium beast, I thought "What about a living creature that looks like a tree and whose roots look like all those root-like things on Oricon and in the Voss Nightmare Lands?" I confess I originally got the idea for a "living plant" from an old Goosebumps book where the main character's dad turns himself into some kind of living, part plant, part human monster. That book, especially the artwork on the cover, always creeped me the F8ck out, so when I thought of "creepy tentacle monster" I thought suddenly of "creepy tentacle tree" instead. Hope it was suitably scary! You haven't I like it too, it forces me to stretch my creative muscles in figuring out how to phrase the replies of the other characters (like Nox) so that the conversation still feels natural while also cluing the reader in to what Khem might be saying. Awww, thank you! That means a bunch coming from you! :$

True. Ahh, you have a point. A very good one. So many people are not properly educated on what true love is... Actually as I understand it pheromones are undetectable by the sensory organs that dictate smell, they merely trigger a specific physiological response, like a hidden message to our brains written in invisible ink. I know its not really relevant, I just thought I'd share. True. Quinn's loyalty is usually above reproach... Question for Luna, is Lia actually beautiful? Like model type beautiful? Or is she more "girl next door" type beautiful? Lol I doubt Luna smacks anyone over the head.

Woohoo! Finally after two weeks I've gotten this part done! Hopefully the next few parts should come a little faster, but don't hold me to it lol!

Amen!

We're two birds of a feather. I enjoyed the relative solitude of Shadowlands. I also liked having an entire legacy of toons called "Oblivious" with names like "Sexually, Musically, Virtually" ect...That's all gone now. The one or two bright lights in the situation are that I have yet to discover that I lost something or that the merge affected my characters in a directly negative way. Several things: 1. Hate speech is free speech 2. It's not actual hate speech, its called trolling or "joking". You should try it sometime, its really fun. 3. Controversy is also fun. Debates are fun, if you don't want to listen to them play around with you chat settings or just close the window entirely. There are so many options for controlling your game experience now that you really have no genuine excuse to complain about your multiplayer experience (except about ninjas, we all hate ninjas)

Wow, you're getting better and better with each chapter! I'm so pleased Donz, you're really starting to bring this story together both grammatically and literary-wise. I'm still here, still reading, and enjoying every chapter!

No I'm just a filthy Weeb lol. And how did you know I was Yandere? Does it show? Crap! Now I gotta move the bodies! I think we differ on this point Jenny. All pheromones actually do is affect you biologically. They produce carnal, sexual attraction, raw sex appeal as it were. As far as I'm concerned that means any relationship Lia has with someone that is not just physical (i.e. FWB) is really just as honest and real as anything else. The only difference between Lia and a normal human woman is that she has an easier time finding prospective mates. I firmly believe that things like pheromones can only make you lust after someone, never love them. There is no such thing as a love potion.

Excellent. That's good news! I doubt anyone is THAT eager to read my story, so it shouldn't be an issue then. I'll try those solutions you mentioned and see what happens. Thanks Jenny! Edit: It worked!

So somehow BioWare broke the first page of this topic, at least for me anyway. Whenever I try and go to the first page (all the others are fine) it claims that the SWTOR website is undergoing maintenance, which obviously isn't true... So just in case the TOC is unavailable to you guys I'll remind you that you can also access my story here, here, and here. Perhaps if this issue doesn't vanish on its own and/or you guys are having the same problem I'll post a new TOC somewhere else in the thread, maybe reboot the thread altogether, idk, we'll see. Anyway, the next part is almost finished. It's taken a hell of a long time due to various issues with my computer arising one after the other combined with me moving (again lol) into a new apartment. So thanks for your patience guys!

Hi guys, yeah it's been a while hasn't it? :$ Don't worry though, I just sent the next part off for review, I'll be editing this post to add it in when it's done! Edit: Done!

Watch it Jenny! That's one of my Waifus you're trashing! XD Don't get me started on Theron, or we'll be here all day!

Thanks Flame! I really appreciate the response. And your conclusion is suspiciously right on the money, are you peaking at my script? lol anyway, why else would Nox have slaughtered those soldiers for standing around? He wanted to send a message to everyone there that he won't tolerate any slack. If you have no more assigned duties to do, you need to find something to do, fast! Instilling that sort of motivation wouldn't be necessary if not for the fact that Nox's mental defenses, and presumably Lord Hargrav's too, won't hold forever, and Nox is determined to not be dragged down by the laziness or ineptitude of his minions, once they become a burden, they will be sloughed off like the dead weight they are.

"Art imitates life." There are several twists and turns of logic that my writing takes with regards to being a reflection of real-life events and politics, think of my writing as being a lens that flips the subject upside down, twists it around in the middle, and then flips it around so that left is right and right is left. All this is done deliberately, and while I doubt anyone will actually get down to the core message, I really don't want to just spoil it for anyone who will. Besides, its so much more fun to watch people figure things out for themselves, when they bother to try. Thanks again for your feedback Luna, as always you are the dependable rock of this section of the forums.

My god Luna you've outdone yourself! Reading this was...embarrassing for me. I was giggling like a 12-year old schoolgirl almost the whole way through. I enjoyed both Nox and Vowrawn as a pairing and as individual characters immensely. Nox redesigning the citadel...I'm betting it looks like something out a fantasy movie now based on your description of the decor, and I also am thoroughly enjoying how you are taking the various plot points and literary devices used in the official Zakuul expansions and using them to craft a more delectable story. I hate always writing glowing reviews of fellow authors because I feel like it makes me look like a mindless worshipful sycophant but damn...you just do your fanfictions so well I feel like it would be a crime to ignore the good parts and nitpick about the little things!

Woah, woah, woah. Hold on guys, lets not all jump on the "Evil white capitalist patriarchy is oppressing me" bandwagon. We all know what kind of unfriendly stuff THAT leads to... I think BW just misjudged the number of female gamers who would play SWTOR right from launch. They didn't fully plan/prepare for the number of females who would play an MMO. Statistics on most MMO's show a much larger population of men than women (usually its roughly 65% vs. 35%, depending on the brand/franchise) and Star Wars has historically been popular with men more so than women. Not in percentages but in sheer numbers, and this is simply due to the fact that there are still more heterosexual men than women in the overall gamer population (I'm not including mobile games because unless they were ported to mobile from PC or console they aren't "real video games" and mobile games are even more unbalanced in favor of women than PC/console games are in favor of men). For example lets say that 15% of all male and 15% of all female gamers play SWTOR, well if the "gamer" population is 55% v 45% in favor of men, then guess which gender has the larger number of players in SWTOR? As for their continued "ignoring" of female gamers? I put it up to a lack of openly female forum presence and the simple fact that the BW staff is (I assume) running around like headless chickens trying to plug all the leaks from which SWTOR is bleeding out to be overly concerned with "gendered" issues, rather than outright misogyny. Plus BW, under EA's guidance, has slowly been morphing into an SJW company, much like the failing Marvel. So I don't think its a hatred or even dislike of women, but due to various other issues. Also, I would have loved if Lana was the traitor Luna. I think most people would have loved it too. She was, after all, Sith, and what else do Sith do? Personally, even though I'm neither gay nor female, I was actually kinda sad that Theron was the traitor. I really liked him in a "bro" kind of way. He could be an ***** sometimes and a principled pain when I'm being realistic (read as: making DS choices) and rational, but he was still "my bro", "my dude", "the guy I can trust with anything" (not so much that last one now ). P.S. Very few people are actually genuine misogynists. The level of hatred one must achieve to become a true misogynist is beyond most people's desire and ability. Poor, naive Corso. The poor farmboy thinks women are rational lol. I have an older sister and have had lots of female friends, and every time, without fail, the guy who respects women gets left at the side of the road and the women chase after the guys who treat them like garbage, or at least like they're worth less than them. I do like though that Corso does at least try to teach the female smuggler to look at men logically rather than emotionally (Hint: that is how we look at you, ladies). That does him some credit, points for effort ya know?

My my, Lia is gathering quite the harem! lol In all seriousness I'm starting to really enjoy your interpretation of KOTFE Luna. Despite my mild distaste for what I consider to be "excessive drama" you have a way of making the relationships and interactions between the characters real enough that it hooks me emotionally. I wonder if Valkorian knows Tulak Hord is knocking about in there too, or perhaps they've decided to "share" Lia? I do love a good mystery! P.S. so did Lia used to be the Hero of Tython until the end of Chapter 2 of the Knight story and then instead of doing Chapter 3 of the Knight story she became the Emperor's Wrath and did Chapter 3 of the Warrior's story? Just curious.

The Fanfiction forums are always open...and we tend to be very welcoming to new authors. Although be ready to have your work criticized in a friendly way. Constructive criticism benefits us all!

It makes you look like an evil Mickey/Minnie Mouse imo.