Ask Tatooine In the Desert, You Can Remember Your Name

[Talak Rand]

Talak was a bit relieved to hear that she would be accompanying him. He didn't particularly love the idea of doing this alone, but he would have. He wasn't entirely convinced that her motives were pure, but at this point, he didn't care. This was why the Sith Eternal indulged in the dark side: because it allowed them incredible power that could be sated by accomplishing another goal.

The prisoners had gotten together some weapons and piled into a ship to open fire on their former captors. Talak moved out into the darkness, ready to finish off what had begun tonight.

The side building that Talak assumed would have the captives had voices emerging from it, and he didn't think they sounded like prisoners. He assumed these must have been the guards, and he wasn't going to wait around for them to leave. They both wanted to kill, so let them kill.

He hit the door control and it leapt open. He charged forward and picked the guard on the left to ram his blade through the man's sternum. She would get the other, and they would both be able to begin unlatching the prisoners as explosions began to sound in the distance.

There's the ruckus, he said with a smirk. He knew the "hunters" were getting what they deserved. Wretches. He could feel the death flooding over him, and he enjoyed it. He enjoyed knowing that they were getting what they deserved.

 

[Ana DAmico]

Ana burst through the door following Talak, moving swiftly and with malicious intent. Her blade slashed sidelong at the second man’s throat and spilled out a fountain of blood. He clutched his throat and fell to his knees, rasping violently before falling to his side. The attack was over as quickly as it started, and within moments the two were unlatching cages and freeing more captives. Beyond the side building’s walls, numerous explosions cracked violently, punctuated by quick bursts of turret fire. A distinct aura of death swept over the compound such that they could sense it from here, and it brought her a great degree of satisfaction.

She helped usher the captives out of the compound, her eyes watching the flashes of light and chunks of debris spraying around. Whomever was on the turrets in the freighter was letting these hunters absolutely have it, and she smiled even wider. These fiends deserved far, far worse, and she felt a twinge of disappointment that they couldn’t personally deliver judgment, but this was the next best thing. She herded the captives towards the freighter, which began to descend and set down in the open courtyard to allow everyone in. Its landing ramp slid down and they rushed up, letting the remaining prisoners board first.

Ana looked at Talak, then past him at the speeders being blown up as the turrets still sang their chorus of death. Their only ride back to Mos Telfa was on this freighter, it appeared, but she didn’t particularly mind. She wanted off of this stupid, barren rock as soon as possible, and they still had to collect their belongings from the weasel who put them in this mess. Without a word, she turned and ran up the ramp of the ship before the hunters’ return fire began in earnest. The ship had firepower, but they still had cover and numbers. Bolts began whizzing by as she ran up and into the ship, hopefully with Talak in tow.

Now in relative safety, the ship rose from the sand, still raining death down on the hunters. The hail of fire would continue until every single one of them was dead, and with each death, their vengeance was closer to being exacted. The prisoners milled about, hugging and cheering for their saviors. Their joy was almost overwhelmingly sickening given her current immersion into the dark side, but their gratitude could not be denied. She awkwardly stood there, bloody blade in hand, while the former captives thanked them for freeing them. She turned to look at Talak, gauging his reaction to being liberators. She was not used to this at all.

 

[Talak Rand]

Freeing the remaining captives went fairly smoothly, and by the time they'd made it onto the freighter it was quite crowded, but there was room. The guns continued to fire down, streaking through the remaining hunters, and Talak felt a feeling of sickening satisfaction at what they'd accomplished. These horrid creatures deserved everything they got.

Perhaps the only thing that pulled him back from the brink was the people jammed into the freighter that the two had rescued. Talak was drenched in blood as was the blade that he set near the door of the freighter, and that caused some general unrest among the populace. Understandably so. It finally took an elderly woman - who they must have picked to be "low hanging fruit" in the hunt - to come forward and grip Talak's hand and shake it before people started to realize that it was... over.

Looks of relief and joy began to replace the looks of terror and trauma. It would take them years to overcome what they'd been through, but they would overcome. And that was what filled Talak with a hint of warmth that spread through the cold darkness that gripped his heart.

The smile he forced as a weak one, and he quickly tried to tear himself away from the thankful people to find solitude in a far corner of the ship. There was room for Ana to sit beside him, and he waited for her to take a seat.

It's over... or at least mostly over, he said with a sigh. There was still the man collecting the people in Mos Tefla, but the bulk of the fighting was over, and he needed new clothes and a shower.

 

[Ana DAmico]

Ana stood still while the terrified people eventually warmed up to them, unsure of what to do. Her eyes narrowed as the elderly woman approached Talak and gripped his hand gently, tears in her eyes and a pained smile on her face. The atmosphere within the packed ship shifted drastically as the people realized this horrible ordeal was finally over for them. One by one they began mumbling to each other and hugging, and she doubted there was a single dry eye in the entire ship. Families torn apart, lives ruined, trauma induced, but they were alive, and that was more than they could say about their former captors. It wasn’t much, but she felt a modicum of relief that they’d helped these people.

Ana slowly and awkwardly placed her bloody vibroblade on the bulkhead beside Talak’s, understanding that the time for battle was finally over. The two liberators still looked horrifying; her hair was matted with both fresh and dried blood, her clothes were ripped up and coated in gore, and she knew she reeked of death. Her right eye was beginning to swell from the punch on the platform earlier, the first signs of a gnarly black eye. Talak didn’t fare much better, and it was a complete surprise that the people here weren’t immediately horrified upon seeing them.

They filtered through the crowd for a more isolated corner, eager to be alone for once. Talak sat down and Ana joined him. She leaned forward and rested her forearms on her knees, staring at the deck for a while, processing tonight’s events. ”Yeah…” she said absentmindedly a few seconds after Talak’s relieved remark. The darkness inside of her still lingered somewhat, but she managed to force it back into the recesses of her mind for the time being.

Kashyyyk was an ordeal, but this had left a greater stain on her soul just from the sheer levels of death to which she was exposed. She wondered if Talak had intended for this to happen to further push her into the darkness or if this was just the Force guiding her to its natural state. Either option seemed reasonable, but she wasn’t sure which one she preferred to be the case.

Eventually her eyes drifted upwards, but she didn’t move from her forward-leaning position. She wasn’t sure what, exactly, to say to break the awkward silence, so she just said the first thing that came to her mind. ”Is this what I need to expect every time we hang out?” she asked, only half-jokingly.

 

[Talak Rand]

It was only as he had sat down for a few minutes that he realized how sore he was. Every muscle in his body seemed to ache and cry out, and he wanted nothing more than to just sit there for the next week without moving.

When she made her joke, he actually started laughing. It was laughter disproportionate to how funny the joke was, but it was the body's natural way of letting out stress. The life and death situation had passed, and with it came the humor.

I hope not, he finally said with a shake of his head. He rubbed a hand across his face and let out a sigh.

How are you feeling? he asked after a moment of silence. He could feel in the Force that her mind was... dark and fraying. He regretted his role in it, and he could feel it weighing on his own mind. He wasn't doing much better, and questions about what he was doing with his life were plaguing him once again. Perhaps the exhaustion caused him to be less discreet or maybe he simply was tired of being unable to say what he actually thought.

 

[Ana DAmico]

Ana sighed. Her body felt heavy, and every muscle ached now that her adrenaline had diminished. She continued to stare ahead, not desiring to move any part of her body because of how much effort it would take. Talak’s laughter startled her, and the motion of flinching briefly sent a twinge of pain coursing through her body. Now that they were finally out of fighting for their lives, he was at least pretending to be in higher spirits, though she knew that was just the mind’s way of dealing with immense stress. Eventually she let out a chuckle, finding some twisted degree of humor in all of this.

Me either, she thought, not realizing she hadn’t said it aloud. Her head dropped and she ran her grimy fingers through her hair, trying to shake out sand and flecks of dried blood. She felt disgusting and there was nothing she wanted more than to take a shower and go to sleep, but there was one more loose end to tie up for them back in Mos Telfa.

Her fingers moved from her hair to the back of her neck where they interlocked while she stared at the deck. How was she feeling? Heavy, exhausted, dirty… She felt exactly how she looked, but she sensed there was something more to his question than just how she physically felt. ”Empty,” she finally answered, dropping her hands and straightening her back so that she could look at Talak, ”Drained… Hollow.” It was exhausting harnessing those negative emotions for so long, wading through a river of blood, and then expecting to just return to business as usual. She knew with time she’d grow better at it, but today was a massive leap in the process.

Talak wasn’t faring much better than her she sensed, and she studied his face in the gloom of the ship for a moment. There was an immense weight on his mind, and the exhaustion of today’s ordeal weakened the barriers concealing it. ”You’re not doing much better,” she stated out of observation, ”Even I can tell.” She went quiet for a moment before letting out grim chuckle, shaking her head once more. ”I thought you liked this kind of stuff,” she added, giving him a pained smile, though he’d be able to see right through it with ease.

 

[Talak Rand]

He understood what she meant quite well. The dark side promised so many things, but at the end you were like an immaculate tomb: beautiful on the outside and filled with death.

He didn't say anything for a moment after she said she felt hollow. What could he say? Could he ask her if she was happy with what she was? Happy with her life? Happy with the dark side?

Before he had the chance, she asked him instead. He shook his head sadly. The reality of what she saw in him was depressing at best, but it was what he'd pushed her to see. The truth that was now coming to the surface was as likely to shock as anything.

I don't like hurting people, he said. It was at least mostly true even if he did find some level of satisfaction in bringing justice to the wicked and freeing slaves.

I do what I think I have to... he said.

Now you've tasted the dark side... really tasted it. Did it live up to your expectations? Are you satisfied with what you're becoming? he asked, looking over at her. It was the hard question that each of them had to answer. Talak didn't know why he was trying to "save" her now after being the one to introduce her to the darkness. Maybe it was just to alleviate his own conscience...

 

[Ana DAmico]

Ana nodded along with his dislike of hurting people. It… surprised her, to be honest. He slaughtered the hunters with ease, and the cold precision with which he did the killing made it seem as if he enjoyed the deed. She felt the same way when she was subsumed by the dark side, and it alarmed her how much more savage it made her behave. Did she enjoy it? She was satisfied with exacting vengeance on the hunters, but could she kill in cold blood and feel the same way? Was it the darkness and release she enjoyed, or was it the idea of this supposed freedom? There were so many questions she wanted answers to, but she wasn’t sure how to arrive at their answers.

She could feel Talak was just as apprehensive of letting the corruption take root fully as she was, which came as a shock given that he introduced her to it in the first place. She wondered if he wanted her to see this indecision, this uncertainty, just as he had seen it in her on Kashyyyk. It was strange; he seemed like a mentor, but even he had his doubts about that which he was teaching her. She hesitated after his series of questions, pondering their answers.

”I’m not sure,” she said finally, ”I was promised salvation through the dark side. The chance to be free.” Her eyes drifted to the deck again and she furrowed her brows. She wanted to enjoy it. It made her feel powerful, like nothing could stop her, and that was all she had ever wanted. The power to break free of her chains and pursue her interests. It was why she was so obsessed with the ancient Sith – they learned how to break those chains, and it was only through the dark side. The more she learned, though, the more she came to understand that same corruption is what destroyed them wholesale. It was immensely frustrating.

”I do what I think I have to,” she echoed, bringing her gaze back up to Talak, ”If the path to salvation leads through the halls of purgatory, then, well…” she trailed off, not entirely convinced of this being the truth. She idly scratched away some blood from beneath her nails, ”What brought you to it? Why did you seek the dark side?”

 

[Talak Rand]

I thought it would make it easier, he said. The mandate of the Sith Eternal was to commit mass genocide of certain civilizations, and that was difficult for the mind to reconcile. But now that he was here and had been in the galaxy, he wasn't so sure that was the best path. The Sith Eternal did need to purge the galaxy's corruption perhaps, but not so impartially.

And it was forced on me, he said. He had a dark past, and that past had ensured that there was no shortage of pain, hate, and suffering. But the darkness that had promised him salvation had turned him into what he hated most. Torturing his students and breaking their souls. It was abominable.

The thing I've learned is that it might deliver on its promises, but it will exact a cost, he said. He just wasn't sure if he was willing to give something up for the hope that he might get what he was after.

He was supposed to be the teacher and the mentor, but more and more he felt like he was lost. How could he lead others into what he wasn't sure about himself?

So what is it you want? What's the darkness promising you? he asked. It was an intensely personal question, and he wouldn't press if she chose not to answer, but it would force her to consider it for herself either way.

 

[Ana DAmico]

”I… don’t really know what I want,” she admitted, ”But it promises me things I couldn’t dream of.” What did she want? She was free now, she could go anywhere she wanted, do whatever she wanted, and she now had the power to ensure it. Yet, even with that, she wanted… more. More of what, exactly, eluded her. She knew that the Sith Eternal needed to purge stagnant societies indiscriminately to ensure continual change, and the darkness would make that easier, but there had to be something else she wanted. Thinking about the inconsistencies confused her even further.

Ana shrugged listlessly, ”Everything has a cost. I want to see it deliver its promise,” she said, ”But I don’t know how far we have to go before it does.” Did she need to let it consume her fully before it granted her wish? How many civilizations needed to fall before the dark side allowed her to see the truth of the matter? “Salvation” meant many things for her, and she was uncertain if the dark side’s version and her version coincided.

The ship rocked gently as they moved, and she knew they would be returning to Mos Telfa eventually. She wanted to stay here and rest longer, but it would be selfish to withhold freedom from all of the people onboard. It was a strange thought – she had sacrificed a portion of herself just to free these people who she had never met and likely would never see again, and for what? Gratitude? Relief? It was a benevolent act, but why did she care? The Sith Eternal supported radically shaking things up in people’s lives, and the hunters had done exactly that with theirs. It was their goal to purge corruption in the galaxy, but even she knew they were not altruistic knights. The carnage back in the desert was evidence of that.

She realized she had gone quiet again while she mused. Talak’s questions had put what she believed she wanted under strict scrutiny, and now she wasn’t sure why she lusted after the dark side so much. ”Why do you fight it?” she finally asked, ”You embraced it before, but I can feel your shame. You’re disgusted with using it, even on scum like those hunters. Why?” She furrowed her brows and looked at him, curious. ”Isn’t the dark side the natural state?”

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak barely even noticed that she had gone silent. He, too, had dropped into his own thoughts. He had worked his whole life to get here and now he was... doing what? Resisting the darkness and the power that it offered? Couldn't he be so much more powerful? Shouldn't he do that? Was he just being selfish by not wanting to give in to the goals of the Sith Eternal? Weren't all the people he killed going to become one with the Force?

When she asked him why he fought it, he didn't say anything for a moment.

He didn't want to become his old master, and he was already on the route. He didn't want people that he cared about to be disgusted by his existence. He didn't want to lose himself.

I want to be able to look in the mirror at myself, he said. Killing those slavers I have no problems with, but I've crossed lines. I don't want to become the thing I hate, he said with a frown.

He felt the ship shudder and was almost glad for it. That meant they were arriving and he didn't have to think about this anymore. He wondered if any of it had gotten through to Ana or if she would simply continue down this path. Whatever the answer, he knew they needed to get their equipment back and he'd happily gut the one that sent them into captivity.

We need... some other clothes, he said. This may have been Tatooine, but walking around covered in blood would draw attention... even here.

 

[Ana DAmico]

Ana decided that Talak was one of the more complicated individuals she had met. For someone who could slaughter with ease and put people through agonizing torture on a whim, he was remarkably afraid of the effects on his psyche of doing such. He reiterated again that he didn’t want to become the thing he hated, but wasn’t that the ultimate goal of the dark side? To embrace hate to the point where the old self dies and is replaced by something newer and more profane? It seemed… cowardly, almost, to want to toe the line like this. He said himself that it will exact a price, but you needed to be willing to pay it before it delivered on its promises.

She didn’t say anything in response to his last few statements once the ship began to descend. There was much to ruminate on after this on the nature of the dark side and her place in it. Doubt had been planted in her mind regarding whether the risks were worth the rewards, and she now found herself back in the dizzying position of uncertainty on the path. She wished things were simpler than they were.

”Yeah…” she murmured in agreement, looking down at her torn, blood-soaked outfit. It liked like she spent some time rolling around a butchery’s floor, and she figured the less attention they drew, the better. There was still one last loose end to tie up before they could leave this dustbowl. She pressed against her knees and stood up with great effort, her muscles screaming from the sudden exertion. A grimace briefly crossed her face before she began to saunter off in search of some clothing. The passengers began filtering out of the ship once it landed, and she was thankful for their release; she didn’t want them to know there was yet more killing that needed to be done.

Eventually she came across a storage locker with mechanics jumpsuits in it, but nothing in her size. All of them were sized for bigger males, and, though Talak wouldn’t have an issue wearing them, she was woefully out of luck. With a series of grumbles, she pulled out two full uniforms and made her way back to Talak, a displeased look on her face. ”These’ll fit you,” she said, tossing a uniform and boots towards Talak, ”I’ve… got to figure out how to make this work.” When he went to change, she went and retrieved her vibroblade before moving into a side room to do a little impromptu tailoring.

When she emerged, she looked… well, ridiculous. The pants were cut off around her ankles and sagged from her tiny frame, cinched tight around her waist by some cord. The boots she wore barely fit and the shoestrings were pulled as taut as possible to keep them on her feet. The upper part of the jumpsuit was rolled down with the sleeves tied around her waist and she wore an oil-stained, baggy undershirt that looked like it swallowed her body. It was ridiculous, but she didn’t look like a bloodstained murderer. Instead, she just looked like a clown. A clown-mechanic hybrid with matted-down bloody hair.

Ana pursed her lips and waited for Talak before nodding her head towards the door. ”Let’s go get our stuff,” she said, feeling that intense desire for revenge beginning to bubble back to the surface. The sooner they got out of here, the sooner she’d be able to wear something that actually fit her.

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak got the impression of almost judgment from her as she mulled over what he said. He couldn't be certain where her thoughts lay, but he knew there were many in the Sith Eternal who wouldn't agree. Talak was an outcast no matter what group he was in and he'd begun to come to terms with it.

Or perhaps she would reconsider her path. Time would tell.

They landed and Ana promptly found clothes, though only for him. He slipped into them without issue and waited for several minutes while she did... something. When she came out he frowned humorously and if he hadn't been so exhausted and conflicted, he would have laughed. She looked absolutely absurd... like a child who was trying on her parent's clothing.

You're making quite a fashion statement, he said, looking her up and down once more. There weren't many other options, and it was better than a bloody killer's outfit. He grabbed the vibroblade and hid it as best he could, wrapped up and tucked under his arm. It would look a bit weird, but less than carrying a bloody weapon through the streets.

He descended the ramp and the two were off on their murderous quest moments later. He knew they'd need to be careful not to be spotted early, or...

We should wait for him at his lair. It's isolated, he'll come to us, and we can have privacy. We'll need to shut down his tech toys, though, he said. He'd have killed for an EMP grenade right now, but perhaps there was a way to cut off the power supply to the small building. @Painus

 

[Ana DAmico]

”You’re a fashion statement,” she retorted awkwardly, fully aware that she looked like an idiot. It wasn’t her fault that a ship operated by Trandoshan slavers didn’t have jumpsuits in a third of their size; she was making do with what she had. Besides, weren’t the people of this planet poor? She’d get some weird looks, but it wouldn’t be too hard to play it off like she was some downtrodden vagabond. She huffed and picked up her weapon, wrapped it in the shredded remains of the jumpsuit she butchered, and tucked it under her arm as well. She was past the point of caring what it was she looked like.

The two of them descended from the ship and were finally on the final leg of this horrible debacle. She almost forgot the reason they even came to this planet until she returned here, and she wondered if Darth Vader even visited this stupid, barren planet ever in his life. It was such a harmless endeavor that turned into a thing of nightmares, but it hadn’t been a total waste. At least there was a group of grateful, albeit traumatized, people who could return to their families instead of being hunted down like animals.

”Good idea,” she replied, ”It’s no doubt boobytrapped. We’ll need to find a circuit breaker or something similar to cut the power to his place.” It was another dizzying journey through the alleys, complete with a few backtracks when they went in circles. Their captor might have known this town well, but they had only been here once. Still, after a bit of searching, they arrived at the man’s lair. The outside of it, like every other building here, was a weathered sandstone. The electronic door and security keypad – and likely cameras – belied the advanced, though jury-rigged, tech inside the building.

Finding exposed cables would be difficult – most places had them underground. She walked around the building as inconspicuously as she could before coming up shorthanded. She shrugged at Talak, frowning slightly. ”There’s gotta be a substation or… something nearby. Something that can generate enough electricity for his toys to work without drawing too much attention,” she remarked, placing her hands on her hips and looking around. ”Only… where the hell would they have that here?” Again, she wished things were simpler than they really were.

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak smirked as she retorted with an elementary-school come back. He knew that neither of them were looking very good, and he was suddenly really looking forward to returning to the Nomad. He wanted nothing more than some time to rest and recuperate for a while.

Their trip to the lair wasn't quick, and Talak was growing frustrated with how long they'd been here, how tired he was, and how hot it was. This was not a planet he ever wanted to come back to unless he absolutely had to. Eventually after a great deal of mental grumbling, they reached the lair, but couldn't find anything to shut down the power in his lair. Talak took a deep breath and clenched his teeth before rubbing his face.

Okay... power station, he muttered he had to really question knocking out power to half a town, even if it was an armpit. Something temporary that would allow them to get inside and disable his electronics.

Screw it, ion grenades, he said. Surely there was an arms dealer here somewhere. This was a world where every single person was armed.

He promptly turned and walked off to the local market they had seen and briefly gotten lost in earlier. It was bustling with people, and he honed in on a booth that was absolutely filled with blasters, knives, grenades, and all sorts of other illegal hardware. It just went to show how little law there was out here.

Ion grenades, he said. The man - an alien Talak didn't recognize but was vaguely humanoid - looked at them both and squinted.

How you payin for these? You don't look like you've got money to your name? he asked skeptically. @Painus

 

[Ana DAmico]

Ana shrugged along with his idea of ion grenades. Knocking out half a town’s power just to have a bit of privacy with some scum wasn’t ideal, and she figured these people lived unbearable enough lives without their interfering. There had to be some shady weapons dealer here, even in a dump like this. Their walk to the market took little time, and they said nothing along the way. The closer they got to their vengeance, the more anxious she became. Not anxious for the fact that they’d punish him and retrieve their gear, but anxious because she wasn’t sure how they could make him suffer enough to absolve him of his crime.

The weapon booth was absolutely loaded with illegal weapons, but she didn’t mind; the alien in charge of the stall watched them warily. They were off-worlders, and stupid looking ones, at that. He gave Ana a thorough visual search, then shrugged. Probably another vagrant about to go out into the wastes to lose her life hunting down a treasure trove. He asked his question and folded his arms across his chest, canting his head to the side somewhat as he scrutinized the two customers.

”We’re just going to borrow them,” she said while ambiguously gesturing towards him. At the same time, she sent a mental spear into his mind and probed beyond his skepticism, using it to find cracks in his mental barriers. He went glossy-eyed momentarily before shaking his head and blinking repeatedly as she forced her will upon his. ”Oh… huh, alright. You can borrow them,” he said half-heartedly, ”Just be sure to bring ‘em back when you’re done!”. He reached down, plucked up two grenades, and handed one to each of the “customers.” Ana took hers and smiled gratefully, bowing her head somewhat as thanks. She spared Talak a sideways glance before spinning on her heel and hurriedly marching off back to the man’s lair.

When they arrived, she looked at Talak and clutched her grenade. ”We can’t let him think anything is awry,” she reminded him, ”Not until he’s in our grasp.” With that, she stepped back a few meters, made sure Talak was clear as well, primed her grenade, and tossed it towards the door. It went off on contact, sending out an electromagnetic pulse that caused the keypad, security camera, and door to short-circuit and become inert. She approached the door and began forcing it open, looking at Talak expectantly.

”Your turn.”

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak tried not to laugh as she said that they were going to "borrow" the grenades. Of course, she had the Force to convince him to go along with it, and in no time they had two ion grenades for their purposes. This would work out much better than the alternative, and the two - knowing where the lair was this time - made it back shortly.

The first grenade went off with a hissing, sizzling sound. As she started to open the door, he rolled the second under. He could sense in the Force that the man was inside and the second grenade went off. It wouldn't hurt him, but he would hopefully be trapped. If the pair didn't have the Force to force the door open, they would have been locked out.

But they did have the Force. They gripped it and it cranked open. The two slipped inside as Talak slammed it shut behind them. Just the two of them and their target.

He charged for his blaster and fired at Ana, but Talak stuck his hand out and caught the bolt in the air, freezing the man in place. With two of them, Talak could focus all of his energy on just this action while Ana moved in to either incapacitate or kill the man outright. Either way, his minutes were numbered.

 

[Ana DAmico]

Ana yanked open the door as Talak rolled his grenade in, and, after a moment, the satisfying hiss of electronics being irreparably disabled rang out. Shortly thereafter the two slipped in, sealing the door behind them. The man who started this whole ordeal, now that the shock of the sudden invasion had worn off, rushed forward and fired a bolt at her. Before she could react, Talak intervened and both held the bolt in midair and immobilized the shooter. She glanced at Talak, then at the man, her eyes shifting in hue as she forced her hate and anger to rise to the surface once more. A grimace crossed her face as that loathsome feeling washed over her again, but she needed it.

Ana thrust her hands forward and sent a wave of telekinetic energy surging towards him. She stepped aside from the path of the bolt and hurriedly stepped forward, keeping her hand outstretched to pin him against the wall. His blaster fell from his hands and clattered on the floor as he slid upwards. As she got closer, she focused her vice around his neck and held him aloft as she strangled him. His legs squirmed ineffectually beneath him as he kicked against the wall and brought his hands up to his throat to try and pry apart the invisible vice.

He coughed and sputtered, his eyes beginning to bulge out of their sockets as she stared down at the two attackers in fear. ”Who –hkk– are you?” he choked out, but Ana said nothing in response. She poured all of her anger into this, remembering the terrible ordeal he had put them through in the past day. He was the reason for her earning her first kill and the corruption that ensued, and she wanted nothing more than to make him suffer for it. Choking someone to death was an agonizing way to take a life and she knew that. His fear was palpable, and she drank it in, using it to fuel her assault. Was this the thing Talak said he hated becoming?

She squeezed and squeezed until an audible crack interrupted his gurgling. A final rasp left his lips before he went limp, and she dropped the body soon after. Her chest heaved from the exertion as she panted, but she felt a sense of… relief? There wasn’t actually much there that she felt now that she had killed the man. What did she expect? Closure? Relief? All she felt was anger and disappointment that the entire night led up to… this. All the trauma and killing they endured, only for it to end in silence as she snapped a man’s neck from afar. It seemed anticlimactic; like a joke with a poor punchline.

Ana collected herself and took a deep breath before looking around the room. ”Our stuff’s gotta be here somewhere,” she said, distracting herself.

 

[Talak Rand]

As she gripped the man, Talak let him go. The blaster bolt slapped the wall to his left, and he watched while she wrenched the life from his body. Talak couldn't find it in himself to have even an ounce of pity. This scum deserved it, and any hesitation he felt was because of Ana and what she was becoming. He couldn't stop it now, it was her choice, but he knew he shared some of the responsibility.

He started pawing through the gear nearby until he found what belonged to them.

Here, he said, pointing to her saber and other possessions while he took hold of his own. He could feel the darkness within her but also conflict. He couldn't tell where or why, but it was there.

He took his saber hilt in his hand and felt the reassurance it brought with it. He wondered quietly if he should ask her, and decided the answer was yes.

Something's bothering you, he said. It ended up coming out more as a statement than a question, but it was an open door nonetheless. It was her choice if she wanted to walk through it.

 

[Ana DAmico]

Ana walked over and recovered her belongings. She gripped the saber tightly, feeling the weight and expressing a sigh of relief that they’d recovered their gear. What had started off as a terrible day was finally coming to an end, and the return of her lightsaber was one of the final pieces to this puzzle. She returned it to its rightful hiding place and spared the dead man a glance. A fat glob of drool leaked from the side of his gaping mouth and his skin was a mottled purple. It was a ghastly strangulation scene, but nothing that hinted that the killers were Force users.

Talak’s voice roused her from her thoughts and she turned to look at him, shrugging listlessly. ”Yeah,” she said, furrowing her brows briefly, ”Today was my first time killing a person.” She leaned back and sat on the edge of the man’s desk, resting her hands in her lap. ”And it was so… easy. Scarily so.” Her eyes drifted to the ground ahead of her as she became lost in her thoughts for a time, contemplating her previous discussion with Talak about the nature of the darkness within her. She wanted to explore it further, but the more she did, the more conflict brewed within her regarding her fall.

Eventually, she looked back up at Talak. She opened her mouth slightly, as if to say something, but closed it once more, trying to find the right words. ”You don’t like hurting people,” she stated, ”And you don’t want to become the thing you hate. That’s why you’re hesitant to embrace it fully.” She paused momentarily, rubbing her hands together idly – that same nervous tick from Kashyyyk – while she mused. ”What is the thing you don’t want to become? What do you hate? There has to be more to it than just not wanting to kill innocents.”