Even Demons Fear the Sith [Pre-DotR Thread]

[Noctyr]

Crrk!

With a cold, hard glare, Sev closed his grip, instantly breaking the neck of a Rodian pirate he held midair in the confines of a force choke. The alien’s lifeless body hit the ship deck with a loud thud, his body twisted and contorted at unnatural angles. The young Sith, anger in in his eyes, kicked the body off to the side as he made his way to the cockpit of the shuttle transport.

Sev’s ship was a well armed Nubian starship. Equipped with several salvoes of ion torpedoes and four blaster cannons using high quality tibanna gas, the sheer display of force was usually enough to deter any would-be pirates. Yet for some reason, pirates in this sector of the Border Alliance region were unusually bold, and Sev had paid the unfortunate price. His ship had been attacked by a pirate band and boarded, and it was only through sheer determination that he had been able to fight his way to the airlock and disengage it manually from the pirate ship. He had escaped, but not without losing his two bodyguards. The pirates had simply been too overwhelming in number.

Sev pulled up a diagnostic of the ship’s systems. Several structural integrity failures were reported throughout the hull, and the ion torpedo stockpile was nearly depleted, a mere 5 missiles remaining out of the original 120 that the ship had started it’s journey with.

This ship won’t last. he thought, plotting a course for a nearby space station. Reaching under the cockpit’s console, he pressed a small red switch. He then pressed a series of buttons and eased the joystick in the direction required, before placing it on autopilot. Soon enough the ship would dock, and he’d make his way out of the airlock.

Dressed in Tapani noble clothing, Sev looked far out of his element. His clothing seemed unkempt and charred in some places, a result of the molten splash from incoming blaster fire in the battle that had just taken place on his ship only minutes before. He was greeted by what was obviously another gang, clearly thinking that they were about to score themselves a fancy Nubian starship.

“Look who we have here….that’s a nice starship you have there!” The alien pirate smiled as Sev approached,the young Sith's steps hurried and impatient.

“Take it if you’d like. I have other things to worry about.” Sev continued to walk, brushing past the pirate as he began to leave the hangar.

“Hey wait a mi-“ Another pirate placed his hand on the first pirate’s shoulder, smiling and notioning for them to begin to raid the starship. It appeared that Sev didn’t seem that important to them.

Eventually Sev made his way into a cantina, his entrance again inciting a response as everyone stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look at the newcomer. Sev was again, not in his element, but he was pissed off. And if there was one thing that made Sith stronger, it was when they were pissed off.

“I need a pilot to take me to Dromund Kaas.”

There were a few moments of silence before the cantina broke into laughter, and a Devonian pirate approached Sev, getting up close to the young Sith.

“What makes you think you can just come in here, on our turf, and demand a pilot, huh?”

At that point, Sev had enough. He grabbed the pirate by the neck, and raised the pirate’s entire body effortlessly with one hand. Almost immediately, the entire cantina had their guns drawn, all pointed at the young Sith. Sev was using the force to help himself lift the pirate off the ground, but to onlookers, it appeared almost as if the 20 year old had supernatural strength. He remained glaring at the pirate, his deep crimson eyes drilling fear into the Devaronian’s heart. The horned alien squirmed and grasped at the grip around his neck, helplessly squirming under the Sith’s onslaught.


@Saul

 

[Saul]

Asura was bored of this place. Criminals were a dime a dozen, yet Asura found their competence to be lacking. This location was technically a layover on her way to the Outer Rim where she was supposed to rendezvous with her outfit for a job, but her pay chit for the last job hadn't come through. She was stuck on this shithole of scrap they called a space station, surrounded by incompetent oafs claiming to be pirates. They couldn't lift a finger to the famed corsairs of the Transitory Mists, she mused sourly.

Brooding over a drink that barely passed for a green galaxy, she contemplated the possibility of simply spacing the entire station and robbing it of its fuel cells. No doubt the deflector array to the station was of questionable quality, and as the lights flickered she considered the possibility that the generator would overload even before that. She'd been stewing over these thoughts for an hour, knowing that eventually they would become so well planned that she'd have no choice but to execute them simply to prove to herself she was right. At least that was how this night was going to go up until the moment that, out of her peripheral, she chanced a glimpse at an even greater fare.

She leaned on her elbow and grinned for a moment as the man seemed to ooze with impatience; “I need a pilot to take me to Dromund Kaas,” his speech was immaculate and graced with a cavalier arrogance only the entitled carried about them. Something she knew all too well. A Devaronian with a horn and a half and even less of a brain seemed offended more by the mans own pedigree than anything else, and seemed as though he were ready to challenge the gentleman as if simply to prove his own worth. The man would obviously have none of it, nigh strangling the simple boy, and instantly the room drew their blasters. That was the problem with these wannabe pirates - their own insecurities ruled them. Where they saw a threat, she saw an opportunity. Plus, she had some place to be, and she'd rather take a simple side job than risk her ship blowing up in the inevitable shockwave that would follow her previous idea.

"Boys, please." She rose to her feet dressed in a deep crimson leather jacket, black tights and scarlet booties, her platinum hair tied into a loose bun. "A round of drinks for the fellows?" she suggested to the man, offering a simple solution to defuse the situation which would also serve the additional purpose of proving he had the credits to afford such a trip. "Then we can talk about you and your little adventure to the Esstran Sector." She cocked her head and smiled coyly at the man, but still felt oddly uncomfortable with the way he effortlessly held aloft the alien.

 

[Noctyr]

Turning his head to face Asura, he still held the devaronian pirate in a deathgrip, but at least his anger had somewhat subsided. Sizing her up with a glance, Sev responded in the same eloquent tone he had used earlier when requesting a ship to Dromund Kaas. Although eloquent, his tone was still very impatient, and was not completely devoid of the anger he once had only moments ago.

“Very well, if that’s what it takes.”

He dropped the devaronian, who immediately began to cough and grasp at his own neck, curled up on the ground as Sev moved towards Asura. Passing the counter, Sev set down a large amount of credits, more than enough for a single round of drinks, perhaps even two or three. The pirates throughout the rest of the bar went to minding their own business. Although Sev seemed to be far out of his element, they knew enough to sense a dangerous mercenary or pirate when they saw Asura.

Crimson eyes scanning over Asura’s features, he couldn’t help but admit to himself that she was indeed beautiful, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind. Too many times had men fallen to the seductive charms of women who were beautiful, but deceptively dangerous. The political sphere was rife with them in the senate and the core worlds. He wasn't about to let his guard down now, although he couldn't help but admit to himself that she'd be far more useful in negotiating with the scum of the station than he was capable of.

“I assume you have an offer in mind, then?”

 

[Saul]

"Let's sit, I still have a glass to finish," she nodded to her table and led the way. Settling into her seat, she watched as the new man sat down opposite of her. She picked up her glass and swirled the green drink, flecks of light shining within it, but she could not take her eyes off of the man before her. There was something about him that told her to run the other way. She had never been very good at listening and always thirsted for a challenge.

"So, you're looking for a pilot to take you into the depths of the Stygian Caldera. Dangerous space, I'm sure you're aware. I might be just the woman you need. Call me Asura," she said, leaving her surname out. She was sure that whoever this man was, the very fact that he was on this station to begin with meant that he required a bit more discretion, and sharing surnames and more was probably out of the question. "My ship runs cold and quiet, plenty capable of evading most of the threats between here and there. But before we talk about rates, I want to know a little more about you." She couldn't help herself from asking as her eyes perused the younger man's features. A boy no more, she could tell, but perhaps not of his own volition. His eyes bore an anger and frustration that seemed forced upon him, an entitled lifestyle of burdens she herself had escaped nearly a decade ago.

She flashed a smile as she realized that he, too, was looking at her features, perhaps even admiring her. She often bore the intense, lustful stares of her counterparts with a sullen acceptance; rarely had she reciprocated the action. But there was something about the man that she couldn't help but admire. She swirled her drink and dared to allow her eyes to linger, wondering how the man would react, and curious just what it was she was looking at - a man, or a different path she had long ago scurried away from?

 

[Noctyr]

Before taking a seat, he quickly scanned the seat and table over for any suspicious or peculiar details. Paranoid? Perhaps a little, but this was a pirate haven after all. It never hurt to be too cautious. He took a seat, sitting rather politely with his back straight and his hands on his lap. It was clear that Sev was intending for this conversation to be purely business, nothing more, nothing less. Sev’s eyes narrowed in curiosity when she asked for information on who he was. The anger had subsided, but he was again, still on guard. Yet she was smiling, staring at him as she asked this. Although he had intended to continue the conversation from a professional standpoint, something gave him the feeling that Asura was not only interested in him, but perhaps held a modicum of attraction towards him? An interest that could be exploited, he thought. Eyes seductively lidded, his mouth curled into a playful smile at her question, he began to respond.

“A pleasure, miss Asura….My name is Saul….but I have to ask…”

He leaned in, closer to her, and whispered in her ear, close enough that she could feel his breath.

“Just exactly what did you want to know?”

Of course, this was all just a play. If he could get her to fall for his charms, it’d be much easier to get not only a lower rate, but perhaps better information on her than she’d be able to glean about him. Having grown up in the political sphere, this play was as natural for him as it was convincing to the average person. Sev was good at putting on a mask. After all, he had concealed his Sith identity for his entire life.

He readied himself to dodge any potential backlash though. Some women were more inclined to attack in response to his sudden advances, and he had to anticipate that potential outcome...

 

[Saul]

Whatever 'Saul' thought he was going to get from her, she could see through a charade well enough. His eyes had dilated ever so slightly when he had given his name, and his sudden change in behavior confirmed that he was being dishonest. She had been lied to by charlatans and cassanova's at every port of call she had visited since leaving her home. Still, she could understand why - he didn't know her yet, much less trust her given the venue of her current business. As he leaned in to whisper into her ear, she could not help but catch a scent of regality about him. An expensive cologne perhaps? Was it just his shampoo? She played along and turned her face to face his, refusing to back down. Her face was inches from his, her own scarlet eyes peering into his as she pondered his question.

"I'm not exactly what they call 'innocent,'" she replied after a moment, shyly looking back to her drink and stirring it. "I'd rather not complicate my day by being captured, even if it is by a handsome stranger such as yourself." Her eyes turned back to him, hard to read in large part because her own emotions were a conflicted mess. She had always been. "Relationships are about trust, even those regarding business. I need to trust that you're not going to kill me, or collect on whatever price I may or may not have on my head. You give me something to trust you by, and I will return the favor."

 

[Noctyr]

A bounty that may or may not have been on her head? There was already a tidbit of information, however slight it may have been. Sev figured that it was likely true that she did have a bounty on her head, otherwise why bring the subject up in the first place? Even if she was bluffing, it didn’t matter, and would only indicate a lack of infamy. Sev didn’t care how fearsome or famous the pilot was. He just needed a reliable way to the Sith worlds, given his current circumstances. Close enough to look over her face in detail, he couldn’t help but notice the sheer perfection of her beauty. Human women were rarely this stunning, and the only people he had met who held such extraordinary beauty were the Hapans. He raised an eyebrow, intrigued. What was a Hapan woman doing amongst pirates?

He pulled back again, placing his hands on his lap and taking a deep breath, sighing. Trying to charm her might not have been the most effective plan. Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a large sum of credits and laid them on the table.

“If I were trying to hunt you down for a bounty, I’d likely only be interested in the credits. As you can see here, I have no need for such trivialities. Does that suffice? Or do I need to entertain a beautiful lady such as yourself for a little while longer?~”

 

[Saul]

She was disappointed he didn't continue with his attempts to seduce her; she was normally an impenetrable fortress, but she could not remember a time when she had tasted nobility. She genuinely wanted to know more about him, where he was going, who he was, how he could afford such expenses. She was fairly certain, however, that she would find out no more at this juncture. Certainly not without tasting her share of lies, and she didn't want to ruin her perception of the man by introducing any more of those than she had to.

Her eyes did not deviate from their target, remaining upon 'Saul's face rather than his credits. She knew he was capable of paying her, and she was quite certain that he was not here to kill her. She was also quite aware that he was fully capable of doing so. Perhaps she should just take what honesty she could from him - he did need a pilot, and she had the skills and ship to suffice.

"So, there is only one way into and out of the Stygian Caldera," Asura proceeded. "We'll need to bypass Korriban and transit the Kamat Krote past Bosthirda to Dromund. Dangerous space even in the best of times." She had heard dark rumors of activity in the Stygian Caldera, and she would rather live to see the end of the week. Still, she needed the money for fuel cells, and had a date with a blaster in the Outer Rim to attend to. "I'll have to charge 10,000 credits to get you there," the price was steep, very steep. But she had to factor in the fact that the man before her was both wealthy, and the region of space was hazardous. She had to get out of the Caldera after dropping him off, as well. "The journey will take a day and a half. My fee includes quarters, food and other amenities. If you'd prefer, I can show you my ship before you make your decision." She sat back in the booth and took another sip from her shimmering green drink, licking her soft, supple lips to ensure that none of the sparkling flecks tainted her appearance.

 

[Noctyr]

“Yes. I’d like to see the ship first, before I make my decision.” Ten thousand credits was a steep price for most people, although the fact that quarters, food, and other amenities were included, it wasn’t as bad a deal as it seemed. Even if it was a trivial amount of credits for Sev to spend, he still felt that it was a bit excessive. Before continuing, he wanted to see what these amenities entailed.

Crimson eyes eyed Asura’s drink as he contemplated his options, but it wasn’t long before his attention was immediately averted to newcomers to the cantina. Three men, one of them clearly armed to the teeth, began to approach the table which Asura and Sev had posted at. Sev assumed they were pirates from the same gang that had decided to ransack his starship left in the hangar. The one strapped with weapons was another devaronian, this one with a scarred eye and something like three knives and six blaster pistols strapped to his body. Probably their captain, Sev surmised.

As they approached, Sev noticed all three of them draw their blasters. He scanned the room quickly. Some of the other cantina goers seemed to be allied with the same pirates that had just entered, and were readying their blasters as well. He counted 8 in the room, all seemingly intent on either killing or capturing him. There wasn’t much room to maneuver. He could try to disarm them with the force, but that was no guarantee against getting shot unless he utilized his lightsaber.

“Well well well…what’s a Tapani prince doing out here in the Border regions of space, eh? We searched your ship, Mr. Telluria. It seems that you are considered to be quite the important individual…” The devaronian captain smiled. “…an individual whose ransom could make a gentleman such as myself quite wealthy.”

Sev gritted his teeth. He hadn’t expected the devaronian to have been able to glean that much information about him. The databanks on his Nubian starship were protected by heavy security firewalls and other security software. Whoever had cracked the codes was quite the talented individual. Hidden to the pirates, Sev slipped what seemed to be a small cylindrical object with a red button on top into his left hand, and used the force to pull his lightsaber from it’s hidden spot on his belt into his left hand.

Some pirates pointed their blasters at Asura.

“You have two choices. Come peacefully, and I assure that no one will be harmed. Or, you can resist, and I’ll have no problems killing you. Either way, I’ll get plenty of credits taking you in.” The devaronian turned to Asura, addressing her. “And I’m sure your family will pay quite a handsome fortune to get you back as well, so the same applies to you.” he said in a high and mighty tone, feeling he had the upper hand, given the sheer amount of blasters pointed in the direction of Sev and Asura. Unfortunately for the pirates, Sev had activated a failsafe on his ship far in advance, before even arriving. The red switch he had pressed under the cockpit controls was a failsafe that detonated the ship violently by exploding all remaining ordnance on board at once. The result was an extremely catastrophic explosion as entire reserves of torpedoes and high yield blaster gas detonated simultaneously.

“There really are no civilized ways of handling things out here, are there?” , Sev said, just before pressing the red button on the remote hidden in his left hand. Almost immediately, the entire station shook as Sev’s starship exploded, taking out a huge part of the station with it. The ship was close enough to the artificial gravity generators and cooling arrays to utterly destroy or damage them, causing enough of a disruption for Sev to take advantage of. Activating his lightsaber, the dark crimson blade extended forth with a sinister hiss. In a flourish of movement, Sev cut the firing hands off of the three alien pirates in front of him as he stood up, before almost immediately switching into a defensive form, deflecting blaster bolts as they hurtled towards the duo.

“Our little deal is going to have to wait till later! This station is going to start falling apart around us if we don’t leave quickly!”

Gravity on the station quickly became inconsistent and sporadic as the remaining damaged generators attempted to resume at least a bit of normalcy. Now floating in the cantina, Sev kicked off of the table towards the exit, all the while continuing to deflect blaster bolts.

 

[Saul]

She could tell by the look in his eyes that the Devaronians grandstsanding and posturing was fueled by more than just ego. She was not to be bothered, she had made this expressly clear on the first day of her visit to this station when she had met with the local fence and threatened to liquidate his family were there to be problems. Her eyes darted around cantina, and outwards into the common ring, looking for eyes that should not have been looking her way. The Devaronians attention turned to her, drawing her eyes, and her ire. Her jaw clenched, the muscles in her cheeks flexing as she thought of the many ways in which he would die.

A jarring explosion shook the station; the lights flickered, the hull itself whined. Her eyes did not deviate from her target, even as she realized her new client was a far more interesting man than he'd admit. The red laser sword that cut through the Devaronians arms confirmed this, but his neutralization meant nothing to her. She drew her blaster and, as the man screamed in fury, pain and fear, she let loose a single blaster bolt which caught his eye and sizzled in the socket until black smoke spilled out of his skull as his lifeless body collapsed.

The gravity cut out and she found herself drifting out of the booth. She grabbed the table and flung herself upwards, away from the blaster bolts that the one she identified as 'Saul' deflected. She fired a salvo of well aimed bolts at several hooligans cowering behind a table, popping one in the face, before catching another helplessly drifting Twi'lek. His body spun with the impact, his lekku slapping the station air like a crashing helicopter.

The bartender fiddled with a weapon, desparate to defend himself, and in his panic his eyes met with Asuras. She shook her head in warning at him, and he noticed her blaster pointing towards him. Fingers raised in surprise, his blaster drifted away, and she had no cause to kill him thus unarmed.

She pushed off the wall towards 'Saul,' who himself had already started moving towards the door, deflecting the blaster bolts with all the skill to be expected of a trained Force adept. “Our little deal is going to have to wait till later! This station is going to start falling apart around us if we don’t leave quickly!”

"This way!" she shouted, having already sprung off the table with enough force to reach the doorway before 'Saul' did, slinging herself around the corner and to the outside. She looked around to catch her bearing, noting several pirates flailing around in the air unable to guide themselves to something to hold on to. Her eyes were drawn further spinwards from their current location, and she pointed towards the docks. "Two hundred meters on, hangar one two! Get to my ship, now!" she informed him before wincing as a blaster bolt splashed off the duracrete wall of the rocks. Several more pirates, planted to the ground with mag boots, sought to engage the pair. She fired several suppressing rounds and grit her teeth before throwing herself across the gravity-less space towards the hangar, firing round after round at the pirates to prevent them from predicting her trajectory and leading a shot that could be fatal.

 

[Noctyr]

Luckily for the both of them, the hanger housing Asura’s ship was a scant 200 meters away. Given proper footing, a sprint would take roughly 30 seconds for the young Sith Assassin, given how fast he was. With the assistance of the force, the amount of time would be reduced even further. Unfortunately, neither had the luxury of stable gravity, and Sev doubted that Asura knew how to utilize the force anyway.

He swung his lightsaber in reaction to several more shots fired, deflecting them back into his unlucky opponents or having the blaster bolts slam into bulkheads and walls surrounding, spraying more molten metal everywhere from the impacts.

Think. Think. Think!

A few seconds passed before Sev finally came up with an idea. As Asura turned the corner, Sev took the opportunity to guide himself to the wall adjacent to the hallway to the hanger, and, using the force, sprung from the wall as hard as he could, grabbing Asura by the waist as he passed. The two would hurtle down the hallway, her ship in sight just ahead, as the pirates would comically attempt to fire at the duo, only to have their shots deflected by Sev’s lightsaber, or likely outright shot by Asura before they even had a chance to react. Humorously, the young man gave her a bit of an apologetic, yet embarrassed look. After all, he grabbed her and was holding her close by the waist.

And was that….strawberry perfume? Now wasn’t the time to be asking questions, but Asura would likely immediately be able to tell that Sev smelled something on her, given the curious and teasing smirk he held on his face. He didn’t expect a pirate, of all people, to smell so rosy.

 

[Saul]

'Saul' caught her by the waist as she free-floated across the gap, carrying her in a slightly different trajectory through the void. She knew that this was more than just a blind leap across a gravity-less expanse, this was the Force. She knew enough about life to understand when things weren't going naturally. She was almost too occupied returning fire to keep the pirates suppressed that she almost neglected to fire a fiery glare at 'Saul' for daring to touch her. His sheepish expression, however, belied something more human; something she could relate to beyond the shimmering crimson lightsaber.

His eyes changed slightly, however, as he seemed to notice something. It took her a moment to realize that he was smelling her; well, her shampoo, really. She looked back to her targets and fired with a sly grin, happy to know something genuine about 'Saul.' He liked her shampoo, if nothing else. One of the pirates was caught in the neck by a blaster bolt which sizzled and popped and sent the body flying across open space. "Luckily, no one here will be alive to tell anyone about this," she murmured, knowing 'Saul' would hear her. "Assuming you're smart enough to not tell anyone about this little escapade of yours." She couldn't imagine what people would say if they saw her flying across a disintegrating space station held by the waist by some would be anti-hero.

They landed on the wall nearest to the dock doors. She activated her magboots, planting herself solidly on the wall and headed inside when the door hissed open, casually ignoring the blaster bolts which were fired from much too far to reliably hit their targets, splashing harmlessly several meters away. The door hissed shut behind them and she turned around and pumped two shots into the panel, not entirely sure if that was actually a reliable way to seal the door. Who cared? She looked up and smiled at her ship.

"There she is," she gestured proudly to her assault craft. The vessel was a sleek, Hapan design with protruding mandibles flanking the cockpit, painted in a spartan military grey. "I'd say that you could find another ship if you don't like her, but I'm pretty sure it's too late for that. Get aboard so we can get off this place before the whole thing falls apart." She deactivated her magboots and propelled herself through open space towards the forward-opening ramp. Inside, 'Saul' would find a smooth, somewhat cramped interior; the bulkheads and spartan quarters would betray the fact that the ship was, in fact, a stolen military gunship. She was fairly certain that, given this entire fiasco, he wouldn't question it much. Once aboard she would immediately head for the cockpit, where there was room for a co-pilot, and initiate the pre-flight checks. Were 'Saul' to think himself wise and kill her to steal the ship, he'd be sorely disappointed by the fact that the vessel was programmed to only respond to her fingerprints and voice commands and that any workaround for that process would inevitably take longer than the station would to catastrophically break apart.

 

[Noctyr]

“As long as you don’t go around spreading rumors about “Saul” Telluria, I think your little secret is safe with me.~” Sev used the name “Saul” sarcastically by this point. The devaronian pirate captain had compromised Sev’s identity by revealing his last name. A simple search of the holonet would bring up several headlines about House Mecetti, the Senate, Lady Estalle Telluria the head of House Mecetti, and Sev’s own involvement as the Prince of House Mecetti and Senator of Obulette. Climbing up the ship’s boarding ramp after her, he made sure to let the hatch close fully before deactivating his lightsaber and following her into the cramped quarters of the cockpit. Sev knew that the ship was Hapan by design solely because he had been to the Hapan sector before on diplomatic visits, and had seen the Hapan Navy’s military power in-person. Not as sleek and luxurious as the Nubian ship he had arrived on, but it was very utilitarian in design.

Sev grinned. She was right, he didn’t have much of a say in the matter at this point. If he didn’t leave with her now, it was akin to suicide. As he was about to sit in the co-pilot seat, a large explosion rocked the craft, sending Sev reeling forward out of the seat. A power line burst behind him, sending a flurry of sparks out onto the floor of the cockpit. The hyperdrive had been hit by something. Sev wasn’t sure what, but judging by the alarms blaring on the ship’s diagnostics screen, it had been something relatively powerful, like a grenade launcher. The two eventually got the ship up and off the hangar deck, speeding out of the crumbling space station just in time before the gravity generators gave out completely, pulling the station slowly into the gravity of a nearby star.

Sighing in relief, Sev got back up and stretched as much as he could within the cramped confines of the cockpit. It wasn’t exactly a close one- they had left the station with at least 20 more minutes to spare, but nevertheless, it was nice to have gotten out of such a dangerous situation. There was a problem though- the nearest place they could land was at least three weeks journey without a hyperdrive, and she knew his identity. His long term safety depended on her being quiet, and killing her now was the best course of action to prevent himself from being compromised. Conversely, she knew this area better than he did, and would likely be far better at controlling the ship. Keeping her alive now would increase his likelihood of survival in the shorter term, so he withheld from further action. Spending three weeks in a cramped cockpit with a decaying body wasn’t exactly the most pleasant of experiences, after all.

Now that they were away from immediate danger, Sev took the opportunity to ask her about herself.

“Now that we’re out of any immediate danger, mind telling me what a Hapan minx such as yourself is doing out here? I didn’t expect Hapans to be the pirate or mercenary type…”

 

[Saul]

She was too busy with the controls to afford him a look as he spoke, getting himself comfortable in the confines of the bridge. "You realize," she said, reaching over 'Saul' to push some controls, muttering a few profanities under her breath before continuing, "that the Hapans were founded by the Lorell Raiders?"

She bit her lip bitterly as she sat back in her chairs and grabbed the controls, pulling the ship to a dead stop in the system not far from the wreckage of the station. "As for getting out of here, there's only one solution now," she slammed a finger to the fuel indicator, "I was stopped in this system because my ship had run out of fuel cells. Those are gone now, but I have a plan." 'Saul' would discover sooner than later that Hapans were proficient pirates, she smiled as she activated the vessels heat sinks and waited for salvagers to arrive to pick through the wreckage.

"So, in the meantime, how about you start with your real name, handsome? I've never met a Sith before," she grinned lasciviously, her eyes drinking him in as she looked forward to the wait, "Can't say that I'm disappointed either. How, exactly, did you end up on that station anyways?"

 

[Noctyr]

Sev blushed as she reached over him to reach the ship’s controls, her chest pressing against his lap as she did so while speaking about the Lorell Raiders. Raising an eyebrow and watching her with curiosity as she angrily poked the fuel indicator, he smiled teasingly as he responded to her question in an amused tone.

“Well, you seem to be the resourceful type, so there’s not much use in hiding my identity, I suppose.”

He swept some stray locks of hair off to the side of his face, dusting himself off a bit as well. His tone then turned a bit more official and serious sounding.

“My name is Sevarin Telluria, Prince of House Mecetti and…Senator of Obulette.”

He rose from his seat, taking this opportunity to go in front of Asura, despite the cramped enclosure of the cockpit. His eyes scanned hers, an aura of serious concern behind them, but was there something more? Sev’s eyes seemed to exhibit a hint of passion as he continued.

“But now you know that I am also Sith. Are you going to warn the Republic? The Jedi?”

He grabbed her, pulling her out of the seat and into his arms, one arm around her waist, and the other around her back, taking the opportunity to whisper into her ear as he brought her closer, body pressed against his.

“You’d be rewarded handsomely…but I can offer you something…greater…”

Sev looked into her eyes, waiting for a response.

 

[Saul]

Sevarin Telluria, she mused to herself. She never paid much attention to politics, but that a Tepani House was involved with the Sith; a Republic Senator no less. That amused her to no end, and she did not hide it. "The Republic? Jedi!?" she scoffed. But before she could continue her retort, Sev grabbed her body and pulled her close. She did not withdraw, but instead allowed him to bring her close, even looking into his eyes, allowing her lips to glisten as if to dare him to keep going.

"You're aware that I'm a pirate," she said, a mix of sarcasm, trepidation, and exhilaration pumping her heart even faster as she spoke. "I'm not exactly rushing to find a way out of this life, either. Besides, some pretty Hapan pirate girl walks to the Republic and tries to redeem herself by proclaiming one of their own is a Sith? They'd think I'm mad!" She moved her hands up his arms and squeezed them, feeling his muscles flexing as he held her aloft. She was quite aware at this moment that she was little more than the prey in the jaws of the predator, but something about this vulnerability excited her.

She had witnessed how effortlessly he had dispatched the pirates thus far, how he had strangled a man without breaking a sweat, how he had effortlessly deflected blaster bolts that would have killed a lesser man a dozen times over. She saw this power, and she wanted to have it.

"Still," she said, her eyes deviating down to his lips, her body pressing even closer to his, "what's greater than money and fame?" She wondered if the noble Sev thought himself more valuable than money. Maybe for half an hour, she mused to herself. Or maybe he simply wants to manipulate me into a lower fare by offering me some sort of fancy lessons. I could amuse him; if nothing else, it would help pass the time...

 

[Noctyr]

He could sense it. Untapped potential. A desire to wield something greater than a mere mortal would be capable of commanding. It allured the young Sith, a man who had been told to lose himself in indulgence all his life. Raw emotion, used as a source of power. To deny these things was to deny the reality of the true nature of all sentient beings. He didn’t notice it before- perhaps it was something recent that awakened her connection to the force? The proximity to him?

He didn’t realize it at that moment, but it was the beginning of a force bond.

She was older than him by several years. Sev, although confident in his own abilities, could not help but wonder if he was the one who was being lured in. Enamored with her beauty and the raw emotion with which she used without reserve. But at this moment, it didn’t matter to him anymore.

“A chance at freedom from this pitiful existence.”

He kissed her at that moment, pulling her as close as possible as he closed his eyes, enthralled by the whole experience. His memories and intentions would flood her mind. Raw emotion, emanating from the young sith as if it were telepathy.

A masked figure, a sith lord, standing before a young Sev. The memories were jumbled. The masked figure spoke, while the young Sev knelt. Sev was battered, worn, bruised, and bleeding. No more than eight years old.

We are architects of the future, Sevarin.

The power to save billions, at the cost of vilifying yourself.

Love gives you purpose. Hate gives you strength.

Then the setting shifted to a plain on Alderaan. Sev was smiling, walking alongside a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing the clothes of a Jedi. He seemed content. Happy, even.

Saerina, how were your knight trials? Did they go well?

But then the scene changed again. The two stood at odds, their lightsabers ignited. Tears in her eyes, she accused Sev.

I can’t believe it! Lying to me all these years, pretending you cared! But in the end, you’re nothing but a monster!

Sev’s eyes shot open at that moment as he withdrew from the kiss, eyes clearly shocked. He had been careless. Asura had seen more about him than he had ever revealed to anyone. She saw the pain he was in, and that made him vulnerable. A look of melancholy and hesitation in his eyes, he whispered to Asura.

"You saw..."

Yet, even as Asura had been flooded with his own memories and emotions at that point in time, force bonds were rarely a one way street. Ensnared in the trappings of emotion, Sev was just as likely to see fragments of her memories and intentions at this moment as well.

 

[Saul]

His assertiveness and confidence, combined with his good looks and power, did something to Asura. She wanted him - his power, his spirit - and when he made his move she did not stop him. All the more to bind him to her, to draw him closer, to get a taste. But, though at first his kiss was filled with an unbridled level of passion, it quickly twisted into something else entirely. As the memories flooded into her mind, she could not help but lose hold over the facade of her own life.

Suppressed echoes within her mind reverberated, cascading manifestations of guilt and anger. A cloud of blackness interspersed with gusts of color swept over her mind, and she reached out with her hand to press aside the phantoms and peer past, the clouds moving like doors at her touch, until slowly a sickly green light lanced out from the spaces between the black mist. Unveiled within, a woman wrapped in raven hair with beautiful almond eyes stared at Asura from her peripheral. She was regal and elegant and held herself with grace and poise. "One day, you too will face these responsibilities. You are the Duch'da of House Nara'a..." the words faded away as the mists swept in again.

An overwhelming sense of hesitation, a sense of entrapment, flooded her mind. "Why?" Asura whispered as she was flung through the black fog yet again, her eyes struggling to make sense of the shapes they took, and the sound of a girl sobbing quietly just beyond the veil. Her hands struggled to search through the veil, she could sense her pain, yet these clouds her fingers could not move. She could hear a distant slapping sound, this time accompanied with muffled screams, both becoming faster and more intense. The clouds in her mind intensified both in blackness and color and the sound was suppressed, and for a long moment everything seemed to stop. The colors of the tendrils of smoke darkened and shifting to more sinister colors, poisonous green and deep, sanguine crimson interlaced with a surrel violet, each forming a myriad of tentacles which clawed into the blackness and ripped it apart. Within, the face of an aging man, salt and pepper hair, a charming smile, and wisened cracks bore into his face as though to imply he were a man to be respected.

A surge of hate came through, and Asura's bit her teeth down, biting into Sev's lip, her jaw clenching as the dream twisted further. The coils of color lashed out, ripping into the mans face, and blackness flooded into his mouth, sweeping the memory away with fury. The blackness intensified further, until it seemed as though the texture of the smoke was an indistinguishable single shade, transforming into a canvas of night speckled with bright stars. Freedom and fear in the night, she saw herself standing before another man, bare but covered in whorls of color, the man reaching out for her. She did not recognize his face, nor his touch when his hand touched her hair, grabbing it and pulling. Pulling down into the darkness, plunging her further into the unknown, further away from reality. The colors transformed the void into a nebula against which she saw her heel pressed against the man's throat, a barrel in hand aimed towards his face. "Die." She squeezed the trigger, watching his head collapse like a watermelon before bursting into a brilliant nova, spewing bursts of red and green across the sky.

The colors became more vibrant, bursting across her mind in a fantastic prismatic collage of visual sensation, before surging towards her, back into her mind. She shunted from this dreamstate back into reality, pushing away from Sev and standing there, awkwardly aloft between her chair and the Sith. Her eyes glanced to him even as he whispered, seemingly in fear, to her - almost as if her eyes asked for permission to pull away. Her hand moved to her mouth; there was blood. She wiped it off and looked at Sev; his lip was bleeding. She wanted to apologize, but hesitated, afraid of what he would do. Instead, she just slumped into the chair and nervously eyed the control panel, trying to keep her mind occupied by looking for a signature on the sensor. Nothing.

Her emotions ran wild. She had no idea what had happened. She couldn't understand what it was. She had no idea what Sev had experienced; although she knew that she had seen something about him, she couldn't explain how or why. She was confused, frustrated, angry, but more importantly, hurt. So much of her past she had left behind - she had never wanted to face the problems of her past, always seeking to tackle the ones of the future. But now she was trapped in a cage of doubt, eyes and hands searching for something to do.

 

[Noctyr]

Hesitation. Pain. The jolting stab, followed by the dull ache and throb of a wound that made you realize the fragile mortality of your own self. Sev felt the blood trickle down his chin, dripping off and onto the cold, spartan floor of the cockpit. Still gripped in the shock of what had just transpired, he remained fixed there, staring at her in her own helplessness. While what he revealed of himself was nothing more than a possibility of things to come, Asura’s force bond had reciprocated something else - a glimpse of the past.

But it was at this point that he realized that something could be gleaned from this. Unknown to either of them up until Sev’s realization at this point, in the throes of passion, Asura unlocked her potential to use the force. It had always been there, but the bond they now shared had sparked the flame.

Raising his forearm, he wiped the blood on his lip, smearing a red streak across his left cheek. The wound was deep enough where the blood did not stop flowing easily, but he ignored the pain on his lower lip. Hers was a much greater pain than anything one could inflict physically.

Sympathy filled the young Sith’s eyes. It was their passion that awakened her from her sleep. The pain that had brought her to this point. Hatred that caused her to retaliate.

Passion. Pain. Hatred. Tools to be used in pursuit of a greater power to change the galaxy.

At that moment, as if by fate, Sev felt the desire to train her. To direct that passion, that pain, that hatred. He would show her his ideals. Why he’d sacrifice billions to pursue his image of a galaxy devoid of suffering. The paradox of his own way of the Sith. That maybe she was one of the few individuals capable of helping him realize that image of the galaxy, only because she understood suffering so well.

He whispered, with a hint of empathy in his voice.

“Follow me.”

 

[Saul]

"Where? Why?" she asked after a long moment of hesitation, unsure of what any of this meant. The memories themselves had been painful, repressed nightmares. The very reason she had left her life behind, always kept her gaze looking forward. No regrets, she had convinced herself, and now she fully realized how she had failed to cope with herself.

She saw the blood on his hand as he wiped it away and desired to apologize, but all motivation to do anything had seemingly left her for this moment. She rubbed her forehead, unable to really grasp what she felt in this moment. "What was that?" she asked. She could remember Sev's memories, the thoughts of a girl, someone he cared for in a fashion, despising him. What for? She grit her teeth, becoming frustrated within minutes as she hated herself for her past. She glared at the screen that monitored system traffic - still furious.

"The Force." The words were almost whispered as the realization dawned on her. That could only be it. She felt something, something far deeper than anything she had felt before in her life, like a fountain of unlimited power, a great unknown which she stood on the precipice of. Through that portal of forbidden knowledge came a glimpse, a warning of the future; she could sense it even before it arrived. Shunting into reality, a starship threw itself into realspace and quickly began scanning the system for salvageable goods.

Asura's haughty grin carried a wicked thrill to it, "I'll follow you, Sev. But first, I need some power cells." She knew that the man in the cockpit was a Sith, or at the very least trained in the Dark Side. The very thought made her feel like little more than prey in the jaws of a predator, and yet it was exhilarating. She had seen Sev's skills in combat firsthand, and she longed to see his red saber arc through bodies once again; only this time she would be watching more closely. She would learn even when he did not realize he was teaching, because she desired his power. She'd make it hers. She grabbed the controls and guided the silent vessel towards her quarry.