The Wrong Way

[Aila Roas]

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Aila was learning quickly that even a little jaunt back into Imperial space was not going to be an option for her, fleeing her old life in favour of something far more dangerous. It was only confirmation for her of something she knew all too well: that the Empire could brook no dissent, and that it was far more powerful than she had ever understood.

One day. One day she'd managed to spend on Onderon, trying to look for a pilot who might get her offworld and out into the black. One day was all it had taken for Imperial Authorities to be on her like bats.

But the streets of Iziz were bustling, even at night, as one of the main urban centres on the planet, with winding streets and busy bazaars that kept even the trained forces of the Imperial Republica second guessing where they were going. Not that she was doing any better at this stage, the markets and side streets were turning her head, and she had no idea which way she might escape. Her only idea was the spaceport, perhaps she could smuggle herself away without them seeing, try life as a stowaway.

She had to lose them first.

She didn't dare look back as her pursuers kept pace, rounding a corner into a darkened side alley,

"Get away you stuckup scumbags!"

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Apparently they were on the look out for someone but Castor hadn't actually been told who they were actually looking for. It was all the same to him though so it was doubtlessly going to simply be yet another damn traitor of some type or another. Since he had become a fully trained Sith, the number of actual traitors seemed to have at least doubled or tripled - it seemed like all he ever did these days was go hunting for traitors.

Now he was out and about after dark, dressed in plain clothes.

The thinking was that they would be less likely to run away from someone in their plain clothes than if they saw that they were dressed exactly as Sith ought to be. This was why when the traitor was being chased by uniformed officers, they were herding her in his direction so that she would run across him.

When she ran into the darkened alleyway, he was supposed to be at the other end to slow her down and then take her down. Instead he was leaning out through a door he held open.

"Get in here!" he hissed at her hurriedly, "Before they turn the corner!"

Once she was inside he would close the door and lock it quickly before pointing to her.

"Who the hell are you, that they're chasing you like that?"

He wanted to know... was she a traitor? Did she deserve this?

@Nightfall

 

[Aila Roas]

When the door had flung open and the man waved her inside, Aila followed without thinking. She ducked hurriedly inside, stealing only a glance back to make sure they hadn't seen where she went. She was breathing hard. She wasn't as fit as all that, another thing she was learning fast out here. But she tried to steady herself quick, leaning up against a wall and stifling the sound of her breaths. She didn't want to dare give herself away, she was too panicked to even think that anything might be up here. Aila had only managed to get her breath back as the man questioned her. She took a moment before replying, turning round to face him,

"No one important, I didn't think so at least" she replied, trying to lighten her mind "but apparently they don't brook people like me so easily" she continued as she slumped down a little against the wall,

"I shouldn't really be surprised" Aila's head was down as she finished, thinking on the mans question. Did he know she was a criminal? Surely, if he'd been able to work out she needed to hide from them. What did he think she'd done? Would she tell him?

"Thank you, though" she'd have to see if she would. The place itself was nothing much, it didn't need to be. She herself was simply thankful for a few walls around her and a roof over her head. Her head bobbing back up, she glanced about the room, looking for windows, doors, exits should she need them. There was no telling how long she could stay, how long they'd continue the search. This wasn't her first run in, but it was certainly one of the worst.

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

She was grateful and that was nice but it didn't answer any of his questions and neither did anything else she actually said. He wasn't really a fan of mystery, especially when he was currently disobeying orders in order to try and find out these answers. Running a hand through his hair, Castor watched as the woman sank against the wall, clearly exhausted from the running she had been doing. Considering how hard they had been chasing her, he wasn't surprised that she was that tired.

But, again, that looped back round to the main question of the evening that had still gone unanswered.

"Your thanks be damned."

He turned back to her with his lightsaber in hand, igniting and pointing at her in the same motion. The crimson blade hummed angrily as he pointed it at her.

"I asked you a question and I want an answer!" he hissed, "I am disobeying orders, right now, just because I want to know. I want to know who I'm chasing for once and if my superiors won't tell me, I have only you to ask."

Castor glared at her.

"So tell me... who are you? What kind of... what kind of treachery means I have to hunt you down like a dog?"

@Nightfall

 

[Aila Roas]

She was back on her feet in a flash, fumbling for her blaster as her apparent saviour spat his words at her. If he couldn't see the fear in her eyes then the way her words fell from her mouth now would certainly show it,

"My name is Aila Roas, I'm running, running away, okay?!" she cried back as she jumped toward the rear of the room, her reply moving from a whisper to a shout within seconds, so taken aback was she,

"I wanted something different. I saw something different. All I ever used to do was snuff that out. Well I carry it with me now. If they want me dead for that then I just have to keep running, because that's not a galaxy I can abide" her hand shook as she gripped her blaster close, tiny little guardian holdout she'd managed to pick up. She knew, even now, that she wouldn't be able to pull the trigger. That even if she did, he could kill her even then,

"If they won't even tell you that, what else do they hide from you?" her voice faltering as she questioned him back. There wasn't many places for her to move if things went wrong. Kriff, she didn't know how long she'd be able to stall for, what that would even get her if she could. Raising her head she looked him dead in the eyes, returning his glare.

She didn't want to die today.

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Running away?

Castor knew enough about running away to be something of an expert but you didn't run unless you were running either from something or someone. Her telling him that she was running was all well and good but it was useless information - she needed to tell him more about the why of the running for it to actually mean anything to him.

"WHY are you running, Aila Roas?" he demanded of her, taking steps closer to keep her within a threatening range with his lightsaber, "People don't just decide to run - they run from something so what are you running from? The law? Have you committed a crime? Tell me!"

He was angry and it was beginning to show more and more in his eyes - they were a bright and vibrant yellow, almost flashing with colour. His lightsaber pointed unwaveringly at her throat even from three feet away. But gods damn right he was angry! He had a right to be angry!

Castor wanted answers.

"If they won't tell me then why do you think I'm going to have the patience for your games?" he retorted with a scowl, "Tell me what I want to know already!"

@Nightfall

 

[Aila Roas]

As her interrogator stepped forward she stepped back, mirroring his move, not wanting his blade any closer to her throat than it already was. Not that she could keep this up forever, she was centimetres away from the wall now, she was caught, right at the mans mercy even as he decried her,

"I'm running from the Empire. I'm running because they make people like you!" she spat right back. She was afraid, possibly moreso than she'd ever been in her life, and it seemed that caging her only made her want to lash out, to fight back, even though she knew that the man could crush even if she tried. Her words now were all she had,

"Committed a crime, sure, I stole something when I left, only because without me doing so it would have been destroyed" she looked him back in the eyes, refusing to move her gaze from him though her bottom lip trembled worryingly. He would know her fear, but there was little Aila could do to help it,

"That's what it does. Anything it can't stand, anything different, it breaks them" she knew it all too well, not so long ago she'd been just as complicit as the man in front of her,

"Is that what you'll do to me?"

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Running from the Empire he could understand. He could understand running away from the Empire. More than most he could see exactly where she was coming from. But what annoyed him still was her second part - that the Empire made people like him. It angered him even more because he knew it was true. Had he stayed with his family, he wouldn't be anything like he was now but the empire was responsible for what he was now.

The empire... and his mother.

"People like me?" He narrowed his eyes and the point of his lightsaber slashed through the air ominously, "What the hells do you know about me to be able to make such a statement? WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!"

He was angry.

His eyes were bright, angry, yellow and he knew it and she could see it. She could see that she was angering him, she could see the red mist that was descending despite his attempts to control himself. He took a shuddering, angry, breath in through clenched teeth. He wanted... he wasn't sure what he wanted to do.

"What?" he asked her bluntly, "What did you steal? What did they so badly want to destroy that you stealing it has me out here, looking for you? What did you steal that was so important that you would risk your life to take it! Answer me that!"

He needed to know that answer.

He needed to know what people who ran from the Empire truly thought about. What they truly believed the Empire was so wrong for doing - why they believed they had the right of it.

@Nightfall

 

[Aila Roas]

"I know that your screaming at me because you're too afraid to just find out the truth from those you'd call your superiors, or else you wouldn't be holding me like this!" she chided back at his statement. Perhaps part of it was fair, she didn't know him, not a word before tonight and half of those now had been screaming. But what did she need to know, to know a killer when she saw one? He was the one with the blade at her neck, not the other way round.

He watched for a moment as the man composed himself, taking a deep breath that his yellow eyes seemed to furiously forecast. She had poked the bear and she knew it. Mirroring his own breath, she tried her best to clear her mind, that's what those recordings had said to do anyhow, the very recordings he was asking to see. Not that her interrogator could have known that. But for what it was worth in that moment she took their advice,

"Stop. Here" she said, her voice still shaking slightly, though she brought her tone down from before, trying her best to deescalate. If the other soldiers hadn't found them after this, perhaps she'd still have a chance. Though there was no telling what the man in here with her would do once she let her hand show. Reaching into her pack, she pulled from the pouch a small device, a case it seemed, a few simple buttons, an emitter, little more to look at from the outside. A small engraving on the top, an old symbol. One that hadn't been used since the days before the Empire "Listen".

Tapping the button on the side, a small hologram sprung to life. A man in robes, with kind eyes and a well kept beard, his voice from another age, beginning to speak,

"Breathe. To come to know the Force, the Galaxy, one must see how it it all bound together. Every thread and relation, every birth, death, every breath and every void. They move as one, flowing together. This is the Force..." the voice continued speaking, his words calm, instructional,

"There's a new world in those words. One the Empire says we're not allowed to know" Aila explained, her eyes gazing at the recording. It was what kept her going, despite all the fear, the desperation. This was a promise. One she sought so dearly.

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Castor wanted to stab her then and there for a brief, mad, second.

Not because she was declaring that he was afraid so much as he was very much aware that she was right. He was too afraid to ask his superiors because he knew that if the answers didn't match what they wanted him to see then he would be labelled a traitor and executed. He wanted to know what the hell was going on but they both knew that the reason why he was standing her, demanding these answers from her, was because he wouldn't be able to get answers from those who he actually served.

He was seriously considering stabbing her when she stop her to stop before reaching for something. His blade followed her closely but his curiosity got the better of him and he didn't attack. Instead she pulled out a device he had never seen before.

"What the hells is that?"

And then she didn't need to tell him what it was anymore because she pressed a button and a hologram appeared and started talking about the Force. Almost instantly he knew, just from the way the man was talking, that this was not the same kind of thing as the holocrons that he and his academy mates had been instructed based on.

"Jedi..." he whispered, taken aback before glancing around rapidly, "Shut it off!"

She was... she was carrying a Jedi artefact! He took a step back despite himself and rubbed at his chin with his free hand, staring at the woman for a long moment. It took him a moment to think of what he was going to say.

"Where will you take that?" he asked with a frown, "What use could that possibly be to you?"

@Nightfall

 

[Aila Roas]

She wanted to stop for a moment, to stand there and watch it, let the words sink in again as they had done so many times before. It had done hat ever since she first found it, first kept it off the department lists, taken it with her back to her home, stashed it before taking the first flight off Hubmarine the next morning. This was the first person beyond herself that she'd shown it to. The only thing that broke her from her trance was his cutting her off, telling her to turn it off.

She did so quick as he seemed taken aback for a moment, though left it on the table, hand by it to grab it back if need be. Of all the things to have stunned him the most, she hadn't expected it to that. Why shouldn't it have though? It made her run, why couldn't it make otherwise at least confused. Something they both knew so little about could have such power,

"I... I don't know. I'm not going anywhere. All I knew was, when I saw it, I couldn't stay in a galaxy where it wasn't a possibility" she admitted. Something she hadn't quite admitted to herself either at this point that, put simply, she didn't know what she was doing. She was stuck out here, looking for purpose, and all she had was words. They couldn't give her that, not alone. She was just as he'd said, a runaway, a runaway who wanted to be 'free', whatever that meant. For now she was just setting her mind free, trying to think differently as she tried to live differently. And force, it was harder than it sounded. But he seemed to think differently too, the fact that he spoke to her showed that much,

"Are you sure you don't want to see more?" her voice was as calm as she could make it as she extended the offer. She had to hope for the best. She always had.

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Castor was conflicted.

There was a sense of almost morbid curiosity that urged him to watch more but he knew that no good would come of it. Jedi had been gone from the Galaxy for over 400 years and the Galaxy was all the better for their extinction! Wasn't it? He wasn't sure anymore it had to be said. He wasn't sure if he truly believed that or if it was just something he told himself because it was something the Sith had taught him for so long and he was afraid of what would happen if he thought, said or did otherwise.

Swallowing thickly, he looked down at the offending item, the Jedi artefact, before shaking his head.

"No... no I don't want to see more." he lied, looking her in the eye, "How can you carry that? How can you act as though you don't know what you're carrying?!"

He pointed to the recorder.

"You're holding physical treason! It's no wonder they want you dead! With that you could do something crazy! Like... like..." he searched for something for a moment before grasping one, "Something crazy like starting up the Jedi Order again! Why would you ever want to do something like that?"

@Nightfall

 

[Aila Roas]

There a was pause in the air, as both parties continued to stare at the recorder, whatever thoughts the Sith was having Aila couldn't know. All she understood was that he was on the back foot now, not that it meant she was any closer to making her escape. Whatever he was thinking though seemed to hold him for a time, and that was good. When he started back at her he almost looked offended, as if something had stung him personally,

"I haven't said anything about doing that. I'm no Jedi" she said, stepping back, hands up in a gesture of dismissal "were that so easy It would have happened, they wouldn't need the help of some runaway like me to make it happen" she concluded, a little dejected by her own words. What good could she do now? She was out on her own. Even if she did make it, to that fantasy world the Empire hadn't touched, where a life away from it was possible, that wouldn't change anything. She couldn't, not on her own,

"Why do it though? Think, just think about the life your leading, about the life all of us are leading under the Empire's thumb. Are you happy with it?" she kept her hands in the air, nice and visible "Something like the Jedi... they can't exist in that life. But it's a promise of a different one"

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Castor was conflicted on so many levels.

He both wanted to rage against the woman and leave this whole thing behind. Gods be good but he wished he'd never seen her before in his life and that he had, somehow, managed to avoid being assigned to this entire sector of space. Castor honestly wished that he had never had to deal with this at all. It was the best way - that way he wouldn't have been beset by all of these questions and tests.

Would that he'd never seen her or heard her damned recorded message.

"Get out of here."

It was too late for him to have never heard the message or seen her but he would be damned if he was going to continue with this whole thing. He pointed at the door with his free hand.

"You take your treason and your false promises and you leave me alone! You stop talking as though there's some 'better way' because there isn't one!" he roared at her, "So don't you stand there and lie to me! Get out and run! Because there isn't a better way, there aren't any Jedi and this is the way of the Galaxy. And there's no changing that."

There was no changing that.

... right?

@Nightfall

 

[Aila Roas]

Leave. He was letting her leave.

Thank the force.

In an instant she sweeped her recording from the table, stashing it again in her bag. She didn't plan on taking any chances. Not today. Not like this. She kept her eyes to the ground as she made her way to the door, the mans words firing at the back of her head as she did. There was a part of her that wanted to cry, with every attack that fell on her choices, on what she'd found herself believing, on what had brought her to this at all.

Another part wanted to roar right back, against the despair, against the lack of imagination, against the violence, and rulings the man, the Empire extended onto the galaxy. One a symptom of the other. She could make him see, she could make everyone see, and she knew, why not fight back?

And yet, her mind took a different path. One that the words that inspired her to run would have counseled. Or so she'd hoped, anyhow. Pausing a moment in the doorway, she turned her head back slightly, her black her falling down the side of her face,

"Good luck believing that forever, I did too once" her voice was calm as she could keep it, holding in check everything that she felt at that moment, before letting the door close behind her as she fled into the night. Onderon wasn't safe anymore, it never had been. But that man, the soldier, despite the rage, the violence, she couldn't help but see something else. One she could only hope would find itself soon enough. There was another way.

@Nefieslab

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Castor was just... he was just done with today.

He wanted to be able to go back to the barracks, go to sleep and when he woke up, have the galaxy make sense again because right now it didn't make sense. Or maybe it did? Maybe it made perfect sense and he just hated, loathed, the sense that was being made? He just didn't know. All he knew was that he wanted the day to end so that he could get that chance, slim as it may be, to return to what he had come to accept as reality, as the way the Galaxy worked.

By the gods and the Force itself he hoped that she was wrong. He hoped that he was right because as bad, as utterly terrible, as it would be to have it confirmed that the Galaxy, with all of it's wrongs, was the way it should be? Castor wasn't sure he could take it if it turned out that he was wrong.

He didn't know how he would be able to accept that there was a better way after all he'd done to prop up the current way. The bodies he'd left in his wake and the suffering he had doled out in the misguided belief that it was for the Greater Good. He didn't want to be right but he knew that being wrong?

Being wrong would destroy him.

"... leave me alone."

It wasn't like before, where he shouted at her to leave. There wasn't any rage or indignation or hatred or even any passion behind his words - it was a plea. A plea from a man actually far weaker, far more uncertain, than he had ever been.

A plea to let him cling to his own truth just a little longer.

@Nightfall

 

[Aila Roas]

Aila caught his final words as she stepped out into the night. She had nothing to say now, from all she could tell they were as broken as eachother, and all it had taken was words. A microcosm of the conflict that brewed in the souls of so many across the Empire, whether either of them would know that.

Not that they had to, each struggle was as real as any other, each one brought a small bit of turbulence out, a crack in the perfect Imperial cloth that had been laid over the eyes of the galaxy. Perhaps if there were more like it it wouldn't hold up so well. Not that Aila knew how to tear it down any further, whether she even could on her own. Did she want to? She couldn't answer that either, though slowly, and surely, it became clearer to her, tonight another sign of the same.

Time now though to leave those thoughts and that place. She'd been freed by one captor, she couldn't say the same for the others that had roamed the streets before. If the walls were coming down then they weren't doing it fast enough. She needed out of Imperial space, for her own good, and for a long, long time. Too much, too many options floated in her mind, she needed somewhere where she could lay them about before her, know more than what she knew now. Hopefully that day wasn't far off. She couldn't afford it to be. That would be her little fight, her own cut at the veil.

And then she'd be free.

@Nefieslab

/EndThread