A Long Journey

[Haytham Kaze]

His gaze wavered on her person as she spoke. His grey eyes unfocused as he looked upon her. In his mind, there was nothing wrong. He had done everything right, at least, he had the concept of executing the Dark Lord's surviving loyalists right. They couldn't be allowed to live, not when they were still threatened by the ship they had come in with. He remembered from the sensors that the enemy's ship was damaged, maybe slightly moreso than their own. It had been one of the older versions of the Star Destroyer, likely one of the ships that had been used in the Invasion of Coruscant when the One Sith first emerged from the shadows.

Haytham didn't know. He didn't care either. All he wanted was Joza to understand. For her to agree that what he had done was right.

"Tell me what's wrong? Under an hour ago you wanted me to be more open with you and now you want to run away."

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

Joza shook her head, turning away from him on her heel. “It’s fine.” She spoke evenly, exhaling sharply through her nose. His actions had made her question her own, and she wasn’t okay with facing her own morality. At least not now. Not on a Sith’s ship. But did she really look at him that way?

“I shouldn’t have tried to undermine your decision,” She murmured loud enough for only him to hear, running a hand through her hair. “Your ship, your rules.” She rolled her shoulders now, trying to will away the feeling of defeat. “Is there somewhere I can rest?” Though she was beginning to feel the effects of the fatigue more intensely, she also wanted to be in a more private setting with him. There, at least she’d feel more comfortable speaking to him.

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

When she turned away from him, he stepped behind her, close as he lightly grabbed her arm, but there was a firmness to the grasp. He didn't turn her around just yet however, he just let her speak. That is, until she said it was his ship and his rules. To which, he almost immediately said, to his own surprise, "Kark that." The swear word left his lips, but there was no going back. Haytham couldn't remember the last time that he swore, and he had a pretty good memory of things he had done in his left.

At this point, if she had allowed his hand to be on her arm in the first place he would've said, "Come," after a moment of thought when she said she wanted some place to rest. Turning down a hallway, he had quickly remembered that he had destroyed the lift and took them down another intersection in silence.

He would stop after a few minutes of walking before opening up a random door. When it proved to be a private quarters he nodded and beckoned that she come aside.

"Tell me." He said before the door had even closed behind them.

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

With a lean to the side, Joza shrugged out of his grasp. She wasn’t keen on being touched right now, but made no fuss unless he would insist on maintaining his hold. An arched brow was her only response to him cursing, realizing how out of place it sounded. He typically didn’t swear around her unless they were in the throes of passion, and hearing it in this context almost brought a smile of amusement to her face. Joza, however, had apparently inherited her tendency towards colorful language from her father. In the great debate of nature vs nurture, genetic predisposition had apparently won out.

Still, the pink woman allowed herself to be led, patience waning as the silent minutes ticked by while he tried to find a more private setting. She wasn’t irritated with him, but herself. When the finally reached what appeared to be a private room, she hesitated, not letting her façade fall easily. “I’m not mad at you,” She started, speaking slowly as if her thoughts and words were coming at the same pace. “I understand why you did what you did. You…had to end them. There wasn’t any time to see about taking prisoners, not in this situation…I knew that, but I tried to stop you anyway.” She let her words drift while taking a step back, not to get away from him but simply to lean against the wall for support. The Knight had expended more energy than she previously realized trying her best to heal his leg.

“It was just hard to see you so ruthless. It’s just hard to imagine that you’re…” She trailed, once again allowing her words to hang in the air. There was no need for her to elaborate, he knew what she meant. Sliding down the length of the wall, Joza exhaled sharply as she ran her fingers through her hair to push it back and off of her shoulders. A few beads of sweat from her previous efforts in battle perched along her hairline. “What’s even harder is that it reminded me of my own actions. Jedi are only supposed to kill as an absolute last resort but it’s just so…” She frowned, extending one leg out before bending it at the knee to rest her arm against it. “…so easy.”

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

When she would've attempted to get out of his grasp, he would've tightened, just enough to let her know that he wasn't going to be letting her go. Once they had gotten into the room though and the door had been closed, that was when she had decided to enlighten him.

Closing his eyes for a moment, he reined in his own emotions when he realized how hard his heart was beating. Remaining silent, those grey eyes watched her when she started to speak. He wanted to say something to her, to tell her that what he had done was right. But he had done that already, in fact, she had done it herself. Just now actually. There was nothing else for him to say on the matter, so he just listened to her speak instead.

"Imagine that I'm a Sith? A killer?" Haytham couldn't let her words hang in the air. They had to be said. He knew what he was, what he did in life now, she had to see that. She had to agree with his actions.

"What do you mean easy, Joza? When have you needed to kill?" He twists his head around to look at her. There was something going on, he knew that much. He understood that she couldn't accept him being able to kill like that. But the way she said it made it seem like she had done the same as he had only a few minutes ago.

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

“Yes.” She forced the word through clenched teeth as he didn’t want to let her own words fade away without a second thought. “You’re a Sith, Haytham. I gathered that much on Cloud Nine.”

When he demanded that she elaborated, Joza huffed and looked away for a moment, but her gaze would re-settle back onto him. “You don’t need to know that,” The words would drip from her lips like cold venom as she slowly rose back up against the wall. It wouldn’t do to have her sitting on the floor for this conversation, as much as she wanted to. “Why didn’t you stop me from becoming a Jedi? You don’t like them.” Her cybernetic fist would clench, then unclench. The sensationless motion still felt odd to her.

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

And then her demeanour changed from... Whatever it was, to cold.

His features settled into a frown at her sudden change of emotions.

He stared right back into her eyes when she said that he didn't need to know about it. At that answer she gave him, he shook his head vehemently. "I do need to know about it. You're obviously at odds." He rolls his shoulders back, his grey eyes setting on hers. He remained wary of her, even if she was tired from the energy she expended to heal his leg. She was still Joza though... He'd just have to remain careful.

Haytham blinked at her. And again. And again. Every single time there was an almost clueless look on his face as if he were confused. "Stop you? Because you wouldn't of listened for one. Because it wasn't right for me to get in the way of your dreams." Wow, that sounded lame.

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

Joza folded her arms over her chest, tucking her hands into them as she leaned against the wall and fixed him with cursory glance to try and get a read on how he was feeling. She didn’t like the forceful approach to the subject, but that was what you got with two stubborn people.

A thin red brow arched when he gave his reasoning for not trying to stop her. Deep down, she held a bit of resentment against him for being so vague about his own path in the beginning, even if it made sense for him to withhold that information from her. She wouldn’t have known what to do with it, but then again she found out in one of the worst possible ways.

She still wasn’t sure what to make of the situation they were in.

Tilting her head against the wall, she let out a frustrated sigh against the silence between them. As much as she’d closed herself off to him, she knew that he’d only keep pressing her. Unfair. He gets to keep his secrets…

“I helped a friend with a project on his homeworld. Taking down his father, specifically. My job was to escort him, taking down whatever opposition that was in our way. And…most of that opposition ended up dead.” She shrugged, her eyes growing darker as she thought of how simple it had been to slice through the Makrosian guards as if they were training dummies. “That’s all. Not much to read in to there.” Exhaling heavily from her chest, she’d fix him with a challenging stare.

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

He let her words wash over him, remaining silent as she spoke again. Curious. He was finding out that there wasn't much for him to talk about anymore. Huffing, he leans against the now closed door, though not too weight in the event that he had to get off of it quickly. Watching her, his eyes dropped down to her feet before climbing up her form, his grey eyes spotting every blemish and imperfection on her flesh, no matter how few there were before he finally sets on her emerald gaze again.

"Have a lot of friends now?"

It was a random question, something that slipped from his lips as he watched her challenging stare, oddly feeling the need to swipe it from her face. But instead, he remained unmoving.

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

Her gaze shifts into one of curiosity, almost suspicion at the odd question. Was he just making conversation, or was there an ulterior motive? Able to feel his eyes on her, she tilts her head away from him until he catches her eyes with his own.

“I wouldn’t say a lot,” The words came out smoothly as she pauses to genuinely think about it for a few moments. Sure she had plenty of acquaintances, but few people who knew how she struggled with herself.

She dropped her gaze to the floor, closing her eyes with a heavy exhale. Shoulders slumping against the wall in momentary defeat, she murmurs softly. “I just wish that you could be gentle with me again.”

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

He wasn't making conversation, at least not entirely. He certainly had an idea of who she had been 'helping' out. But he wasn't going to vocalize, for all he knew that would be the trigger for her to get mad. And if that happened, well, only the Force knew what he would do in that situation.

"Neither of us leads a life that allows us to be gentle." He cants his head to the side as he steps to her, a hand raising to her to pull her into his arms if she'd allow him. "I would have you with me all the time... At every waking moment," he said. There was chatter over the comlink on his wrist, but he switched it off. The ship was going through a cleansing process, it was a good that he had chosen a silent location, though perhaps not for the crew.

[member="Joza Perl"]