Private A Reckoning

[Jem Fossk]

When all seems lost >> After Tetra
Yula Perl​

Jem was starting to think the Jedi exaggerated about the consequences of falling to the darkside. She had resisted her father's corruption for the better of months, a feat which had caused her more pain than she could ever put to words. Acknowledging what she was now was ... difficult, but it didn't hurt. It wasn't torture. In fact, the only parts that bothered her were remnants of their teachings.

She wasn't a monster.

She had no path now either. Her father may have won the battle over her soul, but she shared no joy in seeing the galaxy burn for the betterment of their future. Even if no one in this galaxy would accept her now. Shame kept her moral boundaries firmly in check. And there they would stay, she told herself.

Just like she told herself she'd never fall.

Sometimes she felt it was safer to remove herself from the picture, she couldn't inherit her father's empire if she was no longer alive, but that resolve had started to weaken as of late. Dagon had moved on. Why shouldn't she?

Directionless and with new found freedom, Jem took it upon herself to search for a ship. Sometimes, when deep inside the throws of the darkness, an escape route was a solace that helped her see things through.

Foeros was a shipping port on the edge of MAW and GA space. Perfect to get what she needed without anyone noticing. Or so she thought.

She tucked into the warm lining of her leather jacket and slid deeper into her bar stool. There were three different places she could try, all pulled up on her holoscreen.

 

[Yula Perl]

Jem did not like to be touched. If she wasn't liable to break her hand, Yula would've slapped the girl.

Instead, she settled heavily on the adjacent stool and took a peek at the holopad. Propped up on the counter, it displayed several different starship dealers.

"Stay away from Meero." It was the gruff, brisk comment of someone who'd been sold a lemon in the past. "Guy's a cheat."

There were a hundred questions Yula wanted to ask, and they all burned in her throat worse than the sting of cheap beer. Speaking of—she took another swig and swallowed those questions back down. One burned to the surface.

"So. What the fuck?"

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem startled, her typically gold skin now a perpetual ashy gray. It was like all color had been drain from the once lively girl, all except for her eyes. They were now a strange shade of purple.

They use to be blue.

Her hands scattered and clenched at something under the counter. It wasn't hard to guess what. "Move towards me and you're dead," she threatened. They weren't such empty words anymore. Yula would have heard of Jem's fall on Tetra. She would have seen the near lethal marks she had left on the new one that slept on her couch.

She didn't activate her saber into Yula's gut, but she would. Dagon had helped her learn she was capable of that, even if ... Even if Yula was the closest thing she had to a mother.

"Who else is here? Give the numbers and location. Now."

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula pulled away, palms up to show that she was unarmed. Which wasn't technically true, and Jem would know that.

"Geeeeze-"

She wasn't really a girl anymore, was she? Something in her had hardened out of necessity. It was as plain and severe as the threat in her voice. Yula's nose wrinkled all the same.

"Just me." Never tell the truth when that question was asked, but the look in Jem's…violet?...eyes made her think twice about giving a cagey answer. Beating around the bush was a skill, but anything less than directness might end up with the Zeltron shanked at a bar. Again.

"If I'd wanted to cause that kind of trouble, I would have opened with a slap." It was her turn to fix Jem with a harsh look. "Don't think it didn't cross my mind."

"You look like shit, by the way. Your skin is all…" She pulled a face, waving her hand over her own in a vague gesture.

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem ignored that, her neck craning to check the room for anything amiss. Dagon had been relentless in his pursuit of her, something that she expected to have changed now that...

Now that he had her replacement.

Her trying to kill the kid would definitely have nothing to do with it. The ditching part, not the... not the possibility of vengeance tonight. She blinked hard and shook out her head, her thoughts growing twisted and foggy with the corruption the fright had sparked.

What was she doing again? She grimaced and looked back to Yula. "What do you want?" Came the tired, skeptic words.

 

[Yula Perl]

"Hey."

Yula snapped her fingers in front of Jem's gaze as it focused elsewhere. Most folks in the galaxy would consider it an annoying gesture meant to draw attention—that was exactly how Yula meant it, because she didn't take well to being ignored.

"I want to know when you're coming home."

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem scoffed and closed her holopad, her hand slowly leaving her weapon. "Funny."

If Dagon was here he'd already had made a move. No, this wasn't some trap-- Yula had truly come alone. Why? To mock her, apparently. Jem's expression darkened into her cup as she took a large gulp of fizzy pop.

Even now she hated the real stuff.

"How'd you fine me?"