A Shade Of Your Former Self [Aellin]

[Lief]

Drip, drip, drip.

Asha awoke to a delicate splash of water against her forehead. For a moment she lay there, the droplets resuming their descent, her eyes closed and breathing steady. The recollection of what had happened was fleeting and dreamlike, leading her to the conclusion that it was just another bad dream. She had them occasionally, everyone did. There was no storm to contend with, no darkness lingering heavy in the air. Just the same continual drip.

She turned onto her side, sucking in a breath as a sharp pain spread down her back. Her eyes shot open. This was not her ship.

Her body was lay sprawled against a durasteel base. She pushed off from it, head spinning as she moved to sit upright. Her hands felt heavy, the chains weighing them down and making it difficult for her to coordinate her movements. There was no real light source, save for a dull and almost pulsating glow at the center of the room. It drew her attention, and like a moth to a flame she could not help but make her way toward it once she was able to find her feet.

Everything ached, but she pushed back that. Her curiosity had always been her undoing. The durasteel creaked beneath her feet, a high pitched squeak which spoke of twisted metal and an unsteady footing. Kneeling down she plucked the object from the ground and stared at it, turning it over in her hand. Pure white emanated from its crystalline facets. How odd.

As her hand enclosed around it, the room was cast into darkness. The tiny gaps between her fingers were slightly illuminated, but it was not enough to aid her vision. And now that she held the object she felt no desire to release it. Instead she stood, groping in the dark for some sort of way out.

Just where was she?

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

Raxus.

That was where she was. She was within the deepest darkest pits of Raxus Prime. A world filled with the galaxies trash, stuffed to the brim with junk, acid, and the worst of what the people of the galaxy had thrown away. One could find nearly anything upon this world. Speeders, Tanks, entire starships lay within the wastes of Raxus Prime, entire Star Destroyers had been scuttled to this world, taken here for their final end and stripped for their parts. Great husks of once powerful ships lay within this world.

It was upon one of these husks that Asha wandered.

She would find herself awoken within the bridge tower of one of these ships, ancient, old, and decrepit. At every turn she would find her way blocked, the halls collapsed with durasteel panels and great beams. Her path would be set for her, directly ahead, winding down a long hall and up a singular set of stairs. She would find two grand blast doors hanging open, both stuck to one side as she wandered through them.

Just beyond, within the barely illuminated chamber of the bridge she would find Aellin. The Sith stood upon the bridge, a console, barely lit, in front of him. The windows of the bridge were tinted, some broken and sealed with shutters, others simply cracked and looking out upon a dark chamber of vast nothingness. The only light that came forth from the room was from the console before him, a soft blue faded illumination that played over his cloak.

"This ship is old." His voice rumbled, a reminder of that thunder upon Thule.

He did not move away from the console, did not budge an inch. His fingers floated above the small holo-screen, keying in commands and slowly dancing over the faded and broken icons. Asha would be able to feel an oppressive sense of dread linger within the air, fear, anger, the darkside looming with the halls of the ship.

 

[Lief]

Asha paced the length of the room, from blockade to blockade, until her frustrations grew and a growl escaped her lips. She was within a great metal prison, weighed down by the pain in her back and the pulsing of her mind. Her fists balled up, held infront of her; the left clutched the crystal she had found in the room, the imperfect edges cut into the palm of her hand and provided her with some sort of release.

The girl exhaled through her nose. Blood dripped through her fingers, providing her with a point of focus.

Finally she saw it; a very dim light, a mere pinprick. She walked toward it, and her eyes adjusted to the eerie blue pulsation that finally opened up into a room full of control panels. Her eyes scanned it, before falling upon a shadow at the center of the light. The visage of a figure silhouetted before her.

She had found him. And she immediately regretted doing so.

Asha stood there for a moment, watching, staring. He spoke without turning, without moving, revealing the nature of her prison. But it was no prison, simply a ship. A wreckage, from the looks of it.

Had he even noticed her there?

Biting her lip she took a slight step back from the light and watched his response. But he hadn't turned. His attention was fixated on the consoles. She did not want to resume this nightmare, she did not want a repeat of Thule; did that mean she should stay, and pray she did not anger him? Or...

Asha took a few more steps back, before hastily turning on her heels and making her way back through the hallways. But the place was a behemoth, a maze of corridors, and she had no idea of the floor plan. A sharp pain jolted through her back as she overexerted herself by breaking into a sprint, but she grit her teeth and pushed through it.

She had to at least try.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

There was no use in running. Not here, not on this ship. This was the domain that he had chosen, his home. Where the assassins would not find him and his tribe would never think him to be. This place was to be his lair, at least for a time. It would take some getting used to. This was not the home that he had had for so long, it was not the manor that his parents had lived in, it was now the great hotels that he had stayed in, it wasn't even the meager Inns that he had used while on the run.

This ship was a wreck.

A ruin.

Nothing more and nothing less. There was no pretending that this once grand vessel was something that it was not. It was a temporary home, a base of operations. It had been something that he was in desperate need of, especially with the girl now in tow. He had needed someplace that he could be safe, someplace that he could properly convince her. Raxus had proven to be perfect for this, and the ship that he had found even more so.

The Tribe would never expect him to stoop so low, the assassins never thinking to find him miles beneath the surface of the junkyard world. Eventually he would make his move, eventually he would once again find his way to the surface, but for now this ship would do, for now he and the girl would stay here, at the very least until she was once again ready to leave.

His fingers played across the holographic console, his fingers twitching until eventually he found what he was looking for. There was a slight glare upon the screen, a flashing of red as a warning appeared to him. Aellin scowled, ignoring the flashing light and continuing on with his work. Suddenly a whir would begin to resound throughout the starship, a rumble as an ancient and cracked reactor flared into life. Electricity began to pour through the vessel, lights began to flicker, and the horrors of the ship began to appear.

She would see them first.

Corpses. Hundreds upon hundreds of them. Ancient dead long since lost to chaos and beyond. They would line the halls, fill the rooms, block entrances and exits, sitting, standing, crumbling. They would be everywhere, lining every part of the ship. Aellin knew not what Slaughter had happened here, but he reveled within the darkness that it had left.

 

[Lief]

Her boots clacked as she made her mad dash for freedom, the metallic thud resonating throughout the husk of the once great vessel. She turned down every corridor that was not blocked, left and right, right and left, in circles for all she knew. Her sense of direction was turned on its head. The labyrinth claimed her as darkness seeped in, a sense of helplessness settled over the girl.

"For kriff sake!" she yelled, gritting her teeth as she ground to a halt. Her shoulders rolled, stretching the muscles along her back and exuding a grunt of pain. Still she felt tender, despite the time she had spent unconscious.

All at once the ground quaked, thrusting her forward and against the ground. Something crunched under her hand when she tried to stand again, struggling to do even the most simplest of tasks with her hands bound the way they were. Her palm felt chalky, dust mixing with the blood from earlier leading to an itchy, sticky, sensation.

Lights flickered into action overhead, not as bright as they ought to have been but instead those which ran off backup generators. Dull, yet enough for her to make sense of her surroundings.

Asha was face to face with the stark white skull of what must have once been a Naval Officer. It was hard to tell, most of the cloth had disintegrated just as readily as the skin and flesh. Just bone remained.

One corpse she could understand, one corpse she could brush aside in her mind, after all this was an old vessel, and she knew that Aellin could not be to blame for their death. But when she turned, sitting down in the dust of the pour soul's shattered body, she was made to see the truth of the matter.

This was no ship... It was a graveyard.

Asha screamed.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

The scream echoed throughout the ship, Aellin poking the console ahead of him just as it rang through the bridge. He frowned slightly, his eyes flickering away from the pale blue light for just a moment. A sigh pulled from his lips, and slowly he turned away from the screen. There was illumination on the bridge now, pale light that shone down and revealed the room around him. Much like the rest of the ship the Bridge was not absent of corpses, just the opposite in fact.

There were dozens of them, perhaps hundreds.

They were stacked upon each other, next to each other, all around the bridge. Aellin frowned slightly, his eyes panning over the bridge as he stopped in his half turn towards the hallway. He had not expected this many dead, though he had seen more than a few on his way into the ship itself. It was a curious thing, the idea of so many dead permeating this ship. A frown pulled at his lips, his head shaking as he completed his turn and headed from the bridge.

Slowly, he stalked down the hall.

The bodies only continued, hundreds, if not thousands of dead lining the halls.

The graveyard vessel seemed completely filled to the brim with the corpses of those who had passed upon this vessel so many years ago, some of the skeletons well preserves, others having long decayed into dust. A few of the bodies he passed were oddly preserved, flesh still clinging to them and an expression of pure terror lancing over their face. He watched these as he walked by, his yellow eyes settling on them for but a moment as he moved towards Asha.

As he came closer and closer to the origin of her scream he couldn't help but feel invigorated, power, strength flowing through him as the darkside that clung to this vessels bones seemed to begin to transfer to him, flowing into his skin and permeating his body. "You."

His voice erupted in a grumble as he happened upon her, kneeling within the corpse of a long dead man.

 

[Lief]

She was still sat staring at the mass grave when Aellin found her; her body remained on the ground, back pressed against the wall, blood seeping through the clenched fist of her right hand - still clutching the crystal.

For a few moments she didn't even register his presence there. She wanted to be strong, she wanted to say that she wasn't absolutely terrified, but such was not possible. The girl was barely fifteen, she had witnessed death but not of this magnitude and not so close.

Her skin prickled as the emotions he emitted washed over the room, but it wasn't until his voice rumbled one solitary word that she was able to tear her gaze from the corpses. She should have been more terrified to see him and his yellow eyes.

Instead a state of pure relief washed over her, and as she looked upon the Sith her hands reached out in unison toward him, tethered at the wrist.

Never had she been more grateful to see someone.

"You're here" came her first breathless words.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" she whimpered, knowing that she should never have tried to run from him. Her eyes fixated upon the Sith. It was better than the alternative. "Please, help me." She was stuck, she couldn't stand up, sunken among the bodies of the fallen. She had no leverage.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

For a moment he considered leaving her there.

It would have been opportune. She was stuck, incapable of moving, better than the chains that he had made her wear on Thule.

More effective at least.

The Ship still required much work. Most of the halls were completely shattered and broken, most of the rooms were filled with the stench of decay and death, the entirety of the bridge was filled with corpses. He had much to do before he could properly utilize this as a home, even more before he was ready to truly take care of her. The expression on her face was pitiful however, and although Aellin felt no sympathy for her he did realize that she could help him, at the very least he could lock her into one of the rooms.

A sigh escaped his lips.

Aellin shifted his palm, hand coming up and fingers slowly spreading as the force welled within him. There was a sudden burst of power, a pulse, and the skeletal remains that had gripped Asha so fiercely suddenly exploded into a massive cloud of dust. He released her from the bone prison that she had found herself in, breaking apart the shackles and pulling her up and out of the grave that she had dug for herself, his hand twisting as he did so.

 

[Lief]

Silence.

Asha whimpered as she was faced with the very real possibility of remaining stuck there, with the limbs of the dead entwined with her own. Though she did not blame him, could not blame him. She was the one who had tried to flee. She was the one who was in the wrong. Had she not already told him that she would obey? And yet at the first possible moment she had tried to escape.

The sigh broke the tension in the air, though Asha shied back after it was breathed. All at once an explosion rang around her, with Asha at its epicenter, though she'd had no part to play in it. The dustcloud that was created, from the shattered remains of the corpses, left her coughing and desperate for real air.

And then she was pulled forth, the shackles which had bit into her skin broke apart and tumbled to the ground.

She landed in a heap, free from the corpses, managing to catch herself before she tumbled forward to his feet. Her hand stung, and the crystal shattered as she used both hands to break her fall. Jagged pieces of sky blue mixed with the yellowed bones, at least one small shard worked its way under her skin.

But she didn't care, she didn't even feel the pain which accompanied it, for in that moment her relief was too great. She might have hugged him then and there had he not been such a fearsome being to gaze upon, had he not proven his might a thousand times over already. Besides, Asha didn't even embrace her own Father. That was not how she had been raised. The urge remained, however, gratitude welling up inside her.

Her bad hand clenched, blood trailing down her arm and dripping from her elbow as she lifted it into her vision. She felt her mind quieten for the first time since waking up, felt the steady pulse of blood reverberate throughout her body. With her other hand she pried the slither of crystal from her palm, then watched as the skin on her hand began to work itself back together, not quite reknitting but working toward that end.

It would not be done in mere moments, but it was a start. She could see the smaller wounds - those sustained earlier, scab over. They would be gone soon. And then there would just be the larger things to contend with.

Asha dropped her hand; the blood flow had at least stopped. She had practiced curato salva for almost five years now, a third of her life. It was others she had a real trouble healing.

She looked up, toward the figure that loomed overhead. Toward her saviour and her captor. "Thank you" she finally said, though she wondered how long it would be before she was taking back those words.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

The Sith looked down at her, his eyes settling with a luck of disgust. The fact that she had needed help at all was...off-putting, but she still had value. Part of him understood the fear that she felt, part of him knew why it was that she was so cared. The darkside was strong here, the massacre, whatever had caused it, had tainted this vessel, tinged it. He couldn't quite place where it was strongest, or even where the source came from, but he could feel it within the air.

There was a darkness here, one that permeated throughout.

It was that darkness that unsettled her so.

The corpses were long dead, long gone to the ways of the galaxy. They could not move, they could not harm her, but they could appear to. The Darkside of the force added an odd little twist to the mind, changing and shifting ones thoughts to make things appear different than they actually were. Aellin had experienced this in the past, he had seen it himself before he had embraced it's power. For him the corpses did not move, but for Asha it might have been different.
"Come." He said, motioning for her to follow with a single crook of his finger. "Do not be afraid."

He offered her some words of assurance, a soothing rasp cooling his normal, rather grumbling tone. "The dead will not return to life here."

 

[Lief]

Asha's eyes widened to the softer tones of the man before her, the subtle gesture goading her into returning once more to her feet. He reassured her, reminded her that the dead were harmless. It must have been a trick of the light, because she could swear she saw at least one among the thousands twitch with life.

Darkness loomed heavy in the air, and this time its source was not solely the Sith. It was the very vessel itself. Asha wondered if she would be able to withstand it for very long, the captivating allure it produced. She walked the delicate line between serenity and corruption, one she had spent years of her life adhering to. Would this husk of a vessel prove to be her undoing?

She would not permit that.

Taking a step toward him, she sought to follow him from this pit of despair. But as her eyes fell beyond him she saw that it was not just this particular walkway that held the bodies of the former crew. Would there be no escape from death? It seemed to follow him, this man whom she knew nothing about.

"Who are you?" she blurted, before she could stop herself, eyes set at the back of his head as she followed him through the ship. It was easier to look at him than be reminded of the decaying corpses. All thought of fleeing had left her at this point, she was more concerned with her own survival than her freedom.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

Aellin lead her back to the bridge, the path was relatively straight forward, most ways still blocked by corpses or fallen metal. It was cleat that the ship was beyond ancient, old enough to sit as a remnant of ages long past. The construction of the vessel matched none of the modern age, the uniforms of the dead bodies seemed from another time all together. It was like walking through a graveyard of those long, long past. Aellin said nothing as he moved through it, his eyes set forward until eventually they walked up the steps onto the bridge once more.

Her words echoed out within the dimly lit room, her question ringing within his ears.

Oddly enough he did not seem to have answer for her. Aellin had lost himself, had lost his name and his identity when he had slaughtered his family and taken everything from himself. The tribe had cast him out and everything that had marked him as a person had been taken. He frowned for a few moments, then half turned to her. "Just a man."

He was nothing more than that.

Just a man. That was all he was for now, not even a Sith, at least not one worthy of any sort of note. He had power enough to survive, strength enough to keep himself alive, but he was not yet worthy of rebirth, not yet worthy of having another name. For now he would remain a mystery, he would keep himself away from the thoughts and minds of others to stay Aellin Tedronai. She did not need to know that name however, she did not need to know what he once was.

Aellin moved over towards the console within the center of the room once more, his fingers snapping and index pointing towards a point on the floor straight ahead of him. He commanded her like a dog, ordering her to a place where he could watch her, where she would not run away once more.

 

[Lief]

She was brought through the graveyard of a vessel, led back towards the bridge where the eerie blue light still outshone the overhead florescence. The steps which led up clanked with each footfall, and she clenched her jaw in disdain. The whole ship felt as though it was going to buckle in on itself at any moment. Electricity surged through frayed cables, dangerously close to water which dripped from the ceiling overhead. Everything seemed slanted just an inch to the left, making her constantly feel as if she was about to stumble.

Thankfully she remained upright.

He looked toward her without turning, furrowed brows giving the impression of a frown. He stated that he was just a man, though Asha expressed disbelief at that. He was the most foreboding figure she had ever met, terrifying to behold. So much so that she dropped her gaze from his and waited for him to continue onward.

Tracing his steps back to the console, Asha could not help but wonder what it was he hoped to achieve from this vessel. And why it was he kept her around. Why he had helped her, undone the shackles from her wrists. Did he know that she wished not to flee? Did he sense her helplessness, that which kept her rooted in place?

The snap of his fingers brought her attention - and gaze - back toward him. Slowly she made her way to the spot on the floor he had gestured to; she might have felt awkward, even abashed, had his focus not instantly shifted back to the console. It was there that Asha found her knees, head bowed away from both man and corpse. It was here that she sought to center herself in the Force. If she had to wait for his beck and call, she would at least be productive about it.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

He was not disinterested in the girl, at least not enough to allow her to run away. She served a purpose, or rather, would serve one, he just had to make sure that the ship was fully operational first, or enough that he would be capable of living here.

The blue light of the console cast over him once again, the small warning beacon having now disappeared. He frowned slightly as he began to activate systems on board the vessel and cut others. Engines, weapons, communications were deactivated, not being required. Shields however were enabled, though the generators aboard this vessel had long since become broken and spotty. It was doubtful that the ships shields would work against any turbolasers or significant weaponry, but they would protect against the acid drip that came from the lakes above.

Eventually, piece by piece, Aellin activated his ship.

It was slow going, taking him nearly thirty minutes, but by the end other screen across the bridge began to flicker to life, the light became a bit brighter, and in the distance the sound of doors opening could be heard.

The Sith Acolyte shifted slightly, looking down at the console for a moment more before slowly turning his attention towards the girl that sat in the middle of the room. She had remained silent since his last command, completely still. He nodded with satisfaction, at least she knew what to do in this situation, at least she knew when to be still. Perhaps her initial terror at the situation had been enough to make her realize silence was the best option, that obedience would see her live with wealth and reward. The Acolyte shifted slightly, stepping away from behind the console and over towards the girl.

Heavy footsteps saw him drag his bulk towards her. "Stand."

Aellin gave the simple command, not influencing her through the force or any other means.

 

[Lief]

The girl did not move an inch. Only her chest rose and fell, air cascading through her as she tumbled along in her meditative motions. She wanted to push herself, to peer through the Force the way that Sargon had shown her, but she still felt weakened from her journey through the threads of time. No, she needed to recuperate. Her body was sore, lacerations upon her back, chest, and hands. The last thing she needed was to strain it further.

Instead she allowed the Force to pulsate through her body.

Her aches and pains began to diminish, her self-contained hibernation-like trance taking effect. Time became immaterial, inconsequential, and for the first time since they had run headlong into one another her expression was one of pure serenity and peace. Asha toed the line of light and dark, but she knew when a situation called for a deviation to either. The darkness could fuel her, allow her to push her limits where usually she might have given in. But the light sustained her. The light healed.

The actions of the man were lost on her. The bodies in the room disappeared. All that remained was the Force, and the song of the Universe she had once witnessed through Sargon's eyes. It felt an eternity ago. As did Thule.

For a moment though her mind deviated, trying to work out the best course of action. Obedience would keep her alive, but she had to do more than obey. She had to prove useful. There was no doubt in her mind on either of these facts. She could not attempt to flee again, not until her strength returned and she had some sort of advantage, a footing or even leverage. The chances of either coming to pass were slim. For now she would bide her time.

She did not hear him approach. She did not sense his presence looming over her. She did, however, hear the low rumble of his voice. Like a hound she was commanded by one single word, as if she needed the simplest of forms. At first the girl did not move. To rush herself from this state would likely leave her dizzy. Instead she opened her eyes, took in a slow breath, and turned her gaze up to him. For just a second she considered defying him. But the instant passed.

Instead she stood, each movement slow and precise. By now the wound upon her hand, and those upon her chest, had all but healed. Pink, subtle skin lay in its place. Perhaps they would scar, she wasn't quite good enough to fully mend the skin. Perhaps they would be a continual reminder of her stupidity.

The long slither of a cut along her back remained. That would take more than a session of meditation and a slight application of curato salva to fix. For now it remained her crux, and she would utilize the pain it caused her in any way necessary. The girl did not say a word. She kept her gaze steady and fixed upon his.

All the while, she wondered what he wanted.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

He observed the girl for a moment, simply taking her in. She was a small thing, so small that he likely could have snapped her like a twig. She reminded him of a woman that her sister had once befriended, a girl that by all means had been filled with nothing but vapid thoughts and paltry excuses for herself. Aellin remembered the woman well, he remembered even more just what his sister had done to her in the end, the cut across her throat, the splash of blood upon the wall.

His sister had never been a kind woman.

Aellin mused for a moment more, beginning a slow walk around the girl. He knew that she had talent within the force, a certain amount of strength, though he knew not just how much. She was not built like a duelist, not like a fighter. He remembered well the lessons that Baelid had imparted on him regarding that, how people suited to fighting were simply built a certain way, stood a certain way, this girl did not stand like that. Indeed she seemed slightly hunched over, as if she were in the defensive at all times. His head cocked to the side as he rounded on her, his eyes falling over her as his lip pulled into a slight scowl.

So if not a fighter? A healer?

That would seem to make the most sense given their interaction in the tavern, what she had said to him and how she had known to heal him.

A nod slowly carried over him as he confirmed his suspicion, his eyes falling on the slight pink lines that permeated her body where there had been cuts earlier. Briefly he wondered about the marring that he had created on her inner-thigh, if she had managed to heal that as well. Slowly he wandered around her, his eyes falling on her again as he stepped up before her. His knuckle curled beneath her chin, his hand tilting her head up so that her eyes peered at his own. He searched there for a moment, blazing yellow attempting to pierce through her soul.

"You name." He commanded.

 

[Lief]

After a few moments of intense staring between the pair, Asha was the first to buckle.

Her gaze dropped to her feet, unable to sustain the prolonged eye contact she was being subjected to. She had felt slightly embarrassed earlier, when he had made her kneel in the middle of the room so that he could keep an eye on her. But this was something entirely different.

Asha felt exposed, as if the very core of her being was on show. Her cheeks reddened in indignation and discomfort, a fact which only intensified as she heard his boots clack. The man was circling her, like a predator intent on catching its quarry. How had it come to be that she was the prey? She who had made the very stars bow to her exploration.

She shuddered.

Once more her heartbeat resonated in her neck, her temples, and every time she swallowed back her fear the same thump would ring in her ears. She became hyperaware of the blood which coursed through her veins. Too aware. Asha did not like the sensation, it was dizzying.

As his thoughts fell upon the wound he had subjected her to, a dull ache spread across her thigh. No, that had been another she hadn't focused upon. The unseen whip to her back, the torturous blade to her leg, those that he had instilled.

She could not bring herself to be rid of them.

Finally he stopped infront of her, and Asha stared at his boots. He was closer now, than he had been before, and as he reached out to tip up her chin the girl could not help but flinch. Their eyes met again, and this time she could not look away. She couldn't so much as blink as her soul was all but exposed to him through the intensity of their gaze.

And then he asked her name.

What was her name again?

"Asha" she whispered. The Sith word for Victory; the irony was not lost upon her.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

He scoffed at that.

The irony was powerful in that. Victory. It was nearly enough to make Aellin laugh out loud, though he couldn't remember the last time he had done so. The Sith looked down into the girls eyes, watching her, as if he were trying to find something, some lost or hidden piece of her. The air around them began to fizzle, change and shift. Not in a noticeable way, not by any means that one might have seen or heard, but just a subtle drop in temperature that one might feel upon their skin. A light drip of tension rose within the air, and his thumb slowly came up to rest upon her chin.

The slight touch upon her would feel as though he marked her, a slight burn emanating from it.

He tried to get a sense of her, tried to feel her through the force. There was terror, fear, but perhaps a hint of something else. At first he could not place it, at first it seemed entirely foreign to him, the very idea of it. His lips thinned beneath his mask, his eyes set upon her, slowly panning up and down her body. There was a feint tremble that ran through her, a small shake that seemed to carry throughout her as his thumb gently stroked over her chin.

What was it?

Anger?

No. It did not feel like anger. Aellin was well accustomed to the feeling of anger, well accustomed to feeling within others. Rage was the driving force behind the Sith, the feeling of hate that pinned at the very center of every Sith Lord. This was not that, this was something else. He dug deeper, his eyes closing for a moment, the force stretching out from him. Aellin searched within her mind, her thoughts, her feelings, and then suddenly he began to smile.

Curiosity?

It seemed so unlikely, but so...so tempting. His eyes slowly folded open, his head cocking slightly to the side.

"Asha." His voice rumbled, a rolling tide of thunder. "Would you like to serve me, Asha?"

 

[Lief]

He scoffed to the sound of her name. It seemed the irony was not lost upon him either, which made her scowl. A name had power, regardless of its inherent meaning. It adjusted to the person, not the other way around. Right now she was anything but victorious. And he knew it. She was nothing in his eyes, perhaps a tool if that. Asha doubted even that.

She tore her gaze from his, taking one very slight step back. For a second frustration rose within her, only to be quenched with worry. She had to take it easy, she couldn't overstep herself.

A tremor made its way down her spine, as if the touch of a ghostly hand had settled upon her neck. Asha shivered, the temperature in the room dropping just a fraction. Yet she noticed it all the same, her senses were on high alert. One might have called it paranoia, Asha called it preservation.

His hand rose, thumb settling against her chin, and Asha flinched. Though the gesture was not unpleasant, and the girl could not place her finger on why that was. It was if she had been branded, his skin setting hers alight. She could not look upon him in that instance, she refused to.

A consistent tremble had set within her, as if she had been exposed to the harshest of environments where fierce winds blew and snow descended upon her. It was a wonder her teeth weren't chattering, though truly this was another sensation all together. One she couldn't fully comprehend beyond the baseline fear.

His thumb did not cease, its insistent musings across her skin left the girl breathless. Her cheeks reddened further in embarrassment.

The urge to flee rose within her again, at the very least a need to step back from him, but she couldn't. She was frozen in place, her gaze still set down. Not in submission, quite the opposite in fact. She did not want to give him the satisfaction of knowing the effects he held over her. The power he commanded.

She could feel him there, on the edge of her mind, and at first she attempted to push him out. His presence did not feel like Sargon's had. It was raw, unwieldy, in fact it pained her to experience his probing. Sargon had been more subtle, though he had her hooked the moment he projected the Universe into the depths of her mind.

Aellin, too, had her curious. She did not understand him, this Sith, she could not comprehend his motivations. Why was she here? Why was she not lay discarded with other corpses now that his shoulder was healed and her usefulness had run out? And why was it she didn't want his thumb to cease its calming motions?

Because it was true, she did find the gesture calming... Even if she found the man himself absolutely horrifying.

He spoke again, like the crash of a wave which struck her full force. She was too afraid to look up, yet curious all the same. There was a change to his tone that she couldn't place her finger upon. He repeated her name, though he did not seem the kind for such unnecessary things, and in that moment she finally lifted her gaze.

He wanted her servitude? He wanted her to willingly remain here, at his beck and call?

She couldn't. How could she subject herself to that?

She began to shake her head, she wanted to yell at him in that moment, rage boiled beneath the surface; how dare he?

Yet as his thumb flexed once more across her chin her confidence waned. Her eyes dropped, this time in humble humility. He had a power over her that even she could not comprehend, though he had done nothing to cause it, or to enforce it. She wanted to say no, oh how she wanted to refuse him.

Instead the child gave a subtle nod, and whispered a hoarse "Yes."

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Asha Hex"]

He smiled, it was a cold and broken smile hidden by the mask that clung so tightly to his face, some might have mistaken it for a sneer. The Sith was not known for joy, he was not known for mirth or even pleasure. As a child he had never smiled much, had hardly ever laughed, his placement within the family well defining him to the roll as little more than a servant. Baelid and his sister had always gotten the attention, had always gotten the joy and the gifts. It had made him bitter, broken, it had made him into a shell of a human being.

Aellin knew that.

He was aware of how broken he was, how unnatural of a being he had become. He knew the parts of him that were not normal, and he knew how to fake them well enough when the situation called for it. Aellin was not fool enough to think that he could be this way for eternity, knew well that eventually he would have to step into the light. That would come later however, when he had a need for power, when he had a need for more than this ship.

"Good." Aellin growled, his fingers slowly removing themselves from her chin and brushing over her cheek. "Do you know where you are, Asha? What this place is?"

A graveyard.

That was what Aellin would have called it, but a graveyard for whom. For what?

It was an important piece of his plan, an important piece of what he eventually intended to become. This ship was old, ancient by some accounts, and it would be a grand part of his scheme. Of course there were things that had to be changed first, things that had to be altered before he could raise this vessel from the grounds of Raxus Prime. His finger stroked over Asha's cheek, almost absent-minded as though she were nothing more than a tool to keep his hands busy as he thought.