Private As Darkness Fades

[Allya Vi'Dreya]

Spoiler

Tags: Julius Sedaire

She had done things few ever dreamed. Allya had been the sword that helped to bring down an Empire. She had brought a Republic to its knees, all while protecting its people. As a teenager, she had even fought against a mighty union, and came out victorious in every battle. For a time, she truly thought she was invincible; that she was cleverer and more capable than any other. Yet, her hubris, and a thirst for power were her downfall. She challenged the role of Mand’alor and fell short. The wounds were great, and it took quite a bit of time for her to even move again. It gave her a lot of time to think, as she had been lovingly taken care of by Jerek.


There was no time for fear, or doubt. She was not unbeatable; she was not invincible. But to push beyond these newfound fears, she needed something. A teacher. What she had lacked in that battle wasn’t intelligence, strategy or even capability. It had been her inexperience with the blade. Allya never had a teacher for long, most of what she knew she picked up from group lessons, and experience. She needed a Master, and not a Darksider. The Dark Side coursed through her no matter what. But she had to be someone Jerek could be proud of, she had to one day be able to look into her hero, Coren’s eyes and say she had done it.


As she searched one name continued to pop up. One master of the blade, a man with even more battle experience than she had, someone who could go beyond being her equal, and become a Master. It was a difficult process. She had always fought to stay above anyone. It didn’t help her family wanted to always take advantage, so she had to always be one step ahead of them. But, as she read his profile, and as much of his history as she could, she felt Julius may be different. She hoped so, she couldn’t continue to do this alone. The Dark Side corruption was simply too much, too powerful to fight on her own anymore. She didn’t know if he could help. If anyone could. But there was no karking way she was going down without a fight, and no way she was backing down ever again. What was the worst he could do? Say no? Kill her?


As the Unrelenting Faith entered orbit around the planet of Socorro, the teen had her face pressed to the window port in awe. She was so excited; her heart wouldn’t settle down. She wondered just how ANNOYING this man would be. Would he be like Rylan? Or Voph? Maybe that one old guy…. Ahhh, it was overwhelming. The girl took a deep breath in, and slowly let it out as she practiced the meditation techniques Jerek and others had taught her.

Calm. Calm. You are not a passion Sith anymore.​

“Keep the Faith in Orbit!” She called out to the bridge crew, as she bolted down the corridors. The hyper teen slid along handrails and used the force to push herself off walls and down catwalks. As she approached the hydroponics lab, she knew of a short cut. A force jump up a maintenance hatch, and she scrambled through the low maintenance tunnels till she got to a gap. The ceilings in the hydroponics were taller than most, and there was a long gap between the two portions of the maintenance shaft. She backed up as much as she could. A burst of force speed, and a little push against the ground and herself with telekinesis and she easily made it to the other side. A dive roll and she was back to her feet again. The little Darkling giggled happily as she moved around her ship. She knew all its nooks and crannies, the best ways to get from place to place, she had designed it herself after all.



It wasn’t long before she got to the Corvette’s hanger. There a droid held out her lightsaber and a small bag containing clothes, as well as a few other things. “IONA…shouldn’t I….” A voice out of the intercom chided her. “No, you should not bring your armor. For just a moment stop trying to be a Mandalorian or a soldier. Be yourself, this is going to be hard enough as it is!”



She looked down at a caramel colored hand, at the callouses, and scars that crossed it. Her tongue licked her lip in nervousness. “This is life. Understood. Let’s do this. I’ll call if anything goes wrong.” From there, Allya boarded a standard shuttle craft and set out to the planet, her coordinates clear. The Enclave, and to meet Julius Sedaire…whatever that meant.

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Pleasantly drunk led to unpleasantly hungover, and the former Grandmaster of the Corellian Jedi was currently lounging in a hammock he had set up outside the Enclave. Rumpled clothing, slight smell of whiskey wafting from him. A lightsaber next to the whiskey bottle. This was happening all too often, but most believed he would pull himself out of it, as before.

This time, however, Keira was not about to jerk his head out of his hind parts and set him straight. So he was struggling. Her loss had hit him harder than expected. So he lounged, neglected duty, and drank enough to pickle a bantha most days. On occasion he would sober up enough to stumble to class and mumble his way through a lecture or fumble through a demonstration or two. But not much more.

Sensed and felt, he had woken up to crack an eye towards where he thought a new arrival might be, sitting up and huffing a sigh as he scrubbed at his eyes and reached for the bottle.

Allya Vi'Dreya

 

[Allya Vi'Dreya]

As she exited the shuttle and moved towards the enclave, Allya’s heart threatened to beat out of her chest. She could do anything but asking for help had always been hard. Her feet drummed on the ground as she lifted her head up and spotted something to the side of the building. Her pace picked up a bit and she bounded over towards a hammock that had been set up outside. All around bottles were scattered on the ground. A lightsaber sat nearly discarded in the mess. She had studied his files as much as she could before she sat down on the planet, she recognized the one she sought under the scruff, and the alcohol. So, he was going to be the Rylan type of annoying. Minus the whole ‘let’s have fun by destroying a world’ thing…she hoped.



The caramel skinned teen slung her bag over her shoulder and gave the man the brightest and most mischievous of smiles. Her free hand rested on her hip, as the little Mandalorian took in the site. “Well now. Sweet spot you got here. Plenty to drink as well. It’s a bit early, but hey, got room for company, and another bottle?” Athletic shoulders shrugged as the girl moved closer to the master.



If she was honest with herself, she would admit that she preferred her masters like this. Maybe they reminded her of her dad? People like Coren made her intimidated, as much as she admired them. Then of course there was Damian, her kind of scum. If she had more free time, she probably would have gone with him across the galaxy and picked up all the tricks she could. But…this was different. With Damian she never would have been able to acknowledge him as a master. It was easy to feel the sorrow that filled the man in front of her. For now, she just had to see how he responded.

Julius Sedaire

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Casual. Dismissive. Smooth. Like a child-lik version of Keira. Allya Vi'Dreya just snarked her way past his usual snarl and bark as of late, and he sat there, blinking, five-week beard and three-day drunk warring for the main factor of surprise. Finally, the smarm won out, and he lashed out with a foot. A bottle sailed up off his toe and came to rest perfectly on the extended and vertical index finger of his off-hand as he held out a bottle of Mon Calamari brandy, the bottle balanced just so on his finger and spinning slightly in offering.

He himself snicked his right hand out. The prosthesis from the Aing-Tii glimmered carapace-white and mirrored silver, faint blue sworls pulsing within the carpace depths. Into the hand of the augmetic arm flew his lightsaber, which he clipped to his belt as he stood, grabbed a dusty water bottle and proceeded to pour the liquid out over his head and face, combing back suddenly slick hair and pushing his beard into a more civilized tangle. The brandy remained floating in air where it was offered, if it had not been taken yet. Water also served to wake up and sober up the Jedi Master. Keira would hate his hair this out of sorts, she always liked it just the short side of shaggy, and well groomed. But enough to yank when he annoyed her. Which was often, given the two of them.

Turning, the greying Blademaster eyed the young lady with both vision and Vision, a flow and whorl of the Force expanding from her in a kaleidoscope of possibility and chance, and back into her with the final certainity of the past. Slowly he nodded, only briefly Flow Walking to get a handle on his suddenly arriving drinking companion.

With a whoosh of air, he'd let out his breath, a slight phhhbbttt of resignation to his wakened state and nodded, speaking to her as he sat, the brandy bottle still levitating if she hadn't yet taken it. He was no great shake at telekine arts, so it would be wobbling ever so slightly by now.

With a gesture to the surroundings, he made a seated bow as he grabbed another bottle of dark Mandalorian ale and took a long pull.

"Welcome to Socorro. Though you know where this is if you're here. I am Julius Sedaire, Master of the Enclave and Jedi Battlemaster. At your service. Drin anything but the lum. That's for if a Merrill ever shows up. Or Coren. What brings you here, and just what do I call you?"

 

[Allya Vi'Dreya]

As he held up the brandy with that trick, she grinned. “I need to remember that one for later.” Allya reached out her hand, and with a gentle and well-practiced tug of telekinesis she pulled it to herself. The teen lifted the bottle in a salute to the man before she pulled off the top. With a thirst, she pulled the bottle to her lips and took a deep swig. The brandy wasn’t her favorite, but the burn was welcome to help wash away the nervousness. “Thanks.” As his vision and Vision were upon her, she made no effort to hide herself. The teens long dark hair was pulled back in a serious braid. Her eyes were a deep brown and full of curiosity. She studied his face for a moment as he studied her.

Her outfit was fairly standard and modest. A shirt, pants, shoes, nothing out of the ordinary or especially fancy. It was practical. Around her neck were Confederate military dog tags. Every inch of caramel skin that was shown, besides her face, carried heavy scarring from combat and 'training'. She slid down onto the ground near him and looked up at the sky. The dark side clearly came from her, but each time it surged forward, she controlled her breath and forced it back down once more.

She planted one hand behind her on the ground and dug her fingers in as much as she could. Allya stayed quiet after he washed himself and asked her the question. How was she supposed to answer? I’m Allya, daughter of Darth Metus! I worship the ground Coren walks on and collect his action figures and I want to make this super-hot Jedi boy really proud of me, so I need to stop being so dark! While partially the truth, it didn’t explain anything!

With a sigh, she took another swig of the drink. “I’m Allya Vi’Dreya. I am here because I think…you may be a bit like me. At least, I hope so. Lost, confused, sad, desperately wanting to look in the mirror and like what you see. I was never honestly given a chance to choose what I was. Coren and Jerek saved me, in a way. But I still don’t know where to start. I don’t think I can ever be…well, light. Not after what’s been done to me. And I feel that in you too.”

Fingers played with whatever rocks, dirt, or grass she could find as she raised the bottle up to the sky, allowing it to get caught in the light of the nearest star. “I don’t want to get consumed by the darkness. But I don’t want to stop being me either.” She leaned back, so her head was now in Julius’ general direction. The girl gave this little wry upside-down smile at him. “I don’t need someone to be perfect. Just out drink me and let me ask a bunch of stupid questions. In exchange….” Allya fully fell back on the ground and laughed loudly, a soft melodious sound that carried on the wind. “Ahhh, I’ll bring your booze? Drink with you, swap stories. Force you to take baths? Oh! I’m a pretty good cook, I can make meals. And get you off world, and into LOTS of trouble probably too. What’cha say?”

Julius Sedaire

 

[Julius Sedaire]

The kid had stones, he'd give her that. And in terms of relatability and similarity, the younger him was very similar to her. Hell, the older him was too, just more mistakes to line his face and brow with worry over. Slowly, he looked about the scorched black sands and the crags of the ravine they were in. Once, this place was likely a mighty river. But it had never been such in Galactic memory. Just faded scars and broken rock. It seemed a fitting place for the Corellian when you got to that point in the comparison.

But she needed a reply. Licking at cracked lips, he reached out with a hand made of carapace and metal to grasp a bottle. And not whiskey, but wter. She deserved a clear head. So he took a long swig of the chilled liquid and smiled, contemplating the choices before him prior to answering. There was a pretty bad track record of his padawans winding up much more dead than they were before his training. And that, as much or more than anything, weighed on him something fierce.

But she seemed... Different. More aware, of both herself and himself. Bolder in statements and questioning.

"I'm barely a Jedi these days, at least in reference to the Code as most know it. I like to get caught up in hair-brained schemes on the long edges of the Galaxy just because they catch my attention or tug at my heart. But I'll teach you. If you fell in and fit well with Coren, you might just make it through. Booze isn't required but is appreciated all the same. I own a distillery."

Standing up, he unsuccessfully smoothed as his tunic and nodded, checking and clipping his lightsaber to his belt before grabbing the handful of bottles and looking at her with bleary, but swiftly clearing eyes.

"What do you know that you don't know? Where are your weak points?"

Allya Vi'Dreya