Can I Help You?

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="The Queen"]

The keep fell quiet today, as the sun was blocked out into a eclipse, and the rain drizzled softly. Some people left for the Five Circles, while others were off planet, doing whatever it is his staff does on their free time. Romeo was going through his own intel at the moment, as it was coming close to war between him, and his father.
The library was open to anyone in the keep, but there was certain areas that only he, and a very small select group were allowed in.
Romeo was in this room. It was list complied of all he could find on the people he knew, Dredge, Thurion, Miss Castillon, One Sith, Ession Reformation, you name it, he knew something about it.

"Appears the OS dont want people knowing more, and Dredge is still going on, killing aimlessly...how does he make that work?" His eyes shifted as he read more on his reports, proof reading, and then checking a holonews network on the happenings that he could not be apart of.
Romeo's eyes glowed a soft red in the dim lights made by small fires lighting the library. "Ah, everyone gets a day, or two off, but not the king." He chuckled softly to himself. Recently he had been purchasing ships from companies he knew of, and had had past dealings with, he was building his fleet.

He had many things going on in his mind, and the quietness of the keep made those thoughts seem to echo out, for all the hear.

 

[HK-17]

Ikora gazed down at her navigational systems, crosschecked the calculations for the hyperspace-to-normal transition. The cockpit lights dimmed to red as the ship's power shunted to the hyperdrive's particle accelerator, and it ripped a hole back into the normal three dimensions of interstellar space. The solitary blackened viewscreen sparkled with stars. One point of light was brighter than the rest. The main screen centered on this star, and astronomical parameters streamed down her navigational computer.

A dark disc-like starfighter descended on the planet, carving through the atmosphere like a hot knife through warm butter. Flames of yellow and orange lapped against the blue energy field of the deflector shields until she dove through blackened clouds, the heat subsiding. The outer panels of the starfighter were white-hot, and soon began to cool. She pulled on the yoke, peering over what limited data she had been given. There were few places in the galaxy she knew, and she knew this one well. In their time, it's location had been lost to the annals of history for countless eons, but from her time, the time she would forever be exiled from, this planet had been known for its ruthless leader. Over 25,000 years ago.

Landing gears began to unfold out from the belly of this strange craft, and they buckled under its weight. At its centre, a compartment hissed open and a ramp began to descend onto the surface of the planet. Out from this starfighter strode The Queen. She saw the keep in the distance, and in a manner of minutes she was fast approaching. She stealthily closed in, wary of the planets current residents. She manoeuvred through the keep like a shadow in the corners, unseen. When at last she had arrived to the archives, she thrust her hand against a door and stepped foot into a room. "Hrm," she murmured, half-surprised and half-frustrated at herself. She had managed to sneak in this far, and now she had just walked into a room with Romeo Sin. Her infiltration would be inevitably blown.

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="The Queen"]

Romeo's eyes looked up at the sound made in the library, a look of surprise, and amusement crossed his face. The woman that he was looking at had never been in these halls before, no he would know her face. This person he had never seen before. He put down what he was reading, and leaned into his table he sat at. His eyes never left her, and at the moment, he half guessed she either didnt think someone would be in here, or she was looking for him exactly. Either way, he was going to have fun with this.
With his hands clasped over his datapad, and his eyes stuck to hers, the red irises glowed more intense. He cocked his head to the side, and smiled. "You must be either lost, not expecting me to be here, or you just dont belong in this keep in general." He leaned back, and turned the datapad off, hiding all of his most recent work. "Either way, I am Romeo Sin, and it is a pleasure to me you miss...?" He bit his bottom lip. Romeo placed a hand on his cheek, and then rested his elbow on the table. "Miss...incredibly blue eyes? I think that is a perfect name for you." He smirked at her with a devil like twist in his lips.

 

[HK-17]

"Or I am all three," she said in retort. She dared enter further into the room, glancing around briefly as her eyes consumed the sights around her until they fell on Romeo. His, fiery and illuminating. Hers, icy and unforgiving. She smiled at his comments on her eyes and blushed, briefly, but as quick as it had come it was gone. Her eyes were once more steeled, and she carried with her an aura of authority and power. Not in the power that you would find with a Jedi or Sith, but the type of power only found in rulers. Hers was aloof and enigmatic, there was no saying what she was or was not capable of. "The name is Ikora. I dare say, it is a blessing to be in the presence of one such as you," and her eyes briefly glanced over his body, "Hrmph." She moved closer, and sat opposite to him. As if waiting for something to happen, or for him to say something. She did not yet reveal the reason for her presence. She had dodged the question earlier, and would likely dodge it again unless he was persistent.


[member="Romeo Sin"]
​

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="The Queen"]

Romeo had noticed she had skipped around the question, and then into trying to divert his attention with a praise. Usually that was his game, but not this time. As the woman walked, his eyes shifted down to her hips, and down to her legs, then back up to her abdomen, then chest. He was both admiring the body, and studying her movements. She was elegant, walked with confidence, like a princess, or a queen did. This woman was of some form of royalty, though he knew not from where. When her body was now officially sitting closer to him, well in fact right in front of him, Romeo's eyes shifted back to hers. "Ikora is a beautiful name. As for my presence...why would it be a blessing? I am just a man." He leaned forward, letting his hand fall on the table, not hard, and took a deep breath. This woman's presence was intoxicating him, and his judgement. Something about her caught his full attention, and he was left unguarded. Was she using pheromones to change his state of mind?
-No, this woman just does it for me, I am generally caught by this woman's beauty, and elegance.- he thought to himself. He knew he wasnt being controlled in some way because he felt a little guilty of feeling slightly aroused by this woman.
"In fact, I doubt you know who I am. Why? Because you answer to my question was honest, without trying to be. You dont belong in this keep, your lost because you do not know me in fact, and you did not expect me, or anyone for that matter to be here at this time, but that's okay. The first one has been changed though, because I want you in this keep now. So how may I help you? The way you move, the way you speak, it all says 'I am royalty' of some level, or another. The fact you have come to this keep's library says two things. You have been here before, before I made this my home, and you seek something in this room."
Romeo was not a king for no reason, his eyes caught every detail when she first walked in. She was playing him a little bit, trying to butter him up. She didnt need to do that. He already was buttered up.

 

[HK-17]

He was smarter than she took him for, and it prompted a brief but dying raise of her brows. He was quick-witted and clearly the intellectual type. She admired that, and she didn't admire much. Her silver tongue, the way she dressed, her very presence screamed royalty, but she was hardly that. Born to a mother and father who worked as chefs, twenty-five thousand years ago, it was only her wits that had rose her to prominence. While she would never be royalty by birth, she was certainly royalty by her own design. Her fashion sense was exotic, and hinted towards the type of climate she lived in. "I concede, Romeo," she breathed the words out from her lips. "I'm looking for information, navigational data, planetary coordinates. Every conceivable information on every star system known, and their respective rulers. I'm looking for a map, Romeo, care to help me?" She crossed her legs, powerfully built and her body exemplified the type of perfection that Twi'lek dancers and Zeltron mistresses desired most. "You scratch my back, and I scratch yours," she said at last, a sly smirk growing upon her pale blue lips.

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="The Queen"]

"Ah, the back mine does itch so too." He smiled, letting his eyes venture to her legs for only a brief moment, he did not try to hide it either. "What I have is yours to look through, except what is on me, my past, and present. That information comes at a price, and must be asked of by you yourself if that is something you wish to know." He stood up, through his plane shirt, his muscles would ripple as he was not a very large man, but apex in all things healthy about his body.
"As you search through this though, I must know...why? What do you plan on doing with what I have?" Romeo enjoyed games that involved the galaxy, and all it's leaders. It was something he did in his way to pass time.

 

[HK-17]

There was little hesitation in her movements. "I would like to know more about you, but I'll answer your question truthfully." She rose from her chair and strode towards the nearest archive datapad, she picked up the device as if its very nature was foreign. When she began to tap against the holographic displays, she fell into the knowledge and devoured it wholly. She started accessing the map, public files and records of factions, planetary leaders, grid coordinates, sectors. She would need to transfer for her to her starfighter, she thought. "Why, you ask," she said, turning briefly to look into his eyes, "My people exiled me for a crime I did not commit. They sentenced me to a fate far worse than death; they mean't to force me to suffer the progress of infinitude." Her eyes diverted back to her datapad, whether this was from anger, sorrow or remorse, it could not be told. "This galaxy is vast, and its people countless, but we're just as animals. We look upon them as something to eat; they're inferior to us, they're not capable of intelligent thought. So we use them for our food, to sustain us. All consumption is death for the consumed. Yet all must eat, so we all bring damnation to one creature or another. Vengeance will be wrought, and justice will come down like a falling star. All life dies, all worlds too, and if there is guaranteed perpetual existence, after that - what does it matter how the end comes?" She was talking about war, and when she turned back to Romeo there was a fierce determination in her eyes. She wondered how he would react, whether he would be the staunch defender of a people that deserved no better than they gave to her. The spectator that stands afar and watches, neither mingling nor commenting. Or the righteous hand that brings down that falling star. Ikora commented at last, "Men like you are what will save this galaxy from these criminals disguised as politicians. I could use your intellect, and your presence with me on my journey would be welcome."

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="The Queen"]

Romeo looked down, as this woman spoke of being exiled from her people, and he too had felt the same, and at the very moment, they had similar goals. This was a very strange thing to happen to Romeo, and this could not have been pure coincidence that this woman would appear in his home, asking him for things he did not have to give to her, but felt that it would be too boring if he had not given it to her. Romeo walked over to her, and placed a hand on top of hers that was holding the pad, the placed his other hand on her hand navigating it. He could see she was not used to this kind of tech per say. gently swiping her hand across the screen over to the table they had been sitting at caused all the info to be displayed on the table, including 3D displays of the maps, and other blueprints he possessed.
"We have shared the same fate, and we have risen stronger, and better than those who sought to keep us down. Whatever I can do to help, I shall." He smiled gently at her, and looked into her eyes, then back at the datapad, "You have answered me honestly, and now I shall answer you honestly." He only hoped she had answered him honestly.

 

[HK-17]

As Romeo placed his hand atop hers, she pulled away briefly. There was still a part of her mind that remember Tyal, yearned and longed for him, his touch and presence. He was twenty-five-thousand-years dead. She would never have that, and so she relinquished herself. She allowed herself to be guided by his gentle care, and showed her the three-dimensional map on the table. She was surprised once more by Romeo. "Amazing," she mumbled quietly to herself and leaned in to study the galactic disc. It took her a few moments but she spotted Umbara, and a seething anger flared in her heart before becoming quickly extinguished. She traced her finger from Umbara to Wayland slowly, hinting that she may have travelled there. Then she began to trace her finger from Wayland and off the galactic disc before stopping. Nothing was marked out there; that was beyond even the Unknown Regions. A smile curled her lips once more, she turned to Romeo, "You have been most helpful. When you tell me more about yourself, I too would like to know about this place, who rules here?."

[member="Romeo Sin"]
​

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="The Queen"]

Romeo bowed before the woman, and then stood back up. "It was my pleasure, and.." He smiled a devilishly grin. Romeo was full of surprises, and tricks were always up his sleeves. "I am Romeo Sin, Shadow King to the Shadow Empire, and Eclipstica." He bowed again. "At your service." He looked up from his bow, and stood up in a way only a king would, straight, and tall. His shoulders would slack none, and his feet face straight, and strong. It was like his whole demeanour changed.
Then his body relaxed again, his shoulders fell some, and his poster became a little less strained. "Dark Jedi Knight, and my family derives from a long lineage of Sith. I am the first to say no to that way, and thus I was exiled by my father, and the cult he follows." Romeo walked over to the map, looking at the various systems on it with a pondering look. "What specifically do you want to know about me? I would say its not everyday a king tells someone about himself in full honesty."

 

[HK-17]

As he revealed himself to her, the smile on her lips did not fade. She took him for telling the truth, in his tone of voice and facial expressions - not a hint of a lie. She inquired further as he watched the map with her. "Tell me about your Shadow Empire." She withdrew from the map and took her seat once again. She crossed her legs and rested her clasps hands on her knees, raising a brow she softly said, "For you're not the only ruler here, I am known otherwise simply as The Queen."

[member="Romeo Sin"]

​

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="The Queen"]

Romeo crossed his arms across his chest, his eyes narrowing down. The woman was a queen of sorts, and this intrigued the man to the up most fullest. "The Shadow Empire was raised long before my time, it was Force Hound who had started the lineage of the Shadow King. When I found it, I claimed it as mine, and brought dark jedi with me to begin making a safe haven for darksiders all around the galaxy...except for the Sith of course. We are a neutral party. We leave others alone, and they leave us alone to our own vices." He moved closer to her, and sat beside her. Pressing a few keys brought a 3d map of the planet up.
"As you can see, we are probably one of the up most secretive parties out here. We're not very big, least not to the prying eyes of the Republic, and Sith. Many are unaware of the massive fleet we have, with the army to back it up." He twirled the map around, and zoomed in on the Shadow Keep's continent. "We are here." He pointed, then slid his finger up, "This is the Five Circles, the five cities that make up the majority of our population." He finger slid back off.

"I take it.." He bit his bottom lip, thinking about all that had been said so far. "You're time line goes back a little further then now." He leaned against the table, and bit his lip again, trying to pick his words carefully. "Cause you know these halls way too well. So far I am the only one who knows where everything is in this keep, but you, you got here effortlessly. You knew who ruled here." He smiled believing himself to be right. "That is interesting...very interesting. I ounce met a Jedi who was from there era of Tython's golden age...that was fun.." His eyes ventured around the room. "The Shadow Empire is now under the lineage of Vahla known as the Sin family, of course. There's the Sith Lord Crucix, my father, who rules as head of the Sin family, then there's my side. The Sin name is highly respected in the Ember of Vahl cult...unless your first name is Romeo, then your public enemy number one to them."

 

[HK-17]

She sat quietly as he spoke in length, watching him with due care and a keen ear. When he made assumptions about her time, where she had come from and how knowledge of this place, she made no comment. She had never been here, she had only ever lived on Umbara until she was exiled, but back then was a different time. This world wasn't decrepit, and one could find blueprints of the layout, blueprints she got her hands on. She neither agreed nor denied, allowing him to presume, but he was almost right in everything he said. When he talked of Vahla, her ears did perk. Curious, indeed. "I hear the Vahla are a nomadic people, ever in search of their lost homeworld," she trailed off, looking deep into his eyes. "There are a people, beyond the edge of this galaxy, neither Vong nor Sith, their ways are alien, even to me." She stood, moving closer to Romeo, "But they know many things that others do not. They are searching for something too. If we help them, they could help you." Inching closer, her breath would fall upon him, slow and assured, eyes staring into his own, "We could work together, you and I, and your Shadow Empire. Help these.. Primeval."

[member="Romeo Sin"]
​

 

[The Red of Sinner]

Romeo listened carefully, letting the words sink in with each noun, and verb coming from her lips. She was very close to him now, close enough her breath brushed against him. This gave him chills, but the words that slipped her lips next worried him. Did this woman understand what the Primevil was as a whole? It was evil given a face. Yes, he knew all about the group. Monsters.
His eyes dug deep into hers, and his right index finger came up, pointing upwards, "Yes, we..they are nomadic...our homeworld has been lost to us for some time now...but this."he then twirled his finger in a circularmotion, "this is home my queen. What you ask of me, this proposal can not be accepted. The Primevil are murders, monsters. They offer no answer to any questions I have. Instead, you should join me, and the Ession Reformation. Together, meaning you, and i, could serve the just vengence that is owed to us." He scooted once over to her. His eyes seemed to leave red trails now, they glowed so. "Even if we aee not of the same party, and can not find a mutual agreement within the same parties, as singular persons we should help one another. A king is almost nothing without a queen."
The woman would notice that the area around them was growing a bit warmer, this was a ability Romeo was keen at, increasing the tempature around his body.

[member="The Queen"]

 

[HK-17]

To say she was disappointed would be an understatement. She turned from him and walked afar, talking aloud as she began to pace back and forth. "I know what the Primeval are, I've seen what they're capable of. But the Ession, I have heard little of, but my people tell me they're Jedi." She glanced briefly, "The Sith are not the only ones responsible for bringing this galaxy to its knees in total war, from the beginning to the end of time they will fight with the Jedi, and the Jedi will fight them. In my time, the Jedi and their counterparts had just come out of a war known as the Force Wars." Her voice began to rise in anger, defiance, "TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND YEARS LATER AND THEY STILL WAGE THEIR WAR!" She stopped her pacing, "I would never ally with them. Their existence is a cancer upon this galaxy, a cancer that destroys and will destroy until it is removed." Ikora looked into Romeo's eyes, hoping that he would share her opinion, "They believe in an afterlife in the Force, and I say again; All life dies, all worlds too, and if there is guaranteed perpetual existence, after that - what does it matter how the end comes?"

[member="Romeo Sin"]
​

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="The Queen"]

Romeo stood with a smile, oh how he did love a good debate, but he did agree with her to a degree. "Yes, the Jedi, and the Sith all cause the galaxy great pain, but what of the Dark Jedi? Had we never existed, there would be no Sith. The Dark Jedi came before the Sith, the jedi attempted to kill them all, but instead could only drive them away." Romeo opened a new folder from the database, and the records of the first Dark Jedi came up.
"I ally with them, because they will stop the Sith in some shape, or form, and I will help stir them in the correct direction that will be best for the galaxy. At least...I hope I can do that..." He turned to face her.
"I admired your words, and your ideas. We agree, and we disagree on things, this I can respect." His lips quivered a bit before speaking again. "You show so much passion in what you believe...it is..attractive." He bit his bottom lip. "Regardless...my allegiance stands with my people first, then my personal goals."

 

[HK-17]

Ikora had absorbed the information she had read, she knew the bare minimum of the factions and planets now, but would need more before she would return to Tuas. She began to counter his argument that the Jedi would be able to defeat the Sith, "The Jedi cannot defeat the Sith when they're so splintered. The Silver Jedi, The Republic, The Ession and the Levantine? There are only so many Jedi in this galaxy, and the Sith are not splintered, it is how they're burning through worlds. The Jedi have defeated them before, as I have been told by my emissary, but they come back again. The Jedi and Sith are both flames in a fire, and you cannot fight fire with fire. You may hold allegiance to your people, but I hold my allegiance to the galaxy. Someone has to save them." She moved for the door, rather upset that he did not agree with her, and it was clear as day on her face. "The Primeval, well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend." She began to tread through the door frame as she began to exit out the way she had come, "Just remember, your people are apart of this galaxy too. Make sure you've chosen the right side."

[member="Romeo Sin"]

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="The Queen"]

The woman also did not see what Romeo was doing, he was just a man, and saw things in a more realistic manner, when she went to walk off, he sighed, unsure if he should stop her, then something came to his mind. He chased after her, "Wait....let me...let me show you something." Romeo stepped forward twice, then he stopped. "Let me show you what I am working on...what I have on my plate..." He took out a device in his pocket, and pressed a button. A speeder came from the side of the Keep.
"You do not fully understand my situation I am in..."

 

[HK-17]

Ikora allowed Romeo to halt her progress of leaving, and looked curiously at him when he offered to show her something. She relinquished to his demand and said, "I have the time, what do you wish to show me?" When the speeder arrived remotely, she was a taken aback by the sight. She didn't know you could remotely bring a vehicle to your presence, then again, she had been gone for a long time.

[member="Romeo Sin"]
​