Private Chance Meeting

[Raz Asai'il]

Raz slams his hand into the metal cased forearm without flinching, breathing through his nose as he controls the pain. He feels the force assault on his body, feels it attacking his defenses. But Raz, for all his skill with a saber, is a consular and a student of the force before all else. The attack breaks against his defenses, and he decides to test this aspect of the echani’s discipline.

While Raz’ capacity for raw power in the Force is certainly above average due to his attunement with the light side, where he truly shines is his control and application. The blaster bolts, rather than being stopped and held, are made to curve around his head like a red hot crimson halo, disappearing into the darkness of the factory.

Then, with a flick of his wrist Raz’ saber reignites and returns to a soresu stance from a left handed position, using the reignited saber to quickly pry the opposing saber off his tutaminis protected arm so he can use his right hand in support of his left. And then, without removing either hand from the saber or making an indicative motion of any sort, he unleashes a powerful force blast directly into the ground, causing cracks in the stone floors and creating a quake that would disrupt the balance of all but the very finest bladesmen.

“Your power in the Force is great, but unfocused. You fight to rule it, and in doing so you will never master it.”

Still maintaining his stance, Raz’ begins telekinetically throwing objects at Persenus, nothing large enough to kill him, but certainly large enough to cause discomfort or knock the saber out of his grasp if he chooses not to deal with them.

“The way of the Force is not one of ruler and slave. The Force lives within you, and you within it. To try and rule over it as a tyrant is no more productive than demanding of your body that it sprouts wings and allow you to fly. Harmony, discipline, understanding. These are where the mysteries of the Force truly lie.”

Tags: PERSENUS

 

[PERSENUS]

To be able to use two extremely advanced skills at once while defending from his own advance with the Force was indicative of not only mastery but perfection of such techniques. And to show little sign of stress while doing so was of a caliber beyond any control he's ever seen, likely beyond even his old master's. He could not think of a Force-Wielder with such finesse to be able to replicate that maneuver. And yet, Persenus' will will not falter. He will not run from a Jidaiad. He would quell the fear and reluctance within his with Force Recover, allowing him a moment of respite as Raz disengaged from close-combat, healing the lost reserves of strength and stamina he had used.

Persenus' however, could feel the stress the Jedi Master was trying to hide. It took a bit behind the monotone face of his opponent, but it was in his Echani Training to read those he fights with and he could tell well that aching was starting to unfurl. He knew that what he was doing was starting to have an affect. As the ground rumbled beneath his feet, unable to unbalance him as kept himself upright through his own athleticism.

He began to twirl his saber, his expertise in Shien allowing him to create a near perfected blade barrier, slicing in half all that came his way as a defense all the while a smile began to grow upon his face. He could feel the rush of battle start to fuel him as he can see the Jedi Master's increasing alarity. Force Recovery soon faded and came Virility as his heart began to beat like a drum upon seeing some slither of weakness. "To become an exemplar of apathy like you?" He grinned

"Not a chance in hell. There will always be suffering and chaos as long as you submit. If I must push myself beyond reason to transcend and break my chains," He dashed forward through the hail storm of junk and debris that Raz had sent after him, closing the gap near instantaneously in less than a second. He was at least three times as fast as Virility now powered his body. He entered the battle in a Wrath Guard before striking with an overhead diagonal swing. Raz would find, unless if he were to fuel himself to the uptmost level of Battlemind, that even his Soresu guard would be lacking against the might of such an attack, and evasion extremely difficult even with his reflexes without the utilization of Force Speed. A Wrath Guard strike was physiologically the strongest strike a humanoid body could muster and combined with strength and speed augmented by Virility and alchemy, there would be difficulty in combating it otherwise. "Then I will sprout wings and fly above you." He damn well could if he learned how to with Sith Alchemy. It'd be a pain to read and research on it, though.

Raz Asai'il

 

[Raz Asai'il]

Raz senses the difference in the young echani immediately, the violent pride bubbling off the young sith like a palpable aura as he charges forth. It is neither Raz’ skill in soresu nor his heightened reflexes that save him, but his connection to the Force. Flowing through Raz, it warns him of the exceptional danger of this attack, of the need to either strike his attacker down, or get out of the way. Raz would rather allow his own death than strike down what when compared to his age and life experience is a child, and so he opts to disengage, Force speed propelling him backwards and allowing him to leap high up to the second story. From this safe position, his saber is immediately sheathed and placed on his hip.

“Enough. This can go no further without bloodshed and pain, and I do not wish to harm you, young thief.”

His voice, though kind and genuine, carries a certain measure of authority that was not there before, the master’s raw wealth of experience and quiet confidence shining through his unassuming personality. Taking a lotus position, he takes a deep breath through his nose, and as he exhales all the absorbed energy from his extended use of Tutaminis is expelled, crushing huge machinery and shattering the factory windows as he safely releases all the energy on inanimate objects, yielding perhaps the greatest single ace up his sleeve and showing that as far as he is concerned, the sparring session is over.

Tags: PERSENUS

 

[PERSENUS]

Persenus found himself magnetically pulled instinctually to follow, pursuing up to the second story with great speed and ferocity, still bearing his fangs as a Sith. He found himself upon Raz again with his saber at a ready for another Wrath Strike. He bursts forward and as his foot supplants itself to drive the strike forward with maximum force upon the now kneeling Jedi Master, the ground beneath them would crack and bend against the power behind it as he brought the blade down onto Raz... only to stop it with the burst of machinery and glass.

His blade teetered dangerously close to his shoulder, one inch to the left and Raz would face burns that would cauterize and artery that pulsed blood to his vein closed. And yet, with all the scrutiny that Persenus places upon Raz, the message of a reward earned comes to mind. He was not a Sith that wantonly kills those that would not defend himself, not since Nar Shadda. Everything is earned, and to kill Raz here as he resigns from the battle would not be a victory won, and instead taken.

"It is this submission that makes you Jedi fools." He said as the blade of his saber retracts back into its hilt with a familiar hum. The Force, similarly, pulls back its influence on his body. His breathing calms, but the frustration of not being able to use all of his strength in battle still churns inside him. "You are unable to put your will into form. You are unable to change anything. The Force loves its balance more, and it is your faith in its will that strips you of the power to stop suffering."

"How long will you live your life in ignorance, as a slave to something that will never grant you the sole wish to better the world." He said as started to pace before Raz. Persenus' rage fumed violently inside him, his saber still firmly in his grasp. "Do you not understand that fate is not kind. It is not hopeful. Everything you love and hold dear is subject to the whims of the very thing you think to serve, and that by its will, their lives and sanctity can be wiped away because their existence created imbalance in the world?"

Raz Asai'il

 

[Raz Asai'il]

Raz doesn’t flinch when the blade comes close to him, does not raise tutaminis or his saber to his defense, such is his faith that that blade will not strike home.

“You mistake mercy for submission, warrior.” Raz watches him pace, senses his seething emotions. “Just as you mistake inner peace for inaction. My actions shape those around me, they grow the seeds of change throughout the galaxy. You say I enforce the status quo, and yet you also say that the world is cruel. If I am spreading compassion, and you advocate for cruelty and survival of the fittest, then is it not you who wishes so desperately to stay the same?”

Raz’ left hand brushes over the sith ring on his right.

“The world is hard, and unforgiving, and I sense it has not been kind to you. I cannot imagine the pain you have suffered, nor have I the right to question the choices you made to survive. But I need not understand your pain to know that you should not have to suffer it. That the world, and those in it, can and should learn to be better. And so if you are right and I am wrong, it will not change my path. I will rail against this unbreakable wall of pain and cruel apathy that you see erected for all my life if I must.”

As the jedi continues to speak, he watches the echani’s every move.

“And if in the end I have not left so much as a mark upon its surface, it will have still been enough. Because someone will have seen, and someone will take my place beating their fists against that wall. When you have lived for a long time, you come to realize: No wall is unbreachable, no fantasy is impossible, no fate is inexorable.”

Raz gives a bittersweet smile

“With enough time, everything changes. Such is the way of the Force.”

Tags: PERSENUS

 

[PERSENUS]

"Cruelty and adversity are different. Challenges are meant to be overcame, and with it, we grow stronger." He says as he stops his pace, sharply turning back to Raz as he raises his hand, clenching the saber in his fist. He could almost bend the durasteel if only his own self-restraint prevented him from damaging his only true ally in the harshness of the world. "To be so liberal with kindness is a disease. What you call mercy is inability. It is these very values that you place as railings, becoming that very same wall you fight against everyday of your life."

"And we've come back to this. It is in this self-imposed solitude that you find company in my kind. Doesn't that say enough of the flaws in your reasoning?" He jabs a finger outwards, pointing to him as if to accuse Raz of some inhumane crime. The emotion in the Echani's eyes flashed as he was dealt with something so counter intuitive that he could not muster the thought of it. "I do not promote the dark side, Jidai, but to adhere to an ideal that is what ultimately sets you back is beyond morality and to expect someone to take your place in that reasonless toiling nothing but cruel."

"We've broken past those walls, Jidai. We've shattered them time and time again. It is what the Sith fight for. Like I have said time and time again, how can you serve something you ultimately wish to fight against its will? How can you fight against it when you let yourself be subject to its whims?" He finally kneels down, coming to eye level with Raz, staring back at him with an intensity not even the look of the snarls of the battle the preceded could match. There was hurt in them, a yearning pain that asked why did he let his power waste against futility. "Nineteen years before the Battle Of Yavin the Force near eradicated the Jedi to find a semblance of balance, to destroy the entire order you were once a part of to cull the numbers and tip the scales, letting us take over and rule the galaxy for decades after. Your predecessors served the very same entity, and yet it destroyed your kind just to fulfill a status quo."

"It is why we - no, I do what I do. I scrape, I battle, and I suffer to be strong enough to overcome that fate. So I don't have to be subject to the pain that the Force so lovingly gives me." He speaks through gritted teeth, the anger in his voice causing him to tremble. "And you live through this world to on its will. You have done nothing, and will do nothing. Apathy. Is. Death. Worse than Death even, as even a rotting corpse feeds the beasts and insects."

Raz Asai'il

 

[Raz Asai'il]

“You speak of strength, yet what you describe is power. They are not the same. Many of the weakest men I have met have had great power, and many of the strongest could barely walk. Strength is not something you earn through pain. Strength is something you pull from yourself in quiet times, when it would be easy to stay silent, and yet choosing to speak anyway. That is strength.”

Again, the Jedi brushes the ring.

“That I find myself in your company tells me I am where I am meant to be. Where else should I go to combat agony than to those in such great pain?”

Raz, surprisingly, nods as he speaks his third point.

“The sith have, in their own ways, halted some of the cruelties of the world. But they have done it through causing untold suffering as well. The ends cannot justify the means. They must never justify the means.”

He touches the tattoo on his chest. As Persenus kneels down, he meets his gaze.

“The Force does not bring cruelty into existence, we do. The Force is within us, and we in it, and through it we are connected. But the Force is not us. The Force is not a god, it is life. It guides us, if we choose to listen, but it cannot be cruel anymore than the currents of the sea. The way of the Force is compassion because it is our way, or it should be.” He gives a sigh. “I sense much within you. Pain. Anger. Hatred. But within you there is also honor, strength, belief. You must decide for yourself what it is you embrace, what side of yourself wins this war. Because you speak as if you hate the Jedi, hate what they stand for and what they believe in. And I sense much hatred in you."

When he speaks next, his eyes could be burning holes through PERSENUS 's soul for how focused they are.

" But not for the Jedi.”

 

[PERSENUS]

For once, he took a moment to mull over his words. A stroke of silence took over them as Persenus faltered in his mind to muster a response. There, for a moment, was an inch to give in, of understanding, but it was pulled back into darkness. "Strength may be the ability to speak when there are pangs of silence but power allows us to be heard." He stood up from his kneeling, his face now covered in the shadow of his hood. "I would not expect you to understand. Not many Sith do, either."

The Force, to Persenus understanding and according to Raz, was like ocean's wave. It was people like Persenus whom have been caught in the most tempestuous of storms that have spent their entire lives fighting against it, to learn to swim against the tides so when the waves come and strike again as hard as they had, they could be prepared. It is in the philosophies of the Sith to sail above the waves, to tame and master the currents. He's repeated the meaning to himself again and again for the last few years, even in his exile, and yet he failed to find the words.

"Keep your credits." He dropped chip onto the ground. The sound of it clattering at his feet resounded across the ruined and trashed factory louder than any saber swing and clash they had made. He turned his back but his saber was still firm in his hand, gripped just under the pressure where durasteel bent. It took much strength to sheathe it, letting it hang back on the scarf around his waist. He took a step forward, that resolution still burning brightly, but it faded as soon as his other foot followed. He stayed put there for a moment longer.

"What kind of tea did you have?" He turned back to Ras, looking over his tattooed shoulder.

Raz Asai'il

 

[Raz Asai'il]

Raz smiles again, and there is once again no condescension, just genuine pleasure at the idea of having company.

“It is a local kind I found, I had never had it before. It is quite good, and not like many other teas, so it might be to your tastes, if you’d like to try some.”

The jedi, after proving to be both a formidable saber duelist and an impossibly precise force wielder, acts more like a welcoming inn keeper than a powerful consular. He hops down from the second story after retrieving the credits and placing them back in his sash before motioning over to the fire.

“Of course, only if you’d like to. I understand your business forces you to move often.”

Tags: PERSENUS

 

[PERSENUS]

"Unless you have something that tastes better, I will try some." He follows him down. It felt odd to have such calm after the storm he had made, but then again, the contrast felt more homely than displacing, like to return home after a long trip. "I will stay if only to rest for the time. While I must always be on a constant run, especially in places like this, even the greatest of runners need a moment of respite." And whatever respite he had often had him sleeping in places he'd find unsavory. On hot desert sand, hard duracrete, or freezing numbing snow, subject to the elements of the world. To stay some place with a roof over his head even once in a while was a chance he did not receive often.

"And for the record," He said as he crossed his arms. He looked upon the tea pot that had managed to stay unharmed after all of the chaos. "I would have one the altercation if you hadn't called quits." He shot him a smirk, an expression that often carried ill-intent if it came from Persenus. He could think of only one other that received such an expression in the past year; that cute witch girl he had met in the ruins of a Sith Lab.

Raz Asai'il