Duel Fault Lines

[Dagon Kaze]

Level 31,
Coruscant

Weeks had gone by since Dagon had started this investigation on Coruscant following Kyra's psychometric tips. Weeks putting the pieces together to get on Jem's trail. She was as elusive as a ghost and that didn't surprise him. He'd taught her all the tricks of the trade and she had learned well. Too well.

Both Kyra and Kahlil had questioned his certainty that his apprentice had fallen to the dark side but with each new clue he found, the more he was proved right. Jem was making contact with individuals and groups Dagon had long suspected as accomplices of her father Darth Solipsis .

The rain pattered steadily against the durasteel walkway. Barely functional neon signs glitched flashing over the rundown shops and establishments. Half the street had been abandoned, most of it condemned to a demolition que that never seemed to end on Coruscant. Shady figures shuffled from alleys to cantinas seeking shelter from the shower. Not long ago he and Jem would stakeout such places and clean the filth but now... now he stood perched on an abandoned terrace alone. Blue eyes stared at the familiar figure a part of him hoped to never encounter again; for seeing her on the other side -- fallen, corrupted by her father -- meant acknowledging the harsh reality that was.

He heard himself ask her a single question, "Why?"

Jem Fossk ​

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem froze, caught out as a familiar voice rolled over her shoulder. The door she had been closing latched under her fingers. It was loud compared to the silence that stretched out behind her. She closed her eyes and rested her head briefly against her hand.

Chit.

She turned, her complexion dull and gray under the flickering neon lights. There was not an ounce of defiance in her usually jaded gaze. When Jem looked at him she only felt dread.

"How-" A stupid question. She shook her head and stepped back, empty palms raised amicably. "You shouldn't be here, Mast-" She clenched her jaw shut, her heart leaping to her throat.

"Go home, Dagon. I'm not your business anymore."

She tried to leave. Simple as that. Inside, she was chitting herself.

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

The lapsus did not go unnoticed sharpening the frown lines on his face further. He wondered how much she had fallen to the dark side's corruption and the thought send shivers down his spine. There she was -- his padawan -- materializing Dagon's worst nightmares into reality. It filed his gut with dread and the dread filled the air with silence as his eyes followed her departure.

The Jedi dropped down on the walkway, boots splashing the quickly forming puddles of rainwater, "Not without you." he plainly said but did not take another step forward, "I'm taking you in. Whatever Solipsis has promised you is a lie and you know it."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

"Promised me?" She echoed. Why would he think-- she hadn't-- she shook her head, stepping back to keep distance between them. "You don't understand... You were suppose to understand," she snapped, a rash bought of frustration flashing through her. The lights crackled over head, answering the question of just how much her father had gotten to her

She blinked in and took another step back, her demeanor shifting like a crack of the wind. "Please. It doesn't need to be like this. Let this go."

"I'm not your enemy."

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

"You're not." he said as he took a wary step forward, "But this path you have taken -- this dark path -- it only leads to suffering. For everyone." her fall weighted fully on his shoulders and each step stripped the wariness away determined to rectify his errors that had led to this.

"...stand down, Jem -- let me help you."​

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

But she couldn't be helped, her father had seen to that. He stripped away all choice. She was tainted-- corrupted-- her path had been decided. She shook her head, her knees feeling weak as she stared down her old master's face. He was going to make this hard for both of them, wasn't he. He was never good at knowing when he was beaten.

She wanted to step toward him so bad, but her muscles wouldn't budge. That path was closed. Her body shook, covered in sweat as she held his gaze.

"I would have chosen you." Her voice cracked, reassuring them both. She drew her saber from her belt.

It jumped to life between them, its blue length coming to strike him from shoulder to hip. If he wouldn't move aside, she would make him.

Please move aside.

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

He wrinkled his nose at her cryptic words before a spark of apprehension flashed across his eyes as she drew her her lightsaber.

"Don't do this..." Dagon implored but his words trailed off as she darted in a blue blur of speed. His own blade instinctively materialized to meet the strike in a fiery crackle of plasma sparks. The strength behind his saber was dampened by the innate reluctance to fight his former padawan. These were no training swords, no spar between master and apprentice. And it wrenched his guts into a knot.

His rear foot retreated back, seeking the advantage of his longer reach to turn the initiative into his own hands, then slashed back at her saber hard in an attempt to disarm her.

Why, Jem?

She never answered him.

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem hissed as the heat of his saber singed her hand. She was forced to drop her own, but she compensated with a round house kick towards his jaw. It was always so hitable in training.

She tried to take the moment to roll past him and dart away. Not fight-- no. Run. He would move, or she would make him.

Her hilt vibrated on the ground, the force around it awakening and drawing it back to her.

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Dagon probably should've expected it. A kick to the jaw was a certified favorite in Jem's repertoire during training sessions.

And yet, he didn't. Whether her quickness had substantially increased since last time or whether it was his dejection at the current state of affairs between the former master and padawan -- one couldn't tell.

The strike rocked his face into a shudder, teeth trembling and a lip partly slit open. The familiar taste of iron funneled into his buds. His blade had moved instinctively into guard but to no avail. Jem was on the run.

He followed.

Down the alley, into the street, up a second floor terrace, down again, up again. Like dogs chasing a speeder.

She leapt for a steel beam and his hand lashed out in her direction. The Force stirred around his hand before it pulled at Jem aiming to mistime her jump for the beam and have her land flat on the ground below.

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Oof!

Jem landed hard, the wind knocked from her lungs. Something in her back felt wrong-- a throbbing pain-- an inability to raise her right arm. She shielded herself from any incoming blow and shoved at him with the force. It would hit like a ton of bricks. She had never been that strong before. She went flying backwards and slammed into the wall.

Ouch.

I bought her time to trade sword hands and spit out a wad of blood. "Are you deaf? I don't want your help!" She forced herself to her feet, the yellow in her eyes clear under the spotlight.

She wrenched at the bar above her and ripped it off the balcony. It came whipping down on him. She needed to shake him.

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

He crashed into a nearby wall, the pile of discarded garbage softening the blow as his head snapped back into the concrete. Something cracked bad and poked at his flesh from the inside. A silent groan escaped his lips along with the air in his lungs before he breathed in again and shook his head, clearing the sudden blur in his eyes.

Dagon pushed himself up, wiping the blood from his split lip and leveling his gaze with Jem's. It rained, it poured; the blood washed away into the gutters along with all the colors of the ecumenopolis. Rainy days like these on Coruscant -- everything looked grayscale. Showers here had a way of showing the world's true color - monochrome, hollow. The girl's, too - sulfuric, lost. Her orbs burned into him a mark of his failure. A haunting glare.

"Want?!? You need my hel--" again his words trailed off when a steel bar like a javelin flew at him forcing him to sidestep. He did not retaliate, not yet. Only slowly approached her, slowly closing in, "I don't want to hurt you, Jem."

"Stand down." he said, still keeping a leash on his emotions, yet only barely. Asmundr would've been proud.

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

"S-Stop," she tried to demand, her pressing into the wall as he advanced. Her core was a jumble of jittering sensations. Her heart was going to pound out of her mouth. She couldn't think, she could only feel.

He was unrelenting.

She relit the saber, her left hand straining to fill in for the right as she held it between them. "No," she jabbered, slashing between them.

"No." She slashed again. The motions were crazed. He had her cornered. She screamed and charged, battering him with a sudden flurry of blows. Left. Right, shin, head. She didn't think. She crashed down on him with raw power and desperation.

Their blades caught and he'd have a chance to see her upclose for the first time, though Jem wasn't there anymore. Her eyes were hollow. And full of fear.

"I hate you."

She kicked at his gut and raised her saber to strike again.


Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

He had trained her. He should've known every move, every pattern and vector of attack, every angle she sought to exploit but he didn't. The chaos which she unfurled upon him left scorching marks across his torso. The stench of plasma burning through flesh filled their nostrils before the pouring shower washed it away with the smell of rain.

Yet, none of these gashes hurt. That pain was numbed by the irremediable wound wide open in his heart.

Failing the only apprentice he'd ever had.

Dagon could not bear the weight of guilt. If he would, then his life was forfeit. The composure could not hold for any longer. So as their blades came into a deadlock once more, he rebuked the blame, "You were meant to break this damn cycle, Jem!!" his words lashed out like a double-edged razor, cutting through both him and her, "Not join it!"

"Bring balance -- not abandon it to darkness!!" she kicked the air out of his lungs and shoved him a few paces back. One-handed, his blue blade came to meet hers. Her strength found in darkness pressed down upon him snapping some tendons in his arms and leaving a grimace of pain behind gritted teeth.

"Why, Jem?? -- WHY?!?!"

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

"HE GAVE ME NO CHOICE!" She bellowed back. A realization struck her motionless, the pressure baring down on his blade growing slack. "Have you thought... all this time... That I- that I wanted this?"

Her voice cracked in disbelief. She knew he would not be happy with what her father had done, but she had never expected-- that he would think-- his lack of faith stole her breath away. She could see it written across his face.

"You think I chose this. Like father like daughter, is that it?"

The ground in which she had been resisting her father's corruption began to crumble. The air around them crackled with static electricity.

"You never believe in me."

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Fear is the emotion that makes us blind.

It clouds the sight of the sharpest eyes and the intents of the purest hearts. It's as a blindfold to the truth as much as it is a leash in the hands of those capable of exploiting it.

Fear reaped the greatest rewards with the least of efforts. A coward's tool.

A Sith's weapon.

The implicit cries for help -- or rather belief -- fell on deaf ears; muffled cries silenced by his greatest fears coming to realization.

That proverbial leash yanked his attention from the voice of truth to the sulfuric acid in which her eyes bathed.

"Believe in WHAT?!? THIS?!?! Joining the Sith in bringing darkness to the galaxy???" he growled before he retreated into a pirhoutte from the deadlock of blades he was on the verge of losing.

"...no, I sure as hell did not, Jem." Dagon added coldly, saber wounds smoldering from his form as he prepared for her next onslaught.

Jem Fossk ​