The Vault-Hangar Bay
@[member="Ashin Varanin"]
He screamed with her.
No, not in success. There was no pride to be taken in this instant as the excess he had accrued from the Empress burned its way out of his hands. The puddle resting before him was evidence of his handiwork. The dark tears, if you would call them that, still fell from her eyes. Before him stood not the Empress of ten thousand worlds, but Ashin Varanin child of Cerberus. She was a mess, the lightside had burned her much as her lightning influx had burned his flesh. To the naked eye she was a distraught woman, in the Force things were much different. Gone was the strict adherence to the darkside, gone was the ridigity she had been stuck with. There was a choice that she could make now, a choice that had long been denied her. As his skin returned to a normal hue, and he stood to his full height, he could see the whole world had changed in that one blow of Force Light.
Ashin Varanin was free.
A power he had only sparingly used, but had practiced intently on had just changed the entire course of her life. Je'gan, you were wrong. Death isn't the option for everyone. There was no smugness to the thought, just satisfaction in seeing there was another option. She could have been the worst of the worst, and he would still try and save her. The function of a Jedi wasn't to stamp out the darkness, it wasn't to murder every Sith in the galaxy. That was a cop out of the worst sort, to assume that destroying an Order would rid them from the galaxy. No, this was a battle of hearts, minds, and mostly the souls of all Force-users. By proxy, the entire galaxy was at stake due to the struggle of the Force. So to have given the freedom of choice to the most powerful darksider, there was a small victory in that moment. He cared not if she attacked him, it was her choice then, not some poison that a monster had put in her.
"It doesn't have to be this way Ashin, you can join the Order."
Another failed statement, words wasted as the Force crackled with energy.
The plating at his boots warped and bent around him, holding him in place, and she was approaching again. By reflex, he reached for the hilt at his waist, his other one somewhere else in the hangar. Then the hairs on his neck went up as his precogntion flared up again, and paneling from all sides launched itself at the trapped Jedi Master. Energy coalesced around him as he grabbed each object with his mind while channeling his own energy around him. The temptation to let the Force explode from him was there, as it always would. Just like a shadow would always be under his boot with every step, the darkside was in everything. The darkess was the absence of light, and light was a construct of good. That was why the code was so rigid, why the path was so narrow. Darron Wraith followed it strictly after years of wandering, and in this moment it showed. He resisted and held the plating at bay, and blue eyes bore into the woman he was trying to save.
"We don't have to do this, I won't take you in. Just walk away from this, the galaxy is a big place. Leave the Sith and seek your own path, my intent this entire time has been to save you. I have done that and given you choice, now you have to save yourself."
His heavily muscled arms flexed from the strain he was undergoing, and the blood vessels at his temples were throbbing from the supreme effort he was displaying. The temptation was there to launch the plating, but he ignored it. Should she press, he would defend. Nothing more, and nothing less, because he was Jedi through and through. Just as he had thought earlier, the battle for the Force wasn't a physical one. It was one won through swaying hearts, and helping those who needed it. The dark would always be there, but the light could be created through goodness, and he was doing just that.
